Peanut Butter Lasagna

You guys... My mother-in-law made this dessert for mine and Lee's birthdays last year, and it was amazing! I'm not usually one for seconds on dessert, but I definitely had seconds when she made this.

Peanut Butter Lasagna... YUM!

So when we decided to host Easter knowing our oven was broken (new one coming next week, whoop whoop!), I thought of this dessert because it doesn't require any baking!

My mother-in-law found the recipe on Pinterest, and I found it from her page. She made it in a trifle bowl, and I copied! The recipe calls for an 8x8 dish.

When I started making my trifle, I realized I needed a little more ingredients than what the recipe called for, so I adjusted a little and made the recipe my own.

So here's how I made it:

Ingredients
1 family size package of Nutter Butter cookies*
1 box vanilla pudding, prepared according to instructions
1 box of chocolate pudding, prepared according to instructions
1 bag fun size Reese's cups, unwrapped and chopped up
2 containers of cool whip
1.5ish cups of creamy peanut butter
Magic Shell


To start, layer your dish with 1/2 of the Nutter Butter cookies. Melt your peanut butter in the microwave, and drizzle a little less than half of it over your cookies. Apply a layer of Vanilla pudding. Use all of the vanilla pudding for this layer. Then apply a layer of Cool Whip. Use 1 whole container for this layer. Then sprinkle 1/2 of your chopped Reese's on top.

Repeat these layers again, except this time use chocolate pudding instead of vanilla. Once your dessert is topped with the last layer of Reese's, you should have  a little peanut butter left to drizzle over the top for pretties. I also drizzled Magic Shell on mine for presentation.

I have found when using the trifle bowl, the key to making it look pretty is making sure the ingredients touch the edge of the dish. That way you can really see the layers.

Since it was Easter, I stuck a little Bunny on the top of mine. Stick this in the fridge, for at least 8 hours, but I would say it's best if you can make it a whole day in advance because then the cookies soften up.

*Next time I make this dessert, I'll probably use a few more Nutter Butter Cookies so I can crumble some on top, and break a few up to fill in some holes on each of the cookie layers. I used a full Family Size package for this one, so next time I'll probably get 2 packages of cookies and have some leftover. I won't mind the leftovers, because who doesn't LOVE Nutter Butters?!

Pumpkin Spice Cake Balls

Pumpkin Spice Cake Balls.... Yum!

This week, it is officially fall! Yay! As far as the weather goes, fall is my favorite season. Not only does fall bring cool weather and pretty colored leaves... It also brings pumpkin everything... Pumpkin flavored coffee, pumpkin spice Oreos, and pumpkin spice cake balls! Yep!! I went there. Usually strawberry and lemon are my two favorite flavors of cake balls to make, but now pumpkin is right up there with them. Here's how I made them:

Ingredients

1 loaf pumpkin bread*
3/4 can cream cheese icing
1 bag Ghirardelli White Chocolate Wafers
Pumpkin Pie Spice
Wax Paper

*I bought a Libby's brand box that made two loaves of pumpkin bread... I baked them both. Kept 1 a sliced it for breakfast all week, and used the other for the cake balls. You can use a break mix like I did, use your favorite homemade recipe, or just buy a loaf of soft pumpkin bread!

Pumpkin Pie Spice is a mixture of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice.

If you baked your pumpkin bread like I did, let it cool before using it. I baked my bread about 2 days in advance just to split up the work. Start by crumbling your bread up in a large mixing bowl. Once your bread is crumbled with no large chunks, add in about 1/2 of your icing and mix it all up. This will make your bread & icing mixture kind of gooey. Start by adding 1/2 of the icing can and mix it all up. You want your cake and icing to stick together and easily old into a ball shape, but you don't want it to be too gooey that it won't stay in a ball. So start with 1/2 of the can and add more if you need it. I used about 3/4 of an icing can.

Pumpkin Bread and icing mixture... messy but yummy!

Next, roll your cake and icing mixture into balls. Just a tad smaller than a ping pong ball. Once you have your balls formed, put them in a container and freeze them for about an hour.

Here's what my cake balls looked like after being frozen.

During about the last 5 minutes that your cake balls are freezing, melt your chocolate on about 30% power in a shallow bowl. I like to start by only melting about 1/4 of the chocolate at a time, that way the chocolate doesn't harden up on me before I have a chance to dip all of my cake balls.

Now that your chocolate is melted, remove your cake balls from the freezer. Stab them one at a time with a tooth pick, and dip in chocolate until covered. shake off any loose chocolate, and set your chocolate covered cake ball on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper. Before your chocolate dries onto the cake ball, sprinkle with just a tad of pumpkin pie spice. Let the chocolate harden on your cake balls, and then enjoy! This recipe will make about 30-35 cake balls.

Once my cake balls have all been dipped in chocolate, and the chocolate has dried, I like to keep mine in the fridge bc it keeps them a little more firm. They can be enjoyed cold or at room temperature, whichever you prefer.

Finished product! You could even put your cake ball on a sucker stick and make Pumpkin Spice Cake Pops!

S'mores Pie

S'mores Pie 

S'mores Pie... one of the most magnificent desserts I think I've ever tasted... seriously! I LOVE. love. love anything s'mores!! Last fall, Lee built an awesome fire pit in our back yard. He worked so hard on it for several weekends in a row. Once he was finished, he was excited about how nice it turned out, and he was relieved to finally have it done....that's the difference between men and women, I guess, because I was most excited about having friends over and eating s'mores! HAHA.

So anyways... back to the S'mores Pie... This is not my original recipe. I found it on the Hershey's website. You can find a link to the original recipe here. How awesome is it that Hershey's has  TON of free recipes on their site featuring Hershey's chocolate products?! A little bit of heaven on earth, that's for sure. I followed the recipe pretty closely since it was my first time trying it, but I did make a few little changes. Below is how I made mine:

Ingredients
6 Hershey's  original candy bars
1/2 stick butter softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup graham cracker crumbs (or vanilla wafer crumbs)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 container marshmallow cream
1/2 teaspoon Crisco
Cooking spray

To start, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Break up your Hershey's bars and set about 5 squares aside. Spray a 9 inch pie pan with cooking spray.

For the crust, I used my Kitchen Aid Mixer, and it worked like a charm, as always. You could use a hand mixer too if you prefer. Mix your sugar and butter together in the mixer, then add in the egg and continue mixing until the mixture is fluffy. Next add in your flour, baking powder, and cookie crumbs and mix thoroughly.

I know that S'mores are made with graham crackers, but when I got my graham crackers out and started breaking them up, they smelt kinda like cardboard. I tasted them, and they also tasted like cardboard... I'm guessing this package had probably been sitting in my cabinet since last fall, so I threw them away. I didn't have any other graham crackers at home, so I just used Vanilla Wafers. They worked great, but I am planning to try the recipe with graham crackers next time. To break up my wafers, I put them in my chopper and crushed them up. I got one of these choppers for Christmas a few years ago, and used it so much that it wore out. Then, on black Friday, I ordered a new one from Wal-Mart for $5! It is worth every penny. If you don't already have one, you should get one. It will change your life.

Once you have your sugar, butter, egg, flour, baking powder, and cookie crumbs mixed together, they should be dough-y. Split your dough mixture in half. Set one half aside. Using your fingers, flatten out one half of dough on your pie pan.

Spread your whole jar of marshmallow cream over the bottom of your pie crust. This can be a little tricky because the marshmallow is so sticky, but using a plastic spatula helps. Make sure you get some marshmallow cream in the back edges of the pie.

I didn't quite get enough marshmallow cream along the bottom outside edge
of my pie. Next time I'm going to make sure to do that. 

Next, throw in your chocolate pieces (except for the 5 or so you set aside at the beginning). Try to distribute them as evenly as you can.

Finally, take the other half of your dough and form it into a ball. Next, spread it out on a sheet of wax paper and try to form it into about a 9 inch circle on the wax paper.

Pick up your wax paper with the dough on it, flip it over on the pie, and peel off the wax paper. Press the edges of your two crust layers together.

Bake the pie for about 20-30 minutes. Once your pie is cooked, turn off the oven and let your pie cool in the oven for about 5 minutes, then remove from the oven. Once your oven is turned off and your pie is cooling, put your Crisco and remaining chocolate in a bowl. Microwave on 50% power for about 20 seconds. Make sure you watch your chocolate, and heat it on low heat. I actually burnt mine up! Luckily, I had some Hershey kisses in the house, so I melted a handful of them with some more Crisco to make my drizzle. After your mixture is heated, stir it up and drizzle over the pie.

Enjoy your pie while its warm and the marshmallow is gooey!! If you have pie left over, cover it with plastic wrap. When you're ready for another piece, stick it in the microwave for about 20 seconds on 50% power, and it becomes gooey amazing-ness once again. The pie even tastes good cooled, but it is definitely better melted.  YUM!!

Sugar Cookie Cheesecake

Sugar Cookie Cheesecake: my newest creation! Last week I bought the ingredients to make my Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries, but life got busy, and I never got around to it. By the time I had a free night to make them, I just wasn't feeling it. I wanted to make something a little more simple, and a little more sweet. So, I decided to make a spin on fruit pizza. It's more cheesecake-y than fruit pizza, but similar because it has fruit on it and the crust is a cookie. This dessert is pretty simple to make, and super yummy to eat! Here's how I made it:

Ingredients
1- 16 oz. package of sugar cookie dough
1 container cool whip (I used lite)
1/2 container of Philadelphia Cream Cheese Cheesecake Filling
6-10 strawberries, sliced (or whatever fruit you choose)
5-6 Hershey's Kisses, finely chopped
Cooking spray

This is the Cheesecake Filling that I use. 

To start, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13x9 inch pan. To flatten my cookie dough, I used a rolling pin and flattened about 3/4 of it out on a sheet of parchment paper, and then placed the cookie dough sheet into my baking dish. Then I used the other 1/4 of cookie dough to fill in the holes and pressed it all together until the bottom of my 13x9 inch dish was covered with cookie dough. Bake cookie for 15-20 minutes, or until cookie is cooked through. I kept my cookie a little soft because I knew it would keep cooking in the dish a little once I got it out, and I didn't want it to be too hard once it got cold in the fridge. Let cookie cool.

This is what my dough looked like. 

I didn't let my cookie bake too dark. 

While your cookie is cooling, take the whole container of cool whip, and half the container of cheesecake mix and mix them together, I used my mixer for this. Once your cookie is cooled, spread your fluffy cheesecake mixture on top.

Slice your strawberries and lay them across your cheesecake mixture.

If you're not a chocolate person, you could omit the chocolate and just load yours up with fruit! 

Finely chop your kisses, and sprinkle them on top as well. It's that simple! Serve & Enjoy!

Yum!!

Loaded Rice Krispies

Here is a pic of my loaded treats while my chocolate was still gooey. Yum!!

Loaded Rice Krispies...these things are A-MA-ZING! Seriously. So quick and easy, but very very good. I originally got the idea from Mix and Match Mama, but once I made them and tasted them, I realized that I've had them before! I've also seen several similar recipes on Pinterest. If you have a mom, aunt, or grandmother, chances are one of them have a recipe similar to this. I like to call them Loaded Rice Krispies because they are loaded with yummy goodness, but I've also heard them called Scotch-a-roos, and Chocolate Butter Scotch Rice Krispies. If you want to see Shay's original recipe, you can find it here.  I tweaked and combined the recipes that I found, and here's how I made mine:

Ingredients
For the treats:
1-10 oz. bag of mini marshmallows
4 tablespoons of butter
1 cup peanut butter
5 cups Rice Krispie Cereal

For the topping:
1 cup chopped Hershey pieces (I had some Easter candy I needed to use up, so I chopped 4 solid Hershey's bunnies, and used them. You could chop up a regular Hershey's bar, use kisses, or even use milk chocolate chips.)
1 cup butterscotch chips (If you don't like butterscotch, you could use all milk chocolate, or use peanut butter chips, or even white chocolate chips if you wanted)
1/4 cup chocolate chips (or chocolate chunks, or M&M's, or sprinkles...whatever you like!)


To make them, start by melting your butter in a big pot on the stove. Once your butter is melted, dump in your marshmallows. Stir to coat them in butter, and leave them on the heat until they are melted. Once the marshmallows are melted, turn off your burner and remove the pot from the heat. Mix in your peanut butter. Then mix in your Rice Krispies, a cup or so at a time. Next, spray your 13x9 pan, and spread your Rice Krispie mixture out into the pan. Press your treats down so they are compact and flat. You can use a spatula for this if you don't want to get your hands sticky.

Press your treats down so they are compact and flat. 

For the topping, put your chocolate chunks and all of your butterscotch chips in a small bowl and microwave until melted and stir together. You may want to take your bowl out and stir the chips a couple of times while melting. I heated mine for about 1 minute and 30 seconds. Lastly, spread your melted chocolate mixture evenly over the top of your treats. Then sprinkle your 1/4 cup of chocolate chips over the top. Let them cool for about 30 minutes so the chocolate topping can harden. Then serve and enjoy!

Final product.... YUM!!

Mini Cadbury Egg Cookie Bars

Mini Cadbury Egg Cookie Bars...Yum!!

For Easter, I made some Cookie Bars with Cadbury Eggs in them... they were so good! If you know me, then you know one of my favorite desserts is cookies and milk. Especially when the cookies are chocolate chip and warm from the oven. These cookies are basically just a chocolate chip cookie bar, but I subbed mini Cadbury chocolate eggs instead of the chips. I know Easter is over now, but you could use this recipe with milk or white chocolate chips, M&M's, or any candy that you like! I used this recipe on Valentine's Day and made a red M&M Cookie Cake.

Whenever Lee and I were planning our wedding, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law planned a bridal shower for me. My mother-in-law gave me a cook book full of family recipes from both her and Lee's dad's side of the family. 3 years later, this is still one of my favorite gifts, and I use the cook book all the time. This cookie recipe is from that book, and I have just spiced it up a little to make it my own. Here's how I make my cookie bars:

Ingredients:
2 1/2 Cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cups brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened (2 sticks)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup Cadbury Eggs (or M&M's, chocolate chips, etc.)

These are the kind of candies I put in the cookies. 

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Start by mixing the softened butter, vanilla, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together. I used my Kitchen Aid Mixer for this part. Mix the eggs in, one at a time. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Add the flour to your butter/sugar mixture, a little bit at a time. Mix thoroughly. Stir in Cadbury Eggs.

Spray cookie pan, and spread out dough in pan. I use an 11x17 insulated jelly-roll pan for my cookie cake, and I really do think it's what makes the cookies good. It helps bake them evenly every single time. I got mine as a wedding gift, and I believe it came from Kohl's. I can't find the exact one I have online, but here is a similar pan.


Bake your cookies for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Let them cool, cut into squares, and serve!

These cookies were delish! 

Carrots in the Dirt

Aren't these so cute? A fun Easter dessert for the kiddos!

Today, I made these adorable creations to bring to my family Easter parties this weekend! I saw this idea on Pinterest and decided to duplicate it. Here's how I made them: 

Ingredients

• 1 box strawberry cake mix, and ingredients that go along with making the cake. Mine required 1 cup water, 1/4 cup vegetable oil, and 3 egggs. 
• 1 can Hershey's Chocolate Frosting
• about 1 row of Oreos, crushed finely (I put my in my food chopper and crushed them that way)
• 18 cupcake liners
• 18 strawberries
• 1 pound orange colored chocolate
• 18 strawberries
• cooking spray

This recipe makes 18 cupcakes. 

To start, Spray your cupcake liners with cooking spray, and mix your cupcakes according to the cake mix instructions.  Fill your sprayed cupcake liners about 3/4 of the way full with cake batter. Bake your cupcakes according to the cake mix directions. 

Next. melt your orange chocolate and dip your strawberries in them. I melted mine at 50% heat and stirred the chocolate every 45 seconds until it was smooth. Set them on a plate or cookie sheet lined with wax paper to dry.

I split my cupcakes into two batches of 9 so I could have some for two different parties, so here are my first 9 strawberries.

Next, use a melon ball maker and scoop out a small amount of cake from each cupcake. 

Then, put your icing in a baggie with an icing tip and ice the cupcakes around the middle hole. If you want to see step by step instructions on how I ice my cupcakes, check out my Cookies n Cream Cupcakes recipe!

Next, crush your Oreos in a chopper or food processor. I got my food chopper for Christmas several years ago, and used it so much that it finally went out on me. I bought another one on Black Friday for $10 and it was worth every penny! Seriously. If you don't have one of these, you should get one. I use mine several times a week. 

I put my chopped Oreos in a shallow container, and put my iced cupcakes upside down in the cookies. This was a good way to cover the icing with cookies and not make a huge mess. 

Last, add your strawberry to the top and enjoy!! These were a big hit with my family, especially with my niece and nephew!

St. Patrick's Day

Each year, someone in my family hosts a St. Patrick's Day party. My maiden name is McBride, and the McBride side of the family really loves to celebrate our heritage, mostly by drinking green beer and making all kinds of green food. Who doesn't love good food, green beer, and great company? This year, for our annual St. Patty's Day party, I decided to make three things to bring: 

1. Spinach Dip This is one of my favorite dips. I love making it to take places because its quick and easy to make,  can be made up in advance, and is always a party favorite. It's especially great if you have any vegetarians in your group, and is naturally green, so perfect for St. Patrick's Day! 

2. Chocolate Chip Toffee Cheesecake Bars- I know that's a mouthful, but its worth it. These cheesecake cookies are literally heaven on earth, and I easily colored them green for the occasion. 

3. Leprechaun Bait- This is the first time I've made this, but I've seen similar versions on both Facebook and Pinterest so I figured I'd give them a shot. This was a pretty simple recipe, and could be easily changed for any holiday! Add red and pink M&M's for Valentine's day, or red and green M&M's for Reindeer Bait, pastel M&M's for Easter Bunny Bait, or add Reese's Pieces or fall colored M&M's to make it a Halloween dessert! 

My grandparents hosted the party this year, and it was a great day. The weather was nice so we all got to be outside, and we showered my Grandma with a little birthday love by us girls all going to get pedicures. We spent the rest of the day having green food and drinks, and hanging out. Life doesn't get much better than fun times with family. 

Girl Selfie! Here we have a pic of some of the ladies in my family. Up top we have my gma
& my s-mom, and on the bottom we have my great grandma, my sister in law, and myself.
You can see that we are all decked out in our green St. Patty's Day gear! :) 

Chocolate Chip Toffee Cheesecake Bars

Wow! Long name, but 100% amazing. This is one of my very favorite desserts to make. I made it last year for my own birthday and we had my family over to cook out. Mothers day is usually the week after my birthday, and I asked my mother-in-law & sister-in-law what I could bring for Mother's Day and they said more cheesecake bars!! So we ate this dessert two weeks in a row, and have had it several times since then. I made it this weekend for my family's St. Patrick's Day party, and colored the cheesecake part green. I initially found this recipe from Joyously Domestic via Pinterest, and have adapted it a bit to make it my own. Here's how I made it:



Ingredients 

Cheesecake mixture: 
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 8-oz. cream cheese, room temperature
*I also like to use parchment paper for this recipe. 

Cookie portion: 
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup milk chocolate chips 

2/3 cup Heath Toffee bits


Green food coloring if you're making these for St. Patrick's Day


To start, preheat oven to 385 degrees. Mix together the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, salt and vanilla.  I used my KitchenAid Mixer for this, and it save me a lot of work. next dump in your egg and mix thouroughly, then stir in your flour and baking soda. Last, dump in your chocolate chips and toffee pieces. 

Divide mixture in half. Line a 13x9 pan with parchment paper, and spray with cooking spray. Then spread half of the mixture into the pan. I use my handss to do this.  Set aside.

For the cheesecake portion, microwave your cream cheese for 1 minute on 50% power, then put in mixing bowl and mix together the cream cheese and white sugar until fully blended. I used my mixer again for this part  Beat in the egg and vanilla.  Mix until smooth. Stir in a couple drops food coloring if you want to color your cheesecake filling.  I

Pour the cheesecake mixture over your cookie dough, and make sure your cookie is mostly all covered with the cheesecake filling. Then, use your hands and flatten out your remaining cookie on top. I did this by grabbing handfuls at a time, flattening htem out into circles and laying them on top. It's okay if some of your cheesecake is exposed. You want to have the cheesecake mostly covered with cookie, but it doesn't have to be 100%.

Bake for 25 - 35 minutes or until the bars are cooked through and your cookie is light brown. 

Once your cheesecake bars are cooled, remove the parchment paper and place your cookie back in the 13x9 pan. Cut into squares. Store refrigerated. 

Normally the filling is white, but this time I colored it green in honor of St. Patty's Day!

Leprechaun Bait

Every year, someone in my family hosts a St. Patrick's Day party. My grandma's birthday is in March, so we usually make it a joint birthday/St. Patty's day party. Who doesn't love green beer, good food, and great company?! This year, for our annual St. Patty's Day party, I decided to make Leprechaun Bait. 

This is the first time I've made this, but I've seen similar versions on both Facebook and Pinterest so I figured I'd give them a shot. This was a pretty simple recipe, and could be easily changed for any holiday! Add red & green M&M's for Reindeer Bait, pastel M&M's for Easter Bunny Bait, add Reese Pieces for a Halloween dessert, or add any color M&M's to match whatever party you're hosting! Here's how I made it: 

Ingredients

4 cups corn Chex cereal

1 cup pretzels (I used Goldfish)

1 bag microwave popcorn

1 cup M&M's

3/4 package white Almond Bark

sprinkles

Side note: You can use any type of pretzels you like, but I love using Goldfish pretzels because they don't break and get crumbly as easy as pretzel sticks or twists. 

To start, pop your popcorn according to the instructions. I used Movie Theater Butter style popcorn, and I thought this tasted really good with the white chocolate because it was a sweet & salty combo. After you pop your popcorn, then measure out and dump your Chex, pretzels, and popcorn into a large bowl and mix well. 

Next, melt your chocolate in the microwave. I have a glass Pyrex measuring cup that I used to melt my chocolate in. It has a spout on it,and made pouring the chocolate simple and mess free. Once your chocolate is melted, pour it over your mixture and stir until the all of the mixture is lightly covered in chocolate. 

Then, line two cookie sheets with wax paper and spread out your mixture to dry. While the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle on your M&M's, distributing them evenly between both cookie sheets, and throw on your sprinkles. 

Once your party mix is dry, break apart and store in an air tight container. 

Here is a close up of what my Leprechaun Bait looked like. Yummy!! 

I made this for my family's St. Patrick's Day party last weekend, and again on St. Patty's Day for our work food day. When I made it the second time, I ran out of almond bark, so I used half almond bark and half green melting chocolate wafers. This added more green to the mix, and it still tasted great!

This is what the mix looked like with both green and white chocolate melted on top.