The Best Healthy(ish) Cookies I Ever Made

I've been having mad chocolate chip cookie cravings lately.  And apparently this child will be satisfied by nothing but chocolate chip cookies.  Not fruit.  Not just plain chocolate.  It had to be chocolate chip cookies.  When I bake, I try to do it as healthily as possible, especially now since it's not just me my food choices effect.  So I like to make lots of substitutions.  One of my favorites is swapping out applesauce for oil/butter.  It's amazing and I seriously can't even tell the difference.  My non applesauce loving husband can't either unless I tell him.

So I set about to make chocolate chip cookies yesterday morning.  Well, to be more exact, I mixed them up in the morning and baked them in the afternoon.  And here's the thing.  I hate making cookies.  Or I used to.  And I finally realized why.  It's the mixing.  Mixing sucks.  But when you just dump it in your stand mixer, amazing.  So maybe I realized I don't really hate making cookies, I'm just lazy. 

And now I'm shutting up and telling you how to make these amazing cookies.  They are approved by me, my husband, this child that is still under cover, and my adorable nephew.

Healthy-ish Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup natural applesauce (I buy the little individual cups and just dump one in)
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla (I just used a tiny bit of vanilla because I was almost out and these were still delicious)
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups old fashioned oats (these are the only kind you should ever buy in my opinion.  It's what I use for breakfast, even cooked in the microwave they're amazing and less processed!)
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 (if you're baking your cookies now, if not, leave it alone and preheat it when you're actually going to bake your cookies so you don't burn down your house leaving your oven on all day).  Cream together butter, applesauce, and sugars.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Add flour gradually (unless you're using your stand mixer, then just dump it all in and let'er rip.)  I like to mix the baking powder, soda and salt into my flour ahead of time so it combines better.  Mix in oats.  Fold in chocolate chips.  Drop by the spoonful onto greased cookie sheets.  Bake 11-13 minutes.

Makes 4-5 dozen cookies.  Now, the number of cookies it makes is not exact, obviously.  I don't use a cookie scoop.  I just scoop them out with a cereal eating spoon.  This makes a perfectly lovely size of cookie.

Now go make these cookies.  And enjoy them with a tall glass of milk (skim is my choice!).  They are baby approved!

Luscious Lemon Salad

I'm not sure if it's the warm springy weather or if I'm channeling my inner 1950s housewife, but Jell-O salads have been sounding especially good.  Or that I grew up eating Jell-O salad.  Either way. 

I'm sharing a recipe I got a from a co-worker a few years ago.  It's the perfect springy side item.  And in my mother's words, it can be a dessert or a salad.  I'm actually going to make it to bring to work tomorrow.

 

It's seriously so good.  And I know, it sounds like something your grandma would make, but just trust me.  It's delicious.  And I can't wait to make some to eat tomorrow.

What food are you guys whipping up this spring?  Anybody else channeling their inner June Cleaver?  No?  Just me?  Okay.

Chocolate Oatmeal

Yup.  That says exactly what you think it says.  Chocolate oatmeal.  Let's take a minute and pause for excitement...

I loooove breakfast.  And I love eating a really delicious breakfast.  However, my work schedule doesn't really allow time for the kind of breakfast I would like.  I leave for work at 6:30, who wants to cook/eat breakfast that early.  So most days I end up grabbing breakfast at my desk once I'm already at work.  That means it's a bowl of cereal, a smoothie, an egg muffin, you know something super simple.

Well, I made a great discovery.  Yesterday (I think) I got a Pillsbury email, one of those with recipes.  It included a recipe for chocolate crockpot oatmeal.  Um, I'm a complete failure at planning ahead.  So even when I have great crockpot plans, half the time I end up have to hurry my food along on the stove because I've forgotten to put stuff in the crockpot before I left for work.  Fail.

But I figured I could whip up some chocolate oatmeal in the microwave.  Spoiler, I was right.  And I have no pictures to share because it turns out microwaved chocolate oatmeal in a Tupperware container does not look especially glamorous or delicious, but trust me, it is delicious.

So, here's what you do.  Grab a bowl, dump in 3/4 cup Old Fashioned or Steel Cut Oats.  Add an envelope of hot chocolate mix.  Pour in about 1/2 cup of milk (eyeball it til it looks right).  Microwave for about 3 minutes, stirring to make sure you don't have an oatmeal volcano in your microwave.  Let it cool for a couple of minutes and enjoy.

And if you're like me and your milk came out of a school milk carton, drink the rest of the carton with your oatmeal.  Yum!  And it just seems so decadent.  It's not even absolutely terrible for you, I'm sure we could healthy it up with actual cocoa and some splenda or something.  But even with instant hot cocoa mix, it's delish.

What are you guys eating for breakfast these days?  Anybody else a complete breakfast person?  I totally love breakfast for dinner, unfortunately that gets voted down at my house.

Mug Muffins

Okay, I know, it's Friday evening.  If you're like me, all you can think about is getting home from work, sprawling across the couch and enjoying a cold beverage.  Maybe a margarita, or a beer, or maybe a lemonade.  But, come tomorrow morning you're going to need breakfast.  Or I will anyway, if I don't eat breakfast I am not a happy camper.  So, I'm here to share a healthy breakfast with you.

I know you're supposed to have protein for breakfast.  But if I just have protein and nothing else, guess what, still grumpy.  I need some carbs with my protein to be completely happy.  I pinned a recipe the other day that I've adapted a bit and I'm going to share it with you.

Mug Muffins
Ingredients
1/4 cup oats, I like steel cut
1 egg (or eggbeaters for a lighter option)
Handful of fruit, I like raspberries
A splash of Skim Milk
1 T brown sugar (you could use Splenda or some other artificial sweetener or even honey)
Directions
Grab a mug, dump all the ingredients in a mug.  Mix 'em up.  Throw the mug in the microwave for about a minute and a half (more or less depending on your microwave, that's just how long it takes in mine).  Let it cool a bit and enjoy.  It should slide out of the mug pretty nicely if you want to put it on a plate.  But why would you want to get something else dirty, you can totally just eat it out of the mug.
Nutrition Information (via MyFitnessPal)
Calories:  313
Carbs:  49
Fat:  8
Protein:  13
Sodium:  77
Sugar:  17

Yes, it does have quite a bit of sugar.  You could totally make that lower by subbing out an artificial sweetener.  I personally prefer to use the calories for real sugar than use artificial sweetener, just a personal preference.  You could also use eggbeaters for lower calories.  All in all, not terrible for you.  And look at all that protein!

What about you guys?  Are you a breakfast person?  I love breakfast!  I wish my husband was as much of a breakfast person as I am.  Any Go To delicious breakfasts at your house?  Will you make me pancakes sometime?  I refuse because I hate the lingering smell.

Chocolate Covered Popcorn

I don't know about you guys, but sometimes I get home from work and I want a snack.  We always eat a late dinner, like eight or after.  So that leaves a long time between lunch and dinner.  I try to usually grab something healthy like a piece of fruit.  But sometimes a sweet treat is just what I want.  Today was one of those days.  When that's the case, I usually whip up a mug brownie and grab a glass of milk.  Today I wanted something different so I scavenged in the cabinets (I desperately need to grocery shop) until I found something that sounded good.

I sat down with my bowl of sweet treat and realized, I needed a picture.  And a blog post.  So, now that I've washed the chocolate off my fingers, here we are.

I grabbed a bag of microwave popcorn and popped it.  Then I had a mixed bag (both white and chocolate) of almond bark in my cabinet leftover from some previous candy making venture.  I melted two squares, one white and one chocolate for about 70 seconds, stirring every 30 seconds.  Then I just drizzled the melted almond bark over my popcorn bowl.  Yum!  I could totally see myself doing this for a holiday party.  If I was going to serve it to actual people, I would spread a layer of popcorn on some wax paper, drizzle the chocolate, and let it set up.  My bowl was a little messy.  But, seriously so delicious!

Anybody else have to have "an after school snack"?  What have you guys been up to?  I'm still in a serious DIY slump.  I'm not sure I've recovered from landscaping.  Or going back to work....  

How to Hostess on the Fly

I love to have people over.  I love to throw ridiculous, elaborate parties.  I love to cook for my friends.  I love showing off our house projects and our mad grilling & cupcaking skills.  And I love spending time with great friends.  But sometimes you send a text, hoping to make plans for a week away and you end up inviting friends over for the next day.  And sometimes when that happens you have to speed decorate your house (see yesterday's post)

When all of these things happen, it helps to have some stand by goodies that are easy to throw together.  And it helps to have the kind of friends that when you invite them over, they want to know what to bring.  So, we settled on everyone bringing our favorite snacks to share.  I whipped up two snacks to serve my guests.  And a pitcher of lemonade, you can never go wrong with lemonade in the summer.  I always buy the lemonade concentrate in the freezer section and put it in a pretty glass pitcher.

So, you're wondering what I served?  I'm so glad you asked.  I was too busy to take pictures but I can share some super yummy recipes and tips for those recipes.

My favorite, I almost always make brownies.  These are my lazy/impressive brownies.  Buy a brownie mix, one of the family sized ones.  I buy the Betty Crocker mix for a 13x9 pan.  Also buy two big Symphony bars, the ones with toffee bits in them.  Make the brownies according to the box.  Grab a square baking dish, an 8x8 or 9x9.  Grease your pan and pour in half the brownie mix.  Put in both your Symphony bars, side by side.  It will be a tight fit, but it will fit, I promise.  Then pour the rest of your brownie batter on top and shove those bad boys in the oven at 350 for 40-45 minutes.  Let them cool and then enjoy with a tall glass of milk (skim so that it cancels out the fat in the brownies).

And I tried a new recipe.  Holy cow, I am in love.  It's one of those restaurant knock off recipes.  In fact I went to Chili's a couple weeks ago with the intent of ordering these, but they have soy in them so I couldn't order them :(  I was in luck though, I found a recipe on Pinterest that was supposed to be the same thing.  Chili's Southwestern Egg Rolls.  I am here to tell you, these are amazing.  I mean seriously, yum!  They taste just like Chili's but way healthier because they're not fried.  And soy free!

The recipe came from Cake & Allie

Southwest Egg Rolls
2 cups frozen corn, thawed
1-15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
1-9 oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry with paper towel
2 cups shredded Mexican cheese
1-7oz can diced green chiles, drained
4 green onions, finely chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 package of egg roll or wonton wrappers

Preheat your oven to 425*.  Mix together all ingredients, spoon into egg roll wrappers, and roll egg roll style.  Put on a greased baking sheet.  Bake for 15 minutes**.  Flip at least once during baking.
*I baked them at 350 because I was baking brownies at the same time
**Since I baked at 350, I baked for twenty minutes, ten on each side.

Avocado Ranch
3/8 cup mayonnaise
3/8 cup sour cream
3 Tbs buttermilk
1/2 Tbs olive oil
1/2 Tbs lemon juice
1/2 green onion, chopped
1/4 tsp salt
1 avocado, peeled and pitted

Place all ingredients in blender* and blend away.  
*You may think you can throw this in your Kitchen Aid mixer and just mix it.  Trust me, it's a bad idea.  I ended up with only half an avocado in my ranch because I tried to do it in the mixer and half the avocado shot out of the mixer bowl and landed in the middle of my kitchen floor.  So, don't do it, just drag out the blender, you will thank me.

Anyway, I will definitely be making these again!  So yummy.  And even pretty healthy!  Do you have go to party recipes?  Do you like to do pot luck style or do you prepare a whole meal?  Have you shot an avocado out of your mixer?  No?  Just me?  That's what I thought.

In a Jam

I think I mentioned yesterday that I'd made a trip to my parents house.  Well, my mom sent most of the stuff I still had at their house home with me.  Or as much as would fit in my car.  A huge box full of pictures and childhood memorabilia.  And another full of stuff from my grandparents houses.  And a laundry basket full of the rest of my set of china.  Yup, I have a full set of china.  Don't really know when I'm going to use it, but I have it.  My mom bought it for me back in college.  Oh, and my wedding dress.  I brought that back too.  And now everything (except for the china which is already put away in the cabinet) is now stacked in our office until I figure out what to do with it.  And there are two more huge tubs coming this weekend with my parents.  Those are tubs full of wedding stuff to sell on Craigslist.  All the table decorations, candle holders, that kind of thing.

Anyway.  The real reason I went to my parents was to make jelly with my mom.  Or more specifically jam I guess.  My mom has always done lots of home canning.  Lots.  Green beans, pickles, apple sauce, beets, apple butter, jam and jelly.  What she didn't can, she froze.  We always  had frozen corn, apple sauce, rhubarb, and more juices to make jelly.  I didn't know you could buy those foods at the store until I was way old.  Let me tell you, my mom's homemade applesauce is ten times better than anything you can buy at the store.

So I decided I wanted to learn how to make and can jelly.  It ended up being jam.  Jelly is just made from juice where jam is made from the whole fruit.  In case you were curious.

For our jam, we made plum.  That was my request.  My mom had stuff to make plum jam, plum jelly, or peach jelly.  She had canned plum and peach juice last summer.  And she'd frozen processed plums for jam last summer too.  So, before I got there she pulled out the plums to thaw so they'd be ready to jam.

Plum is my absolute favorite.  When I was a kid, we had a family friend who had plum trees and she always let us come over and pick plums.  So we always had lots of plum jelly.  It always makes me feel like a little girl.  Yesterday I made scrambled eggs and toast and put my plum jam on my toast and it took me right back to my childhood.

For each batch of jam, we used 5 3/4 cups of processed plums.  Those got poured into a huge pot with a package of Pectin.  You just cook it until it starts boiling.  Then you add 8 1/2 cups of sugar (that you've remembered to measure out before you start cooking).  You just keep stirring and cooking until it starts to boil again, then set a timer for 4 minutes and keep stirring until your timer goes off.

You need to have jars ready to go before you start cooking your jam.  We also heated up a cereal bowl full of water in the microwave (about 3 minutes) to put our canning flats in.  Pull the bowl out, put your flats in so that you're ready for the canning.  You'll also need canning rings so that the jars will seal.

Once your timer goes off, you're ready to start filling jars.  We used pint jars and our recipe made about 5 jars of jam.  You'll want to use a ladle and a funnel to fill your jars so you don't make a giant mess.  Fill about two jars at a time.  Once they're filled, wipe the top of the jar off, put your the flat on top of the jar, screw on the ring as tight as you can, and set aside until you hear the jar seal.  Helpful tip, hold on to the jar with your dish rag while you tighten the rings so you don't burn the heck out of your hand.

We ended up making four batches of jam.  So around twenty jars.  My mom sent half of them home with me, I don't know what I'm going to do with that much jam, but man, it's good.

Anybody else tackling projects that are things your granny would have done?  What are you working on this week?  I've been working on my Clean in 2013 plan.  And am off to the Habitat ReStore today.  Excited!

What's For Dinner (Part 1)

If your house is like mine, you are always trying to figure out what to cook for dinner.  It's the same conversation every night.  "What do you want for dinner?"  "I don't know, what sounds good to you?"  "Oh, I don't care.  Whatever you want."  Arg!  It can drive a girl crazy.  Maybe you're already on the meal planning bus.  If so, good for you!

Last night while we were catching up on episodes of NCIS, I made a huge list of all the things I regularly make.  Eventually it's going to get made into a pretty printable list.  For now, it's on notebook paper, written with hot pink ink.  But I have created a weekly menu sheet.  It's going to go in a frame on the fridge.  That way I can write on the glass and it will be dry erase.  Perfect.  This is totally my favorite way of keeping track of things.  It's fantastic.  All the perks of a dry erase board but none of the traditional ugliness.

So, here's my meal planning sheet for the week.  I'm off to Walgreens to pick up a print of it so that I can throw it in a frame.  I may update my cleaning calendar to match it so I can stick that on the fridge as well.

 

How do you plan your meals for the week?  Any great tips you'd like to share?  I can use all the help I can get!

Leaves and Twigs

No, this post does not refer to nature at all, but muffins.  My oldest sister makes what we fondly refer to as Leaves & Twigs muffins.  Why do we call them that?  She shoves in every healthy thing she can think of.  Well, I had some bananas leftover from throwing that wedding shower (don't worry, they've been in the freezer, not sitting on my counter this whole time) and I wanted to make banana bread.  I knew I wanted some oatmeal in them too to make them a little more substantial, so I called my sister for her leaves and twigs recipe.

 My sister and me on vacation a few years ago.

And let's get ready to cook.  I ate two of these for breakfast this morning with a yogurt and man they were delicious. 

Hearty Fruit and Oatmeal Muffins
2 cups flour
1 cup oatmeal
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1/4 cup oil
1/2 c buttermilk
1 cup sugar
Fruit*

Mash your fruit.  Combine fruit with sugar, buttermilk, eggs, and oil.   Stir in soda, flour, and oatmeal.  Pour into muffin tins and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.  Makes about 18 muffins.  You could also make it as a loaf, but why.  Muffins are nice and portable.  Make muffins.

*I used about three bananas.  I also sprinkled a couple of chocolate chips on top of each muffin.  Next time I'm thinking pumpkin or strawberries.

Let me know if you try these and what you think.  I definitely feel like they're a little healthier breakfast choice.  What are your plans for the weekend?  I'm hoping the snow is melted by tomorrow, yes, snow in May in Missouri.  Not impressed.  I'm going to be working on my Pinterest Challenge project.  Squee!!!!!!!

Brownie Extravaganza

Okay guys, I love brownies.  Really, I love sweets.  I'm not too picky.  Sweets are fabulous.  I try not to make them too often.  My husband isn't a big sweet eater so I'm left to consume a whole pan of something on my own.  Bad news bears.  So I try to stick to making things when we're going somewhere.

The other day at school, we had a Pinterest/Facebook recipe day.  Obviously the perfect excuse to try out a new recipe.  So exciting!  I had been seeing the brownie lasagna and the brownie refrigerator cake everywhere.  I'm serious, go make it guys!  It was so good.  I didn't bring any home with me.  A little disappointing considering I was planning on eating some leftovers after school....  Anyway. 

I found the recipe here.

Make your brownies.  Follow the directions on the box and add one extra egg.  Bake.  The recipe called for two brownie mixes, I used one of the family size Betty Crocker boxes.

Mix 8oz cream cheese, 8oz Cool Whip, and 1 cup powdered sugar.  Spread that deliciousness over the brownies.  

Let those brownies cool down.  Stare at them longingly.  Mix one box of vanilla and one of chocolate pudding with 3 1/2 cups of milk.  Spread that over the cream cheese mixture.

All of my toppings all lined up.  Mix the cream cheese, Cool Whip and powdered sugar with your mixer.  Mix all the pudding in a big Tupperware.  I do this all the time, no mixer needed.  Dump in your pudding stuff, put on the lid, and shake.  Perfect for eating pudding on the couch.  And the rest of the Cool Whip for the top layer.  Go ahead and buy the big tub, you will need that much.  Just divide it.  Unless the little tubs are on sale.  You know, go with whatever is cheaper.

Spread the rest of the Cool Whip over the pudding mixture.  Be careful not to smudge the chocolate pudding into your Cool Whip so it doesn't look gross.  Just a tip.

Sprinkle with chocolate chips.  Or chocolate shavings.  Or whatever small bits of chocolate you have laying around.  Chocolate sprinkles....

Mmmm, I'm wishing I had a piece right now.  So good!  I wish I had baked the brownies a little less.  Other than that, it was absolutely perfect.  And decadent.  And I wished I had a glass of milk.  I'd say these tie for deliciousness with the Heath bar brownies.  These take a little time but are super easy.

Here's the actual recipe:
Ingredients:
2 brownie mixes
1 extra large egg
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
2 (8 oz.) containers whipped topping
1 (3 oz.) package instant chocolate pudding
1 (3 oz.) package instant vanilla pudding
3 1/2 cups milk
1 Hershey candy bar or chocolate syrup
Directions: Mix brownie mixes according to directions. Add egg. Bake in 9x13 inch greased and floured cake pan. Mix cream cheese, powdered sugar and 1 container whipped topping. Put this mix on top of the cooled brownies. Blend puddings and milk together and put on top of the cream cheese mixture. Top with another layer of whipped topping. Put chocolate shavings or chocolate syrup on top. Refrigerate until ready to serve. 

What are you guys making that's delicious?  Sorry I've been MIA lately, testing is kicking my tail.  I need to get back into house projects, it makes me so much happier.  Anybody else's happiness depend on DIY Projects?  Surely I'm not the only one. 

Pretty in Pink

The wedding shower went off without a hitch.  I spent the majority of the day Saturday prepping.  The usual, you know, super cleaning the house (even dusting, I never dust) and prepping lots of yummy food.  I ended up not doing any decorations because I decided it just wasn't worth it.  And my food table was pretty darned decorative.

So, the food.  Because really, that's all any of us care about.  I made marshmallow pops (a thousand times easier than cake pops), a fruit plate, pinwheels, and lime cupcakes.  And punch.  Mmm, punch. 

Guys this punch was delicious.  Even my husband helped me drink the leftovers.  I followed this recipe.  I didn't take a picture of my punch.  Sorry.  On Saturday, I followed the recipe exactly, I made a second pitcher Sunday with a couple alterations and I liked it much better.  The first pitcher was fine, just a little too tart for my taste.  So, here we go.
2 bottles of Moscato (or the really big bottle.  I used the big bottle of Barefoot Moscato. Less than $10 at Walmart)
1 can of frozen pink lemonade concentrate plus one can of water (the original recipe says no water but I thought that made it too tart)
Raspberries, I used a couple handfuls of frozen
3 cups of lemon lime soda (I used the Walmart brand because I was mixing it)
Mix it all together and enjoy with a friend or two.  Or by yourself.  No judging here.  I would recommend just pouring the lemon lime soda in to each glass as you drink it, that way it stays nice and fizzy.  This drink go rave reviews.  Super delish!

The marshmallows could not have been easier.  And everyone was so impressed.  They look like you took all this time.  No time at all guys.  Stab the marshmallows with a knife.  Poke in a sucker stick.  Throw them in the freezer for a few minutes.  Dip them in almond bark.  Drizzle a contrasting color over the top or sprinkle with sanding sugar.  And done.  I put them in a square vase full of sugar and they looked amazing.

 And there were the cupcakes.  Lime cupcakes.  I have the best trick for making flavored cupcakes.  Or specifically fruity flavored cupcakes.  I've only done this with lemon and lime but I imagine it would work for other flavors.  You know, if you wanted to make grape cupcakes.  I don't know why you would want grape  cupcakes but.... If you do, I think this would work. 

Okay, I buy a cake mix.  A Betty Crocker one because the white/yellow mix doesn't have soy.  But you can use whatever brand you want.  Then instead of the water I use lemonade/limeade concentrate.  Just dump it into a measuring cup and add enough water to make two cups.  It will still be super strong so if you're going to drink the leftovers, add some more water.  Just make your cake as normal.  You can use some or your slightly watered down concentrate for the liquid in your icing also.  I replace both the milk and vanilla with the limeade.  It's so yummy.  Everyone asked to take leftover cupcakes home with them.

So, those are the highlights.  There was drinking.  And eating yummy food.  And presents.  Of course presents. 

What did you guys do this weekend?  Anybody else whip up something super yummy to eat?  The rest of my cupcakes are coming to work so I don't accidentally eat all of them.  I'll be back tomorrow with some super yummy brownies to share.  Apparently I'm on a food kick.  Probably because I'm trying to lose weight.

Sneak Peak of a Flash Back

It seems only fitting to have marshmallows at a wedding shower for an old camp friend.  The friend that I'm throwing a shower for this weekend is a former co-worker.  We spent two summers working at a YMCA camp.  Working summer camp is a seriously bonding experience.  Lots of late nights.  Lots of sunburns and bug bites.  Lots of unfortunate fashion choices.  And lots of s'mores.  We are both s'more experts.  And we used to always tell a campfire story together.  Purple stew.  Don't youtube it, they're all disappointing.  Just trust me, it's fairly hilarious, there's purple animals, singing, and dancing.

And after purple stew there were always s'more.  I've made probably a thousand s'mores (not for myself) over the four summers I did summer camp.  Anyway, when I saw the dipped marshmallows the other day I knew I had to make them.  I've made dipped marshmallows before, usually covered in chocolate at Christmas time but a wedding shower calls for fancier marshmallows.  So, this time they're on a stick and drizzled with contrasting chocolate or sprinkles.

These are easy peasy lemon squeezy guys.  Super easy.  Get a bag of marshmallows.  Buy two bags of sucker sticks (one is not enough for a whole bag of marshmallows and if you're going to the trouble, you might as well do all of them).  Stab each marshmallow with a knife to make a hole for the stick.  Poke a stick in each marshmallow.  Throw the marshmallows in a baggie and freeze them for ten minutes or so to make sure the stick is firmly in place.  Then dip your marshmallows in melted almond bark or candy melts.  *When you're melting your candy, make sure you stir FREQUENTLY, otherwise you will burn the heck out of it and ruin it.  Trust me.  Stir at least every thirty seconds.  If you're sprinkling something on top of the marshmallows or dipping in sprinkles or something, do it quick, before the almond bark sets up.  Again, trust me.

And a sneak peak of my pretty marshmallows.....

Excuse the less than gorgeous pictures.  I just grabbed a couple quick shots before I cleaned up.  Some of them are not as pretty as I had hoped, but not terrible.  I think I came up with the perfect way to hold up the marshmallow pops so they didn't drip all over.  Cooling racks.  Stack two of them up.  Cover the top one with foil to catch drips, then just poke the sticks through the foil.  This was great but I only have three cooling racks.  So the third one got propped up on cereal bowls.  It worked.

Yum!  I can't wait to eat these on Saturday.  They're supposed to store well in a baggie.  Anybody cooking anything new and delicious?  I'm trying some new brownies for work tomorrow too.  They looked delish and I needed an excuse.

Lemon Cheesecake Bars

I hope you guys all had a great Easter.  I don't know about you, but food is always a huge part of holidays in my family.  And I definitely love me some food.  There are just certain foods I have to have for holidays or it doesn't seem right.  This weekend I realized most of those foods relate to breakfast.

For Christmas it's cranberry bread.  My mom always makes cranberry bread and it doesn't feel like Christmas morning if I don't have it.  So if we're not going to their house, I make cranberry bread and take it with me wherever I go.  For Easter it's biscuits and bacon gravy with boiled eggs and bacon.  You put the gravy over a sliced boiled egg and it's delicious.  The boiled eggs were always part of what we hunted for Easter morning, you know, with the candy filled plastic eggs as well.  We dyed them the day before and then the Easter Bunny hid them.

I knew Easter morning wouldn't work well to have B&Gs for breakfast because we were headed out for church pretty early so I made them Saturday morning.  My husband isn't a big fan of breakfast but knows how much I love holiday breakfasts so he goes along with it.  I even dyed eggs on Friday.  Yup, by myself just because it was fun.

Only a couple left.  There's still a little  bacon gravy left too, I'm thinking breakfast this morning.  Except I'm not going to eat all five eggs.  Deviled eggs are in our future too.

Okay, so while we're on the topic of food....  When we go to my in-laws for holidays, we always do a big meal with that whole side of the family.  Everybody brings a dish or two and it's always delicious.  I always scramble to come up with something new to make.  I usually bring dessert but I like to switch it up and try new recipes.  So I was tossing around the idea of a peach pie or a key lime pie but neither one was quite striking me.  Then it hit me, lemon bars.

There was a lady at my parents church who was an amazing cook (she has since passed away).  For my aunt's funeral she made the best lemon bars.  We were already out and about so I called my mom for the recipe so I knew what to buy.  As she was telling me the recipe, I didn't really think it sounded like what I was thinking of, but I knew if it was Sammy's recipe it would be good either way.    So, it totally was not what I was thinking of, but they were so good.  I didn't even bring very many back home with me.  And I may have eaten one for breakfast.

Lemon Cheesecake Bars

Bars

1 box yellow cake mix

2 eggs (divided)

1/3 c. oil

1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened

1/3 c. sugar

2 tsp lemon juice

Directions

In mixing bowl mix cake mix, 1 egg and oil until crumbly.  Remove 1 cup of crumb mixture, pat remaining in bottom of 9x13 pan.  Bake 15 minutes at 350.  Beat together cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice, and remaining egg until light and smooth.  Spread over baked crumb mixture.  Bake 15 minutes longer.  Drizzle glaze over cooled bars.

Glaze

1 c. powdered sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

2 T water

Combine all ingredients mix well.

Okay guys, I have to be completely honest.  Now that I'm typing out the recipe, I totally didn't follow the directions.  I missed the fact that I was supposed to bake it 15 minutes twice.  I just did the crumb layer, pressed it down, and then poured the cream cheese mixture over and baked.  They turned out fine that way. It probably wouldn't hurt to actually follow the directions though.  Oops.

So, how was your Easter?  Anybody else so tied to holiday food traditions?  Did you make something super delicious for the holiday?  

Just in Case

Hellooooo Friday!  I know, I've only worked three days this week but I always love Fridays.  I'm ready to start a new week.  This one has not gone at all as planned.  I got so excited about my snow days because I was going to knock out my table project.  The lack of electricity messed that up.  So, the table is still in the middle of the living room waiting for a little flair.

I was going to get to work on the table last night but I got sidetracked by paperwork.  And I got my car stuck in the middle of the driveway.  Like smack dab in the middle of the driveway.  In the snow.  Awesome.  So, since my car was stuck I gave up and went inside to do other things.  Those other things had to involve chocolate.  Of course I didn't have any chocolate just hanging out ready to eat.  However I had pinned a mug brownie recipe.  And I had everything I needed.  I bet you do too.  It's pretty much basic kitchen stuff.

Since it was amazingly delicious I'm going to share the recipe with you.  It's truly amazing.  It improved my day by 1000% percent.  I poured a glass of milk and it totally made my day.  I wish I could say I came up with the recipe.  I didn't.  It's from Melissa over at Number 2 Pencil.  Her other recipes look pretty amazing too, you should probably check out her blog.

Brownie in a Cup

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons of butter (use real butter kiddies!)
• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• 1 firmly packed tablespoon of light brown sugar
• ¼ teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
• Pinch of kosher salt
• 1 egg yolk
• 4 tablespoons of flour
• 1 tablespoon of Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 heaping tablespoons of semi sweet chocolate chunks

Instructions

1. Melt butter in microwave safe mug or ramekin. Butter should be melted, not boiling.
2. Stir together butter, sugars, vanilla and salt.
3. Stir in egg yolk. Do not use egg white! Save for a different recipe or discard.
4. Add flour and cocoa powder and stir again until well combined.
5. Finally, add chocolate chunks.
6. Cook for about 45 seconds in microwave. Do not over cook. Microwave times may vary.

Guys, it's seriously amazing.  If you love chocolate you're totally going to thank me for sharing this with you.  I wish I'd taken a picture of it, it was that delicious.  I cannot stop telling people about it.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to make another one for a snack this afternoon.

What are you cooking lately?  Any new recipes that are delicious and I need to try out?  Are there "in a cup" recipes that you're loving?  This was my first "in a cup" cooking.  I'm never going back.  It may also cause me to get worse chocolate hips.  Sigh.

Oh Yum!

It's not very often that I share recipes.  You all can Google and search Pinterest as well as I can.  But last night when I was still going on about how delicious this was two hours after I ate it, I knew I had to share it.  I seriously think this is the best soup I have ever made.  It's possible I'm even still thinking about how delicious it is.  And it's healthy.  What?  That could be why I am so in love with it.  Healthy and incredibly delicious?  That's really not always a common combination. 

I'm trying super hard to eat healthier and this definitely fit the bill.  It comes in around 300 calories for a good sized serving and it is so filling.  Like I had a bowl of this soup and a glass of milk for dinner last night and was completely satisfied with my dinner.  Obviously, if I was still bragging about how good it was two hours later. 

So, I'm going to give you the recipe.  It's not my own.  I found it on Pinterest.  If I had realized it was going to be so delicious I would've taken more pictures while I was actually making it.  I didn't have high hopes though, so I didn't.  I've had a series of Pinterest recipe fails.  But believe me, you want to try this one.  The original recipe came from here.  I made a few tweaks just for personal taste.  I don't think any of them really changed the nutritional value.

Creamy Taco Soup

3/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
1 15-oz can 50% less sodium white beans, rinsed and drained
1 15-oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 4-oz can diced green chilies
1 15-oz can diced tomatoes  diced tomatoes with chilies
1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 cup frozen or fresh corn
1 1/2 pounds shredded precooked chicken breast
2 tbsp fresh squeezed lime
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tbsp fresh oregano, chopped
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tbsp dried cilantro
2 tsp Mrs. Dash Fiesta Lime Seasoning Blend one that sounds like it would work with tacos/Mexican food

1/ Place 1/2 cup broth and white beans in a blender and puree. Add yogurt and blend again. Pour liquid into slow cooker.

2/ Add remaining ingredients and stir well.

3/ Cover and cook on high for 2 hours or on low for 4-5 hours.

So, the first great thing about this is it's entirely done in the slow cooker.  That means you can throw it in before you go to work and have an amazingly delicious dinner ready for you when you get home.  I of course didn't do it that way though.  I threw 4 frozen chicken breasts in the crock pot and poured in enough chicken broth to cover them.  I let them cook all day on low.  When I got home from work, I pulled out the chicken and shredded it.  I dumped the chicken broth from cooking out because I'm grossed out by the little slimy bits from cooking chicken.  Anyway.  Then everything else went into the crockpot.  I used the remaining 1/2 cup of chicken broth (the other half went in the blender with the white beans and Greek yogurt) to rinse the blender out so that I got all that good creaminess into the pot.  

I didn't use the specific kind of Mrs. Dash that the recipe called for because my grocery store didn't carry it.  I just picked a Mexican food sounding one.   I did have to buy a lot of the spices because I didn't have them on hand but now I have them and I can totally use them to make homemade taco seasoning too.

I was honestly kind of doubtful about the Greek yogurt flavor and the creaminess of the soup.  I'm kind of behind, I had never used Greek yogurt to cook before.  Um, hello, it was delicious!  And I think it would be really easy to adapt this to be vegetarian if that's what you like.  Just substitute the chicken broth with veggie broth and toss some extra vegetables or tofu in.

I know, the slow cooker looks messy, that just means it's going to be delicious.  Seriously, make this for dinner this week.  You will totally thank me.

Have you tried any Pinterest recipes lately?  Were they delicious or terrible?  Maybe nobody else has such a bad track record with Pinterest recipes, maybe this soup broke my streak of bad luck.   

The Candy Man Can

Making divinity is terrifying.
Making divinity is time consuming.
I'm waiting for my candy to hit the hard ball stage......

Getting closer, it is at soft ball.
This is why I usually sit in the floor and read a book.
Real time candy making blogging is not super exciting.
Until you have to pour the boiling hot sugar mixture, that's when it becomes terrifying.
And sometimes when you pour the crazy hot sugar into your mixer, you accidentally make a sugar spider web on your mixer thingy.

Now you're mixing away....  It takes forever.  If you have a hand mixer, it is at this point that you're desperately wishing for a stand mixer.

Okay, so the recipe for divinity.  I promise, it's really not that hard.  I make it for my husband and we take it to share when we go to his family's for Christmas.  I truly love making the "family" recipes.  All those things that you remember your grandma making.  My granny always made candy.  I remember sitting at the breakfast table in her kitchen in a green vinyl covered chair, eating divinity.  I always think she would be proud of my candy making.  I'm pretty sure this is the same recipe she used, it's out of a 1960s Betty Crocker.

Divinity
2 2/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
2 egg whites, stiffly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup chopped nuts (I never put the nuts in because I think nuts are gross in food)

Mix sugar, corn syrup and water in sauce pan.  Stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved (use a whisk, you'll thank me).  Then cook without stirring to 260 degrees (hard ball).  Remove from heat and pour constantly, in a fine stream into the beaten egg whites.  Add vanilla and continue beating until mixture holds its shape and becomes slightly dull.  Fold in nuts.  Drop quickly from the tip of buttered spoon onto waxed paper in individual peaks, or spread in a buttered pan and cut into 1" squares when firm.

I hear it's really good.  I'm not much of a fun of divinity anymore.  Granny let me eat too much, I think.  The cooking and not stirring is the most terrifying.  I'm always sure I"m going to ruin it.  I haven't yet though.  And, not to brag, but I am amazing at separating eggs.  I'm always unnecessarily proud of myself.

So, after the divinity was done I made some Penuche for my mom.  Penuche is like brown sugar fudge.  Again, not really my favorite candy but I make it for my mom.  My granny used to make it for her when she was a kid.  I actually do use Granny's recipe for this.  A few years ago my mom made my sisters and me cookbooks of Granny's recipes.  There are copies of her handwritten recipes.  It's great.  The recipe isn't super clear and I always have to think kind of hard but it usually turns out pretty well.

Penuche
2 cups brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup cream
18 marshmallows (the full size ones)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine brown sugar, butter (use real butter!), and cream (I use heavy whipping cream).  Cook on medium high heat until mixture reaches Soft Ball stage.   (The recipe says until it threads, but I've come to the conclusion that "threads" is about Soft Ball stage).  Remove from heat mix in marshmallows and vanilla.  Stir hard  to combine.  Pour into a greased 8x8" pan to cool.  When cooled, cut into squares.

You really do have to stir hard to get the marshmallows melted and combined.  And here's my Penuche cooling, waiting to be sliced.

What kind of Christmas goodies do you make at your house?

Christmas Candy

Okay, I'm back and feeling a little more festive today.  Whew!  Thank goodness!  Maybe it's because I know school is almost over and it's nearly winter break.  One of the wonderful things about working in a school, winter break!  It's my second favorite, next to summer break.  Anyway.

Tonight I'm going to working in my little elf workshop.  I have a couple of sewing projects left to finish.  And then it's candy making time.  I love making Christmas candy!  I could really care less about eating it, but I love the making.

This year I'm making penuche.  It's my mom's favorite.  My granny used to make it and I still use her recipe.  It's like a brown sugar fudge.  I'm also going to make divinity assuming the weather cooperates.  You can't make divinity if it's raining or too humid out.  They're predicting snow tonight, so my fingers are crossed that the weather will work with me.  I don't know what it is, but divinity won't set up if it's too humid.  Candy magic I guess.

What am I sewing?  Sew glad you asked.  Ha ha ha.  I know, I'm so funny.  So, I'm making winter earbands for my mom and sister.  I also have a few more little kitchen towels to sew.  Sew, nothing major.  Oh man, the puns just keep coming.  I just have to get my bobbin threaded.  I know, it's ridiculous.  I always have problems when I have to do new thread.  Sew, (last one I promise!) wish me luck.

How bout you guys?  Any last minute elf workshop business going on at your house?

I'll be back tomorrow with candy recipes!  Yum!

What's for dinner...

I'm back, as promised, with recipes.  If I weren't so lame I would take pictures.  But nothing is fully assembled.  The sweet potato part of the sweet potatoes is in the fridge waiting to be baked tomorrow morning.  The homemade pudding for the pie is in the fridge waiting to go in the pie shell.  I made my first homemade pie crust successfully this morning.  Pretty impressed with myself.

Without further ado, recipes.

Sammy's Sweet Potatoes
4-5 medium sweet potatoes
2 T butter
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c sugar
1/2 c evaporated milk
2 eggs, beaten
Cook sweet potatoes, mash.  Add butter, salt, vanilla, sugar, milk, and eggs.  Mix together, pour into greased 9x13 baking dish.  Sprinkle topping on casserole.  Bake 35 min at 350.
Topping
1 c brown sugar
4 T butter
1 c chopped pecans
1/2 c flour
Combine ingredients, mix well.

Oh man, it's so good.  I can't wait to eat these tomorrow.

Chocolate Pie (from Betty Crocker, 1961)
*for a 9: pie
1 1/2 c sugar
1/2 cocoa
3 T cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups whole milk
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
1 T butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
Mix sugar, cornstarch and salt in saucepan.  Gradually stir in milk.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and boils.  Boil 1 minute.  Remove from heat.  Gradually stir at least half of hot mixture into egg yolks.  Then blend into hot mixture in saucepan.  Boil 1 minute more, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.  Blend in butter and vanilla.  Pour immediately into baked pie shell.  Finish with pie meringue.  Let cool at room temperature.  Or pie may be chilled thoroughly and topped with whipped cream.

I always put whipped cream on it.  Usually just Dream Whip.  You can use 2% or skim milk, but it's much more decadent with whole milk.  I always make it that way for the holidays.  It's so worth it.  I used to always use a silicone spatula with a wooden handle (thanks Paula Dean) to stir with.  Until I bought a silicone coated whisk.  Use a whisk.  It's the best way to make sure there are no lumps.  Since I've started using a whisk, my pudding has come out perfect every time.  You really do have to stir it the entire time you're cooking the pudding.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Anybody else make something new successfully?

Foooooood

I love holiday food.  And to be honest, as much as I love BBQ and fried zucchini, fall/winter holiday food is my favorite.  I especially love Thanksgiving food because it is the most holiday specific.  It seems like Christmas just borrows Thanksgiving's food.  For the most part anyway.  So, as Thanksgiving gets closer I've been thinking about my favorite holiday foods.

Sweet potatoes.  I love sweet potatoes.  There is one sweet potato recipe that is my absolute favorite though.  I got it from this sweet, sweet lady at the church I grew up in.  Her name is Sammy.  She brought lemon bars to the dinner after my aunt's funeral.  They were delicious.  She passed away just a few days later.  I will always love her for those lemon bars.  Funeral food is not always guaranteed to be good.  But in my hometown it is.  I remember opening the door for Sammy and seeing those lemon bars.  I can still taste them.  Okay, back to the sweet potatoes.  They are the most amazing sweet potatoes in the world.  You could put them in a pie crust and eat them for dessert.  They are creamy and sweet with a pecan crunch on top.  Amazing.  I wish we were having them for Thanksgiving.  We're not.  Maybe I'll make them to take to my mother in law's.  I really may have to.

Dressing.  I swear my mom makes the best dressing in the world.  Wait, is it stuffing or dressing?  We call it dressing because it never goes in the bird.  My mom makes hers with half white bread and half cornbread.  Man it's sooooo good.  And this year she's getting special white bread so that I can eat it.  Best Mom ever!  I hate it when people don't make real dressing for Thanksgiving.  I mean Stove Top and what not is good but you need the real stuff at Thanksgiving.  I may secretly judge people who use the instant stuff for holidays.  If you do, I'm sorry.  I promise we can still be friends.

Cranberry relish.  My sister makes it.  It's amazing.  I love cranberry in pretty much anything though.  Sauce, bread, on a sandwich.  Trust me people.  Cranberry relish or sauce on a turkey sandwich is amazing.  I can totally do without turkey for the most part.  It's fine, not my favorite, but it's fine.  But you put it on a sandwich with cranberry relish and it's amazing.

Cranberry bread is probably my favorite.  Nothing says Christmas to me more than cranberry bread.  Someday, maybe tomorrow, I will give you the recipe.  You will love me for it.  I promise.

Chocolate pie.  That is my thing.  The thing that I bring to all dinners with my husband's family.  When we first started dating and I started going to holiday stuff with him he asked me to make a chocolate pie.  I've been bringing it ever since.  Apparently it ranks right up there with Grandma's chocolate pie.  I just use a recipe out of Betty Crocker.  The real key is whole milk and butter.  So healthy, right.  But it's delicious.  

So, now that I've made you hungry and possibly jealous of holiday food I have to cook dinner for my hubby.  But I promise I will share recipes tomorrow.  What's anybody else cooking for the holidays?  What are the foods you have to have or it's just not Thanksgiving?