S'mores Cookies

 Sunday we grilled out with friends.  I have really been enjoying the beautiful weather and our pergola!  We have spent many hours outside already.  I was looking for a quick and easy cookie recipe when I stumbled across this one.  I had everything in my pantry, including all the chocolate that was in Brooke's Easter candy stash.  Landon said they were great - except for the cinnamon.  It was a little weird to him.  I thought the cinnamon was unusual for a chocolate chip cookie recipe right AFTER I added it.  I'll leave it out next time.  Brooke had no complaints.  My sweet little girl who had the same bite of chicken in her mouth for almost 2 hours, devoured 2 of these in about 5 minutes.  That girl doesn't eat anything fast.  Hope you enjoy this recipe, as well as many summer nights to come!

S'mores Cookies

from The Girl Who Ate Everything

Ingredients:

11 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened (i used salted and cut the salt in half)

1 cup brown sugar, packed

½ cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon (i will leave this out next time!)

2 ½ cups flour

1/2 cup semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips

1 cup mini marshmallows

3 regular sized Hershey’s bars, broken into pieces

1-2 packages graham crackers, broken into squares

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line baking pans with parchment paper. 

Lay out graham crackers side by side on the pans as close as possible (they should be touching). If you want your cookies thicker you will use more dough and less graham crackers.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, sea salt and cinnamon (if using). 

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter with white and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixer and combine on low speed.

Fold in the chocolate chips and marshmallows. Chill dough in refrigerator for 1 hour to overnight (I didn't chill the dough, and they turned out fine!)

Place tablespoons of dough on graham crackers about 1 – 1 ½ inches apart.  Press down slightly with fingertips.

Bake for 5 minutes then remove from oven to press Hershey’s bar pieces on to the top. 

Bake for 5 – 7 more minutes or until dough is beginning to turn golden brown at the edges. Remove to a wire rack to cool. For clean cutting make sure cookies are completely cool and cut with a sharp knife.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

I must have been in the muffin mood yesterday.  I made a batch of Nutella banana muffins in the morning for the girls to eat fo breakfast.  While I was in the pantry looking or the Nutella, I found this:

Oh my.  I laid the girls down for a nap, and whipped up a batch of these Peanut Butter Chocolate Muffins.  I love having muffins in the freezer for the mornings when I don't have time to make breakfast for the girls.  Here's the recipe...

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

(Baking Bites)

Ingredients:

2 1/4 c flour

2 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

2/3 c brown sugar

6 T Butter, melted and cooled

1/2 c peanut butter (dark chocolate, regular, crunchy)

2 eggs

1 c milk (i used skim and they turned out fine!)

3/4 chocolate chips 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375.  Line or grease a 12 cup muffin tin.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and brown sugar.

In a separate bowl, mix together the butter, peanut butter, eggs and milk until smooth.  Pour over the flour mixture and stir until combined.  Stir in the chips.

Divide the batter between muffin cups - fill them up to the top!  Add a couple chocolate chips to the top of the batter too! The will dome nicely this way.

Bake for 17-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean and the top of the muffin springs back when you press it.  

Cool....and enjoy!

The Pergola Project

Our backyard before:

 Landon dug up all the brick and we sold it on craigslist.  :O)  Phil, Landon & Derek poured the concrete in that area, and we were ready to build!  

When I say "we" I meant "they".  The only part I had in the project was to pick out the design.  I looked up pergolas on google searching for the perfect one. I fell in love with the pergola pictured below (minus the shutters) and showed it to Phil (My father in law).  This one really caught my eye because of the curved arches. I wasn't sure if he would be up for building it, but he had the plans drawn the next day.  I'm pretty sure ours looks identical, and it also saved us at least $3,000.  

The men hard at work.  

I'm so excited to reveal our finished product!  I can't wait to string some lights and make this a fun party place!  We are already enjoying it  SO much!  A HUGE thank you to Landon's dad and my hardworking husband for putting a huge smile on my face every time I look into our backyard.

Choosing Gratitude

                                                   

I'm reading the book "Choosing Gratitude" by Nancy Leigh Demoss for the second time this week.  It is an amazing book, and it is teaching me a lot.  If you have time, you should definitely pick up this book and read it!

Here is an excerpt from Chapter 3:

"Oh Lord, please forgive me for so often being forgetful of your goodness, for acting as if I deserve anything more (or different) than what I have received, for sinfully comparing myself and my blessing with others', for being oblivious to so many expressions of your grace, and for allowing roots of pride and ingratitude to grow up in my heart.

Forgive me for the many times and ways I reflect negatively on Your character and Your goodness, by verbalizing discontentment and murmuring to others.

Grant me a spirit of true repentance and heart that is always abounding, overflowing in gratitude towards you and others."

Wow.  Do i ever need to APPLY this to my life, memorize it and pray it 10 times a day.  When I am cooking for picky eaters, cleaning up after babies who throw their food on the floor, get up several times in the middle of the night to tend to Brooke who is struggling with night terrors, when I feel unloved, when I start to compare, when I feel hurt.  I want to be thankful to God for EVERY situation that He allows in my life.  The ones that I enjoy are the easy ones to be thankful for.  It is the trials that I need to give thanks to Him so that my heart will be changed and I will see that I am right in the middle of His will.

Buy the book here.  I wish I could post everything that stands out to me...but that would be the entire book.  so go buy it...it's a goodie.  :O)

Crispy Coconut Cookies

Two weeks ago I cut out diet coke AND sugar from my diet.  I have been enjoying water, green tea and fresh fruit to fulfill all those cravings.  Thankfully, I don't miss either one!  Here comes the real test...making cookies for my family!  Cookie dough is my favorite treat.  I will make cookies, only so I can sample the cookie dough.  :O)  I made these crispy coconut cookies dipped in chocolate and Landon loved them!  I was tempted, but I stayed strong!  I just grabbed a few raisins and kept on baking!

Here's the recipe...hope y'all have a great weekend!

Crispy Coconut Cookies (allrecipes)

What you'll need:

1/2 cup butter

1/1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 t. vanilla extract

1 cup flour

1 cup crushed cornflakes 

1 cup oats

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. baking powder

1 1/3 cups flaked coconut

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream the butter and sugars until smooth.  Stir in the egg and the vanilla.  In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and add to butter/sugar mixture.  Add the oatmeal, cereal and coconut and mix until combined.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes until the cookies are light brown at the edges.  Leave them plain, or dip in melted chocolate.  Enjoy!

Easy Homemade Peanut Butter

We got through a lot of peanut butter in our house.  I love the simplicity of making my own peanut butter.  No added sugar, preservatives or oil!  I use stevia in my peanut butter to add a little sweetness and always make at least half of it into dark chocolate peanut butter by adding dark chocolate cocoa powder.  :O)  Antioxidants, right?!?

All you need are peanuts and a food processor.  The food processor does all the work!  Just add the peanuts and allow it to grind them until it turns to peanut butter.  It will turn into a thick paste like in the first picture, but after about 4-5 minutes you will have creamy, warm and fresh peanut butter!  Use honey roasted peanuts, add some sugar, salt, stevia or chocolate to your peanut butter according to your preference. Keep it refrigerated.  If you need it softened, give it a warm water bath for a few minutes.  Mine doesn't make it to the bread...I just grab a spoon.  :O)

Plain & Dark Chocolate.  I am hoarding the jar to the right.  :O)

Wishing time would slow down...

The more I try to hold on to these moments when the girls are small, the faster they seem to fly by.  Time began to move much more rapidly once the twins were born.  I took the girls for a trip to the zoo this week.  Besides wishing I would have invested in a triple stroller, we had a fun time together and made some sweet memories.  Once I got home and loaded my pictures, I realized I had taken some simliar pictures of Brooke a couple years ago.  It was so fun to look back at how much she has grown.  It makes me smile...and tear up at how grown up she is.

 By the penguins.  This has always been her favorite exhibit!

On the turtle...wishing time would slow down! 

Getting ready to go into the rainforest.  Love her smile here.  

All my girls together...then and now.  amazing.

I'm so thankful for my trusty camera that has captured all these precious moments with my girls!