Heath Bar Crunch Cookie Bars

Happy Monday!  Today I am blogging about some fantastic Heath Bar Crunch Cookie Bars that I made last week. I was going to blog about them on Friday, for my Friday Dessert post, but instead this pink mama was in the emergency room all day!  After a very long Friday, at 2:00 a.m., I had my appendix removed during emergency surgery.  Not what you would call a fun weekend, but I am thankful to be healthy and at home with my family!  I am so blessed to have an amazing husband and father who sat with me at the ER all day long and an awesome mother and sister who stayed at my house with the girls all day long!  I am also equally fortunate to have a mother-in-law who stayed overnight with my girls so that John could be at the hospital with me!  And of course, I cannot forget my father-in-law and brother-in-law who brought me a delicious chocolate chip muffin (after not being allowed to eat for about 36 hours) and a huge stack of magazines to keep me busy!  God has blessed my life with two families who weave together to create a support system that is unparalleled!  I love you all!

So back to this fantastic dessert that you just have to make!  It is very special to me because my original Heath Bar Crunch recipe, which I will share at a later date, is the dessert that made John fall in love with me!  The first time I met him, I had made a batch of this awesome dessert.  He ate it and loved it.  I sent some home with him so that he would eat more of it at home, love it even more, and think about me enough to call me and ask me out...which was exactly what happened!  And the rest is history!

You already know that I love cookie bars, so I knew that I needed to make a cookie bar based on this dessert.  And I knew that the cookie bar needed to be easy and quick...using a cake mix as a base!

Here's What You Need to Make the Heath Bar Crunch Cookie Bars:

• 1 box vanilla cake mix (I used French Vanilla...you can use vanilla/golden/yellow/etc.)
• 1 stick butter, melted
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1 bag Heath Milk Chocolate Toffee Bits (you will find these in the baking aisle right next to the chocolate chips)

Now Let's Make the Heath Bar Crunch Cookie Bars:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 pan
2. In a large mixing bowl combine cake mix, melted butter, and 2 eggs until thoroughly incorporated
3. Fold in chocolate chips and heath bits
   
4. Spread mixture evenly into prepared pan
5. Bake for 20 minutes
6. Remove from oven and use the back on a spatula to press the cookie mixture into the pan (this creates a more cookie like texture)
7. Return to oven for an additional five minutes
8. Remove from oven and press down with back of the spatula again, flattening the cookie bars evenly (trust me this extra step makes them more dense and cookie-like)
9. Place pan on rack to cool completely
10. Cut into squares and Enjoy! 

Easy Pumpkin Muffins

For me, fall is all about Pumpkin Flavor!  If you have been reading my blog lately, you will have already seen my recipe for Pumpkin Bread.  That bread is a delicious and healthy "from scratch" recipe that will easily satisfy your pumpkin craving while getting you in the mood for the season!

This recipe for Easy Pumpkin Muffins uses a mix and only has 4 ingredients!  Yes, I said 4!!!  They are so simple to make that you can whip them up before the kids wake up, while the kids are napping, even during a TV commercial break!  They are also delicious!

Since I use a cake mix for a base, these are not "clean" or "whole food" based.  You can go back to my recipe for pumpkin bread if that is what you are looking for!  However, these are much faster to make!  They are also very light because they contain no eggs and no oil!

Here's What You Need to Make the Easy Pumpkin Muffins:

• 1 box white cake mix
• 1 can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling, just plain pumpkin like the kind by Libby's)
• 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 cup mini white chocolate chips
  
  Yup!  That's it! 
  
  
  
  

Now Let's Make the Pumpkin Muffins:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line 18 muffin cups with paper liners
2. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the cake mix and pumpkin until combined
3. Add the pumpkin pie spice and mix well
4. Fold in the white chocolate chips
5. Divide batter evenly into muffin tins
6. Bake for 20 minutes (until muffin tops are firm)
7. Remove and cool completely in pans before turning out and storing 

These muffins came out fantastic!  They are healthy enough to eat at breakfast but sweet enough to serve as a snack or dessert!  Lacie has been enjoying them at afternoon snack time!

Now I will often tell you to use what you have in your pantry, and this recipe is no exception!  You could easily replace the white cake mix with yellow or vanilla cake mix.  If you do not have pumpkin pie spice, just use cinnamon/nutmeg/ginger to taste (and you can actually taste the batter because there are no raw eggs - YAY).  If you do not have white chocolate chips (or you do not like white chocolate) you can use regular chocolate chips!  I love the mini chips because they really melt into the cupcake, but regular size chips would work too!  You can even leave out the chocolate chips or replace them with nuts (like Pecans or Walnuts).  We avoid tree nuts at this point because of Lacie's peanut allergy plus they create a choking hazard for kids under the age of 4!  However, you should use what your family likes best because that will usually be the ingredients that you have on hand anyway!

By the way - these freeze great!  Just wrap each muffin individually in saran wrap and place into a freezer bag!  Then pull out one at a time when you need something to throw in a lunchbox or want a quick breakfast on the go!

Enjoy!

Weekend Review

Happy Monday!  It was freezing in New Jersey this morning!  I think I was being optimistic when I decided to leave half summer clothes and put half fall clothes in the girls' dressers...looks like I will be packing away all of the cute dresses and shorts outfits until spring!  Even though I don't love the cold weather, I do love fall holidays, so I thought that it was time to put the girls in their first Halloween outfits of the season!  This will be Blakely's first Halloween!  It is her only "first" holiday left before she turns 1!!

It is getting increasingly hard to get them to sit together long enough for a picture!!! 

Sweet B

We had a busy and fun weekend even though we were missing Daddy!  John was away in Memphis, TN with his dad and his brother!  So the girls had lots of quality time with Mommy, Nana and Pop-Pop (my parents), Aunt Laura, and Grandmom (John's mom).  I am so blessed with a family who is always willing to come over and help out or just keep me and the girls company!  What do I need help with you may ask?  See Sweet Blakely in that picture up there?  Yeah, she's not so sweet at bath time!  Someone needs to hold her down while someone else washes her hair!  I love her always in spite of that. 

On Saturday, I took Lacie to Sesame Place for some one on one time with Mommy!  She always has a blast riding the carousel!  As soon as the carousel starts slowing down she is already saying "More" "Again" and her newest "Lacie's Turn" while she points to herself!  

The girls and I also went out for a bit of shopping!  Imagine my surprise when I picked up this wrapped cookie in the check out line at the Barnes and Noble Cafe (mama needed a coffee) and the back of the cookie stated that it was "Nut Free."  Needless to say, I had to buy one for Lacie!  Little things like this make food allergy mamas so excited! Lacie enjoyed every single bite!  Way to go Barnes and Noble for being inclusive for people with peanut and tree nut allergies!

I found this gem on an end-cap in Wegmans!  I love Funfetti, and I love it even more when it is holiday or seasonally themed!  So I decided to mix up a batch of Lacie's Lazy Funfetti Cookie Bars to surprise John with when he got home (which he promptly ate 3 of along with a cup of coffee).  The only thing I changed was using regular milk chocolate chips instead of white chocolate chips!  I felt the look of the chocolate went better with the Halloween theme! 

YUM!!!

Tomorrow, I will be sharing an easy pumpkin muffin recipe!  Have a Happy Happy Monday!

A Healthy Snacktime - Kale Chips

Kale seems to be a super popular veggie at the moment.  I've already disclosed that I do not like many vegetables...  Now fruit I love, I could eat fruit all day!  Veggies not so much!  But everyone is talking about how great kale is - kale chips in particular.  So I made them and gave them an honest try.  They're okay and I will eat them in order to get in a serving of veggies....

But guess who LOVES kale chips???  Lacie Jane!  She eats them with enthusiasm!  I truly believe that she is the least picky child on this planet!  Now before you say that you hate me - don't worry - Blakely makes me work up a sweat at every meal with her pickiness...so it's not all roses at the dinner table at our house!  When it comes to Lacie I think we just got lucky with a kid who loves to eat anything from desserts to veggies with an equal amount of excitement.  Seriously, last night Lacie got to eat one of these Butterscotch Neiman Marcus Bars for dessert...and do you know what she did when she finished the bar?  She searched around her bib and her highchair to find a few fallen peas from dinner and ate them too!

Now back to the Kale Chips.  They are super simple to make, but only make as much as you can eat in one day because they don't store well.

Here's What You Need to Make the Kale Chips:

• 1 bunch of Kale (I used organic)
• extra virgin olive oil
• Himalayan Pink Salt (see picture below) or sea salt 
  

Now Let's Make the Kale Chips:

1. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees
2. Remove ribs from your kale and tear into small pieces
3. Rinse kale well and dry (you can use a salad spinner to make this step a breeze)
4. Spread kale on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil (I use a refilable spray bottle - it was $5 at Wegmans - with EVOO to make sure the kale gets coated evenly...see picture above)
5. Sprinkle with salt 
6. Bake in oven for 15 to 20 minutes until crisp (your cook time will depend on how much kale you put on your baking sheet)

Enjoy on the same day you make them!  They get kind of soggy if you try to store them...and that really takes away from the "chip" aspect!

Happy Happy Friday! 

Blakely's Butterscotch Neiman Marcus Bars

I love any type or bar - cookie bars, candy bars, etc.  I also love to use cake mix as a base for whipping up a quick dessert recipe!  Enter this delicious recipe for Butterscotch Neiman Marcus bars that I found at Mix and Match Mama's blog.

What are Neiman Marcus Bars?  They are a cookie bar with a cheesecake type layer...except the top layer never fully sets so it's creamier than cheesecake!!  They are gooey and delicious!  I have also heard them be referred to as Chess Squares, Gooey Butter Bars, and Texas Gold Bars.

I don't think that I have had a Neiman Marcus bar since college, but after coming across the recipe for them I haven't been able to stop thinking about making a batch!  These bars are super easy to make!  You start by making a dough with boxed cake mix, butter and eggs - just like in my funfetti cookie bars!  But then you add a delicious cream cheese topping which makes these bars gooey and wonderful!  Add in butterscotch flavor, and well, they are just fantastic!

Here's What You Need to Make Blakely's Butterscotch Neiman Marcus Bars:

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1 stick butter, melted
• 4 eggs
• 1 box powdered sugar
• 1 block cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 bag of butterscotch chips

Now Let's Make the Bars:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease (I used Pam) a 9x13 pan
2. Mix together your cake mix, butter, and 2 of the eggs (this is your first layer)
3. Press this mixture evenly into the greased pan
4. In a stand mixer combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, and 2 remaining eggs (you can also use a hand mixer - I just LOVE my kitchen aid stand mixer - it's PINK)
5. Now put 1 cup of your butterscotch chips in a microwave safe bowl and melt in the microwave (I did mine on 50% power for 1 minute) and beat the melted butterscotch into the cream cheese mixture
6. Fold in the rest of the butterscotch chips and pour this mixture on top of the crust
7. Bake in oven for 35 to 40 minutes - the edges should be brown while the center is still wobbly
8. Cool on your counter for 30 minutes then place in the fridge for at least two hours

They are amazing!  I had to give away half so I didn't eat them all by myself! 

Taco Pasta Bake

About a year and a half ago, I signed myself up for a Pinterest account!  I was so excited to have discovered this site - a site where I could keep track of all the recipes that I found online!  No more printing out recipes and then storing the papers in a binder...nope all of the things I wanted to make would be nice and organized on this neat online pin-board!  The very first recipe I ever pinned and tried to make was for Taco Pasta Bake (it is a pretty popular pin).  I was super excited to make it, and I was even more excited to taste that very first bite!  But I was disappointed, and John didn't love it either.  However, I knew that the idea was good...so like usual I changed around a few things and came up with an AMAZING recipe that was much closer to what I had imagined that first bite to be!

Here's What You Need to Make the TACO PASTA BAKE:

• about 3/4 box penne pasta (I always use 100% whole grain)
• 1 pound lean ground beef (you can also use ground turkey)
• 1 packet of taco seasoning (I use Old El Paso Low Sodium)
• 2 cups water
• 6 ounces cream cheese, cut into small cubes 
• 3 cups shredded mexican cheese
• extra virgin olive oil (for cooking the meat and greasing the pan)

Now Let's Make the Taco Pasta Bake

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and coat a 9x13 casserole dish lightly with oil
2. Cook penne pasta in a large pot of salted, boiling water - cook pasta until about 3 minutes shy of al dente (it will cook more in the oven)
3. Meanwhile in a separate pan, cook your ground beef in a bit of olive oil, crumbling and browning the meat until cooked through
4. Add your packet of taco seasoning, water, and cubed cream cheese
5. Stir the mixture until the cream cheese is melted
6. Add pasta to the meat mixture
7. Pour everything into your greased casserole dish
8. Sprinkle one cup of mexican cheese over the top and stir lightly to distribute cheese throughout the casserole (the casserole will look soupy- see picture below - but the liquid gets absorbed during the cooking, creating a delicious and creamy casserole)
9. Sprinkle remaining two cups of cheese on top 
10. Bake in oven for 30 - 40 minutes until casserole is done to your liking
11. Allow to sit and cool for about 5 minutes before serving

When you first pour your pasta/meat/cream cheese mixture into the pan it will look soupy like this but do not panic!  That extra liquid will help the pasta to finish cooking and make your casserole delightfully rich and creamy! 

Your casserole will look like this when done!  Do you see all of that delicious cheese on top?!?

John and I enjoyed our casserole on the couch while watching that days episode of General Hospital (don't judge)!  

I love love love my version of Taco Pasta Bake, and I know that you will too! It is perfect for the cool fall and winter weather!  Plus this makes a lot!  It will feed a large family or a small family with leftovers! 

Mexican Stuffed Peppers and Happy Monday

Happy (rainy) Monday to all my blogies!!!  Yesterday, we celebrated Sweet B's 10 month birthday (yes we celebrate by the month for the first year in our house)!  Daddy had to work which was a bummer, especially on a Sunday, but we squeezed in a quick photo shoot when he got home!

Our sweet girl is getting so BIG! 

She won't sit still for very long anymore! 

When we woke up today, it was off to Target in the rain to get professional pics done!  We did them every month for Lacie's first year and are doing them every month for Blakely's first year too!  After they turn one, we do pics for each half birthday and birthday as well as some holidays!  I know that right now you are thinking to yourself - That's a lot of pictures!  Oh my goodness it is a lot!  I didn't really think it through when I decided to start doing it with Lacie...but once I start something I see it through!  Poor B hates the monthly pics.  Here she is showing off how well she stands on her own while also looking terrified!  Sorry Blakely, one day you will appreciate that Mommy made you take so many pictures! 

Meanwhile, here is my other child, who just couldn't resist jumping in front of the camera and doing her best "cheese" face!  Please pardon her hairstyle...it really looked nice before we ran out of the house in the pouring rain! 

Okay, so back to the meal of the day!  I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE this stuffed pepper recipe!  Now you may be shocked by this, but I am not a huge veggie person.  I would much rather eat carbs (or dessert)!  But sadly as I get older, an all carb diet just isn't cutting it...plus I really want to set a good example for my girls!  So John and I have been making an honest effort to eat more veggies!  And these stuffed peppers are delicious and super simple to make!  Plus, with so many opportunities to use what you have by making substitutions (I suggest a few below), you can whip this recipe up tonight with whatever is in your fridge and pantry! 

Here's What You Need to Make the Mexican Stuffed Peppers (this recipe makes 3 whole peppers - 1 for me and 2 for the hubby - it can easily double or triple for your family)

• 3 bell peppers (I used 1 red, 1 yellow, 1 green)
• 1/2 pound lean ground turkey (you can use ground beef, ground pork, sausage, shredded chicken, etc.)
• 1 cup frozen corn (canned in fine too)
• 1 cups black beans drained and rinsed (use any beans you have on hand)
• 2 tsp. garlic powder (more or less to taste...you can even use fresh I just didn't have any)
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 - 2 cups shredded cheese (I used Monterey Jack but Cheddar or Mexican Blend works just as well)
• extra virgin olive oil 

Now Let's Make the Peppers

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees
2. Slice peppers in half longways (top to bottom) and remove seeds and ribs
3. Place peppers cut side up in a 9x13 casserole dish and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil
   
4. Bake in oven for 25 minutes or until done to your liking - I really like mine to still have a nice bite to them
5. While the peppers are baking, cook, crumble, and brown your ground turkey in a pan with a little EVOO
6. Once cooked through add in frozen corn, stirring for a few minutes until thawed and warmed through
7. Stir in black beans 
8. Add seasoning (garlic, cumin, chili powder, S&P) and stir to distribute spices evenly
9. Remove peppers from oven and preheat your broiler
10. Spoon filling into peppers 
    
11. Sprinkle cheese on top - a little or a lot
12. Place peppers under broiler to melt cheese - keep your eye on the peppers they will go from done to burnt cheese super fast (I like my cheese to be bubbling and slightly browned)

YUM!!!