Snickerdoodle Granola Bars

I whipped up a bunch of these snickerdoodle cookie granola bars a couple of weeks ago and they were delicious! I ate one for lunch everyday for two weeks. They really do taste like snickerdoodle cookies, they are relatively healthy, and they require about 15 minutes and no baking. Also, they are gluten-free and vegan. Wow!

Ingredients

 

 



Putting the mix into the fridge

 

Ready!

 

The recipe is pretty self explanatory, and I did choose not to drizzle white chocolate on top. These snickerdoodle granola bars are easy to make and perfect for a delicious snack!

Peanut Butter Cookies

Last week I whipped up a batch of peanut butter cookies that I found on Pinterest. The recipe was great, and the cookies turned out AMAZING! You can find the recipe here and the pin here. The cookies were titled "irresistible peanut butter cookies," and I couldn't agree more.

I made a few slight changes to the recipe. I didn't make the optional chocolate dip. Instead, I added 2/3 cup of chocolate chips to the batter. I also didn't dip a fork in vegetable oil and sugar and spread it on top of the cookies.

One night, I even heated up a cookie in the microwave, scooped some vanilla ice cream on top, and finished it off with whipped cream. It was a scrumptious peanut butter cookie sundae!

Ready to go in the oven!

 

 

YUM!

 

 

These classic peanut butter cookies are delicious, and I definitely recommend making them!

S'More Cookies

Wow- long time, no blog! It's been almost a month since my last post! Summer is a busy time of year.

At the end of June, I attended a beginning of summer party, and I made and brought some of these delicious s'more cookies. You can find the original recipe here, and the pin here.

To make these cookies, you first whip up a batch of dough using chocolate chips, mini marshmallows, cinnamon, and other basic baking ingredients (I had to substitute chopped regular marshmallows since I didn't have any mini ones). Then, you lay graham crackers on a cookie sheet and place a rolled piece of dough on top of each one.

Next, you bake the cookies for about 5 minutes. At the five-minute mark, you take the try out from the oven and press a piece of a Hershey's bar onto each cookie. The tray then goes back into the oven for about 5-7 minutes.

Pressing the Hershey's Bar in

 

 

Finally, allow the cookies to cool and enjoy!



 

 

Check out my s'mores board on Pinterest for tons of other delicious-looking recipes using the classic idea of graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate!

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July!!!!!!! I hope everybody is having a great time celebrating our country's birthday! Today I'm going to share my patriotic nails for this year and some Pinterest baking ideas.

Yesterday afternoon I painted my nails the colors of our flag to get me in a festive mood. The middle fingers and thumbs are red, the pinkies and index fingers are blue, and the ring fingers are sparkly white.

I didn't bake anything spectacular for the Fourth, but there's always next year! Below are some patriotic baking ideas that I would love to try someday (all from Pinterest, of course)!

 

This flag made out of star cookies is so cool!

These kabobs are made out of brownie bits, marshmallows, blueberries, strawberries, and a chocolate drizzle.

This layered cupcake is awesome! I love the sprinkles and the decoration on top.

As always, to repin anything, click on the picture and it will bring you directly to the pin on Pinterest.

***I hope everybody has a happy and safe Fourth of July!***

 

Fiesta Series- Food

At my end-of-the-year fiesta, I served dinner and desserts to my guests. I created, printed, and laminated a menu for each person.

Appetizers:
Chips and Salsa

Main Meal:
Salad
Cheese Quesadillas
Spanish Rice

Desserts:
Non-Alcoholic Pina Coladas
Cupcakes

Table with Chips, Dips, and Salad

 

In this three way bowl there was cheese queso, sour cream (for quesadillas), and guacamole.

 

 

Everybody had one of these Mexican napkins.



Finally, here's the quick recipe for the non-alcoholic pina coladas.

Ingredients:
Pineapple Juice
Cream of Coconut
Crushed Ice

Directions:
Combine equal parts pineapple juice and cream of coconut along with the ice in a blender.

Zoku Popsicles

My friend recently purchased a Zoku Duo Quick Pop Maker which you can find here on Amazon. I went over to her house today, and we made some delicious popsicles!

The Zoku maker is an insulated box that has spaces carved out for popsicles. Surrounding the popsicle holes is a metal material that helps freeze the popsicles quickly (the maker always stays in the freezer). To make the popsicles, you create a mix of blended fruit or fruit juice and water, and pour it into the Zoku maker. You can also add chunks of fruit. In less than 10 minutes, the popsicles are frozen and ready to eat!

 

 

For our first set, we made orange juice and lemonade popsicles. We used juice concentrate, but fruit juice would work too.

To begin, we combined about a spoonful each of orange juice and lemonade along with some water. You only need to make a little bit of the mixture for 2 popsicles.

Next, we placed the reusable plastic popsicle sticks in the slots that are designated for them.

Then we poured the mixture into the maker.

 

After filling, we placed the it in the freezer.

In seven minutes, the popsicles were ready!

To remove the popsicles, you twist a green handle around the stick. Then, you lift out the popsicle. You place it back in the maker, undo the green handle, and then take the popsicle out using the stick. This video demonstrates how.

YUM! For our second batch, we blended pineapple, water, and a little bit of sugar.

Then, we poured the mixture into the Zoku, and repeated the whole process again.

Voila!

The pineapple popsicles were delicious, but the orange juice and lemonade ones were kind of sour. The Zoku maker is such a cool idea, works really well, creates (pretty) healthy snacks, and is so fun to use! I'm definitely going to consider purchasing one.

Quick and Delicious Cookie Cake

I don't know about you, but I LOVE chocolate chip cookies AND cake, so for my friend's birthday last week, I decided to bake a cookie cake!

I didn't exactly have a recipe for one, so I just whipped up a batch of Martha Stewart's cakey chocolate chip cookies.

Martha's Cookies

 

 

After I made the batter, I filled a 8-inch circular pan about 3/4 of the way up. Then, with the left-over batter, I also made a dozen regular cookies. The cookies took about 15 minutes to bake, and the cookie cake about 20 minutes, but our oven tends to take longer than most.

 

 

The cake turned out very dense and delicious, and the cookies were soft and chocolaty.

To finish off the cake, I added candles. My friend loved it!

 

Pina Colada Cake

I hope you all had a great Easter! This will be my last Easter-ish post for the year, even though it's a little late as it is :)

Today I am going to share with you the cake I made for our Easter dessert. I was in charge of dessert this year, and after a lot of searching, I finally decided to make a pina colada cake that was featured in the January/ February 2013 Food Network magazine. The cake itself is actually more of a summer dessert, but I decorated it with orange and yellow peeps and spring-colored confetti sprinkles.

First of all, I just want to let you know that this recipe is completely based off the Food Network recipe that you can find here. All I did was twist it up a little bit.

Ingredients:
- 1 box of Betty Crocker vanilla cake mix
- 1/2 cup pineapple juice
- toasted coconut flakes for garnishing

For the frosting:
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar
- 1/3 cup cream of coconut

Directions:
1. Bake the vanilla cake mix in two separate 8-inch wide circular pans.
2. Once the cakes are cooled, poke holes into each cake with a toothpick. Brush a generous amount of the pineapple juice over each cake.
3. For the frosting, beat the butter and salt together until fluffy and smooth. Beat in the confectioners' sugar slowly until everything is completely combined. Add the cream of coconut, and beat until the frosting is thick.
4. Toast the coconut over the stove on low heat in a dry skillet until lightly brown.
5. Finally, spread a layer of frosting over the top of the first cake. Place the second cake on top. Then, completely cover the outside of the cake with frosting. Garnish the finished cake with toasted coconut and any sprinkles of your choice.

Voila! A delicious pina colada cake. Let me know if you try it!

Cream Puffs

A couple of weeks ago I made these delicious cream puffs with my grandmother. They were so fun to make and turned out amazing! Instead of making the filling that the recipe calls for, we filled the pastries with vanilla pudding, which worked pretty well (and was much easier).

Melting butter on the stove

 

Whisking the dough

 

About to go in the oven

 

In the oven

 

Cooling

 

Making the vanilla pudding

 

We made these cracks in the pastries and poured the pudding into them.

 

The pitcher used for pouring pudding

 

The finished products!

 

Overall, I would definitely recommend making these! They are SO much fun (and delicious)!



Brownie-Cookie Bites

For Valentine's Day, my mom and I made delicious brownie-cookie bites (my mom saw the idea on Facebook, so I'm not exactly sure where the original idea came from). Start off by whipping up brownie batter using a boxed mix (we used a Betty Crocker one) and a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough (we didn't have a mix on hand, so I used this recipe). Next, scoop brownie batter into a cupcake tray, filling up about half of each cup. Then, roll the cookie dough into little balls and place one on top of each cup. Put them into the oven, and voila, brownie-cookie bites!

Ingredients for the cookie dough

 

Brownie batter in the pan

 

 

Mixing up the cookie dough

 

 

In the oven



Finished baking!

 

On the cooling rack