Cupkins: Leftover Cranberry Sauce? Make Delicious Muffins!

Ok so it's not the first Monday of the month but Joanne and I couldn't let Thanksgiving go by without a second helping of Cupkins.

Today I've got a recipe and a tip all rolled into one. I don't know about you but around my house we always have leftover cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving and to be honest- we never finish it. So I started thinking about ways that I could use it to make something else totally different. That's how I came up with the idea for these Cranberry orange muffins.

You'll need:

• 1/2 cup cranberry sauce- we get the "whole cranberry sauce" in the can but whatever you have on your table will be fine.
• The zest from one one orange
• 1/3 C walnuts (optional)
• 1.5 cups flour
• 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup sugar (depends on how sweet your cranberry sauce is to begin with. I usuallt use 3/4 of a cup.
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup of nonfat milk

Preheat oven to 375.

Add all the dry ingredients (sugar, flour, salt, baking powder) to a mixing bowl, add wet ingredients (egg, milk, oil cranberry sauce) and mix until combined. Add orange zest and nuts and again mix until combined. Don't over stir or the muffins will be tough and chewy!

Spray your muffin tins with nonstick spray or line with muffin cups. Fill each cup evenly.

Makes 6 large muffins or 12 regular size. Bake for 18 min (for large muffins) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from pan and let cool.

They came out so moist and delicious! And it was so easy to use the cranberry from a can- that now it's the only way I make cranberry muffins.

And If you already know you'll have more than enough cranberry sauce for your holiday dinner why wait until after Thanksgiving? Make these muffins the day before and have a nice light holiday morning breakfast after you put the Turkey in the oven.

Be sure to head on over to Ready, Set, Craft! to see Joanne's Thanksgiving Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting by clicking on the Cupkins logo below. They look delicious!

And if you want to see my Cupkins recipes from earlier this month- click here.

Two pretty things

There were two tutorials on one pretty thing last week that grabbed my attention.

These amazing German stars-

Photo from a grateful prayer and a thankful heart

Aren't they pretty! I'd love to try an make my own since she has a really great video tutorial on how to make them. She's even running a contest to win a set she's made if you don't want to make your own- so head on over to leave a comment if you'd like to win.

I also a great use for the 3 bags of dried gourds I have. Over at Gingerbread Snowflakes there are some beautiful gourds decorated with colored pencils and sharpies. It sounded so much easier than dragging out all my paints I literally ran down to the studio grabbed a gourd, my pencils and markers and started one on the spot- it was around 11:30 pm mind you. But what can I say I love a good gourd project!

Here is my late night project with a coat of gloss sealer on it- go and check out Gingerbread Snowflakes to see some really gorgeous ones!