Monster Cookie Dough Dip

Today I made an awesome dip that I pinned a long time ago. I found it on The Girl Who Ate Everything's blog. I've made a few recipes of hers and they have always turned out great. Does anyone else have the problem of things not turning out as delicious as the blogger's pictures look? I made some chocolate & peanut butter brownie bars last week, and I followed the blogger's recipe exactly! Only problem... they turned out very, very strange. But anyway, TGWAE's recipes have always been spot on for me. Makes a girl like me happy.

 

This dip is no different. I followed her recipe exactly and ended up with a delicious, creamy cookie dough tasting dip. Bonus, there are no raw eggs so your chances of getting salmonella are low. Woohoo, am I right? 

You can serve this dip with graham crackers (we tried chocolate, YUM), Nilla Wafers, or for a sweet and salty treat try Ritz Crackers. Just eating it with a spoon works too. Or at least, that's what I've been told anyway. 

Click here for the recipe.

Enjoy!!

Homemade Playdough

We go through lots of playdough in our house. With all the tools and different colored dough, the kids stay entertained for quite awhile, which is a mega bonus for moms and dads everywhere.

This homemade dough is awesome in many ways. It smells AMAZING! The process of making it is fun and educational. It's a perfect molding dough and it stays fresh for quite awhile. We made our dough 2 weeks ago and the scent and texture hasn't changed at all. 

Here's what you'll need:

Makes 1 ball:
3/4 cup flour
1/8 cup salt
1 packet of fruit drink mix (I used Hawaiian Punch)
1 cup boiling water
1 tbsp oil

In bowl mix together flour, salt and fruit drink mix. Boil water and add to flour mix. Knead it all together for a minute then add the oil and knead until the color is evenly disbursed.

After adding the oil I put the dough on wax paper and let them cool for about 5 minutes before letting the kids continue to knead.The more you knead the less sticky they become.

Store in an air tight container or Ziploc bag. 

Croissant Surprises

Here is a very kid-friendly treat. These croissant rolled candy bars are fun, easy and quick to make. The kids loved rolling their own candy bars, clean-up is easy and the treats are really good.

Croissant rolled Milky Way Simply Caramel

Croissant Surprises

Tube of Pillsbury croissants
Assorted Mini Candy Bars

Preheat oven as suggested on instructions. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper or baking mat.

Peel/unroll croissant and place one candy bar on the wider side of the croissant and begin rolling it.

Tuck up or squeeze together any openings.

Bake croissants per the instructions on the tube or until they begin to brown.

We used colored toothpicks to keep track of what candy bar was inside

Warm, gooey goodness!

Firecracker Cake

Looking for a fun dessert to make for your 4th of July festivities? A few years ago I made this Firecracker Cake for my friends' party at the lake and it was a huge hit!  What makes it so fun? The cake and frosting are multi-colored, but it is also topped with sprinkles and Pop Rocks!  Have the kids in your life been introduced to Pop Rocks? Mine thought they were amazing.

I actually made the cake from scratch but it didn't hold the colors well so I would recommend just using a box mix. 

*** Firecracker Cake ***

From Cooking with Sugar

1 box white cake mix

1 cup Greek yogurt

1 container whipped white frosting

Red and blue food coloring

Red, white and blue sprinkles

Pop Rocks candy (I found them at the dollar store)

Preheat oven and prepare cake mix according to cake mix directions. Add Greek yogurt and mix well. Grease a 12 cup bundt pan. Add red food coloring to 1 cup batter in small bowl. Add blue food coloring to 1 cup batter in a separate bowl. Pour red batter on the bottom of the pan, then pour white batter, and lastly pour blue batter in a circle around the middle of the pan. Do not mix! Bake according to directions, cool slightly and remove cake onto plate.  Let it cool completely before frosting.

Divide the frosting into 3 separate bowls. Warm one bowl of white frosting for 5-10 seconds in the microwave and drizzle over the cake. Warm second bowl, add red coloring, drizzle over cake and do the same with the blue coloring.  Top with sprinkles and Pop Rocks! If you are not serving the cake immediately, wait to add the Pop Rocks so your guests can get the full effect of the “firecrackers.” :) 

Have a sunny and safe holiday!

 

 

Peanut Butter S'More Pizza

Continuing the peanut butter love, I'm sharing a recipe that I have made since I was little. I have no idea where I found this recipe when I was a young squire but it is definitely a keeper if you love peanut butter and chocolate...which we do. Peanut Butter S'more Pizza is made with a peanut butter cookie crust with marshmallow and chocolate chip toppings. It is so simple...nothing gourmet going on here...but it is oh so good. You'll see my 6 yr old helper in the pics and it warms my heart to think that perhaps she will someday share this easy recipe with her children.

Peanut Butter S'More Pizza

1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. peanut butter (either creamy or chunky)
1/2 t. vanilla
1 egg
1 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 c. mini marshmallows
1 c. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine sugar, brown sugar, butter, peanut butter, vanilla, and egg in bowl and blend well. Add flour and mix. Spread on pizza pan - we used my Pampered Chef stone.

 

The thicker you leave the dough, the thicker the "crust" will be. Try to spread the dough evenly so it cooks evenly. Form a rim on the edge and bake for approximately 9-10 minutes. Do not brown. Take the crust out of the oven and carefully sprinkle the marshmallows and chocolate chips on the crust.

Bake 5-8 minutes more until the marshmallows are puffed and lightly browned. Cool, cut just like a pizza, and enjoy!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

Our family, with the exception of Boy2, loves the combination of peanut butter and chocolate. We're tempted to test the DNA of Boy2 due to the fact that he despises peanut butter. Pretty sure we could have a real life "switched at birth" story. At school one day, the class made no-cook peanut butter cookies. I received a note, which included a smiley face, from the teacher. Boy2 told the class: "My mom made these and I don't like them". Great... the kid is giving the impression that I'm horrible in the kitchen.

Darling has a mad obsession with it. She'll eat peanut butter straight from the jar. But who am I kidding... most of us do that. Right?

Today I'm bringing you peanut butter & chocolate chip muffins with a chocolate drizzle. These muffins will quiet the peanut butter beast within anyone. Well, for a few minutes anyway. Just until you realize you must eat another one before someone else nabs it.

Muffins:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups white sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup chocolate chips

For drizzle:

1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 tbsp shortening

Combine flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In another bowl, combine egg, butter, milk and vanilla. Mix well. Add peanut butter and mix well again. Gradually mix in flour mixture. Add chocolate chips and stir.

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare a muffin pan with olive oil or cooking spray. Pour muffin mix into pan (about 3/4 full). (You could also use a loaf pan and make a bread loaf. I'm guessing: preheat 350 and bake for 1 hour.)

Bake muffins for 20-25 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely.

While the muffins cool, melt together chocolate chips and shortening. About 50-60 seconds in the microwave. Stir until smooth.

Drizzle chocolate on top of cooled muffins. Adding drizzle is like bedazzling your muffin! Transforms it from "looks good" to "looks irresistible".

Enjoy!

Snow Cream Sundae

We live in the Midwest and formally got DUMPED on this week with several inches of snow in a very short period of time.  What does that mean for kids?  SNOW DAY!  I live in the metro so snow days are actually not very common since the plows are pretty effective at getting the roads cleared quickly so we all can be on our merry ways.  Tuesday of this week was an exception though and all of a sudden my cherubs were hanging out with me for the day.  Fortunately I can work from home but we all know how that works with young children around.  Not very productively.  The constant streams of demands and "Mom, she's looking at me!" makes for a challenging workday.  So in order for me to get at least a tiny bit of work done, we made a schedule for the day.  First up was a movie, then clean rooms, then dolls.  At 11:00 a.m.?  Snow ice cream!  We had so much snow, it seemed like the perfect activity.  I had never tried it but we all were excited to see if it would work.  I have to say I was pleasantly surprised!

Snow Cream Sundae

First, send your munchkins outside to get a bowl of CLEAN snow (preferably fresh, fluffy stuff).  While the kids are busy collecting snow, add 1 cup of milk/cream (I used half of each), 1/4 cup sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to a large bowl.   As your snowbunnies return inside proudly displaying their contribution, scoop out 5 cups of snow to add to the milk mixture.  Mix up and scoop up right away because this stuff melts pretty quickly!  Add your favorite sundae toppings and have fun eating your Snow Cream Sundae!  Your kids will think you are a genius...and frankly, you are, right?!?

Sweetheart Sugar Cookies

Just in time for Valentine's Day. These sugar cookies are simple and delicious making them simply delicious. Haha! Yeah, I'm a dork like that.

Sugar cookies are my favorite cookie. The only catch is they must be soft and chewy. I am not a fan of hard, crunchy cookies. I've been making these sugar cookies for quite a few years. I usually make a bunch and freeze them. They are a nice treat to pull out when you have unexpected company or when you need to quiet a sweet tooth monster within yourself.

In preparation of the upcoming Day of Love, I made pink heart-shaped cookies. That's another fun thing about these cookies... you can add food coloring and cut them into any shape you'd like. Fun, fun, fun.

Sweetheart Sugar Cookies

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

red food coloring
heart-shaped cookie cutter
white sugar crystals

Preheat oven to 375 and line cookie sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.

Combine flour, soda and powder. In a separate bowl, cream together sugar, vanilla and softened butter. Add egg to sugar mixture and mix well. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture in small amounts (add a little, mix, add a little, mix, etc.). Once everything is mixed together add a few drops of food coloring.

Roll out the dough and put that cookie cutter to work.  Sprinkle sugar crystals on each cookie.

Bake for 10ish minutes. Do not over-bake these cookies. I pull them out of the oven while they are slightly under-baked. Use a cookie spatula to wiggle them from their spots, but leave them on the cookie sheet for a minute or two before moving them to a cooling rack.

Lastly, eat and enjoy!

Friday's Quickie... Spaghetti-O's and Hamburger

When I was little my dad would sometimes have to prepare dinner for my brother and me. He could only feed us so many bowls of cereal, cold hot dogs and whip cream (not at the same time). He needed some variety. One night he got out a skillet. I didn’t know if I should be scared or excited. Next he took out hamburger and Spaghetti-O’s. Hmm... okay dad, this might work. 

Spaghetti-O’s with hamburger has since been a comfort food. I don’t make it often, but when I do the kids go wild. It’s so simple... I’m almost embarrassed to share it with you. The memory behind it is so good though. 

Here we go!

What you need:

•  1lbs ground beef or turkey
• 2 large cans of Spaghetti-o’s
• Seasoning salt/pepper

Step 1. Brown beef/turkey, dash with seasoning salt/pepper, drain.

Step 2. Add in Spaghetti-o’s.

Step 3. Cook over medium-to-low heat until desired temperature is reached, stirring occasionally.

That’s it! 

*FWIW: Dad's cooking skills have since improved

Cookie exchange

Last weekend, Cara hosted a “baking day”. She has hosted this day for many years. There are usually at least 4 people. This means… lots of goodies!!

We all bring 2 or 3 pre-made treats and make 1 more at the actual exchange. I have never left a “baking day” and felt disappointed. I guess that’s not true. I’m disappointed that I have to share the goodies with my family. My family turns into leeches as soon as I walk through the door. Their eyes grow twice the size and they begin to drool like they have a hole in their lip. All for good reason.

Here are just some of the cookies and goodies…

Almond Sugar Cookies:

I found this recipe on this blog. I wanted something different and more… sophisticated, if you will. I absolutely love a good sugar cookie. It’s probably my favorite. They must be soft though. These cookies meet my requirements. They are soft and delicious with a flare of almond flavoring. 

1 1/2 C white sugar
2/3 C unsalted butter (cold)
2/3 C shortening (room temp)
2 eggs
2 tsp almond extract
2 3/4 C cake flour
1 C all purpose flour
1 Tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
sugar in the raw (*My thought… I used regular sugar. A course sugar would have made it better. Hindsight… wish I would have used colored sugar*)

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare baking sheet with parchment or silicone baking mat.
• Cream sugar, butter and shortening. Stir in eggs and almond extract.
• Combine flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Add to butter/egg mixture.
• Use electric mixture to ensure dough is thoroughly combined.
• Chill dough in fridge for 30 minutes.
• Roll about 2 tsp of dough into a ball and roll in raw sugar. Place on prepared pan.
• Bake cookies for 7-10 minutes. Remove from oven and gently press the tops of the cookies flat with the back of a spoon while they are still warm and pliable (not totally necessary).
• Return bowl of dough to fridge in between baking batches.
• Move cookies from cookie sheet to cooling rack.  Allow to cool completely.
• A tip: DO NOT bake cookies longer than 7-8 minutes (*Mel’s thought: I baked mine for about 10 minutes because my oven must be different than the original blogger’s. Use your own discretion. You do want the cookies to appear slightly under baked. This is true for most cookies, IMO. They will firm up as they cool). 

Almond Sugar Cookies

Holiday Cake Cookies

These cookies looked yummy and very kid friendly! I could tell as I was mixing the ingredients together this would be a very rich cookie. I was right. Too rich for my taste buds. I was not a fan. My kids… not a fan either. The recipe calls for an entire box of cake mix. IF I was to make these cookies again I would use about half of the box and substitute flour for the other half.

You are probably wondering why I am posting this if I didn’t like them. Even if I didn’t enjoy them, maybe a reader will. With the half box/extra flour adjustment, I think they might be pretty good. 

Original recipe: here

1 box (18.25 oz) vanilla/white cake mix
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs
1/3 cup vegetable/canola oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sprinkles

• Preheat oven to 350F. Use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, mix together the cake mix and baking powder. Set aside. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, and vanilla by hand. Add the egg mixture to the cake mixture and stir to form a dough- stir vigorously until all of the pockets of dry cake mix are gone.  Gently mix in the sprinkles – you do not want to dye the cookie dough by over stirring the sprinkles.
• Drop rounded 1-inch balls of dough onto prepared baking sheet.  
• Bake for 9 minutes – do not let the cookies get brown.  Allow to cool on baking sheet for 3 minutes; they will be very soft at first. As they cool, the tops will settle down so you will not have to press the cookies down yourself. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Holiday Cake Cookies

 

Saltine Toffee:

These were all the rage at my son’s school fundraiser (bake sale) back in October. Chocolate, saltine crackers and homemade toffee. Hmmm… I was quite intrigued. I knew it would make my Christmas baking list. This goodie is pretty tasty. One thing I would do differently is boil the brown sugar/butter mixture a bit longer (until sugar dissolved more). 

1 cup butter (no margarine)
1 cup brown sugar
Enough crackers to fill a cookie sheet
1 bag of chocolate chips

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray then cover with foil. Spray the foil with non-stick cooking spray.
• Spread saltines on cookie sheet, creating a flat layer.
• Mix brown sugar and butter together in a saucepan, stir frequently, once the mixture begins to boil reduce heat to simmer. Simmer for about 5 minutes or until mixture has reached a nice thick consistency.
• Pour thickened mixture over saltines.
• Spread toffee evenly over crackers.
• Bake until toffee becomes bubbly (about 5-10 minutes).  
• Remove from oven and let it sit for 5 minutes.  
• Shake chocolate chips on top and let them melt.  
• Spread chocolate evenly over crackers/toffee.  
• Let cool or put in the fridge to harden.  
• After about an hour, break off a piece and taste. Yum!
• Break into a bunch of pieces. Some small, some large, it’s up to you.
• Freeze or refrigerate leftovers… if there are any

Saltine Toffee

 
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheese Crackers

Yum, yum and yum! I didn't make these at the exchange, but I feel the need to share them. These are so kid (and adult) friendly. They are also very cute!

Box of cheese crackers (Cheese Its, Cheese Nips)

Peanut Butter

Chocolate chips 

Sprinkles

• Prepare parchment paper on table or cookie sheet.
• Spread PB on crackers and top each one with another cracker (sandwich... cracker, PB, cracker).
• Melt chips in a double boiler.
• Dip cheese cracker sandwich into melted chocolate.
• Place chocolate covered sandwich on parchment paper and add sprinkles.
• Let sandwiches harden.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheese Crackers

MERRY CHRISTMAS!