I do believe that I have found the best recipe for Puppy Chow and it’s a recipe from Ree Drummond. I’ve tried other recipes before this, and none of them had the right Chex Mix to chocolate/peanut butter ratio consistency. I would make it and be disappointed after there was hardly any peanut butter/chocolate mix coating all the chex mix. And *gasp* there is also Nutella in this recipe. Yum. I never would have thought to add in other ingredients like pretzels and candies which makes puppy chow even better. This recipe makes a lot, so I will probably be taking some of it to work and sharing it with others tomorrow.

Recipe from Ree Drummond

Ingredients

10 cups combination of corn, rice, and wheat cereal squares
3/4 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup chocolate hazelnut spread, such as Nutella
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups powdered sugar
2 cups miniature pretzels
1 cup chocolate coated candies, such as M and M’s

Directions

Place the cereal in a very large stainless steel bowl and set aside.

In a medium microwave-safe bowl, add the chocolate chips, hazelnut spread, peanut butter and butter. Microwave for a minute, then stir. Microwave 30 seconds longer and stir until smooth. Keep going until it’s all melted, being careful not to burn. Stir in the vanilla and salt. Then pour the chocolate mixture over the cereal, tossing to evenly coat.

Spoon the mixture into a 2-gallon resealable ziptop bag along with the powdered sugar. Shake the bag until the cereal is evenly coated. Then add the pretzels and candies, seal and shake the bag again. Pour onto baking sheets to set/cool. Serve in bowls.

These peanut butter balls were featured on Trisha Yearwood’s show on Food Network, Saturday this last weekend. I’m starting to like her recipes. I’ve made these peanut butter balls and her chicken tortilla soup so far. There was a lasagna she made and she used tofu instead of ricotta cheese and I’m really curious to try that now. My husband is lactose intolerant and we’ve tried replacing tofu with other things as well. The one thing that kind of turned me off about that recipe is the black beans. I’m more of a meat fan when it comes to lasagna and that doesn’t float with my boat very well.

If you love peanut butter then you’ll love these. I’d love to try these with Biscoff spread or Nutella next time. I never used the dark corn syrup the recipe called for and just added another 1/2 cup of regular corn syrup. There’s a song on South Park that these remind me of, but we won’t go there.

Peanut Butter Balls

Print recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup corn syrup
• 1/2 cup dark corn syrup
• 2 cups crunchy peanut butter
• 4 cups rice cereal

Directions

Step 1

In a large saucepan, stir the sugar and the syrups together over medium heat. Remove from the heat and quickly add the peanut butter, continuing to stir until the mixture is fully combined. Add the rice cereal and mix well. Shape the mixture into palm-size balls with your hands. Transfer to waxed paper. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

I swear, this is going to be my last unhealthy treat to make before the New Year’s comes. I plan to get rid of all my body fat and get fit before I go to Jamaica. We’ll see if that happens. My goal is to work out more next year and we plan on joining the gym next month since our work is now letting us get a nice little discount on that. I feel as if it will hold me responsible since I have to go at least 12 times a month. I’m really looking forward to taking Zumba classes at night too.

I’ve been seeing these Cranberry Bliss bars all over the Internet lately. I did try making a different version of them before Christmas and used maraschino cherries instead because I didn’t have any dried cranberries at the time. These blondies are delicious and it almost makes me want to go Star Bucks and try the original ones to see if they live up to them. I’m not a coffee drinker, so I don’t go to those coffee places to try their delicious sweets like this one.

I am home during the week this week, and it’s nice to be able to take some pictures in natural light. I thought this one turned out pretty good taken with my little Olympus camera. My other one is still in the shop and I keep checking the status every day to see if it’s been shipped or not. I can’t wait to get it back!

Ingredients: from What’s Megan Making

Bars:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup dried cranberries, chopped
6 ounces (about 3/4 cup) white chocolate chips (or chopped white chocolate)

Frosting:
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
4 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup dried cranberries, chopped

Drizzling Icing:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1-2 tablespoons milk

Directions:

Bars:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×13 pan and set aside. In a medium bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until smooth. Add eggs, vanilla, ginger, and salt and mix well. Gradually add flour and mix until smooth. Stir in cranberries and white chocolate. Pour the batter into the greased pan, using a spatula to evenly spread the batter in the pan. Bake 30-40 minutes, until edges are light brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:
Beat the cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla and lemon juice until completely smooth. Spread on the completely cool cake. Sprinkle the top with cranberries.

Drizzling Icing:
In a small bowl, whisk together 1 Tbsp of milk, powdered sugar, and vegetable shortening. Gradually add more milk until the icing has a thick but drizzly consistency. I used closer to 2 tablespoons. Put the icing into a ziploc bag and snip off a tiny bit of the corner. Drizzle the icing on top in zig-zags.

I have to admit, I haven’t been the greatest dieter lately. I’m getting married in October and I keep on making treats. Like these S’mores cups. These are ok to eat though, because they’re made in mini muffin tins. Mini means that it won’t pack on the pounds right? Ben tried one and he said that these will probably be gone with in a day. They’re that good, and you’ll probably want to eat the whole entire batch in one sitting.

When I make my marshmallow for s’mores I like mine burnt to a crisp. It’s fun to toast the marshmallow and get it to wear it’s burning. Ben is the opposite of me and likes his marshmallow to the point where it’s just melted. We’re doing a s’mores kit for wedding favors and I think those are going to be so cute. I would have toasted the marshmallows longer in the oven to get them more burnt like, but I was nice to Ben and just melted them.

Ingredients from Texas Cottage



Cut marshmallows in half crosswise using shears dipped in cold water. Place one marshmallow half, cut-side down, into each cup. Return to oven 1-2 minutes or until marshmallows are slightly softened. Remove pans from oven to cooling rack; cool 15 minutes. Carefully remove cups from pan. Cool completely.
Break remaining candy bars and place in small microwavable bowl. Microwave on high 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until melted and smooth, stirring every 20 seconds. Dip the top of each marshmallow in melted chocolate. Turn top-side up and let stand 40 to 60 minutes or until set. Makes 24 cups.

Who doesn’t love going to get a snack at Dairy Queen on hot summer days? What’s your favorite treat to get there? I like to get Dilly Bars and my favorite is the mint and the butterscotch flavor. Now you can make them at home, using your favorite kind of ice cream.

Take out your favorite muffin tin and line them with cupcake liners. Scoop some ice cream into them and put a popsicle stick in the middle. Kind of like this.

Put them in your freezer for about a day. I just did a day because I was worried that the ice cream wouldn’t get hard enough.

Next, melt some almond bark or your favorite kind of chocolate in a microwave and take the ice cream balls and dip them in there. You have to work really fast with these. When I was doing this the ice cream would make the chocolate get hard again and it was getting hard to work with. I did 6 at a time.

Voila, you have you’re own homemade dilly bars and didn’t have wait in line at Dairy Queen to get them.

Ingredients

6 scoops of your favorite ice cream (I used vanilla)

6 cupcake liners

6 popsicle sticks

Almond bark or chocolate chips.

Directions:

1.  Line 6 muffin tins with a cupcake liner. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out the ice cream and put them in the cupcake liners.Freeze for up to a day or until hard enough to dip the ice cream into chocolate.

2. Once the ice cream is hard enough, melt some chocolate in the microwave. I did mine for about 1 minute and 25 seconds. Dip the ice cream balls into the chocolate. Freeze the chocolate balls until their ready to eat. Enjoy!

Every now and then, I like to go to the farmer’s market by the dike and pick up some fresh produce there.  They usually have a booth where you can buy fresh breads and these wonderful bars. Well, I don’t know how close this recipe is to being like those bars at the Farmer’s market, but they’re pretty darn close.

These bars have a graham cracker crust and they’re covered with chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, coconut, and pecans. I added some butterscotch chips to them. You have to let them cool completely too, or else they will just crumble apart when you cut them when they first come out of the oven. I made them just to snack on and left them out in my kitchen during my bridal shower and people were snacking on them. They loved them.

Also at my bridal shower I made these cute ice cubes. They looked really pretty in the punch. You just add some fresh mint in them and fruit and freeze.I also got a lot of recipes from my shower to try and I can’t wait to post some of those on here.

My friend made these pink lemonade cupcakes. If you like tart and very sweet cupcakes then these are for you!

Ingredients from Martha Stewart

3 cups finely ground cookies (12 ounces), such as graham crackers or chocolate wafers, or a combination
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup pecan pieces
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly splash a 15-by-10-inch rimmed baking sheet evenly with water, then line with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, stir together cookie crumbs, sugar, and butter until combined. Evenly press onto bottom and up sides of prepared baking sheet. Bake, rotating halfway through, until firm, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack; cool, about 20 minutes.

Sprinkle cooled crust evenly with pecans and chocolate. Pour condensed milk over the top, spreading to cover completely (do not let it drip over the edges). Sprinkle with coconut.

Bake until coconut is toasted, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool completely. Trim edges, if desired, and cut into equal-size bars.

If you’ve never had a blondie before, it’s like a white version of a brownie. I almost like these better than brownies, because I’m not really much of a chocolate lover.  I start eating chocolate and it gets to be a little too sweet for my tooth.  I like these without the white chocolate chips, but I’m sure they taste even better with the white chocolate chips in them. You could make this with probably any kind of cake mix. I tend to buy a lot of boxes of them when they go on sale for less than $1 at the grocery stores.

I’m getting really excited for this weekend. The new Harry Potter movie comes out and the Street Fair is in town. They always have loads of good food at the Street Fair and my favorite thing to get are the Oofda tacos. It’s like a deep fried taco with all the fixings on top. I live in a city with about roughly 100,000 people and we don’t have the privilege of having Street Car food all year around. This is about the only time of the year that happens. I should set up my own booth and sell these blondies there.

cake batter blondies.

Ingredients: from Girl Meets Life

1 box yellow cake mix
1/4 cup canola oil
1 egg
1/3 – 1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup rainbow sprinkles
1/2 cup white chocolate chips (optional)

Directions: Combine the first four ingredients in a large bowl. Add the milk slowly – you want the batter to remain as dense as possible. Then mix in the rainbow sprinkles and white chocolate chips. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Sorry, I would have posted this recipe earlier, but these bars were eaten up so fast before I could take a picture of them! Really, they’re that good. I found this recipe on pinterest and one of the things I’ve noticed is that people are obsessed with S’mores! I’m  also on pinterest and if you want to follow me my link is below.

http://pinterest.com/jgisvold01

I know these bars aren’t the greatest calorie wise, but hold on. I promise I’ll have a dessert coming up that’s  low in calories and very patriotic. Just in time for the 4th of July. If you’re wondering what to take to your 4th of July get together, you could  take these and only have a little bite or a small piece.

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Ingredients: from The Girl Who Ate Everything

• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 king-sized milk chocolate bars (e.g. Hershey’s)
• 1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and vanilla. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.
3. Divide dough in half and press half of dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan. Place chocolate bars over dough. 2 king-sized Hershey’s bars should fit perfectly side by side, but break the chocolate (if necessary) to get it to fit in a single layer no more than 1/4 inch thick. Spread chocolate with marshmallow creme or fluff. Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff (most easily achieved by flattening the dough into small shingles and laying them together).
4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

Makes 16 cookie bars.

If you’re feeling down or sick, these pretzel bites can really cheer you up. Have you tried the pretzel m&m’s? They kind of remind me of these, but without the peanut butter. I really didn’t care for the pretzel m&m’s, … Continue reading →

Ingredients

3/4  cup  butter
3  ounces  unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1-1/2  cups  sugar
3    eggs, lightly beaten
1-1/2  teaspoons  vanilla
1  cup  all-purpose flour
Caramel Swirl

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9x9x2-inch baking pan with foil, extending the foil over the edges of the pan. Grease foil; set aside.

2. In a medium saucepan, melt and stir butter and chocolate over medium-low heat until smooth. Remove from heat. Stir in sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Stir in flour just until combined.

3. Spread batter evenly in the prepared pan. Top evenly with spoonfuls of the Caramel Swirl. With a thin metal spatula, swirl into batter.

4. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until top springs back when lightly touched and edges are starting to pull away from sides of the pan. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Using the edges of the foil, lift the uncut brownies out of the pan. Cut into bars. Makes 16 brownies.

To Store: Place bars in a single layer in an airtight container; cover. Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or freeze up to 3 months.

Caramel Swirl: In a small saucepan, combine 12 unwrapped vanilla caramels, one 3-ounce package cream cheese, 1 tablespoon sugar, and 1 tablespoon milk. Cook and stir over medium-low heat just until caramels melt. In a small bowl, beat 1 egg yolk; gradually stir into the caramel mixture.

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Ok, I admit. Sometimes, I like to be BAD. Bad like in making a batch of brownies or some other goodie with all the fat. I’ve read that to cut out fat like butter and oil you can replace it with applesauce or pumpkin puree. That isn’t the same for me. You have to have SOME kind of fat in there. If I were going to lighten up this recipe, I’d use 1/3 cup of egg beaters, 1/2 cup of applesauce and 1/4 cup of butter. Or if you’d really like you could use a box of that no pudge brownie mix instead to make things simple.

I’ve also been in love with dulce de leche lately. Instead of making the caramel sauce, I just put a couple of tablespoons of dulce de leche on the batter and used a tooth pick to swirl it around in the brownie. It took about 15 minutes longer than the recipe calls for to cook. Chocolate Brownies + Dulce de Leche = HEAVEN.