Spring is Here! Time for New Ideas in the Kitchen!

So I was mindlessly surfing the internet the other day and discovered a cute idea.  You know how some restaurants have the cute little cookie bowls they put your ice cream in?  Well, I found out an easy way to make these at home!  You wouldn't believe how easy it is.

That's right!  You bake them on the bottom of a muffin pan!  Genius, right?! These are perfect for ice cream treats with the kids or just for a date night with your Hubby watching a movie. 

Here's the recipie from Wilton.com.  

Ingredients:

• 2 3/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon of Salt
• 1cup (2 sticks) Unsalted butter, Softened
• 1 1/2 cups Granulated Sugar
• 1 Egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 teaspoon No Color Almond Extract

Makes 12 cups.

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray the outside of each bowl cavity of Ice Cream Cookie Bowl Pan with vegetable pan spray.
2. n medium bowl, combine flour and salt. In large bowl, beat butter and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and extracts. Add flour mixture to butter mixture, 1 cup at a time, mixing after each addition. 
3. Roll out dough on generously-floured surface to 1/8 in. thickness. Cut 4-1/2 in. circles from dough.. Drape one circle over each bowl cavity of pan, pressing to form smooth surface.
4. Bake 11-13 minutes or until cookie cups are firm and golden brown. Cool on pan on cooling rack 10 minutes. Loosen bottom edges of cookies from pan using small spatula. Carefully remove cups from pan and cool completely. Wash, dry and spray pan; repeat with remaining dough. 

This recipe makes Sugar cookie cups.  Play around with your own cookie recipes and see what you can do!  

Let me know if you tried this and how it went!

Brownie Popsicle! Delicious!

This is another great recipe I found on Pinterest.com.  (Btw, this site is awesome, let me know if you would like an invite!)  Now onto the recipe.  These are brownie popsicles. It's a perfect, not too messy treat for your children.  You can serve these up at a play-date with some milk.  They're really easy to make, which is a plus! 

Here's what you'll need:

• Brownie Mix or What You Need for Your Favorite Recipe
• Color Candies for Melting
• Popsicle Sticks
• Sprinkles
• Wax Paper

Directions:

Bake the brownies as the box or recipe says and let cool to room temperature.  Cut them into rectangle bars and stick the popsicle sticks in the smaller side of the brownie.  Put them on a piece of wax paper. Melt your color candies in the microwave according to directions.  (I usually stir every 30 seconds until smooth and completely melted.) Pour on top of the brownies and sprinkle so sprinkles on top.  Wait till that side is dried and then flip them over and do the same to the other side.  The final and last step is to enjoy your treats!

What do you think of this recipe?  Would you do anything different?

Today's Easy Kitchen Recipe: Frappuccino

I do this when I have leftover coffee after friends are over or in the morning. I pour the coffee into ice cube trays and then the next day instead of hitting up Starbucks, I throw a few of these into my magic bullet and pour some of my favorite flavored creamer in with it, blend and drink.  To me it's just as good as a $4 Starbucks drink!

Here's the Recipe:

Ingredients:

• Coffee
• Ice Cube Trays
• You Favorite Flavor Coffee Creamer (I use French Vanilla or Irish Creme)

Let the coffee cool down and then pour into the ice cube trays and put into the freezer.  You can always use coffee that's leftover from your morning coffee if you brewed too much or after you have friends over if you want to be even more frugal about it!  ;)

Once frozen, pop a few cubes into a blender and pour in your creamer.  Blend.  You add more or less creamer to get it the way you want it.  I find about 6 cubes and 1/8 cup creamer make a good sized drink for me.

What are your favorite flavor creamers?  Did you try something different with this recipe and it was delicious?  Let me know!

Yogurt Coated Strawberries

My daughter has been snacking on these ever since I made these.  They're called Yogurt Coated Strawberries.  I, myself, am in love with these!

Fear not, they are really quite simple to make!  When I saw the above picture I was drooling, but in the back of my head was "This is going to be hard, isn't it?"

Here's how I make them:

Ingredients:

• Whole or Half Strawberries
• Vanilla Greek Yogurt (you can use regular Vanilla yogurt, I just use Greek cause it has more protein)
• Wax Paper
• Cookie Sheet
• Room in your Freezer for that cookie sheet! 

Easy Peasy Instructions:

Cut your strawberries in half, dip them into the yogurt, and place onto the wax papered cookie sheet flat side down.  When you fill up the cookie sheet place into the freezer until firm!

Now how easy was that?  Let me know what you think of this recipe or if you did something different!  My daughter loves them, let me know if you've tried them out on your kids!

 

Christmas Time

Here's to the holidays.  I do believe around this time of the year we do most of our baking and cooking.  So I'm going to start off with a cute Christmas cookie recipe I've tried and loved.

These are called Tree Cookies.  Simple name, Simple Idea.

I always try to make it a family tradition to have fresh baked cookies in the kitchen for the holidays.  I've made these a few times and they've turned out perfect.  It's a cute, simple way to liven up your dessert table and look like alot of work went into these beauties.  My daughter loves how the chocolate M&Ms just melt when you take a bite of a fresh cookie.

Here's the recipie I've used:

Tree Cookies

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. 
3. Arrange on an ungreased baking sheet. Using green, yellow, and brown M&M's Minis, design Christmas trees as shown in photo.
4. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven.

What kind of holiday traditions does your family have?  What are your favorite desserts to bake around this time of the year?

Mini Smore Bars! Must Try These!

I Recently found this picture on Pintrest and was super excited.  Mini Smore bars.  Delicious sounding and delicious looking.  Well I don't like using straight recipes, I love to make my own thrifty take on what I like.  So I attempt these and tried to see what was the cheapest, yet most delicious way to make them was.  Here's what I came up with (prices are what I paid for at my local Publix with coupons of course!):

Box of Graham Crackers  BOGO $4.19used $1/2 coupon

Jar of Jet-Puff Marshmallow Creme $1.45

Chocolate Bark $3.89 (1lbs)

Here's what I did.  I used one box of the crackers, the whole jar of Jet-Puff, and about 4 blocks of the chocolate bark.
You break off the crackers into the 4 peices it shows.  Smear Jet-Puff in between 2 crackers and then dip into the chocolate mixture halfway.  Place on a cookie sheet and when all are done stick them in the fridge for a few minutes to let the bark dry.  I kept mine in the fridge and they were perfect.  I can tell you they didn't last longer than 2 days.  They were amazing!

But I figured out the math per bar.  I got about $.16 per bar.
You figured I paid $3.19 for 2 boxes of crackers, so $1.60 for 1 box.  Then I paid $1.45 for the marshmallow creme (I used the jar).  I also paid $3.89 for 16 oz of chocolate bark, so that makes it into .97 for the 4 peices I used.  That totals to $4.02, divided by 25.22 ounces of all the product I used.  So $.16 a bar isn't all too bad with the yummy goodness we got from this recipe.

Here's the whole recipie for you guys:


1 box of Graham Crackers
1 7oz jar of Jet-Puff Marshmallow Creme
4 cubes of Chocolate Bark

You break  the crackers into 1/4s along the lines on the cracker.  Smear as much as you would like of the Jet-Puff in between 2 crackers. Then dip into the chocolate mixture halfway.  Place on a cookie sheet.  When all are done stick them in the fridge for a few minutes to let the bark dry.  Then enjoy!
Storage:  I would recommend keeping these in the fridge for safe-keeping.


I don't know how long they keep, but I can guarantee your container will look like this in a couple of days!

What is your favorite dessert snack in your household?