Cake Mix Peanut Butter Bars

So yesterday happened, which was a Sunday, and my husband was craving a dessert with peanut butter in it. Specifically, peanut butter bars. The catch? We only had 1 stick of butter. Since we don't go shopping on Sundays I was up for a bit of a challenge in finding something that would satisfy his craving!

But you guys, I did it! And, of course, it's a Six Sisters Stuff recipe. I swear between them and Pioneer Woman they are always saving the day.

I was a little skeptical at the whole cake mix idea of it. I was sure the texture would be way too off to be considered a "bar." The recipe was so dang easy though it was worth it to just go for it and see what happened.

Well, here you have it! Freakin' YUM! I love these things. My husband says that the cake flavor mixed with the peanut butter isn't quite up to his standards, but it satisfied what he was after. I, on the other hand, had zero issue with the cake flavor mixed with the peanut butter! I thought the whole thing was great and we both agreed that the texture was definitely that of a bar!

What you will need:

Bars-

• 1 box vanilla cake mix
• 1 egg
• 1/2 C water
• 1 C peanut butter

Frosting-

• 1 stick (1/2 c) butter, softened
• 1/4 C milk
• 3 T cocoa powder
• 1-2 tsp. vanilla (I used 2)
• 2-3 C powdered sugar (I ended up using 2 1/2)

Directions:

Bars-

• Preheat oven to 350*
• Spray a 13x9 baking dish with non stick spray
• Mix cake mix, egg, water and peanut butter together until mixed well
• Pour and spread mixture into the 13x9 dish
• Bake about 20-25 minutes
• When completely cooled, spread frosting on top

Frosting-

• Mix all ingredients together until a smooth frosting forms. Add powdered sugar as needed for desired consistency
• Spread over the top of the peanut butter bars

It's Official: I FinallyTried Shakeology

Finally, after YEARS! I have tried Shakeology. 

Let me first start by mentioning that the Beachbody program drove me absolutely nuts from the start. The constant selfies with their "superfood, dense nutrition shake!" along with becoming a nutrition coach from simply paying a fee was not rubbing me the right way. So I stayed away from the whole thing. Far, far away.

Now of course, since it's been years of Beachbody not going anywhere, I have seen people actually benefit from it. My husband is a Chiropractor so we are no strangers to a holistic and nutrition based approach to health. He is required to attend classes and seminars with top nutritionists from all over the world every year, so there is no lack of knowledge in that area in our home. We have both scrutinized the Beachbody programs; the meal plans, the workouts, you name it. While it tends to follow "what sells" as far as the meal plans go and not always super up to date, there is no doubt that it's good for you!

For the past year or so, I have been very happy to recommend Beachbody to people who are looking to lose weight. Why? Because time after time I have watched nearly every person touched by this program become happier and more confident. They have not only lost weight, but managed to keep it off because the program focuses so much on learning to manage lifestyle changes and WHY. 

Would I ever become a coach? Absolutely not. Their compensation and business plan is TERRIBLE in my opinion. I know so many who really love it, though, and actually know a couple who have become VERY successful with it. So, while I personally don't see it as worth joining, I would never tell someone not to do it. We are all different with our own ideas so if this is your thing, I say go for it.

Now, onto the Shakeology portion of the Beachbody program. Number one, it's expensive. Beachbody coaches will kindly remind you that it breaks down to only about $3-$4 a shake. So you can decide if that's a reasonable price for a meal replacement or not! 

For me, that's not too bad actually. However, it better be pretty good for me to commit to that pretty chunk of change. The ONLY flavors I have tried are Strawberry and Chocolate.

Image Source: Shakeology.com

I started with strawberry and got the low down from my experienced shakeo friends. I tried every single thing they recommended. I could not get through more than a few gulps before giving up each time. However, I was not about to go down that easy! 

I researched what flavor is the "best," and it's pretty unanimous that chocolate is the best tasting over all. I got excited and my friend gave me a full bag to have (I mean... that's a big gift). Both my husband and I were almost giddy to try it. I started Pinteresting ways to make it immediately.

My husband tried first and he made one that was actually decent tasting. It wasn't the best, but for the first time I felt like maybe I could get used to it. I got optimistic and saw myself actually becoming a Shakeology person! I WANTED to be a Shakeology person. There is no denying how amazing it is for you and I wanted that for myself.

It was downhill from there. We could never quite find a way that we could get used to and enjoy enough to go for it seriously. I think my biggest issue was texture. No matter what ways we tried it, I just couldn't get past it. I sort of knew that would be my biggest hurdle because here's a secret; I have never liked shakes in the first place! Now my opinion might as well be completely void. My husband, however, loves shakes. He is not as picky as I at all. He gave up days after I did and we both just had to admit to each other that it wasn't going to happen. I feel strange about this, like I'm wrong in this opinion, like we are the only ones who don't like it.

Bottom line. Beachbody itself is an A. Even with Shakeology. Why? Because SO MANY PEOPLE love Shakeology, it can't be some mass club where they all initiate the newcomers by forcing them to lie about how much they love it, right? Okay, I've seen people lie for less. But you know what I'm saying. I know so many people who just drink the mix with water and they are totally fine with it. I have some leftover chocolate Shakeology and I still plan on trying out new recipes to use with it in the form of healthy snacks. I'm still a little in denial here, can you tell? 

I think over all this is definitely something worth TRYING. And I know that you don't need to drop a ton of money to just try it. You can contact a coach and get a sample first if you're skeptical! I am so glad that I gave it an honest go, and to be honest, I'll probably try again when I'm not pregnant and see if anything is different for me!

Chocolate Chip Mug Cookie

This happened because I was scrolling through Pinterest and happened to have chocolate chips on hand. Also, I'm pregnant. As if I could have said no!

A chocolate chip mug cookie? As far as mug desserts go, this one I am sure I will go ahead and make again in the future. I wouldn't say that the cookie part itself offers much flavor, but it sure offered some great substance to eat some melted gooey chocolate chips with. So, when the craving hits, this will be a good one for me.

What you will need:

• 1 tsp. oil
• 3 T milk
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla
• 3 heaping T brown sugar (not packed)
• 4 T flour
• 2 T chocolate chips to mix in
• 1 T chocolate chips to drop on the top

Directions:

• Mix together the wet ingredients (oil, milk and vanilla)
• Add in the brown sugar and mix well
• Mix in the flour 
• Mix in the chocolate chips
• Microwave for 1 minute if you want it nice and gooey, 1 minute and 30 seconds if you'd like it somewhere in the middle and 2 minutes if you want the dough to not be gooey but still a little gooey around the melty chocolate chips.

Homemade Brownies

I have a special baker being featured on my blog today! She has had many successes in the baking world, and today she outdid herself by completing a recipe from scratch perfectly. This recipe definitely deserves a spot on the blog! So, let's get to it! Here she is.........

My little 9 year old daughter. 

She has been absolutely obsessed with baking ever since watching the Kids Baking Championship on the Food Network. She vowed to be on the show someday and has been hard at work ever since. We do little baking lessons just here at home. We tackle one recipe a month like so:

1st week: Intro to recipe. Give tips, give help and educate.

2nd week: Review. I'm there to help if needed but stay pretty hands off and quiet otherwise.

3rd week: Test. No help from me in any way shape or form and we just hope for the best! Mistakes are how we learn so we don't sweat it too much :).

4th week: Perfect. Make it again to take to some friends or neighbors. This ensures confidence in skill since it most likely won't be able to be tested before sending them off to someone else.

Well, my kids had only had their intro (walk-through) on brownies when I came down with a pretty crazy sickness that lasted 2 weeks. They decided to lock me in my room to rest while they took on the brownies by themselves without any help. Needless to say, they were amazing! So my daughter got really into the brownie thing and can't stop making them. She tried out this recipe today from the Recipe Rebel and it's a fam favorite now! 

They are exactly what most people want from a brownie. Rich and gooey (but not so gooey that it feels underdone), yet can be held without falling apart. Oh, so delicious!

What you will need:

• 1 C butter, melted
• 2 1/2 c white sugar
• 1 T vanilla
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 C all purpose flour
• 1 C cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350*
• Line a 9x13 baking dish with tin foil and spray with non-stick spray
• Combine melted butter, sugar and vanilla and mix well
• Add the eggs one and time, mixing well after each addition
• Add in the cocoa powder and mix well
• Add in the flour and salt and mix well
• Spread batter evenly into baking dish
• Bake 26-30 minutes (mine took about 32 and my oven cooks things faster than usual)

Thin Mint Brownie Ice Cream Cake

 I have some pretty big news! Yesterday our family went to Lagoon, and while we were there we wandered around Pioneer Villiage. We came upon a little shop that had a sign saying they sold Swig sugar cookies! I absolutely HAD to get one. I had only ever heard about them (a lot) up until that point. MAN were they good!!!! My husband had to listen to me marvel at how they got it to the perfect sweetness (both the cookie and the frosting) without feeling like it was just a bunch of powdered sugar, or worse, feeling the sugar while you ate it. It was just.....perfection. I turned to my 9 year old and asked if she wanted some.

"No.....I only like your sugar cookies."

Um, what? I tried to convince her that these were like mine but better! She was insistent on the fact that no, she doesn't like any other sugar cookies but mine and just won't even bother trying any others. This was news to me. 

The same thing happened for her birthday dinner. Her favorite food is taco's so I'm thinking okay we can go out for tacos or something. She said NO. "Mom's tacos." She likes mine more than anything.

SAME THING HERE, FOLKS. She wanted an ice cream cake for her birthday but wanted ME to make it. I'll be honest, I'd never made an ice cream cake before. I'd spread some ice cream over an oreo crumble before but the cake addition thing was new for me. 

She absolutely loves mint chocolate chip ice cream (and anything mint really). I spotted our girls scout thin mint cookie brownie mix in the cupboard I'd picked up since I had an Ibotta rebate for it. Why not give it a try?

I'm not sure why I decided to crumble the brownies and press them into a pan. Probably because the instructions say to use an 8x8 or 9x9 pan and I wanted an ice cream cake that was 13x9. So I was able to make a larger ice cream cake with just one box of brownies. The base layer was just a bit thinner than maybe some people would like their cake to be in it. 

I also decided to put the cool whip layer between the ice cream and ganache. In my head I was thinking that the ganache might melt the top part of the ice cream if I put it directly on top of it. But in reality, I'm sure if I'd just dumped it on when it was completely cool it would have been fine? So, do your layers however you'd like! You could even do ice cream as the bottom layer and brownie it up on top! Who cares! Have fun!

What you will need:  

• 13x9 cake pan
• 1 box Pillsbury girl scout thin mint cookie brownie mix
• 1 tub mint chocolate chip ice cream
• 1 tub cool whip
• 1 c. heavy cream
• 8 oz. baking chocolate chopped up (I used German chocolate)

Directions:

• Bake brownies according to directions
• When brownies are completely cooled, crumble them up and press them into 13x9 cake pan
• Place brownie layer in the freezer to firm up a bit
• Pull out ice cream and cool whip and let it thaw for about 20 minutes so it's spreadable
• Scoop out all the ice cream onto the brownies and spread evenly
• Spread cool whip on top of ice cream
• Freeze again until firm
• Place chopped up chocolate into a bowl
• Heat up 1 c of heavy cream until just boiling
• Pour cream over the chocolate an let it sit for about 5 minutes before stirring
• Stir gently until well mixed and you have a nice smooth and creamy ganche
• Either let it cool and spread it over the cool whip, or you can drizzle the top right before serving. Or you can let it cool completely and then whip it up into a frosting. The choice is yours!

PMS Cookies

I spent a little while trying to figure out what to call these cookies. Double Chocolate Nutella....Nutella Chocolate....Chocolately Chocolate Chocolateness. Then I kind of just figured hey, I'll be honest. They're PMS cookies.

I spent a good 20 minutes scrolling through Pinterest trying to find a cookie recipe that I wanted to make after a day of raging irritation at every tiny noise and sight. After a day of feeling so tired and bloated and foggy. I just wanted chocolate. But I wanted nutella. But I wanted them both. But I didn't want any of the recipes I was seeing.

So I stood at my Kitchen-Aid and threw stuff in there. I know the basics of a cookie recipe so I just went for it and hoped it worked out. Oh gosh they freakin' hit the spot! I'm so glad they worked out. And I think my husband is too. Because I was nice again afterwards.

What you will need:

• 1/2 c butter, softened
• 1/2 c white sugar
• 1/4 c brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 c nutella (I feel like I could have gone up to 3/4 c to make them a bit more gooey)
• 1/2 c cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 c flour
• 1/2 c chocolate chips

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375*
• Mix butter, sugars and egg until light and fluffy
• Add in the vanilla and nutella and mix in until well combined
• Add in the cocoa powder and baking soda until well combined
•  Add in the flour a little at a time until well combined
• Toss in the chocolate chips and mix until just combined
• Roll dough (it will be very thick) into balls on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet
• Bake for 9-11 minutes depending on your oven

German Chocolate Cake with German Chocolate Frosting

It's called a German Chocolate Cake, but zero German chocolate was used. So what does that make it? Really it's just a good ol' rich chocolate cake with that traditional coconut and pecan frosting. The frosting is CRAZY good. My 5 year old took a spoon to the pan and sat on a bucket in the kitchen scraping off the sides until there was absolutely no trace left.

So, legit German Cake or not, this recipe will be used and used again in our house! Hop over to A Dash of Sanity to check out the background on this amazing cake!

What you will need:

Cake

• 2 C white sugar
• 2 C all purpose flour
• 3/4 c cocoa
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 C milk
• 1/2 C vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 C boiling water

Frosting

• 1 C evaporated milk
• 1 C white sugar
• 3 egg yolk, beaten with 1 tsp water
• 1/2 C butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 C chopped pecans
• 1 C coconut
• 1 T cornstarch

Directions:

Cake

• Preheat oven to 350*
• Grease 2 9x9 round cake pans, 3 8x8 round cake pans, or 1 13x9 cake pan (I just made 2 9x9 cakes)
• Add all dry cake ingredients into a mixing bowl or Kitchen-Aid and blend well
• Add all wet ingredients except for boiling water one by one and blend well
• Add in boiling water little by little until mixed in
• Blend for about 1 minute after water has been mixed in
• Pour even amount of cake batter into each cake pan
• Bake about 30-35 minutes
• Allow to cool completely

Frosting

• In a sauce pan, mix evaporated milk and sugar together
• Add in cornstarch, mix well
• Add sugar and eggs, blend well
• Bring to a slow boil
• Start stirring constantly for 12 minutes while it thickens
• Add in vanilla and mix in
• Remove from heat and stir in pecans and coconut
• Let it cool before frosting

Raspberry Sauce

Well, this stuff was a goldmine to find at The Gunny Sack! I made it a few months ago for my daughters birthday because she wanted cake waffles? So I had to think up a few toppings to use for those. This was one of them and everyone loved it.

Fast forward to this past weekend when I tried to make a layered cake for my sons birthday. I made this sauce to layer between the cakes. The cake fell apart and I was left to just go buy a little cake for my son instead. I picked up a cheesecake for everyone else and....tuh duh! Still had some raspberry sauce I could use with it.

So, this stuff is basically a staple. Use it on ice cream! Cake! Cheesecake. Waffles. Pancakes. Whatever you want! It's so incredibly easy and just so darn delicious. My husband goes nuts over it.

What you will need:

• 12 oz. raspberries
• 1/4 C water
• 1/3 C sugar
• 1 T fresh lemon juice
• 2 T cold water
• 2 T cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• pinch of salt

Directions:

• On medium heat, cook the raspberries, water, sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan until the raspberries start to break down (about 5-7 minutes) 
• Combine the cold water and cornstarch in a small bowl and add to the raspberry sauce
• cook for about 30-60 seconds until the mixture is thickened
• Remove from heat and add vanilla and salt
• Let the sauce cool and then store in a container in the fridge

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Wow, a title doesn't get any more simple than that, does it? Chocolate chip cookies. What a wonderful name.

About 4 years ago or so I created my own "perfect" chocolate chip cookie recipe. It was fit for me. It had everything I wanted. Chewy, soft, spread out just right, not too dry, not too fluffy, gooey and buttery golden flavor (yes, "golden" is a flavor).

I hid it in my computer labeled "secret cookie recipe."

And then my computer crashed. We recovered some pictures, but no cookie recipe came along with it. I'd had it memorized for a while and slowly, I started forgetting exactly what it was. I settled for making the recipe on the back of Nestlea Tollhouse packages. They were satisfying enough. But I still longed for my cookie.

Fast forward to today, scrolling through Pinterest and I see a picture of a cookie that looked exactly like mine! I had to try. And boy, I tell you what. These are BETTER than mine! I did add 1tsp of water to the batter and it was just heavenly!

I will not use any other recipe other than this from now on. This is it, you guys! This is perfection! I stared at my nestlea chocolate chips and my guittard chocolate chips trying to decide what to use the first time around. I went with guittard. They're huge. And I wanted chocolate. So these were very, VERY chocolatey. I can't wait to make them again with the regular sized chips now.

The fact that I have no clue where this woman lives and having this recipe work brilliantly in my high altitude desert of a city says a lot to me. It's gotta be fool proof!

Here's my picture. But I promise you, the pictures of the cookies on her post is what makes it and does them justice. RUN to her page at Gimme Some Oven so you can see what you can really expect with these! Maybe I'll update my photo once I don't have these huge honkin' chocolate chips all over. Maybe.

What you will need:

• 1/2 C butter, softened
• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 1/3 C white sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 C flour
• 2 tsp corn starch
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 C chocolate chips (+ some to stick on the tops right before they go in the oven)
• Parchment paper (optional, but it does make a difference!)

Directions:

• Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
• Add in the vanilla and egg and mix until well blended
• Slowly add in the flour, corn starch and baking soda until well combined
• Toss in the chocolate chips and mix it all up
• Refrigerate the dough about 20 minutes (I didn't........so I guess you can see the difference!)
• Preheat the oven to 350*
• Lay some parchment paper over a baking sheet
• Roll the dough into balls, or scoop them using a cookie scoop (I scooped with a cookie scoop and then rolled them into a ball)
• Place each ball onto the baking sheet and stick a few extra chocolate chips on the tops of 'em
• Bake for 10 minutes
• Pull them out and let them finish cooking a bit on the sheet
• EAT. RIGHT AWAY.

No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls

First, I just want to say how great these would be if you wanted to make a treat for Thanksgiving but aren't so good at the pie thing! Or even a treat to make and hand out around Christmas time for your neighbors. So perfect!

So, has anyone else seen that FB post going around with the peanut butter balls and the M&M's inside them?! Cause the second I saw them, I knew I was making them immediately. Their FB name is "Tasty" and there wasn't a website as far as I could see! But go look them up, such a fun page!!

I didn't use the m&m's, no one in my family really loooooves m&m's so I thought I'd try them plain at first. I did stick a few baking snickers in the middle of some just to test it out, but I didn't give myself any way of knowing which was which so I haven't come across one yet.

Here's the thing. My husband does NOT like chocolate. I know. It's a tragedy I have to relive every single day. But I discovered that if I have to melt chocolate for anything, all I have to do is add some butterscotch chips to melt with it and the flavor is changed just enough that he can't get enough. (think scotcheroo chocolate, that's the flavor we're talking about here. Just a little more mild since I didn't want it to over power the peanut butter in this).

The recipe doesn't say how many chocolate chips exactly, so I just used whatever I had lying around. It turned out to not be quite enough so the balls weren't coated all pretty and even or anything. But I'll tell ya what we cannot stop EATING THESE!!!!! My husband has eaten more than I have even. This is a miracle. He doesn't really like desserts in the first place, let alone one with chocolate. So this is huge. That's how good these are! And they are SO SO easy to make!

Someone in the FB comments said these were like pb cups on crack. They're definitely better than pb cups. Pb cups have a bit of a grainy, stale peanut butter feel and taste to me. These are so much better!!

What you will need:

• 1/2 C melted butter
• 2 1/2 C powdered sugar
• 1 2/2 C peanut butter
• Some chocolate chips (I'm gonna say at least 2 C will do it. If you want to add some butterscotch chips, toss in about 1/4-1/2 C)

Directions:

• Mix all ingredients but the chocolate together until well combined
• Roll them into equal sized balls and freeze them for about 20 minutes
• You can reshape them a bit after they're frozen and make them look nicer if needed
• Melt the chocolate
• Dip the balls
• Refrigerate or Freeze again until chocolate is set (that's what I did anyway cause I used regular chocolate chips so I didn't want to spend all day waiting for it to set at room temperature!)

Kiss Pies

So I tried to make some pie pops a couple weeks ago. It turned into a complete disaster. I was frazzled the entire time. I was suppose to make my pecan pie filling mixture, but went along not realizing I was making my 6 minutes caramels mixture. Once I realized that (and noticing the time crunch I was in), I was just a mess doing two things at once and didn't use my head at all!

That being said, I had some extra pie crust that needed to be used and just happened to scroll past this recipe from the Picky Palate that looked easy and perfect to do with my kids!

You can totally leave them plain but we definitely wanted to dust with some powdered sugar and drizzle with a chocolate/butterscotch drizzle for an extra bit of deliciousness. These would be adorable on everyone's plate at the Thanksgiving table.

What you will need:

• One roll of refrigerated pie crust rolled out pretty thin
• Hershey kisses
• Circular cookie cutter or a knife to cut a circle around each hershey kiss
• egg wash mixture
• Sugar
• 1/2 C Chocolate chips (optional)
• 1/4 C Butterscotch chips (optional)
• Powdered sugar (optional)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350*
• Roll out the pie crust
• Place a Hershey kiss on the crust and cut a circle around the kiss
• Bring two ends of the dough together and pinch
• Bring the other two ends of the dough together and pinch
• Pinch each side
• Place them all on a baking sheet
• Brush them with some egg wash
• Sprinkle sugar on top
• Bake for about 23 minutes
• Let them cool while you melt chocolate & butterscotch
• Drizzle with the chocolate
• Dust with powdered sugar

Pumpkin Bars

I was in my early twenties when I tried pumpkin bars for the first time. (???!!!!) A sweet neighbor brought some by and at first I thought it was some yummy cake with vanilla frosting. My heart sank a little when I learned it was both pumpkin bars AND cream cheese frosting. I hadn't totally converted to the cream cheese thing at that point.

They sat there and I was a little unwilling to eat them, but I didn't feel happy about tossing them out. So I stuck them in the fridge.

Well, true to self, my "tensies" kicked in at night (my husband and I call our craving for food "tensies" because it always ends up happening around 10pm) so I decided to give them a try.

UMMM heck yes! Where had they been all my life? And cream cheese frosting? What in the world? The most confusing time in my life right there. (Not really...)

I've loved them ever since. But now, I always like them chilled a little. It's just my thing. Maybe a reminder to try new foods or be open to new experiences. I just got deep there for a second!

So here they are. Mmm.

What you will need:

Pumpkin Bars

• 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree
• 1 2/3 C sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 C canola oil
• 2 C flour
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. all spice
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda 
• 1 tsp. salt

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 2 C powdered sugar
• 6 oz. cream cheese
• 1/4 C butter, softened
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1-2 T milk 

Directions:

Pumpkin Bars

• Preheat the oven to 350*
• Mix together the pumpkin, sugar, eggs, vanilla and oil
• Add in the cinnamon, all spice and mix
• Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix together 
• Spread the batter into an ungreased jelly roll pan
• Bake for 25-30 minutes
• Let cool completely

Cream Cheese Frosting

• Mix all ingredients together until smooth and creamy
• Spread over pumpkin bars when the bars are completely cooled
• Chill in the fridge (optional)

Caramelized Almond French Toast

I had French toast on the dinner menu tonight, but I wasn't feeling very thrilled about it by the time dinner time rolled around. I remembered this caramel sauce I use with my cinnamon rolls and thought it might be yummy to incorporate into the french toast somehow!

I wasn't positive how it was going to turn out with the almond flavoring and the caramel but OOOOO it turned out GOOD! No syrup necessary! It has such an amazing deep flavor. Aah.

What you will need:

French Toast

• 8 slices bread
• 4 eggs
• 1 C milk
• 2 tsp Almond extract

Caramel sauce 

• 1/2 C packed brown sugar
• 5 T butter
• 1 tsp water

Directions:

French toast

• Whisk together eggs, milk and almond extract in a baking dish
• On medium high heat, butter a pan or griddle 
• Dip each side of each slice of bread into the egg mixture
• Cook each side until golden brown and cooked through

Caramel Sauce

• Stir all ingredients together and heat until creamy and smooth
• Dip one side of each bread piece into the caramel sauce
• Place that same side back onto the pan/griddle and cook for about one minute

Fresh Peach Ice Cream

Ice cream for breakfast?! Yes you can!

A little while back we stopped at the local fruit stand and grabbed a bazillion peaches. We went through those peaches SO FAST. Our family can't get enough. My husband and I crave late night bowls of cubed up peaches on the couch while we snuggle up to a movie. We choose it over brownies or other junk food when it's around. Which we find pretty weird.

We had a big bag that we froze also so we could pull some out for smoothies and such. Today we were all sick with the cold and it's been so windy and yucky outside we've all been curled up in blankets all day staying warm.

I opened the freezer to see if I could find a snack. I saw the frozen peaches and remembered the banana ice cream my kids loved a long time ago. I thought I'd give it a try with the peaches! The banana ice cream uses a little peanut butter if you want so it can get a nice creamy texture. I figured I'd just use some yogurt for the peaches.

I have to warm you, you need to be patient with this haha. It took me a good 5 minutes or so to pulse the peaches to the point of an ice cream consistency and about 2 T of yogurt. But let me tell ya, when it was done, my kids when NUTS over it! And hello, it literally is healthy for them. I have zero complaints about this!

What you will need

• Frozen peaches, whatever amount you want. I probably had 2 C of large sliced peaches
• 2 T yogurt or more (be patient with your pulsing and you won't have to add much in)

Directions

• Add your peaches to a food processor or a good blender
• drop 1 T of yogurt in and pulse for a bit
• Scrape the frozen crumbles off the sides and pulse some more
• Repeat a bunch of times
• Add another T of yogurt and pulse until it's done! Just keep scraping the sides and you'll be able to tell if the consistency is getting there!

Sugar Cookie Bars

Happy MONDAY, everyone! 

The day you're starting your diet. 

The day I'm going to ruin your diet.  

It's really okay, though, honestly.

You can start your diet tomorrow. 

Or next Monday. 

Or whenever you won't be eating these sugar cookie bars still. 

I love sugar cookies.

Doesn't everyone love sugar cookies?

I don't love the hours long process of making sugar cookies.

Am I alone in that one? I can't be. 

I can't be.

So you'll love this, too! 

Basically you're making a sugar cookie dough and smooshing the heck out of it all over a baking sheet and baking it before slathering the top with frosting. I mean it's perfect, it really is. You get the "aww cute" factor with the "mmm yummy" factor you want with sugar cookies but in about 20 minutes instead of a few hours!

Observe.

Awwww CUTE!!!

Mmmm...yummy...

What you will need:

Sugar Cookie dough

• 1 C butter, softened
• 2 C sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 4 3/4 C flour

Buttercream frosting

• 1/2 butter, softened
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 3-4 T milk
• 3-4 C powdered sugar, depending on your texture preference
• Food coloring, of course
• Sprinkles, OF COURSE

Directions:

Sugar Cookie Dough

• Preheat oven to 375*
• Cream the butter and sugar together
• Add the eggs in one by one and mix
• Add in the vanilla
• Add in the baking soda and salt
• Add in the flour a cup at a time and mix together
• Plop the dough into a greased baking sheet (18x13x1)
• Smoosh the dough out so it's a nice and even layer in the baking sheet
• Bake for 10-12 minutes
• Let it cool and frost

Buttercream frosting

• Mix all ingredients together and add food coloring of your choice! 

Funfetti Dip

Well this is just about the easiest thing you can throw together I tell ya what!

This is also not a cream cheese version of this dip, but I didn't feel like it was missing it. The texture reminds me of marshmallow creme a little, though. So I'm sure cream cheese would make it more "dip-ee." 

So fun for my girls to help put together! One thing to note is that we followed the recipe exactly, but we felt like it was just too thick with the cake mix flavor. So we added almost another 2 C of cool whip and that made it perfect!

What you will need:

• 1 box funfetti cake mix
• 2 C cool whip
• 2 C plain yogurt

Directions:

• Mix all three ingredients together and use your favorites to dip!

Sweet Mini Monkey Rolls

So I had been wanting to try this recipe for over a year and just now got around to it. I feel like I didn't coat them in as much of the cinnamon/brown sugar as I wanted AND I overbaked them :(. But they were still good and I will definitely be making them again!

I found a lot of different ways to make these, but ultimately felt that the Rhodes Blog had it best! And their step by step pictures are awesome.

Umm, I couldn't wait for them to cool at all before I glazed them so thus, the pool of glaze at the bottom. I'm not even mad.

 

What you will need:

Mini Monkey Rolls

• 12 Rhodes rolls, thawed but still cold
• 6 T butter, melted
• 2 T corn syrup
• 1/2 Brown sugar
• 2 tsp. cinnamon

Icing

• 1 C powdered sugar
• 1 T butter, melted
• 2 T milk
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

Mini Monkey Rolls

• Follow the directions on the back of the Rhodes rolls package for thawing (you don't want them to be puffy and rising yet when you start to use them. They need to be cold, but still able to press down into them.)
• Once they've reached their thawed state, melt your butter and add the karo syrup to it in a small bowl
• In another shallow dish, mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon
• Take a roll and use a pizza cutter to cut each roll into 6 pieces (I only did 4 pieces, 6 would be better)
• Drop all the pieces into the butter and then plop them into the cinnamon/sugar mixture
• Coat each ball with the cinnamon/sugar (like..a lot)
• Place the balls in a greased muffin tin or greased muffin tin cupcake liner
• Repeat with other balls of dough
• Cover with greased plastic wrap and let them rise until double in size
• Preheat over to 350*
• Bake for 15-20 minutes

Icing

• Combine ingredients and drizzle over monkey rolls

Peach Dumplings

My goodness. I've had a baby and he's now 4 months old since my last post! I guess that's how long it takes to me to fully get back into the swing of things ;). I've actually been trying a bajillion new recipes over the past couple of months and haven't shared any of them.

I feel bad about this, because good things ought to be shared.

I feel extra bad about this, because most of these good things include Pioneer Woman recipes. And you all deserve to know about them.

So although I love sharing these recipes on my own website, my main purpose for this has been to keep all my favorites in one place to pull up on the spot whenever I need (I recommend everyone doing this. Saves so much time and I can't count the number of times I've gone to remake a recipe and noticed one of my own notes on my post that I would have forgotten to do the second or third time around).

That being said, I'm sharing this recipe with you, but I highly recommend just going to her website because she has step by step pictures and is so witty and clear in her directions. (Watching her is even better. We record her episodes on Food Network and when my oldest child walks in the door from school at 3:05 she is expecting her 3:00 show to be on pause until she's ready)

Anyhow, my family doesn't love apple-ee dessert type things. But they do like peachy ones. So I just took her apple dumpling recipe and used peaches instead. I also halved this recipe and it made 8 dumplings but I'm sharing the recipe as if you'd want the full 16 :). Enjoy!

 

What you will need:

•  2 pkg's cresent rolls
• 1 can peaches
• 2 sticks butter
• 1 1/2 C sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 can Mountain Dew
• Cinnamon to taste (she uses plain cinnamon but I used my cinnamon sugar blend)

Directions:

•  Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Take each crescent dough triangle and roll a peach up
• Place each dumpling into a buttered 9x13 baking dish
• Melt butter 
• Add sugar and vanilla into the melted butter (it will be thick and sugary. This is good)
• Pour sugar mixture over all the dumplings
• Pour can of mountain dew around the edges of the baking dish (I didn't use a full can so I can't say the difference it makes!)
• Sprinkle dumplings with cinnamon or cinnamon sugar
• Bake for about 40 minutes (I let mine sit for a few minutes after I pulled them out)

Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies

Helloooo General Conference weekend! I let out a little secret on my Instagram today. I gain more weight during General Conference than I do at Christmas! It's the combination of the need for comfort food in the fall and being snuggled up inside during the weekend. It's just the atmosphere! Christmas time I am usually busy playing and making sure things are going as planned (where IS that special stocking stuffer I got for so and so?! It was here yesterday!!! Sound familiar?) General Conference? I have nothing to do but cook, eat and relax.

One tradition that I make every year is my mama's Beef Stew & Rolls (click the link to get the recipe. So delish!) But this year I tested out something else! I have my own "perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe" that I created last year (which I have yet to share with anyone), but when I saw these tiny ones on Pinterest I absolutely had to make them. I HAD to! I don't trust myself to convert a typical choc. chip recipe into a mini one so I went with someone who knew, Jaclyn at Cooking Classy, and boy does she know! These are heavenly! And so much fun for the kids! And of course....sooooo cute. Jaclyn's are cuter than mine because I didn't have any cornstarch and made them anyway :( haha. So if you're wondering what kind of difference that 1tsp of cornstarch makes, just compare my pictures with hers and you'll understand. But, if you're not worried about looks and taste alone, they taste mighty excellent even without the cornstarch so have no fear!

What you will need:

• 1/2 C butter
• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 1/4 C white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. cornstarch
• 1/8 tsp. + 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/3 C flour
• 2/3 C chocolate chips

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degree's
• Blend dry ingredients (flour, baking soda and cornstarch) into a small bowl and set aside
• Cream together butter and sugars
• Add in egg and mix well
• Ad in vanilla and blend
• Slowly add in dry ingredients until well combined
• Add in chocolate chips and blend
• Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper (I just lightly greased the cookie sheet)
• Roll dough into heaping teaspoon sized balls
• Lay balls out 1" apart on cookie sheet
• Bake for 5-6 minutes until edges are slightly golden (they will look underdone)
• Let them finish baking/cooling on the sheet for a few more minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack

PREP YOUR SNACKS THE FAST, CHEAP AND EASY WAY!

With a baby on the way and two kids FULL of energy and constantly hitting a new growth spurt, I decided it was time to get a bit more organized with their snacking situation. I'd like to say it's because I'm really into healthy eating and such, but really I am just too big and too uncomfortable to go help them get a snack EVERY. TEN. MINUTES.

 I think I spend a good chunk of my days distracting them from snacking. Either they get bored so they think about snacks, or they are completely off the wall and burn so much energy they are literally starving. I found myself just being too tired to care and being like, "um, sure, if you can find a snack yourself you can have it." This resulted in them frequently finding little candies or a giant spoonful of Nutella :).

I thought about getting snacks prepped, but in my mind that meant I'd just be spending more money and more time on them. So I was really obsessed about making sure that this was something I could actually keep up with and not have it break my food budget each week. After putting all this together and seeing how long it would actually take each week, I was shocked. It did not take long at ALL. The grapes might have taken the longest, but I don't actually know that because my kids prepped them for me and it took them about 5 minutes tops, and the ENTIRE food prep process took approximately 15 minutes (not including the yogurt buttons, but those seriously go by super fast, too) So, as for doing it and making sure it wasn't costing me a fortune, let me break it all down for you on why I chose each thing I did :).

First of all, I found a cool app called "Fooducate." You can scan items at the grocery store and it will give you an overall health "grade" of said item. You can click "why" it was given that grade and also click "alternatives" with a list of options that have a better grade. You can search items and add items and AH, it's just amazing.

We also just got a Mandolin Slicer to make the chopping/slicing go faster. However, I didn't use it for any of this prep and like I already said, it went by so fast. I'll test it out with the mandolin and see how much faster it makes everything. But I'm all about finding ways that everyone can do things with what they already have :). Anyway, moving on.

FRIDGE SNACKS

I really tried to think about what my family truly likes, plus a few things they think are only "okay" to see if my tactic would help them reach for the healthies a bit more. I also got the actual SNACK size bags so I wouldn't feel like I needed to fill up a full sandwich bag for just a snack. I was also worried about the cost of using so many bags, but with the exception of the ham&cheese and strawberries, I don't mind just rinsing them out and reusing them.  I chose:

*Cucumbers
Not pictured, because they didn't have any at the store when I went. I'm checking back later so I can slice them up for my oldest, she's the cucumber queen!

*Apples
Also not pictured. I looked at many different ways to slice them without them turning brown, but most of them required to soak them in soda (and NOT rinse them before bagging them) or covering them in lemon juice. My kids like to eat an apple whole anyway, so they're just in the fruit drawer for them to pull out if they want instead of in a baggie and it's fine.

*Strawberries

Really I don't ever plan on actually saving money on strawberries. It will always feel like I'm spending a ton on those haha.

*Grapes

Grape bags always come with SO MANY GRAPES. It's hard to buy a bag/package and feel like you didn't waste your money because it's nearly impossible to eat them all before they get gross. Plucking them, washing them and bagging them makes them feel more manageable and less wasted!

*Mandarin Orange cups (not the healthiest way to go about this one but I already had them so why not)

*Carrots

I use to buy the little bags of mini carrots or pre chopped. I'm not sure why I ever did that. I got the bag of a bunch of whole carrots for a buck and peeled/cut them myself. It seriously took me about 3 minutes, if that. 

*Snap peas

This is one of those "only okay" veggies to my family. They'll rarely get eaten if the full bag is just sitting in the fridge. But stick 'em in a little snack portion baggie (or in my case, I made a few "blended" baggies with the carrots) and it's so much easier to get yourself to eat them

*Cheese sticks and ham

OKAY. So this is probably my favorite. At first I thought, duh I'll get string cheese and some lunch meat. And then I thought about how much money that actually is and I was like nope, never mind. Especially since the lunch meat in the packaged meats section is usually ....... not even meat :(. Haha! I decided to just use the cheese I already buy and cut them into sticks myself. I used FOUR SLICES of cheese is all (once slice per bag). And as for the meat, I like to get black forest ham from the deli for ham & swiss slider sandwiches and sandwiches throughout the week anyway. So I honestly just got a little extra for the snacking and it cost me about $1.50 more. That was worth it to me not be giving them crap meat and also have enough on hand for extra things.

*Celery/Peanut butter

I actually didn't do this. My kids hate celery. *I* hate celery, and my husband likes celery as a way to lick peanut butter. I spent about 2 bucks on a package of 50 mini plastic cups with lids so I could have the option of adding dips to things, but didn't use it for this! 

*Boiled eggs

I do plan on doing this, I just didn't think about it until after I was all done bagging everything and I felt like what I had was enough for the week. 

*Cherry tomatoes

This would be a great idea....if my husband and littlest (the only ones in the family that like tomatoes) liked cherry tomatoes. Picky, picky, ;) I figure when my 3 year old requests a tomato for a snack I can handle cutting one up for her, since it probably won't be super often.

One thing I was worried about is that all the fruits/ham/cheese would disappear before the veggies. So my rules is that the veggies have to be gone before we can refill any of the other snacks the next week.

CUPBOARD SNACKS

I purposely made this snack section smaller so they'd reach for the healthier items in the fridge more often (it works).  Clearly you could choose healthier options here.

*Fruit snacks

 The fruit snacks could be replaced with fruit leathers instead. But I honestly kind of hate those and I'm not going to pretend like it's worthy my money. They are the most sticky pieces of crap ever, despite how healthy they are. Sorry. Plus, with these being the most sugary treat out the box, I can use them as leverage; "you can have a snack from the fridge but if you want a fruit snack you'll need to put your clothes away first. " HA

*Granola bars

There are definitely healthier granola bars in this world, but almost all of them are secretly not even that healthy, and the ones that actually, truly ARE....you might as well eat some cardboard or dry oatmeal. So I opted for a kind that's tasty and on sale :). I got 10 of these for 2 bucks, vs. $5 for 4 of the "healthy" ones. Plus, these are macaroon style so......it would be hard to tell me to get any other kind :)

*Pretzels

Because kids like pretzels and they're about a million dollars cheaper than goldfish (I hate you, goldfish). 

*Graham Crackers/Nutella

So this is where those little cups came in. I got to control the portion of Nutella and you can come up with so many things to dip in it. (I considered putting a veggie dip in with the carrots in the fridge, but unless it was going to be ranch, making the whole thing unhealthy, it wasn't going to happen. Committing to making a hummus dip or something every week ....I just know myself, and that's not going to happen).

FREEZER SNACKS

Not a ton here, but this is what I've started with!

*Yogurt buttons

I know you've seen these on Pinterest everywhere. But I just knew that they'd probably melt so freakin' fast and make them not worth my time. But when my kids started living for GOGURTS every evening for dessert, I was desperate for a cheaper alternative. I made these up (so so SO fast to make) and stored them in the freezer. When my kids are ready for "dessert" (no joke, they call it dessert) I just dump a little handful into those mini cups with a spoon and they feel like the luckiest kids in the world. Plus they got to choose their own flavors. Basically, I can make about 50 "buttons" with one cheap yogurt vs. dropping money on gogurts that are unnecessarily expensive. My only advice is to try and get yogurt that doesn't have chunks of fruit in them. It makes it difficult to squeeze out of the bag when you're making the dots :).

*Banana Peanut Butter Ice Cream

I made this a long time ago and it was really good. I decided to make it again and couldn't believe I don't make it regularly! It is literally bananas and peanut butter. That's it.  (2 frozen bananas sliced and 2 T peanut butter.) When you first make it, it's a really really thick shake texture (which is great, and can pass for an ice cream), but I put mine in the freezer so it can turn into REAL creamy, delicious ice cream.Clearly  my husband loves it since he stole some before I could get to it for a picture!