anniversary dinner

so last night we celebrated our one year anniversary. instead of going out, we had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. we also had red velvet cupcakes for dessert. "we did everything but roll the pasta ourselves." - J :)

spaghetti: ronzoni whole wheat
meatballs: 85% lean beef (it's the best BJ's had :p), onions, oregano, italian seasoning, egg, potato bread and seasoned crackers
sauce: organic tomato sauce, onion, tomatoes

i made the sauce; J made the meats. all swirled together, it was fabulous. plus we had a ton of beef leftover. lol J baked up the leftover meatball mix meatloaf style. then he used about a pound of the unmixed to make burgers today. and there's still 1.25 pounds left in the fridge. i suspect someone's gonna be eating burgers and mash this week ;)

as much as i liked the spaghetti and meatballs, i ADORED the cupcakes. i copied the recipe my cousin makes for christmas, which is amazing. church ladies know their cakes, people. i made a few substitutions to cut the points, and converted the three layer cake into cupcakes. they turned out SO well


ms. edith's red velvet cupcakes  3/4c all purpose flour
3/4c self rising flour
1/2t baking soda
1/2t salt
1/2t cocoa
7/8c granulated sugar
1/2c buttermilk
1 egg
3T egg whites
3/8c vegetable oil
1/2c unsweetened applesauce
1/2t vanilla extract
1 oz red food coloring
1/2t vinegar

preheat oven to 350°F. sift flours, baking soda, salt and cocoa in small bowl. cream sugar, buttermilk, egg, egg whites, oil and applesauce in medium bowl. blend flour mixture into sugar mixture. add vanilla extract, food coloring and vinegar. fill cupcake tin 2/3 to 3/4 full. bake 15-17 minutes

yields 20-21 cupcakes for six points each

my notes: first and foremost, this is a true red velvet, not that northern fake velvet that's really devil's food cake. second, i've never been big on applesauce, but i am starting to love baking with it. hello, moist deliciousness. i think i might add a little flour to the cupcake wrappers next time to minimize sticking. normally, you would use a greased pan to bake in. to convert back into a cake, double the recipe and split between three layer pans. bake 30 to 34 minutes. i decorated a few for our anniversary and plain iced the rest. there is a cheesecake icing recipe to accompany the original cake, which pits the complete recipe at 18 points per slice (if you can actually get 16 equal sized slices out of your family ;)). i modified that recipe, too (now four points), but didn't use it this time. if you're interested: cream together 8oz fat free cream cheese, 1lb powdered sugar and 1/2c light butter until smooth. add 1t vanilla extract. if desired, fold in 3/4c nuts; adding nuts can increase the points by 1-2 per serving

given all the yum, i managed to only use 9 weekly points yesterday and today. new year's eve? 16 extra points *shrug* oh well... cooking together was definitely the highlight of my weekend. the cupcakes were a close second :)

[update: so i miscalculated the servings; turns out the cupcakes are three points, not six :)]