Chocolate Mint Cookies

Chocolate Mint Cookies
1 box of chocolate cake mix
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup water
1/3 canola oil
1 cup Andes mint baking chips

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, flour, water and oil. Mix until combined.
3. On a greased baking sheet, place balls of dough. Bake for 8-9 minutes.
4. In a microwaveable bowl place the mint baking chips. Put in the microwave on high for 30 seconds, stir, put in for 15 more seconds and stir. Take a small spoonful and pour over each individual cookie. Let them cool to have the chocolate harden.

Enjoy!

White Chocolate Popcorn

I typically like to eat good, healthy food. But there is a time and a place to eat really yummy, tasty, and sweet goodies. Football games are definitely one of those times. This is a quick and easy recipe. But is the perfect mix of sweet and salty. 

White Chocolate Popcorn

3 bags - Butter Popcorn (popped)

1 12 oz. bag - white chocolate chips

1 medium bag - peanut butter M&M's

1. Pop your popcorn and take out all of the kernels, at least find as many as you can. Place in large bowl.

2. Melt your white chocolate. Put the whole bag in a microwave safe bowl. Heat for 1 minute on high. Take out and stir. Heat for 15 seconds. Stir. Heat for 15 more seconds if you need to. 

3. Slowly stir in your white chocolate until well combined. 

4. Stir in the M&M's. 

5. Place on a baking sheet to help the chocolate cool and harden. 

Enjoy!

Choco-Banana PB Shake

This shake has become an almost nightly tradition for my hubby and me. It's only about 200 calories per serving, which is much better than my favorite 700 calorie grasshopper shake from JCW's! 

Choco-Banana PB Shake

1 cup almond milk

1 heaping Tbsp peanut butter

1/4 cup vanilla yogurt

2 Tbsp. cocoa powder

1 cup ice

1 banana

Throw it all in the blender, and blend until smooth. Makes 2 servings. 

Enjoy!

S'more Treats

 S'more Bars
1 package (10.75 oz.) miniature marshmallows - 6 cups, divided
1 box (13 oz.) Golden Grahams cereal - 8 cups
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/3 cup butter
1 tsp. vanilla

1. Grease a 9x13 inch pan.
2. In a sauce pan melt the butter on medium-high heat.
3. Add about 4 cups of  marshmallows and the vanilla to the butter. Stirring constantly.
4. Once the marshmallows are almost all melted, mix in the milk chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate chips.
5. Pour the cereal into a large bowl. When the chocolate chips have all melted and your mixture is nice and smooth, pour over the Golden Grahams. Add in the rest of the marshmallows (about 2 cups).
6. Let it cool for a few hours before serving. Best if left at room temperature over night. Cut and ENJOY!!

Healthy Chocolate Chip Muffins

Yep, healthy and chocolate. Two very wonderful things make an even better combination. These are so delicious you can hardly tell how good they are for you! :)  I got the idea here. No flour, no fat, and low calorie!!

Healthy Chocolate Chip Muffins

1-3/4 cups oatmeal

1 Tbsp. flaxseed

3 egg whites

1/2 cup unsweetened baking cocoa

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt

1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

1-1/2 tsp. baking powder

1-1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup hot water

1/2 cup Agave (or 3/4 cup sugar)

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 muffin tins (12 muffins in each).

2. Put all of the ingredients in a blender (or food processor) - except for the chocolate chips, and blend until smooth. 

3. Fill muffin tins, each muffin about 3/4 full.

4. Bake muffins for 10 minutes.

5. After 10 minutes take the muffins out and place chocolate chips over top.

6. Put back in the oven for 2-5 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Enjoy!!

Con'GRAD'ulations!

My brother-in-law just graduated from Brigham Young University, and so it was time to Par-tay! We had a yummy BBQ dinner, and I made this chocolate cake recipe (with applesauce instead of oil), and made it into cupcakes (baked for 12 minutes) for dessert! Added some Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, a Hersey Bar, Dried Apricot, and M&M's to make little graduation hats! I stuck all the pieces together with a dab of peanut butter. Then made some little graduation cap confetti, a sign and some balloons. Nothing too special, but special enough. It's always fun to have a reason to celebrate and have a party. 

Chocolate Mint Cookies

My father-in-law told me that these were "one of the best cookies I've ever eaten!". They really are quite a treat.

Chocolate Mint Cookies
1 Devil's Food Chocolate Cake Mix
1/4 cup flour
1 egg
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup Ande's Mint Baking Chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour your cake mix into you mixing bowl. Slowly mix in the flour, egg, water, and vegetable oil. Mix until combined. Add the Ande's baking chips.

On a lightly greased baking sheet, place small balls of dough an inch or so apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes. I like baking 15 cookies at a time, then keeping some dough in the fridge or freezer, so that I can have fresh warm cookies at a later date.

Enjoy!

St. Patrick's Day Green Dinner

Last year I made a green dinner and we loved it. I love a good excuse to do something silly, like put green food coloring in everything. *(See noted recipes below) 

Our meal consisted of:

A green baguette with Parmesan cheese

 Green pasta, 

with a *Mushroom Parmesan Sauce, and shredded chicken,

naturally green broccoli,  

green grape and kiwi fruit salad (recipe here)

 lime-ade,

 and *Mint Oreo Ice Cream Cake.

Mushroom Parmesan Sauce
1 can of reduced-fat cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup fat-free plain Chobani yogurt
1/2 cup skim-milk
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Empty can of cream of mushroom soup into a medium-size sauce pan. At a medium-heat slowly whisk in the Chobani yogurt and skim milk. When it comes to a soft boil add in the Parmesan cheese, stir until the cheese is completely melted. Add salt and pepper to your taste. Either pour on top of your pasta, or fold your pasta in and completely cover.

Mint Oreo Ice Cream Cake
1 package of Oreo's (about 36 Oreo's)
3 Tbsp butter, melted
2 Tbsp. sugar
2/3 cup hot fudge, melted
3 cups mint chocolate chip ice cream, softened

Take your ice cream out of the freezer and let it soften while you're doing the other first few steps.
Crust:
Take 2 of the 3 sleeves of Oreo's and crush them up (I actually did it in the blender so that the crumbs were very fine, but I've also smashed them by hand for a more chunky crust). Melt the butter. Add the butter and sugar to the crushed Oreo mix. Stir until well combined. In a greased pie dish, pat in the Oreo crust.

Filling:
For an extra chocolatey cake, you can do a layer of fudge after the Oreo's, a layer or ice cream, fudge, and ice cream. Otherwise you can just spread out half of the softened ice cream over the Oreo crust, a layer of fudge, and the rest of the ice cream.

Crumble the rest of the Oreo's and sprinkle over top. Put in the freezer for at least 1-2 hours before serving so that it will solidify.

Enjoy!

Mini Chocolate Cupcakes with Blackberry Buttercream

I found this recipe on The Crafty Penguin, and the color of the frosting was what inspired me to make these delicious cupcakes. There's no added food coloring, just the blackberries! There are a few added steps in the cupcakes, but it's worth it, they're so fluffy and moist.

Mini Chocolate Cupcakes

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips, chopped up

1/2 cup boiling water

2-1/2 cup cake flour (I used all-purpose flour)

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup butter (salted)

2 cups granulated sugar

4 eggs (separated)

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup buttermilk

Prep: Line mini muffin pan with mini cupcake wrappers. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

1. Sift the flour and backing soda in a separate bowl and set aside. 

2. Separate the egg yolks and egg whites and set aside. 

3. Pour the boiling water into a bowl with the chopped up chocolate chips. Continue to stir until all of the chocolate is melted. Put the bowl in the fridge to cool the chocolate until you are ready to add it to the batter. 

4. Cream the butter and sugar in your stand mixer for about 5 minutes. 

5. Add the egg yolks and vanilla, just until combined. 

6. Slowly mix in the chocolate. 

7. With a spatula fold in a 1/3 of the flour mixture. Fold just until combined. Fold in 1/2 of the buttermilk. Fold in another 1/3 of the flour. Fold in the other half of the buttermilk. And then the rest of the flour mixture. 

8. In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites with a whisk until medium peaks form. (This may take about 10 minutes). Then fold the egg whites into the batter. Do not over-mix. 

9. Scoop the batter into the mini cupcake tins with a small ice cream scoop. Fill up about 2/3 high. 

10. Bake for 12 minutes. Check with a toothpick, it should come out clean. 

Blackberry Buttercream

1/3 cup butter

2 cups blackberries (1 cup for the buttercream, and 1 cup for decoration)

4 cups powdered sugar

Cream the butter and mix in 2 cups of powdered sugar. Add the blackberries. Slowly add the rest of the powdered sugar until it has your desired thickness. Frost your cupcakes, and add a blackberry on top! Delicious and beautiful!

Applesauce Chocolate Chip Cookies

Another yummy family recipe! The applesauce accounts for a lot of the fat, so they won't leave you with that guilty regret. They're light, fluffy, and so yummy!

Applesauce Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup shortening

2 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. ground cloves

1 cup applesauce

2 eggs

2 cups chocolate chips

Cream the shortening and sugar. Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl: flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Beat in the applesauce and eggs with the shortening and sugar. Mix in the dry ingredients until well combined. Add the chocolate chips. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. This is a very cake-like cookie, you don't want them to be under-cooked and gooey. Take them out of the oven when the edges are a nice golden-brown. Enjoy!

Oreo Bon-Bons

Oreo Bon-Bons

1 bag of Oreos

1 block of cream cheese (8 oz.)

1 lb. vanilla-flavored candy coating (see note)

Crush Oreos in a gallon-size Ziploc bag with a rolling pin (or in a bowl with a potato masher). Mix the crushed Oreos and cream cheese in a large bowl until very well blended. (This takes 5-6 minutes.) Cover the mixture and let sit in the refrigerator for one hour.

Roll into small ball shapes. (To aid in the dipping process, return rolled balls to refrigerator and let sit several minutes until firm. Remove half of the batch at a time when dipping.) Dip the balls into melted candy coating and set on wax paper to harden. This should be done fairly quickly to prevent candy coating from hardening before all rolled balls have been dipped. Keep in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Cook’s note: Vanilla-flavored candy coating, such as Candiquik, or Almond bark, is usually available in the same grocery aisle as the chocolate morsels. It is usually sold in 1-lb. packages. It is sometimes called white chocolate candy coating. Follow package directions to melt.

Homemade Twix Bars

It never crossed my mind to make my own candy bar. But I saw this recipe here, it looked delicious, and I had to try them. 

Homemade Twix Bars

Cookie:

1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter

Caramel:

1/2 cup butter
2 tbsp Corn Syrup
1/2 cup condensed milk 
1/2 cup brown sugar

Chocolate:

1-1/2 cups Cadbury milk chocolate (I used Ghirardelli milk chocolate)

1. Mix the cookie ingredients until it is all combined and crumbly, do not over-mix. Pat down in a greased 9x9 glass pan. Bake for 325 degrees for 20 minutes. You don't want the cookie to be under-cooked, it's supposed to be a little crunchy. 

2. While the cooking is baking - combine the caramel ingredients in a saucepan, turn to medium-high heat, and constantly stir until it boils. Once the caramel comes to a boil, reduce the heat to low, and continue to constantly stir for 5 minutes.

3. Pour the caramel over the hot cookie. Place in the fridge and let it cool for at least an hour.

4. Melt the chocolate and pour over filling. Let it cool again for up to an hour before cutting. 

Addictive Chocolate Cake

After baking this cake you will NEVER want to make a cake from a cake mix ever again! It is so moist, so delicious, and with the surprising kick of cinnamon it will definitely leave you wanting more!

Addictive Chocolate Cake
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup butter (1 cube)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (or applesauce for a healthier version)
1 cup water
4 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 cup buttermilk (substitute by 1/2 cup milk & 1/2 Tbsp. vinegar)
1 tsp. baking soda
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix the flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon - set aside. Melt the butter, oil, water, cocoa. Combine the dry mixed ingredients and the melted ingredients. Beat in the buttermilk and baking soda. Then beat in the eggs, and add the vanilla. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 18 minutes (test it by inserting a toothpick in the middle of the cake and it should come out clean).

Chocolate Frosting
3 Tbsp. cocoa
1/4 cup softened butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
small amount of milk

Mix the cocoa, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat until well combined and then add a splash of milk. If it's still too thick then add another small splash of milk. If your frosting is too runny then try to add a bit more powdered sugar.