Celebrating Some Sweet Victories, With Cupcakes!

Tomorrow, I'm going to have lunch with some friends, and I'm in charge of the dessert!

I've been trying to come up with the perfect Deliciously Healthy dessert to bring, that will be delicious for them, and low cal for me!

In the process, I ended up making my husbands "new favorite dessert". As we both tried it for the first time tonight, he was seriously raving about it! So much so that I had to tell him to stop, because it was getting kinda annoying! ;)

So what is my husbands new favorite dessert?

Strawberry Cream Cupcakes:
Here's What You Need:

For the Cupcakes:

~ I box of white cake mix

~1/2 a cup of low-fat sour cream
~1 egg
~1 tablespoon of water
~1/2 teaspoon vanilla

For the strawberry cream mixture:
~2 tsp of sugar
~1 cup of sliced strawberries
~1 1/2 cups of low-fat whipped topping

For the strawberry topping:
~1 cup of sliced strawberries

Final topping:
~1/2 cup low-fat whipped topping

This is What You Do:

For cupcakes:
~Pre-heat oven to 350
~Whisk together all the ingredients until blended
~Dived into 12 paper cups.
~Bake for 18 to 20 minutes.

For strawberry whipped cream mixture:
~In a sauce pan, combine 1 cup of sliced strawberries, and 2 tsp of sugar. Cook over medium/low heat, until soft.
~Place cooked strawberries in a blender and blend until it's a thick puree. Pour mixture into a bowl, and put into the fridge or freezer until it's cooled COMPLETELY.
~When the strawberry mixture is cooled completely, gently mix it into 1 1/2 cups of low-fat whipped cream.
**Note: You could place the sliced strawberries with the 2 tsp of sugar in a bowl, and let sit for 30min. Then blend it in the blender.

Assembly:
~Take cupcakes out of their paper cups, and cut the tops off of the cupcakes
~Layer the toppings evenly among all 12 cupcakes. Starting with the strawberry cream mixture, sliced strawberries, lid (cupcake top), and a small dollop of low-fat whipped cream.
**Note: If you put the strawberry cream mixture, and the whipped cream in piping bags (or a ziplock bag with corner snipped off), it makes it a little quicker and easier to assemble. Plus, it makes everything a little prettier in the end :)

Here's what I'm Thinking:

Servings: 12
Serving size: 1 cupcake with toppings
Calories per serving: 220MMM!

***

These past couple days, I've celebrated some fun victories! :

#1. Today's weigh in had me at 169! I've lost 3 pounds this week, and I'm FINALLY in the 160's!! Yay! I'm only 3 pounds away from losing 40 pounds! :D

#2. Feeling all excited over my good weigh in, I decided to go into my closet, to see if I could fit into anything that I haven't been able to. Guess what?! I totally did!
I fit back into one of my favorite button down shirts! I haven't been able to wear it in years!
TaDa!Of course when I'm finally able to wear it, it's too dang hot outside... but maybe I'll be able to on a cold/rainy summer day...

#3. On Saturday, the hubs took me out to lunch, to the Cheesecake Factory.
I had decided that would be my off meal for the week. (I don't have scheduled in off meals, but when something like this pops up, I use it as my one off meal for the week). I got the chicken and biscuits (my fav), and of course I could only eat half. Then I broke one of my rules: I brought the leftovers home with me! For the rest of the day, my yummy leftovers were calling me from the fridge. I could barley think of anything else! To eat them, or not to eat them? That was the question! Finally, I made my decision! I opened the fridge, grabbed my leftovers, opened the pantry, and tossed them into the trash! Yes, I know, there are starving people in China, but my yummy leftovers were either going to my hips, or in the trash. I decided they'd be better in the trash!
#4. Today I had a doctors appointment with my rheumatologist/lupus specialist. I hadn't seen her since before I started losing weight (which was bad on my part, since I'm supposed to see her every 2-4 months. Whoops). I'll never get over her reaction to my weight loss! She practically jumped for joy, for me! I heart her. I seriously do. She's the most compassionate, wonderful doctor I've ever met! Her husband is my orthopedic surgeon, and he's the exact same way (match made in heaven right there;)! They're both simply amazing! Any who, back to what I was saying. She pointed out that when I started seeing her almost 5 years ago, I was 185, and that
I was the lowest she had ever seen me!
That felt pretty darn good!

I'm pretty much on cloud nine right about now ;D