what i made for monday- easy cookie brownie oreos (or pb cups)

I've decided that anything hiding an oreo is good stuff. 
You won't be disappointed if you make these.  Not a chance.

All you need is Oreos, peanut butter cups (the normal sized ones may work better but I already had the little ones on hand), brownie mix (mixed up according to directions on the box), a package of "break and bake" cookie dough and muffin tins.  

Smush one cookie dough square into the bottom of each tin. 

Like so...

Add an Oreo or peanut butter cup to the top of each one...

Cover each one with brownie mix.
Bake at 350 for 13-15 minutes.
Devour.  Share.  Devour.  Whatever.  

The Oreo ones were my favorite but it's not like the peanut butter ones were terrible. 
Enjoy!

Idea found on pinterest with no link to original pinner. :) 

what i made for monday-on friday for Sunday-24 hour coconut cake

I posted a sneak peek of my what I made for Monday recipe and was begged to post it earlier in time to make for Easter...and because I aim to please...here it is. 

Enjoy the best and most easy coconut cake recipe ever, throughout the history of man. :) This can be started 48-24 hours ahead of the time you want to eat it.  The earlier you make it, the more tasty it will be.

You will need:
one box of yellow cake mix (and whatever the box calls for to make the cake)
1 and a half bags of shredded coconut (each bag is 14oz each)
16oz of sour cream (I use low fat or fat free)
1 3/4 cups of sugar

Mix together your coconut, sour cream and sugar.  Cover and refrigerate for a day.

The next day, bake the cake according to directions on the box but divide it into three layers instead of the normal two.

When the cake has cooled completely remove one layer and top with 1/3 of the coconut mixture.

Repeat with the next layer...

...and the next layer.

If you want to make it "fancy" you can make a little nest with dyed coconut and some jelly bean eggs.  Just don't put that on there until the day you serve it otherwise it will bleed. 

Refrigerate for at least a day before serving for best results. 

At the very least, make this all the day before, assemble and refrigerate overnight. 

You can also make this sheet cake style.  Bake the cake in a 9 by 14in pan (or whatever size) and before piling on the coconut poke holes all over with a fork or wooden spoon handle. :)

Enjoy!  This is one of my favorite treats but I NEVER get to make it because someone in my house hates coconut.  The nerve. :)

xo

what i made for monday- white queso dip

I know...I usually make sweet treats but this week I decided to take the day off.  Don't worry I have some tasty treats coming up...

But to not leave you completely in the lurch, I'll share this tasty dip that I found via Recipe for Crazy

YUMMY white queso dip! :) It was SO good!

Here is how I made it:
1/2 lb of white American cheese (I got it from the deli)
1/2c of water
1 heaping tablespoon of minced white onion
1 heaping tablespoon of green chiles in your preference of hotness. (Lesley used 1/2 tbl "pickled jalepenos" but the only option I could find for this was a jar that would take me YEARS to use and was almost $5.  The chiles came in a tiny can and cost much less).
I also added a dash of garlic power.  Just a smidge, but you could leave this out. 

In a double boiler (or a pyrex type bowl sitting on top of a pan of water) heat up water to simmering and melt cheese.  Stir consistently.  Once it is all melted give it a couple more minutes of flavor "gelling" time. :)

Eat with tortilla chips.  YUM!  It was so good!  Go! Make this!  Eat it for lunch all by itself, I say it's ok! :)

xo

what i made for monday- white chocolate and toffee oatmeal squares

I don't have a photo of the final product but just know that they are AMAZING.  I found the recipe right up there on the lid of the oatmeal container...they call it "Disappearing Oatmeal Cookies" but I always make them in bar form...I've made them for years now.

You can swap out the raisins for what you have in the cabinets...in this case, I had white chocolate chips and heath toffee pieces.  I've made these with raisins, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, nuts, etc...there is no wrong way to mix it up.

Here's what you need:

• 1/2  cup (1 stick) plus 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3/4  cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2  cup granulated sugar
• 2  eggs
• 1  teaspoon vanilla
• 1-1/2  cups all-purpose flour
• 1  teaspoon baking soda
• 1  teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2  teaspoon sal
• 3  cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
• 1  cup raisins (or sub another ingredient.  for the white chocolate/toffee ones I added one cup of each)

Preparation:
Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well. 

Bar Cookies: Press dough onto bottom of ungreased 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars. Store tightly covered.

Also, I am so thrilled to hear from so many of you that because of "What I made for Mondays" you have started baking things for YOUR husband to take into work!  Yay!

Let me tell you about a little of the impact that "What I made for Mondays" has had in my little world.  I started doing this as a way to extend love to Doug's coworkers.  Just love.  No strings attached, no expectations or reciprocation expected OR desired.  I've been doing it for almost two years now and it's reach is growing.  People look forward to Mondays just a little to see what I will make, they skip lunch to save room, the treats have been conversation starters and welcomes to new people.  The impact at Doug's work has been worth it alone.

But it doesn't stop there.  Since Moses started school I have also taken a portion of the treats and sent a little to each of Moses' wonderful teachers.  This has helped Moses to become a little more confident, shown him how to show gratefulness and thanks to others and has helped him in his social skills just a bit since I make HIM take them in and present them to his teachers.  His teachers LOVE the weekly treats and are always asking for the recipes.  And not only do the teachers love them...but they take the treats home for lunch to share with their husbands, too!  And now their husbands get excited for Mondays, too!

All that and more from a little nudge I was given by God to serve my husband in a simple way.  I'm thankful that God chooses to love me and allow me to serve in a way that I LOVE!

I've always said that "food" is my love language!  

what i made for monday-rolo stuffed cookies!

This week I made rolo stuffed cookies for Doug to take to work.  Sadly and tragically he forgot them at home...oh darn.  These taste best the next day.  Thanks for Six Sisters for the recipe! :)


rolo stuffed cookies!

3 dozen Rolo's 4-5 of the packages sold by the register
1 box Devils Food Cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 c. oil

Mix cake mix, oil, and eggs.

Take a small ball of dough and form a ball around the rolo. Use enough dough to cover the rolo.   About the size of a ping-pong ball!

Place on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 7-8 minutes or until crinkly. Yields about 3 dozen.

That's it!  So easy and SO SO SO unexpectedly good!!

what i made for monday-hoho cake aka OMG cake.

I just know, given the nature of people, that someone out there is either confused or offended that I seem to be going back and forth between exercise/health posts and posting about dessert. 

Well, I am not sure there is a proper defense for this other than, this is who I am.  I exercise.  I eat.  I eat dessert.  I see nothing wrong with baking a yummy dessert.  And eating it.  In case you wonder, when I do make something yummy, 98% of the time I farm out 95% of it.  Yep.  I make something, I get a portion, my family gets a portion and then I send the rest out into the world.  To Doug's coworkers, to Moses' teachers, to neighbors and friends across the country...to people who need a little food lovin'. 

I use food to make people feel loved.  I've said before, it's my love language.  I make food and I share it.  That's what I do.  Food is not the enemy.  I dare say, that if you have an issue with food, chances are you have a completely OTHER issue that you are blaming food for and using food to fix.
That is just my thought and defense on the subject.  Back to some OMG cake, okay?

This cake is called Hoho cake.  As in those little rolled cakes that come premade?  I don't eat them so I can't even tell you who makes them...they are chocolate and cream filled and covered in more chocolate.  Know what I am talking about?  I wasn't sure I would like this cake because I don't like hoho's...but I am SO thankful to have plowed ahead and tried it anyways.  And you will be too!

It is SO SO good!  The "filling" layer is AMAZING and wonderful and is so well complimented by the chocolate cake and the chocolate frosting.  So good.  So.  Good. 

I used a combination of recipes.  You CAN use a box chocolate cake mix if you want to do so...but I'm just not a fan of them.  So...

For the cake I used this one from The Pioneer Woman:
Best Chocolate Cake
Ingredients

FOR THE CAKE:
2 cups Flour
2 cups Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Salt
4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa
2 sticks Butter
1 cup Boiling Water
1/2 cup Buttermilk 
(I didn't have this so I made some using 1c of milk plus one TBL of lemon juice.  
Let it sit mixed for five minutes before using)2 whole Beaten Eggs
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Vanilla

Preparation Instructions: I used 10 by 14in pan coated with cooking spray. 

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt. In a saucepan, melt butter. Add cocoa. Stir together.  Add boiling water, allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds, then turn off heat. Pour over flour mixture, and stir lightly to cool. 

In a measuring cup, pour the buttermilk and add beaten eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir buttermilk mixture into butter/chocolate mixture. Pour into cake pan and bake at 350-degrees for 25-28 minutes.

For the filling/frosting I used these recipes from How Sweet It Is:

For the filling layer:

1 cup butter room temp
1/2 cup milk
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt

Cream butter and slowly add milk and vanilla. Add powdered sugar and salt, beating until mixture is thick, combined and spreadable.  You may need to beat it for some time.  Spread in an even layer on chocolate cake. Set in the freezer for 15 minutes or so while you make the chocolate frosting.

For chocolate frosting:
1/2 cup butter room temp
3/4 cup cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
8-10 tablespoons of water, added one at a time
Cream butter and vanilla. Add cocoa powder and powdered sugar until combined. Add water 1 tablespoon at a time until mixture is easy to spread. 
Remove cake from freezer and frost. Store in the fridge.


Make it this week.  You won't regret it.  Make it and share it.  Give some food lovin'. 

what i made for monday-lemon (y) chex muddy buddies

This Monday snack was inspired by two things...1) my craving for a taste of summer and 2) an abundance of leftover chex mix supplies from Christmas.  The result is a light and fresh tasting snack that I can't seem to stop eating!  Want to make some?

So I knew I wanted to make a version of this...but every recipe I found seemed to have the same complaint...either a soggy result or a bland taste.  So I came up with my own recipe that solved both problems. :) These are light, crunchy and have just enough lemon taste to make it wonderful and lemony.  

Here is what you will need:
12 heaping cups of chex...I used a mix of rice and corn.  Put into a HUGE bowl or a 2 gallon zip bag

1 1/4 cups of candy melts (vanilla) I happened to have yellow in my cabinet
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 tsp of lemon extract
1/4 cup of butter NOT margarine

2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar.

I put in all (except chex and powdered sugar) in my 2 cup glass measuring cup, microwaved for 45 seconds, stirred, microwaved for 30 seconds, stirred, microwaved for 30 seconds (got distracted by something shiny and it bubbled over), stirred until it all became one smooth mix.

If you pay attention to your microwave and aren't distracted by shiny things, you can prevent it from boiling over.  OR you can put it in a larger melting bowl.  BONUS: my microwave is now clean!

Once you have nice smooth melted mix...pour it over your chex evenly and stir it up to coat it all.

If you are using the bag zip it up and shake to coat it all. 

Add 2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar.
Stir until everything is coated with sugar.
If you are using the bag method add the sugar and zip it closed, shake it up again to coat. 

Once everything is thoroughly coated with sugar, dump it out onto cookie sheets to cool completely.
DON'T leave it in the bag...it will make it soggy. 

Enjoy!  That was easy right?  Good luck not eating it.  Be sure to share with friends! Or send some to work with your husband! :)

custom order sunday and what i made for monday-easy caramel popcorn

Here's a double post for you...just so you know I have not given up on custom order Sundays or what I made for mondays...custom orders were still happening and treats are still being made. :)

Here's what I made for this Monday...

This is my friend lauren's caramel popcorn recipe.  This is a (very worthy) repost.  It's not too late to make this for gifts for friends and neighbors. 

 caramel popcorn

 3 bags of microwave popcorn

2 sticks butter; 

2 cups brown sugar; 

1/2 cup light corn syrup (Karo); 

1/2 tsp baking soda; 1 tsp salt; 1 tsp vanilla

pop popcorn and put it in a large roasting pan.

preheat over to 225.

melt butter on medium heat.  add karo, salt and brown sugar.

stir constantly and bring to a boil. 

then leave it untouched for 5 minutes. 

this part freaked me out the most...i was sure it would stick to the pan/burn on the bottom/etc...it did none of those things.

Remove from heat.  Add baking soda and vanilla.  Stir it up until it is all blended and caramelly.  

Once it is all well mixed together...pour it kind of evenly over your popcorn.  Don't worry if everything is not covered...it will get there. 

Put it in the oven for an hour.  Every fifteen minutes get it out and stir it up. 
When an hour is up...remove from the oven and spread out on cool cookie sheets.  Break up any large clumps.  Try to share some. :) 

And here's my favorite custom order of the week...a friend of mine asked me if I could make her daughters drawing into a 3d creation.  The result, I think, is something cute and fun that I hope her daughter will get a kick out of. :)

And here's what our elf has been up to...

 ...making a copy of his little buns...

 ...rolling with his gnomie...

 ...playing a game of scrabble...

 and playing hide and seek with the legos.

And because I can't get over it...please explain to me how we got to this young man stage on the right?

How's your Christmas season?  Crazy or awesome?  Peaceful or insane?

what i made for monday-salted caramel shortbread-on tuesday

Welcome to amazing episode of what I made for Monday.  On Tuesday. 
Say hello to Salted.  Caramel.  Shortbread.
Oh yeah.
It's amazing for little effort.  Amazing.  Let's get to it.

Here's what you need for the shortbread layer:
10 tbsp. salted butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 egg yolk, whisked
1 2/3 cups All Purpose flour

Line an 8 by 8in pan with parchment.  Don's skip this part.
Mix together the first three ingredients.  Then the yolk.  Then the flour.  
When it's all mixed up well, press it into the bottom of the pan. 
Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes until light golden brown. 
While it cools do the next part.  The even easier part.

Here we have:
1/4 cup pf butter melted
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of white sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup (karo)
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
Combine them all together in the LARGEST BOWL YOU CAN FIT IN YOUR MICROWAVE.

Cook for 2 minutes and stir.  Cook for two more minutes and stir.  Cook for two more minutes.  Allow to cool slightly and pour over shortbread. Sprinkle sea salt on top. 

Here's the sea salt I used and the tool I found best to cut them into small 1in squares.  It's technically a spreader of some sort that I got from a local cooking store but I found that a strong plastic "knife" was the best way to cut them.  Before they harden up TOO much.  If you wait too long to cut them you will crumble the shortbread. 

Store in an air tight container.  If they make it that far.  Enjoy! 

Thanks to lovely Beth for the inspire.

what i made for monday-Reese's stuffed oreos.

Cue the Hallelujah chorus.
This is awesomeness in amazingness covered in heaven.
And easy to make as one two three.  And yes, it seems like it might be too much.
But it's not.  It.  Is.  AWESOME. 

Here's what you need.
Double stuff oreos, full size peanut butter cups and Baker's dipping chocolate.
All found at the grocery.

 Get the double stuffs ready.  Twist them apart and put the empty half aside.

 Layer like so.

Dip and cover in chocolate (prepared per directions on the carton).  I used tongs to dip. 
Top with crushed "empty" oreo cookies.  Allow to set.  

Enjoy.  And I mean ENJOY.  It appears that it may be TOO much but one is just right.

And if you are going to gain weight for the holidays anyway, might as well make it worth it right?

(Idea credit goes to Cookies and Cups)

what i made for monday-preacher cookies.

Happy Monday to you!

Here's what I made for Doug to share at work this week...preacher cookies!!  A southern staple, if I may deem them so.  Named such because here in the Bible belt the preacher can come a calling any old time...and when you see him pull into the driveway you can whip these up in a jiffy! :)

As an added bonus to "what I made for Monday", I also steal a few of each item from the batch to send along with Moses for his darling teachers.  Just a teeny, tiny way to tell them we appreciate them.  And since I am already making something for Doug to take to work, it takes almost no additional effort to send some to school, too.  Not that effort should keep us from blessing others...but in this case there is NO reason to not to. :) I keep word file at the ready and fill it in with the name of what I am sending in, print it off and staple it to the top of a sandwich bag. 

And what teacher do you know that wouldn't appreciate a little extra something?

So here's how to make these super simple and YUMMY cookies!

Preacher Cookies

• 1/2 cup butter
• 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups quick cooking oats
• 1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Mix butter or margarine, cocoa, sugar, milk, and salt together in saucepan. Boil for 1 minute.
2. Stir in oatmeal, peanut butter and vanilla. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto waxed paper. Allow to cool and harden.

what i made for monday-naughty donuts

I apologize for what I am about to tell you and encourage you to do.
I made Doug naughty, naughty donuts to take to work today.  
Why are they naughty?  Because they are WAY too easy for the amount of amazing that they taste.
Talk about melt in your mouth amazing and buttery and oh so sweet, sweet, heavenly goodness.
They ARE GOOD. 

Want to make some?
You need canned biscuits (anything BUT the flakey layer kind).
Melted butter in a shallow bowl(4 tbls per 8 biscuits give or take) 
Sugar & Cinnamon in a shallow bowl.
Mixed together in your favorite proportions...I like a nice medium brown mixture.

Veggie oil to fill your pan up to about 1/2in or so. 
Heat up oil for a few minutes on medium heat.
While it is heating up, cut holes in the donuts with a cookie cutter or some other circular object
(stars would be cute too!)

When one side is golden brown, flip with tongs.  When that side is golden remove from oil and place on a paper towel lined pan or plate.
When the donuts have cooled enough to handle...using your fingers dip one side in the melted butter, let the excess drip off, dip in cinnamon and sugar mixture.  Get it nice and coated.  Flip over and repeat for the other side.  

Done.
I ate all of these.


Just kidding.  I sent them to work with Doug.  But I made a practice batch on Saturday to see if they would still be amazing a day later...and they were. :)  And I had more of those than I should.

You are welcome.  Or I'm sorry.