I mean, I love vanilla, don’t get me wrong, but especially after a long winter I feel like things have been vanilla for far too long. I’m ready to add some spice!…

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The post Plain as Vanilla {Recipe: Vanilla Vanilla Muffins} appeared first on Dine and Dish.

There’s a little something I want to share with you, and it has to do with making your travel dreams come true. We all want to make our dreams come true, right?

Philadelphia Cream Cheese has a thriving online community of home cooks (like us!) called The Real Women of Philadelphia (RWOP). This community, with more than 66,000 registered users, has become a place for people to share recipe ideas, talk about life in general and help make dreams come true. It’s a platform for creativity that offers women a place to share their real recipes, real conversations and real dreams throughout the entire year.

This year, Philadelphia Cream Cheese has several contests for the dreamer in all of us. In fact, throughout the season, PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese will be giving away more than $100,000 in prizes, including a kitchen makeover and various other dream prizes. To start, Kraft Foods has announced its Real Women of Philadelphia contest called “Delicious Dream Trips” – a contest designed for the Real Women of Philadelphia community to submit their recipe and video of their own region-inspired dish for a chance to win one of THREE  separate dream trips to Italy, France or Greece. Three places I know I dream about going. How about you?

To enter, just register to join the Real Women of Philadelphia community and submit an original recipe (including PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, of course)  and video inspired by one of the countries (France, Italy or Greece), for a chance to win a dream getaway to France, Italy or Greece.  The winner will embark on a delicious dream trip where they’ll experience local cuisine and culture and enjoy scenic tours, wine tastings, and wonderful dining at gourmet restaurants. If you win will you please pack me in your suitcase? It sounds amazing!

When I think about traveling to France or Italy, I think of sitting outside at little cafe’s, drinking coffee or wine and eating the most delicious breads and pastries. When I think about pastries and bread and Philadelphia Cream Cheese, I think about one of my favorite, fruit muffin recipes with cream cheese as one of the ingredients. It’s not a cream cheese filled muffin, but instead a rich, indulgent muffin with cream cheese included in the batter. The cream cheese makes the difference between an ordinary muffin and these muffins.

Make up a batch of these muffins, sit down, and start dreaming up recipes that inspire you. You never know, entering your recipe in the RWOP “Delicious Dream Trips” contest might be all it takes to make your travel dreams come true. Good luck!

I have been selected by Kraft Foods to be an ambassador for the Real Women of Philadelphia. While I have been compensated for my time, my opinions are my own, and I have not been paid to post positive comments.

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Philadelphia Cream Chese Blueberry Muffins

A rich and decadent blueberry muffin recipe, made even better with the addition of Philadelphia Cream Cheese.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup cake flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 ounces Philadelphia Cream Cheese softened
• 1 Tablespoon lemon zest
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 3 Tablespoons melted butter
• 1/2 cup buttermilk I use buttermilk substitute... 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice and 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Line muffin pan with 12 paper liners.
• Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl.
• Place cream cheese, lemon zest and vanilla into the bowl of an electric mixer. Blend until smooth.
• Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well incorporated.
• Slowly add melted butter and milk, blending for just a few seconds.
• Add the flour mixture, one cup at a time, and continue mixing until all ingredients are just incorporated (do not over mix).
• With a spoon, fold in blueberries.
• Pour an equal amount of batter into each lined muffin cup, filling about 3/4 full.
• Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
• (Note - I have a picky kid who will not eat blueberry muffins if the blueberries are on top. I simply halve the batter and add blueberries to one half. Fill the muffin cups half way with the blueberry batter and then fill the top portion with the non-blueberry batter.)

The post RWOP Delicious Dream Trips {Recipe: Philadelphia Cream Cheese Blueberry Muffins} appeared first on Dine and Dish.

Today is my 38th birthday.

For my birthday I woke up and made muffins. Not fancy muffins. Not whole grain, unprocessed, good for you muffins. Plain and simple pumpkin muffins that use a boxed cake mix.

I’ve felt like life has been so out of control lately… that I have been out of control…so I wanted to get up and start my 38th birthday with something simple, while enjoying that fleeting moment of “I got up and baked my kids muffins for breakfast” mom success. That feeling lasted about two and a half seconds, then things went back to feeling out of control.

I am bound and determined that 38 is going to be my year. I am going to find the me that seems to have vanished a few years ago with the birth of my fourth baby. I’m going to return to being organized, develop more patience, and have more fun. All in all, I just want to feel like me again… not this raging crazy person that seems to have inhabited my body.

Birthday’s are a good thing, right? They give us a chance to reevaluate where we’ve been and plan the direction we are going to choose for the year to come. My choice has been made and 38 is going to be a great year. Hope you’ll stay along for the ride.

Recipe: Simple Pumpkin Muffins (as given to me by my friend Ashley)

• 1 Spice Cake Mix
• 1 16 ounce can pumpkin
• 1 cup water

1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. Place the dry cake mix, pumpkin and water in a large mixing bowl. Mix until well incorporated.
3. Pour the batter into muffin tins sprayed with Pam.
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpicks in the center come out clean.

The post Birthday Muffins {Recipe: Simple Pumpkin Muffins} appeared first on Dine and Dish.

February is the month for love, and with Quaker that means starting with our hearts… as in heart healthy. February is American Heart Month and Quaker is celebrating by donating $1.00 to the American Heart Association for each current Facebook fan and every new person who “likes” the Quaker Facebook Page during the month of February (up to $250,000). The money donated by Quaker will benefit the AHA’s new program My Heart. My Life., which helps bring healthy cooking curriculum to after-school organizations across the country –> and you know I love that! Stop what you are doing right now and take two seconds to go and “like” Quaker on Facebook. Then come right back here… I’ve teamed up with Quaker for a heart healthy giveaway worth approximately $250!

How are you keeping your heart healthy?

Diet and exercise are integral to heart health and starting your morning off with a great heart healthy breakfast, like a bowl of hot Quaker oatmeal, can help your heart to keep on pumping for a long time to come. More importantly, when we set an example for our children about the importance of a healthy breakfast each morning (like my mom did for me when I was growing up) we help them to start taking care of their heart at an early age.

How about a heart healthy giveaway? My friends at Quaker want to share an Amazing Heart Kit with one lucky Dine & Dish reader! Included in this giveaway:

Quaker oatmeal bowl and products, a yoga mat, Dr. Nieca Goldberg’sComplete Guide to Women’s Health, Quaker Oats heart-healthy recipes and a heart rate monitor. (ARV: $250).

Isn’t that a great giveaway? Enter to win by leaving a comment on this post letting me know what actions you are taking to keep your heart healthy.

Wait – you can do a couple more things to win too!

1. Hopefully you’ve done this already, but make sure you head over to the Quaker Facebook page and give them a thumbs up. Once you have “liked” them, come back over to this post and leave a separate comment letting me know you’ve done that. If you already “like” Quaker on Facebook, that’s great. Just leave a comment here letting me know.
2. Follow @QuakerOats on Twitter. Once you have done that, leave a separate comment on this post letting me know.
3. Tweet the following “Do you care for your heart? Like Quaker’s Facebook page & they’ll donate $1 to the AHA! Visit http://on.fb.me/g46BCc #Quaker” Come back here and live a comment on this post with a link to your tweet!

Entries will be accepted until noon CST on Friday, February 11th. I will then use Random.org to select the lucky comment number!

Please note, this is a sponsored post. The giveaway items are being provided by the lovely people at Quaker. All opinions are my own.

Curious about the muffins in these pictures? You should be! They are delicious Applesauce Oatmeal Streusel Muffins from the Quaker website. Just another great way to incorporate Quaker Oats into a great breakfast for your family.

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Quaker Amazing Heart Giveaway {Recipe: Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins}

These yummy muffins are another great way to incorporate healthy Quaker Oats into a great breakfast for your family.

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 22 minutes minutes

Total Time 37 minutes minutes

Author Dine & Dish

Ingredients

• Topping:
• 1/4 cup Quaker® Oats quick or old fashioned, uncooked
• 1 tablespoon firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon margarine or butter melted
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Muffins:
• 1-1/2 cups Quaker® Oats quick or old fashioned, uncooked
• 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup fat-free milk
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 egg white lightly beaten

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• For topping, combine the first four ingredients -- oats, brown sugar, butter and cinnamon -- in small bowl; mix well. Set aside.
• For muffins, combine oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon in large bowl; mix well. In medium bowl, combine applesauce, milk, sugar, oil and egg white; blend well. Add to dry ingredients all at once; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. (Do not overmix.)
• Fill muffin cups almost full. Sprinkle with reserved topping, patting gently.
• Bake 20 to 22 minutes or until deep golden brown. Cool muffins in pan on wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from pan. Serve warm.

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