Peanut Butter Cupcakes & Green Smoothies (Not Together, Don't Worry)

Yesterday I made Peanut Butter cupcakes for my husband's "work anniversary" (celebrating his first year at the company) since peanut butter is one of his favorite flavors.

I made two different frostings--chocolate fudge, and marshmallow--so that there were both "Peanut Butter Cup" and "Fluffer-nutter" cupcakes to choose from. He said that the chocolate ones were more popular, but I personally liked the marshmallow frosting the best. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't make them any prettier, but neither of the frostings were appropriate for a piping bag. 

Unrelated to cupcakes, I've been drinking a lot of green smoothies. My friend made something he called "Monster Juice" (to get his kids to drink it) with pineapple and spinach, which I thought was pretty good. I made my own version, which I know put together a couple of times a week. Recipe under the cut!

"Monster Juice" 2.0

1 20 oz can pineapple chunks, in juice

Fresh baby spinach (~4 c)

1/4 c fat-free plain Greek yogurt

1/2 c orange juice

Ice (~six large cubes)

Add all of the ingredients together in the pitcher of a high-power blender. Blend until the spinach is in teensy pieces and the ice is completely crushed.

You can use as much or as little spinach as you like. I prefer to remove the stems to improve the texture of the drink, but if you want more fiber it wont' hurt anything to leave them on. I personally measure the spinach by filling the blender a little over halfway before adding the other ingredients, so the amount listed above is just an estimate.

Oh, and the other day I made more orange syrup with half regular oranges and half blood oranges (from a friend's tree) and it was just as good as the clementine version!