Tag: fun

Top 10 Travel Tips for your first time in Amsterdam, Netherlands

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  • 1. Stay in De Pijp – Staying at the Sir Albert, of course! De Pijp is a down-to-earth neighborhood that is easy to stroll and not quite as noisy as the city center. It is filled with lovely restaurants and has great streets and canals to meander. It’s also a 20-30 minute walk to the city center and red light district or a quick metro ride!
A little duck fancied himself a ride on our vessel
  • 3. Visit the Tony’s Chocolonley Headquarters – Tony’s Chocolonley is a Dutch chocolate company that was created to combat the exploitation in the cocoa manufacturing industry. Not only is its mission important, its chocolate is amazing. Conveniently, its headquarters are based in the heart of Amsterdam. The company has creative flavors, bars, and snacks to choose from. But if nothing on the menu tickles your fancy, then you can actually make your own chocolate bar – amazing, right?!
Blueberry Deluxe with a scoop of saffron ice cream. Heavenly.
  • 6. Try bitterballen. If croquettes and beef stew had a child, it would be a fried baby bitterballen. You simply cannot leave Amsterdam without trying one. We ordered them at cafe t’Smalle, and they were so delicious!
  • 7. Check out a museum – We opted for the Van Gogh museum. You can purchase tickets ahead through the museum’s website. If you prefer to enter through a guided tour, you can purchase tickets and the tour here. While we didn’t do a tour this time, I recommend booking your tickets ahead of time for the day and time slot you want to go. I would set aside a minimum of two hours for the Van Gogh museum. If you’re short on time, the Kattenkabinet (cat museum) is quirky and cool with a lovely gift shop! It only takes 45 minutes to an hour to explore.
  • 8. Enjoy a cocktail date night – The Flying Dutchman was a perfect date spot, but be sure to make reservations! It had an inspiring menu showcasing classic cocktails throughout the ages and a robust whisky collection.

Til next time

❤ Natalie

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Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting (AKA the best cupcakes you will ever eat)

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Guys. I made the most delicious cupcakes in the entire world and want everyone to make them and eat them and love them as much as I did.

Last winter, Sprinkles in Washington, DC offered different cereal-based cupcakes and I tried the Cinnamon Toast Crunch one and fell head over heels in love with it. Sadly, these were only weekly specials and were discontinued. So I looked up recipes online for an attempt to recreate the magic of these cupcakes and came upon a recipe that tasted even better. I made these for my boyfriend’s birthday in August and even though he always claims he “isn’t a dessert person” – a phrase that I will simply never understand – he ended up loving them too!

The recipe I used was adapted from here and I followed the recipe very closely. I don’t even mind that they aren’t entirely made from scratch (it requires boxed cake mix), but I’m sure you could improvise if you know a recipe for a standard cake you like to make!

One thing I was surprised about and had never considered was dipping the top of the cupcake (before frosted) into butter then cinnamon sugar. This was seriously a game changer and gives these cupcakes a churro-like taste as well. It can’t be beat!

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Ingredients for 24 Cupcakes

  • 1 box, French Vanilla Cake Mix
  • 1 small box (3.4 oz) vanilla instant pudding mix
  • 1 1/4 cups milk
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Cinnamon Sugar Coating:

  • 4 tablespoons salted butter, melted
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting:

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
  • 8 oz (1 block) cream cheese, softened
  • 2/3 cup heavy cream
  • 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 6 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 cups Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, for garnish

Baking Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 and line 24 muffin tins.
  2. In the bowl of your mixer, combine cake mix, pudding mix, milk, vegetable oil, sour cream, eggs, and cinnamon. Mix on low speed for 30 seconds. Scrape the sides of the bowl and increase mixer speed to high. Beat for 2 minutes.
  3. Stir a few times with a big wooden spoon, then fill prepared muffin cups 2/3 of the way full.
  4. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes, until tops spring back when lightly touched in the center. Remove from oven and let cool in the pans for 5 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely.
  5. In a small bowl, combine granulated sugar and ground cinnamon. In another bowl, add the 4 tablespoons of melted butter.
  6. Dip the top of a baked cupcake in the melted butter, then dip into the cinnamon sugar mixture. Repeat with remaining cupcakes. Set aside remaining cinnamon sugar for topping.
  7. For the icing, beat butter and cream cheese on medium speed until smooth and combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl. Add vanilla and heavy cream, beating on medium speed until smooth. With the mixer on low speed, slowly and carefully add powdered sugar until just barely combined. Increase mixer speed to high and beat for two minutes.
  8. Generously frost cupcakes. Top with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar and stick cereal into frosting as you wish.
  9. Keep these cupcakes refrigerated if they are not served immediately.
  10. Enjoy these amazing cereal cupcake creations!

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Berry Breakfast Muffins

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I’m never too hungry right when I wake up in the morning, but when I know I have homemade muffins waiting for me, that’s a different story. These muffins are perfect because you can add whatever fruits or nuts or oats you desire and they will be always be tasty. I took this recipe from Clean Eating Recipes and jazzed it up a bit with the fruit around my kitchen.

Ingredients:

Baking Steps:

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a muffin tin with baking wrappers or grease the tins well with coconut oil.
  2. In a small bowl, mix together the coconut milk and lemon juice. Let sit for 5-10 minutes.
  3. Place the honey, eggs, and coconut oil in a mixing bowl and whisk together until well combined.
  4. In another bowl, whisk together the whole wheat flour, oat flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Whisk half of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Add in half of the coconut milk mixture and whisk until just combined. Whisk in the remaining dry ingredients and finish by adding in the remaining coconut milk mixture, mixing just until combined – do not over-mix.
  5. Fold the blueberries, raspberries, and banana into the batter.
  6. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared muffin tins (tins will be completely full of batter).
  7. Bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 minutes or until tops are set.
  8. Let cool for 5 minutes and remove from pan. Store in an airtight container.

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I hope you enjoy and let me know what you ended up adding to them! 🙂