My First Win and The Crazy Things I Do

So, first up on the menu, I need to tell you all that I am now an award winning cupcake baker. So you can rest assured that all the recipes I post here are safe and will not kill you.

What is this award that I won? Well, let me tell you! I won the sweets category at the Comfort Food Challenge at the house I live in. Please don't ask me how many entries there were in the sweets category, because then I might have to tell you that there were only 4. Oops. Me and my big mouth.

The deathly white apparition on the left is me, just fyi.

But really, it was a for-fun competition and there were lots of awesome people and awesome comfort foods there.

This is my entry:

I made 3 different kinds of mini cupcakes: a breakfast one, a lunch/dinner one, and a dessert one. I was going to make 4, but alas, time was not on my side, so I had to settle for chocolate drizzled on the plate to disguise the missing 4th cupcake. And no one said to me, "Gee Leanna, your plate looks dumb with only 3 cupcakes on it," so I must have succeeded on my mission.

From left to right, we have a French Toast cupcake with Maple buttercream frosting and crispy bacon on top, a Cheddar and Herb bread with goat cheese topping, and a classic Red Velvet Cupcake with cream cheese frosting and a pecan on top.

Let me describe them for you using one word for each:
Yum.
Yum.
and
Yum.

Let me tell you, if you've never had a cupcake with bacon on it, get your butt away from the computer right this second and go make one. It will change your life. Forever.

I have plans to do individual posts for each of these recipes, so hang tight for a week or two while I get my act together. I ended up going off-recipe a bit and didn't actually write down any of the changes I made, so I'm still not entirely sure how I'll put the posts together. It'll happen, though. Just don't hold that breath of yours.

So that's it for the first part of the post. Now onto the second part, which I shall entitle:

This is SO Not Worth 10% Extra Credit.

Right now I'm on Day 4 of a one week long extra credit assignment for my Globalization class. The assignment? Live on $2 a day. I don't know how many of you have been grocery shopping lately, but what this loosely translates to is "Eat Top Ramen for a week".

Actually, it's not that bad. I went to Fred Meyer's and bought all my food at once and actually got a fair amount. And by fair amount I really mean:
-7 Packages of Top Ramen
-4 Packages Instant Mashed Potatoes
-3 Cans Tomato Soup
-7 Cups of Yogurt
-1/2 Dozen Eggs
-1 Box of "Spread" (I don't know what's in it, nor do I want to. It was cheap and I bought it).
-1 Loaf of White Bread
-6 Bananas. This was my one splurge item... I really love bananas and couldn't imagine going a week without them. I had $1.26 left in my budget and they ended up weighing in at $1.22. I took this as a sign from God that I was supposed to buy them.

What I did NOT buy:
-Coffee
-Milk
-Tea
-Juice
-Any other liquid

We're allowed to drink water for free, but no other liquids unless we buy them. This sucks. I don't like water. I never, ever just drink water, and literally had to write myself a note to drink some today so I wouldn't forget to drink like I did yesterday. It occurred to me last night as I was getting into bed that I hadn't gone to the bathroom since I woke up in the morning. TMI? Yes. But now you know how awful I am at drinking water.

This honestly is a lot harder than I thought it would be. In reality, it's enough food and I've never been hungry, but I'm having a hard time mentally. No, I'm not going crazy. But I am finding myself craving to eat all the time, just because I know that I can't. And the other day I was waiting at my busstop, which is next to McDonald's, and I was just itching to go in and get something.

DID YOU READ THAT? I WANTED MCDONALD'S!
I was so ashamed.

The hardest part though, at least so far, is definitely the coffee. I wanntttt coffffeeeeeee. The second my week is over, I'm going out and buying a Venti mocha at Starbucks. Yeah, it'll probably cost the equivalent of my entire food budget for this past week, but the heck with it. I. Want. Coffee.

Obviously on this budget I can't afford to make cupcakes, but rest assured I'll be back on that ASAP. I've got like a gazillion new recipes that I've bookmarked, so be expecting a lot of yummy things to come your way soon.