Suddenly, Kool-Aid is more than the fruity powdered drink that comes in a packet most of us would recognize in a hearbeat. How about doing something else with the colorful sweet powder that doesn’t require any bit of water. Nope, I’m not talking about eating it directly out of the package with your sticky fingers, I’m thinking of something more along the lines of a cupcake…

Marilla from Cupcake Rehab frosts her cupcakes with Kool-Aid Frosting! If you want the fruity flavor without the fruit, then think back to your childhood…remember how much you loved the hard-to-compete-with taste of Kool-Aid? There were so many other flavored drinks to choose from, but you always chose to Kool-Aid!

But Kool-Aid’s for grown-ups too! The pink color of Marilla’s Kool-Aid frosted cupcakes makes them both fun to eat and look at. I can easily see these being the highlight of any party!

Being a native Texan I am quite fond of Mexican food, or more appropriately titled Tex-Mex. No matter what kind of restaurant you go to, within the myriad of menu items you will usually find some sort of quesadilla. Most people think of the quesadilla as a simple sandwich of cheese and chicken (or beef), but the possible combinations are endless: goat cheese and spinach, turkey and avocado, veggie medley, tomato and olive, etc.

Chris, from Humble Recipes, turned to the quesadilla to satisfy his hunger during his crazy work weeks. Cooking large amounts of food on the weekends allows Chris to be able to pull together meals quickly during the week. One of Chris’s favorite things to make with his left-over grilled chicken is quesadillas. By preparing most of the ingredients earlier on the weekend he can pop these in the oven and have dinner on the table by the time he has changed out of his work clothes.

Chris’s take on the quesadilla has a more citrus flavor. Combining his citrus grilled chicken with fresh salsa and cheddar cheese he has created a fun and flavorful meal in no time!

Scenario 1: You have friends coming over. You’ve made everything but the dessert. Admit it! You secretly hope someone brings a dessert…

Possible Scenario 2: It’s your husband or wife’s birthday. You’ve bought them a card, the perfect gift, but you forgot to pick up the cake. Better yet, like Michelle from The Culinary Sherpas, all they really wanted for their birthday was a homemade birthday cake and you didn’t make it because…well, the thought of mixing cake flour with leaveners and sugar sends a bolt of terror down your spine!

What if the cake doesn’t rise properly? And what if, just what if, you forget to add the sugar!? Well, I’ve been there and done that. My trashcan has even gone on strike as a result of my cake baking failures. But that was then and this is now. Now, I don’t have any excuses because Greg from The Culinary Sherpas, inspired by Chef Mary Laulis, baked a cake for his wife Michelle, an Inside Out German Chocolate Cake that she says only has a ‘low degree of difficulty’.

That means we can bake a cake and still have our hair safely secured to our heads afterward! This time have your cake and eat it too, bake this Inside Out German Chocolate Cake!

Scenario 1: You have friends coming over, you’ve made everything but the dessert…you secretly hope someone brings a dessert.

Possible Scenario 2: It’s your husband or wife’s birthday, you’ve bought them a card, the perfect gift, but you forgot to pick up the cake. Better yet, like Michelle from The Culinary Sherpas, all they really wanted for their birthday was a homemade birthday cake and you didn’t make it because…well, the thought of mixing cake flour with leaveners and sugar sends a bolt of terror down your spine!

What if your cake doesn’t rise properly? What if you put too much baking soda in the batter and the taste resembles that of the new toothpaste you just purchased? And what if, just what if you, forget to add the sugar!? Now that would be some cake! Well, I’ve been there and done that. My trashcan has even gone on strike as a result of my cake baking failures. But that was then and this is now. Now, I don’t have any excuses because Greg from The Culinary Sherpas, inspired by Chef Mary Laulis, baked a cake a for his wife Michelle, an Inside Out German Chocolate Cake that she says only has a ‘low degree of difficulty’.

That means we can bake a cake and still have our hair safely secured to our heads afterward! So have your cake and eat it to this time, bake this Inside Out German Chocolate Cake!

Limeade is a drink we’re all too familiar with; it’s the refreshing beverage we cool off with on a hot summer day. It’s more tart than lemonade but just as addicting. The fun lime green color usually gets us thinking about running through the sprinklers or pool parties with friends. But these days, with Fall weather rolling in, we might just want something else to drink other than hot cider!

Maybe you’re already missing Summer, or maybe you’re just in the mood for something crisp and light to quench your thirst, if you fit into either of those categories, then you should try the recipe that Jeannie from Junior Kitchen renamed Cucumber Breeze. Why did she call it that? Jeannie says it’s because the recipe was a breeze to make.

A blender and a strainer are the only tools you’ll need to make an enjoyable serving of Cucumber Limeade. If you’re afraid that the limeade might be a bit too tart for you taste buds, don’t be! I agree with Jeannie when she says ‘you can never go wrong when sugar is involved’!

I love miniature food: mini muffins, mini cupcakes, mini bagels, mini pizzas…. I could go on forever. I used to believe that I like tiny food because it is cute, but I’ve come to the realization that my love for the small stuff doesn’t stem from it’s cuteness, but from the fact that I can eat twice as many and not look like a porker.

Although Melina’s baked bittersweet mousse aren’t miniature they do encourage the same kind of gluttonous eating. She admits that you can eat two of these without even noticing! The best thing about this dessert is how easy it is to prepare. Just five ingredients and five simple steps (step one is: turn on the oven). Melina garnished her mousse with raspberries, but you could easily substitute your favorite. I’m thinking this dessert would be perfect for a night in, curled up on the couch watching movies, or sitting outside on the patio around the fire pit. No matter how you decide to enjoy your mousse, you’re sure to end the night with Sweet Dreams.

Kamala’s Corner is full of a tasty assortment of South Indian treats you may or may not have tried before. Kamala’s Pineapple Kesari is the perfect dessert to make if you’re looking for something a little less complicated than a cake but also a bit more exotic.

A rawa based dessert, Kamala’s sweet Pineapple Kesari doesn’t call for butter, but ghee. If you’re on the lookout for ghee, you probably won’t find it sitting next to the butter in the refrigerated section of your local grocery store. Instead, you’ll probably see it on the shelf because it doesn’t require refrigeration. As for the rawa, you’ll find that where the other grains are, and you might even come across it in a bowl of hot cereal.

The ingredients that really add flavor to Kamala’s delicious dessert are the pineapple, nuts, raisins, and cardamom powder. Easy to modify, Kamala says that you can add pineapple essence to the kesari if you really want the pineapple flavor to pop. Also, if the pineapple you’re using to make the dessert is already very ripe and sweet, she says you can decrease the amount of sugar.

You’ve read all about speedy weeknight dinners and seen numerous recipes for quick and easy desserts, but I think I’ve found the fastest of them all. Cake in ten minutes flat. “How is this possible?”, you might ask. This dessert phenomenon is credited to none other than the microwave. That’s right, cake baked in the microwave.

After reading several blogs and internet articles about microwave baking, Sowmya decided to give it a try. She posted this recipe for carrot apple cake on her blog, Creative Saga, and couldn’t stop raving about how moist and spongy the cake turned out. The microwave doesn’t allow the cake to crust, so it wont have that nice brown finish, but Sowmya preferred it that way. The cake retained a natural orange color from the carrots, and looked so beautiful that Sowmya decided not to decorate it.

This recipe would be great to include in a microwave cooking cookbook for college students. I wish I would have had delicious recipes like this when I was in school instead of 101 ways to cook ramen!

Making a sweet cupcake out of a savory herb like basil is not easy. I know because I tried and failed (two or three times, to be exact; the shock of the experience made me forget ;). But, from the looks of it, Tanya from Take the Cannoli seems to be the expert. She not only thought of a unique combination of ingredients to pair with the basil, but it just so happens that the cupcakes came out perfectly sweet with just a tad bit of savoriness from the basil.

Tanya made a berry peach sauce for the filling that included a tablespoon of fresh basil. And what’s a cupcake without the frosting? She also concocted a pink and summery buttercream frosting. Take a look at how velvety and smooth that frosting came out! Perfect for topping off a vanilla cupcake with! It’s also perfect for eating straight out of the bowl!

Tanya says the way to make a great cupcake using basil is to start out with just a little and slowly add more. You might even want to taste as you go, that shouldn’t be too difficult of a task, especially considering Tanya’s already taken care of the hard part! Combining basil with strawberries and peaches was a sweet and unique idea :)!

Leftovers can be something you look forward to! You’ll agree after you try Vandana’s Minestrone Soup. She was able to feed 15 people with her homemade soup; it was made fresh and completely from scratch. She didn’t even use canned beans! But don’t worry, if you’re really hungry and don’t have time to wait for the beans to cook, she says you can use canned beans instead.

The beans in Vandana’s Minestrone Soup provide a hearty amount of protein and nutrients. You’ll also fill up on the veggies, and this soup has plenty of them; squash, carrots, and broccoli, just to name a few. This is the perfect soup to make on the weekends. If you don’t have 15 hungry mouths to feed, Vandana says, on her blog Eat Well, Live Well, that you can freeze the rest and enjoy this slowcooked and delicious homemade soup in the middle of a busy week.

Vandana packed up her soup in a crockpot and took it to a party; this soup is worth celebrating in and of itself :). I know you’re probably busy marking your calendar for this year’s holiday party! Why not make it a memorable one by serving an unforgettable minestrone soup that was made with a lot of love?!