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    This morning, Josh and I spent time looking at pinterest for recipe ideas.  We created a mixture of good ideas, including appetizers, dinners and desserts.  We found a nice chocolate chip cookie recipe that looked insanely easy and insanely yummy.All I needed from the store was baking powder and cornstarch.  These were two ingredients I have yet to add to my baking cabinet and were ones that I've never used in cookies before.  So I was definitely curious to attempt a recipe using these!

    Ingredients:
    - 3/4 C unsalted butter, softened
    - 3/4 C brown sugar
    -1/4 C grandulated sugar
    - 1 egg
    - 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
    - 2 C all purpose flour
    - 2 teaspoons baking soda
    - 1/2 teaspoon salt
    - 1 C bittersweet chocolate chips

    Directions:
    1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
    2. Mixer with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy and light in color.  Add Egg and vanilla and blend well.
    3. Mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt in another bowl.  Then add to stand mixer.
    4. Stir in chocolate chips
    5. Using standard size cookie scoop/tablespoon, drop dough onto baking sheet. 
    6. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until barely golden brown at edges
    7. Remove from oven and let cool completely
Do you have any exciting chocolate chip renditions?? I feel like there could be as many variations as there are days in the year!!

Thanks for baking along!
 
I was perusing through my pinterest recipe board, trying to find a recipe for dinner this week and stumbled across Crockpot Chicken Taco Chili.  This recipe looked not only easy and delicious, but also had good nutritional facts with less than 250 calories per serving!  This recipe is from a cute blog that has LOTS of healthy and easy recipes!
Crockpot Chicken Taco Chili
    Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped (I used minced dry onion and onion powder, as we dont care for the texture of onion in mixes)
1 16-oz can of black beans
1 16-oz can of kidney beans
1 16-oz can of tomato paste (I found 2, 8-oz cans of garlic flavored, YUM)
1 16-oz can of corn
2 14.5-oz cans of diced tomatoes and green chilies
1 packet of taco seasoning
1 tbsp of cumin
1 tbps of chili powder
2 Lg. chicken breasts, skinned
chili peppers (optional)
chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

I prepared all of this the night before, so that when I left for work in the morning, all I needed to do was pour the mixtures into the crockpot instead of wasting time opening up the cans, etc (It worked extremely well!).

Combine the black beans, kidney beans, corn, tomato paste, diced tomatoes and chilies, taco seasoning, cumin, chili powder and chicken into crockpot.  Place chicken on top and cover. Cook on low for 10 hours or on high for 6 hours. Half an hour before serving, remove chicken and shred.  I used another handy thought from pinterest, and placed my chicken into my KitchenAid mixer and turned the mixer on medium.  This is a handy way to shred the chicken in a quick and efficient manor!  Return the chicken to the chili and prepare to serve!  I made instant rice to combine with my chili and added a spoonful of Lite sour cream (to tame the spices down a bit). 
Serving size: 10 oz
Prep time: 5 minutes
Calories: 202
WW points: 4
WW+ points: 5

Thanks for sharing!! Let me know if you have any other yummy crockpot recipes!!
 
Josh had two of his friends come into town to surprise him for his birthday.  All along, I was asking one of the guys what type of cupcake I should make.  And, of course, a response from a typical guy was "umm...we dont need cupcakes."

I took that response, and threw it out the window.  I went onto Pinterest and searched for some cupcake recipes.  I knew a simple cupcake was not going to do it.  So, I searched for "Twix" cupcakes since Josh's favorite candy bars are Twix. And, of course, I stumbled across a delicious recipe...THANK YOU PINTEREST!!!

So I started with this recipe Twix Cupcakes and went to the grocery!!

Twix Cupcakes
    Ingredients
1 box of chocolate fudge cake mix (using all the necessary ingredients: eggs, oil, water)
1 box of Jello chocolate fudge instant pudding
1 Cup sour cream
2 pkgs of Keebler Simply Shortbread Cookies (I used 1 pkg)
1 jar smuckers caramel topping (I used smuckers squeezable topping my second batch.  WONDEROUS IDEA!!)
2 bags mini twix bars (I used 1 bag)
Line your cupcake pan with liners and place the shortbread cookies in the bottom of each liner.  Prepare the cake batter according to box directions.  Add dry ingredients of instant pudding mix and 1 Cup of sour cream.  Combine using hand held mixer until all combined.  In each cupcake liner, fill cups 2/3 full with chocolate batter.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes.  Let cool completely and poke a hole into each cupcake center.  Use caramel topping to fill hole in each cupcake.  Do not overfill, but make sure the caramel rises to the top of the cupcake.

Caramel Buttercream Frosting
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 tsp of vanilla
half jar or container of smuckers caramel topping
2 lb bag of powdered sugar

To prepare frosting, add melted butter and vanilla into mixing bowl. While mixing, add half of powdered sugar and remaining caramel topping into bowl.  Continue mixing on medium to medium-high speed. Continue adding powdered sugar until desired thickness of frosting achieved. Frosting needs to be thick enough to not drip off of mixing beater. When frosting is at desired thickness, place into piping bag (or I use a ziploc bag and cut a hole at the tip) to pipe the frosting on the cupcakes.  Crunch/pummel/demolish the mini twix bars (using meat tenderizer was a good choice) and sprinkle the mini Twix pieces onto the top of each cupcake.  Serve and ENJOY!
These turned out to be not only a huge hit with the kids, but the adults also LOVED them! And Josh's friend that told me we didn't need cupcakes...well, he had a few himself ;-)

I ended up making more batter and frosting to create as a Thanksgiving dessert.  Needless to say, they were delicious the second time as well!!

Hope this inspires you to make some yummy treats!!