Salted Caramel Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies
For the last few years, we have had a cookie exchange with the girls at work. Every year, I try to make my own cookie. Last year, mine turned out so bad that I had to throw them away. It was a really simple recipe, so I’m not sure what possessed me to attempt to make a cookie from scratch this year. I followed the recipe EXACTLY the way that I found it on The Diary of Dave’s Wife website.
We also do a gift exchange at the party. I brought a leopard print santa hat and an iTunes gift card. I LOVE doing white elephant exchanges, but I always stress about what I’m going to bring. I have decided that everyone needs gift cards, so that is going to be my new go to for the future exchanges. At first I got the movie Elf and a thing of syrup in the exchange, but someone ended up stealing that from me. They didn’t want the syrup, so I ended up going home with syrup, a bottle of wine, and a corkscrew with a mustache top.
Ingredients:
3/4 cup unsalted butter, (softened)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups of all purpose flour
2 tsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup Kraft caramel bits
1/2 cup crushed pretzels
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
cream the butter and sugars together
Add egg and vanilla and blend it all together
Mix the flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt
Stir in the chocolate chips, caramel bits, and crushed pretzels
Drop the dough on to a cookie sheet. The cookies don’t spread a lot, so you can put them fairly close together. I kind of smooshed them down a little bit on the cookie sheet and then added salt on top of them.
Bake for 8 – 10 minutes or until kind of browned around the edges. (Don’t over bake)
S’mores Bake
There is something about a s’more that puts me in a good mood! I’m not sure if it’s the chocolate or the crispy marshmallows, but either way, they make me happy! Unfortunately, I’m not around a campfire very often, so I rarely get the opportunity to actually make a s’more. I found this recipe on Pinterest that allows you to make a s’more in the oven, so I had to try it out for Thanksgiving. I liked it so much that I’m planning on making it again for my potluck on Wednesday.
Ingredients:
Graham crackers
Cookie Dough
Chocolate
Marshmallows
Line the pan with graham crackers
Cover with cookie dough, (I bought premade cookie dough) Cook this for about 10 minutes at 350.
Put chocolate on top of the cookie/graham crackers
Cover with marshmallows
Cook the whole thing in the oven at 350 until the marshmallows are browned a little – or to taste.
Jalapeño Creamed Corn
Thanksgiving has never been one of my favorite holidays. I am thankful for all the wonderful blessings in my life, but I really don’t like a lot of the Thanksgiving foods and I don’t like big meals. I’ve never cooked or done much to contribute to the meal in the past, but since I have started cooking a little bit, I decided to bring a side dish. I don’t think I will ever be as brave as my sister who has the same cooking ability as me, but managed to cook an entire turkey by herself. Not only did she cook it herself, it was one of the better turkeys I’ve ever eaten! I was really impressed!!
Everyone also seemed to be really impressed with my jalapeño cream corn dish. We were so hungry before everything was ready that people started eating it as a dip with crackers. It made for a wonderful appetizer AND side dish!! I found this recipe on my favorite website, pinterest. Thank you to Blogher for posting the recipe AND for getting pinned!
Ingredients:
3 cans of corn (drained)
1 stick of butter (room temperature)
1 block of cream cheese (room temperature)
3 Jalapeños (Cut and cored, remove all the seeds to get rid of the kick)
2 cups of sharp cheddar cheese
Cut and core the jalapeños, get rid of all the seeds, unless you want a kick to it.
Put all of the ingredients together in a casserole dish.
Mix it all together and put in the oven at 350 for about 45 minutes.
If you get rid of the seeds from the peppers, even the kids can eat this. It’s not spicy at all!! This is a great side dish to bring to a pot luck, also!!
Mexican Chicken Casserole
I’m still trying to make a dish that I can eat when I get home from work, but the biggest problem I have is that I make all this food and then life gets in the way of me eating my creations. I made this casserole on Monday and here it is Thursday and I’ve only eaten it once. I think tomorrow I will bring some of it to lunch or maybe I will even eat it for breakfast. The one time I got to eat this, I really enjoyed it. I recommend it as a keeper recipe since it’s good and REALLY easy to make! I found this recipe on the Paula Deen website and made a few adjustments to meet my tastes.
Ingredients:
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 can of cheddar cheese soup
2 cans of rotel (I drained the second can)
1 whole cooked chicken cut up in pieces, I bought a pre-made chicken at Target
6 flour tortillas
Enough cheddar cheese to cover the top of the casserole
Mix the three soups, rotel and chicken in a bowl.
Spray the pan with pam, then put tortillas down for the bottom layer
Put a layer of the soup/chicken mixture on the tortillas, then repeat tortilla then mixture ending with the tortillas on top
Put a layer of cheese on the tortillas
Cook in the oven on 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until cheese starts to brown
Enjoy a great meal!!
Doc’s
If you are looking for somewhere to go eat on a Tuesday night, I highly recommend Doc’s. They have a pan-fried nacho special for $5.00 and it is heavenly!! As much as I LOVE nachos, I never get them when I go out to eat. My microwave nachos are always better. I have finally found some that are worth ordering!! My friends thought I was crazy when I ordered a plate for myself because they didn’t think I could eat them all by myself. Well, they were wrong!! I ate every last bite and wanted more, they were soooo good!!! They also have $2.50 beers on Tuesday too, but the nachos make it worth the trip!!
Taco dip
I really didn’t have time to make a meal for the week on Sunday, so here it was on Tuesday and I still had nothing. I decided that I would throw caution to the wind and make myself something that I would enjoy and not worry about how healthy it was. Naturally, my meal would have to include chips, so I decided I would make a taco dip. This is a really easy thing to make. When it was done, it reminded me of Bob Armstrong dip from Matt’s, but without the guacamole. I may have to stop by and get some guacamole from the store to add to my dip when I eat it again tonight!
Ingredient:
1 – 2 lbs. of ground round
2 packets of taco seasoning
Sour Cream
Velveeta 2%
Chips
Brown the ground round and add taco seasoning, follow directions on the bag.
Put the taco meat in a casserole dish. Layer sour cream on the taco meat.
Cover the taco meat with sour cream
Layer slices of velveeta cheese on top of the sour cream.
Put in the oven at 375 for about 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.
Take a scoop of the dip and put it in a bowl. Mix it up and dip your chips!
Butcher paper costumes!
One of my favorite things we do at my school is our annual costume parade! Every year, our office dresses up in home-made costumes and marches through the halls with the rest of the kids in the school. The younger students are on parade while the older students pass out candy to them. Everyone has a great time and the parents even join in the fun! This year’s costume was one of the easiest to make. All we used was butcher paper, glue and yarn! We did all of this without patterns or even trying to draw it first. I can also tell you this is one of the best parades we ever had. Almost all the kids dressed up and brought candy! It was big fun for all!
The play-doh’s were home made from butcher paper also!
Pigs in a Blanket
I know that everyone knows how to make pigs in a blanket, but just in case you don’t, you need to! These tiny kolaches have to be the best weekend breakfast food ever. They are also so easy to make that I highly recommend them!!
Ingredients:
Little smokey sausage (I got the ones that had cheese in them)
Can of biscuits
Pop the can of biscuits and cut the biscuits in half. Wrap a half biscuit around each smokey. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 – 12 minutes. That’s it!! Eat them up!! You can even put them in a baggie, put them in the fridge, and eat the left overs throughout the week!
Cauliflower Crust Pizza
One of the biggest problems with going on a low carb diet is that you can’t eat pizza. I’m not that big of a pizza eater, but I don’t like to think that I can’t have something, so when I saw a recipe for cauliflower crust, I figure I had to try it! When I tried the South Beach diet a few years ago, I would make the cauliflower mashed potatoes and it was awesome! It was one of my favorite things on the diet. Well, I’m excited to say that I have a new fun way to eat cauliflower now!!!
Ingredients:
Cauliflower Crust:
2 Eggs
2 Cups of Mozzarella Cheese
2 Cups of Shredded Cauliflower
2 Garlic Cloves, Minced
1/4 Cup Julienned Basil
Pinch of Salt an Pepper
Toppings:
Pizza sauce
Mozzarella Cheese
Sliced Tomatoes
Sliced Onions
Sliced Mushrooms
Basil Ricotta
Basil Ricotta:
1 Cup Ricotta
1 Tbsp Chopped Basil
Pinch of Salt and Pepper
Mix the cauliflower crust ingredients in a bowl.
Spread the cauliflower crust ingredients on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper and sprayed with Pam. Bake the crust at 450 for 15 minutes. While you are waiting, prepare the toppings.
Mixe the basil ricotta
Slice the toppings.
Take the cauliflower crust out of the oven.
Put the toppings on the crust. Pizza sauce, then cheese, then tomatoes, then onions, then mushrooms, then basil ricotta.
Bake for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.
Slice off a piece of pizza.
Eat it up. It’s a great substitution for real pizza. I would suggest adding more salt and pepper for taste and I think that some other toppings might spice it up a little bit!
Will sell home for money!!
This is the best realty vlog I’ve ever seen. Make sure to watch it. If you need a realtor in the DFW area, you may want to give these weirdos a call!!
Fabulous after FIFTY 