Chunky Monkey Muddy Buddies

I just cannot get how you people are so anxious to jump into the fall season!

S'mores Gooey Butter Cake

You know how trends go in and out? The way they do is so weird, but it kind of makes sense.

Rocky Road Muddy Buddies

When I like something, I crazy like it.

Coconut Macaroon Stuffed Brownies

Okay, so just to get this out of the way, these brownies do not have cherries in them. At all. My mom just stopped buying shredded coconut, and I needed something cool for the photo props and . . . 

Tagalong S'mores

I'm doing this thing in choir called a Solo Ensemble Festival. It's where you choose a folk song to learn, either a solo or in a small ensemble, and perform it in front of some judges.

It's really scary to do. Because, there's like, real judges from the college coming. You actually have to perform your song three times, once in front of the choir, once in front of all the parents, and once in front of the judges.

I haven't done it in front of the judges yet, but today I did my song in front of all the parents.

Oh. My. Goshness. You like, die of fright. I can sing perfectly (well, almost perfect) at home, but when I go up there . . .

You stand. Your mouth is dry. You swallow, but that only makes it worse. You're sweating like a sponge. You feel all the hundreds of eyes on you. Watching you. The pianist starts playing then pauses. Waiting. For something. Oh yeah, she's waiting for you. You open your mouth and a high pitched whinny comes out. You smile huge ( supposedly the smile distracts from the mistake). Your knees are shaking and your voice comes out wobbly. You forget to breath after the word "ceasing" and nearly pass out while holding out the word "love". You keep on singing though. Because what's worse than messing up is not singing at all. Like the girl before you did. So you keep on singing. Your voice suddenly catches in your throat and you smile bigger than the sun. It's a forced smile though, and the audience can tell. You keep on singing, messing up and smiling, until finally, it's over. Finally over. It's very quiet. Still. And then the applause starts. They liked it? They liked that shaky high pitched noise coming out of you? You bow deeply, and walk back to your seat. You finally can relax. For the rest of the evening, people say congratulations and how you did great. And you say thank you and tell them they were good too even thought you have no idea who they are.

That's what you do. And that's how it is.

I always do better at home than I do at performances just because of how nervous I am. But I know that I don't sing horrible, I actually sing okay. I listened to myself on the recording on my dad's phone, and I sound better than okay.

So much better than okay that a lady in the church choir comes up and tells me that she wants me to sing that song in church next week.

And then I start going into panic mode again.

So, what do you do when you have just been told that not only will you have to sing in front of judges, you will also have to sing in front of your whole congregation? Well you go home and make tagalong s'mores.

They're as good as they sound.

Just do it.  (like Nike)

Tagalong S'mores
Tagalong girl scout cookies with a marshmallow in between them. The shortbread in the tagalong is the graham cracker replacement, and the chocolate coating takes place of the hersheys. And then there's the marshmallow too of course.
Ingredients:

• Tagalongs (however many s'mores you're going to make x 2)
• marshamallows (1/2 as many marshmallows as tagalongs)

Directions: Put one frozen tagalong on a wax paper lying on a cookie sheet. Put as many tagalongs as you want on as long as they are frozen. Put a marshmallow on each one. Turn on your oven and watch them toast. It should take about 1 minute, but ovens vary, so just take them out when they're a golden brown. Then place another tagalong on top (does not need to be frozen) and eat.

I discovered making s'mores in the oven a long time ago and still do it alot (except now I kind of like roasting them over the stove more). These are just tagalongs and marshmallows. I know that doesn't really qualify to most people as a s'more, but the chocolate coating = chocolate. The shortbread part= graham cracker. And then the marshmallow is just the marshmallow.

These are definitely some of my favorite s'mores. As in best s'mores I've ever eaten. I love them soooooo much! I love peanut butter chocolate reeses s'mores, and this girl scout version is even better!

Photo Credit: Edited by me, original photo from The Seaside Baker

Samoas Muddy Buddies

Something very bad has happened.

The girl scouts have vanished.

Right in the middle of cookie season.

What! you gasp. But, why, that's just horrible! Secret Baker, how did this happen?

You are right dear readers. This is horrible. Catastrophic really. They have vanished from my town. My state practically. I know this because . . .

There are no girl scouts. Anywhere. No little girls dressed up in uniforms standing in front of Walmart with their pleading puppy dog faces selling cookies.

I have come up with a very realistic solution of how this happened.

One day little Girl Scout Suzy Mae hit's jackpot for cookie selling.


She proceeded to go every year. But one year, she was late. The cookie monster was going into a deprived GS cookie frenzy. As soon as she knocked on his door he burst out, running to the wagon of cookies. He proceeded to eat all of them. The worst part of this is that he was so hungry, he ate every single one. He even ran all the way to the girl scout cookie making people and ate all of those too. He ate all of the ingredients (and then proceeded to jump around and suntan, which is the cookie monster equivalent of mixing ingredients and baking them) so there was nothing left to make cookies with. The girl scout troop just got so sad they decided to leave them gem state and go to Hawaii. They were never seen again.

And that is why I do not have girl scout cookies. But, that doesn't matter, because I went to Walmart! 
Because they have cookies that they make that are pretty darn close to Samoas.

So, Walmart is good in that area (I realize that they are not good in a lot of other areas, but you have to give them credit for having fake GS cookies).

So, I love Samoas (any GS cookie for that matter). And I love muddy buddies.

The two just kind of met, and when they met, it was awesome. Truly awesome Samoas Muddy Buddies.

Samoas Muddy Buddies
Chex mix covered with chocolate and caramel, with toasted coconut and chopped samoas all coated with powdered sugar makes a fun spin on puppy chow.
Ingredients:

• 4 1/2 cups Corn Chex
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup melted caramel (it works better chilled)
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cups powdered sugar 
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup roughly chopped Samoas

Directions:  Into large bowl, measure cereal; set aside. In 1-quart microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, caramel and butter uncovered on High 1 minute; stir. Microwave about 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal and samoas, stirring until evenly coated. Add coconut. Pour into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag. Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper to cool. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.
These are so so soooo good. I love muddy buddies of all kinds, they're just so fun to snack on, but these ones are over the top. With the crunchy chex, the gooey caramel, the and then the whole thing tossed in powdered sugar, you can't just have one bite.

Photo Credit: I edited The Vegan Menu's Vegan Muddy Buddy photos.

Thin Mint Cookie Butter

So. There are sooooo many things to do lately in blog land. St. Patty's day, which means posting lime, and mint. And rainbows. Definitely rainbows. And then don't forget Girl Scout Cookie Season. Time to do thin mints, samoas and tagalongs. And then, just to add to all the chaos, Easter is in March this year. Which means pastels, carrot cake extravaganza, cadbury creme eggs, coconut cream and bunny stuff.

So much to blog, so little time!

Anyways, I decided to start the Girl Scout Cookies first.

It's pretty easy to throw some Samoas out there, but I really wanted to challenge myself this year. I'm doing a Girl Scout Cookie Challenge. Which means I'm going to do one post every day. Each post about every different type of cookie. EVERY cookie. Not just thin mints. Do Si Dos, Trefoils, Lemonades, they're all being included.

To start off, I'll give you a little schedule of everything coming up.

Sunday (today): Thin Mints
Monday: Samoas
Tuesday: Tagalongs
Wednesday: Lemonades
Thursday: Trefoils
Friday: Savannah Smiles
Saturday: Do Si Dos

And then somewhere thrown in the mix there will be Dulce De Leches and Thank U Berry Munches.

Obviously, today is thin mints. You usually don't see me posting thin mint stuff. You actually don't see me posting any kind of girl scout cookie treat besides Samoas. That's because it's always hard for me to find cookies. I feel like Samoas can be used as a flavor combo, caramel, chocolate and coconut. So that's why I do it the most. When people post thin mint stuff without actual thin mints, it bugs me. Because that's just chocolate mint.

So what do you do when you are thin mint less? Why, you buy the cheap Walmart kind of course! They're called Fudge Mint Cremes and are essentially the same thing.

So, I love cookie butter. When I first made it, I kind of didn't know what to do with it. Well, I have the answer. Just use it wherever you would use peanut butter or nutella. On toast, sandwiches, anything really.

Thin Mint Cookie Butter 
A cookie butter made from crushed up thin mints.
Ingredients:

•  15 thin mint cookies (a little more than half the box)
• 2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup heavy cream (more, as desired)
• *optional* mint chips to drizzle on top

Directions: In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade attachment, whiz the cookies until they are fine crumbs. Slowly drizzle in all of the oil and heavy cream with the processor turned on. Stop the processor and test the thickness of the spread. If you'd like it thinner, add more heavy cream, one tablespoon at a time until it gets to the consistency you prefer.
Makes one cup. Store in the refrigerator.

Adapted from Buns in My Oven.

So yeah, I know I say this in pretty much every post, but again, the picture doesn't look like what I made. But it's actually pretty close! Mine was darker, and had a mint drizzle on top (you can see I tried to recreate it in PicMonkey)

The original photos come from Flickr, the person who posted them was PetiteFamily93. She made some raw chocolate mint spread with cocoa powder and mint leaves. Sounds great!

Samoas Magic Bars

I'm in a blogging funk. Every thing I come up with has already been thought of.

Like I just started writing the post for Samoas Smores, and then I see Ashton's blog Sigh.

And then I thought, that's okay, I can post rainbow smores! And then I google it. And it's already been done.


So then I think Okay, minor setback, but that's still okay because I can make an oatmeal cookie shake!
 I think you know where this is headed. Has already been done. 

So, then I finally decide, you know what, I'm gonna make samoa magic bars NO MATTER WHAT. And I will not google it.

Samoas Magic Bars
A new girl scout twist on the ever popular magic bar. With a chocolate or coconut base, it just gets better with every layer adding chocolate chips, coconut, caramel bits, actual samoa cookies and sweetened condensed milk to top off the whole thing.

Ingredients:

• 1 box coconut cake mix (or chocolate if that's all you can find)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 c butter (1 stick)
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 1 cup caramel bits
• 1 cup samoa cookies  (I roughly chopped mine, but you can skip it if you're crunched on time)
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk

Directions: Preheat oven to 350. Spray 9x13 pan with grease. Combine cake mix, egg and butter until it reaches a dough consistency. Press into the pan. Spread/sprinkle the chocolate chips. Do the same with the shredded coconut. Place the caramel bits on top. Then add the samoas. Pour a can of sweetened condensed milk on, and then bake.

I know this recipe calls for samoas. Apparently girl scouts have vanished off the face of the earth where I live because I could not find them ANYWHERE. Luckily the WalMart people made something pretty close. They call it caramel coconut and fudge cookies.


These photos are edited by me, but were originally taken from The Kitchn

Chocolate Chip Cookie Butter

So.


Cookie Butter.

It's a thing. A pretty big thing.

I've never had Biscoff. But I want to. Really want to. Like, REALLY want to.

Because in my mind I'm imagining peanut butter texture that tastes like chocolate chip cookies.

But when looking a little closer at the label, you see this

A deliciously unusual spread reminiscent of gingerbread and made with crushed biscuits.

So instead of tasting like chocolate chip cookies, it tastes like gingerbread and biscuits.

What's better biscuits or chocolate chip cookies? I think the answer is obvious.

So, now I'm kind of over biscoff. I mean, I haven't really tried it, buuuuut.

So, anyways, I took matters into my own hands. I had to do what biscoff wouldn't. I had to make . . . . Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cookie Butter!

OMGosh it is so good! Just imagine biscoff only tasting like cookie dough. After I made it, I was kind of at a loss for what to do. I mean, do I put it on a sandwich or what?

You put it on marshmallows. Or animal crackers. Or anything you want! Just make it!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cookie Butter 
Cookie butter made from crushed up chocolate chip cookies, producing a biscoff like texture that is totally delicious
Serving: Makes 2 cups 
Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups crushed chocolate chip cookies from this recipe (20-25 cookies)
• 4 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil 
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips (I used mini ones)

Directions: Crush the cookies from this recipe in a food processor until they are crumbs. Slowly drizzle in all of the oil and heavy cream with the processor turned on. Stop the processor and test the thickness of the spread. If you'd like it thinner, add more heavy cream, one tablespoon at a time until it gets to the consistency you prefer. Store in the refrigerator.
This recipe is adapted from all over the internet, but the directions are adapted from Buns in my Oven

So. The pictures. PicMonkey has not been working with me lately. It makes all the pictures blurry. Like in the butter pecan bars that I made.  See?


And here's today's

See? Super blurry. So, I apologize, it's just not working. I'm trying to figure it out, hopefully your pictures will be nice tomorrow!

Oh and just in case you couldn't notice from all the links, this is part 2 to the cookies from yesterday.

The photos I used are from when SnapGuide.com. They made a cookie pizza (a "classic" delicious dessert pizza) and this is when they were spreading the dough in the pan. I edited of course, and posted my own recipe, but you should still go check it out!

Almond Joy Magic Bars

 
So, you know how fashion goes through trends? And changes? Like, they used to do colored jeans and scarfs and afros and wigs. And then they switched to bell bottoms. Which turned into flared jeans. And then they did skinny jeans. And now they're doing the colored jeans again.

Well, blogging goes through trends too. Cake batter used to be EVERYWHERE. Now, it's not totally out of "style", but there are different things.

In the fall, everyone was doing BTS Cakes. They still are, but not as much.

Now what everyone's doing is gooey butter cake and magic bars. Actually the gooey butter cake thing was kind of a December thing.

So yeah, magic bars are popular right now. So are 7 layer bars, but they're just harder. All those extra layers and such.  (Okay, so there's one extra layer. That's still an extra ingredient!)

So, to be all trendy, I decided to make some.

Almond Joy ones.

I actually used to hate almond joys. It was just around Easter last year that I started liking them.

And now I can't remember why I ever didn't like them.

I mean, they are just. so. good.
The chocolate. The gooey coconut. The crunchy little almond on top. How could anyone not like that?

So, because I wanted to stay all hip and trendy and do magic bars, but still wanted to eat almond joys, I did both.

I made Almond Joy Magic Bars.

I'm a great multi-tasker don't ya think?

Almond Joy Magic Bars
A fun twist on the popular magic bar. With a brownie crust for the first layer, these just get better by adding almond joys, coconut, almonds, chocolate chips all topped off with sweetened condensed milk.
Ingredients:

• 1 box Brownie Mix (19.5 ounces)
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 8 almond joys, chopped
• 1/4 shredded coconut
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
• 1/4 cup almonds

Instructions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x13” pan with foil and spray with cooking spray. Beat brownie mix, butter, and egg in a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until combined. (Mixture will be thick.) Press into the bottom of the prepared pan. Sprinkle the chopped almond joys, coconut, almonds, and chocolate chips over the brownie crust. Pour the sweetened condensed milk over the almond joy mixture. Bake 28-30 minutes, until edges of brownies begin to brown. Let cool completely before slicing into bars.
MAJORLY adapted from Crazy for Crust



So I'll tell you what all these layers are. So that you'll get really hungry and eat them and like me.

The first layer is a brownie crust. Next is chopped almond joys. Then I add shredded coconut, which is followed by chocolate chips. Which of course is followed by almonds. And then all the deliciousness is drenched in sweetened condensed milk. Of course!

These photos came from Juggling with Julia (she made coconut chocolate almond cookie bars)

Healthy Almond Joy Oatmeal

 
So, this is a dessert that I actually made. Not just thought of, but made. You'd think this means that I'd take pictures, but, my chocolate melted in with the oatmeal, and it looked like something you'd find in a toilet.

So I'm using different pictures.

I've been doing a horrible job of giving credit to the photos I've posted. I'll try to do it on Friday Recap. Sorry!
Anyways, let's get on to the recipe.

So the flavor combo in almond joy is coconut, chocolate and almonds. Just in case ya didn't know. That reminds me of samoas, which is coconut, chocolate and caramel. That makes me think I could do a samoa oatmeal, but that's already been done by Ashton.

I used to think that Samoas desserts were, like, well, actually Samoan. Like from Samoan people. So imagine the word Russian meant peanut butter and caramel. And someone made Russian bread, meaning peanut butter caramel bread. I'd think they were making bread that came from Russia. So when someone posted Samoas oatmeal, I'd think they were talking about oatmeal that Samoan people would eat. So I was majorly confused when Ashton did a Samoas week. Now I get it.

With almond joys though, there has never been any confusion.

So I'm totally used to healthy hot cereal. We have grits for breakfast. But, I'm used to loading it up with sugar. I actually have cut back on that, and don't put as much on as I used to, but I still put some on. Since this recipe is healthy, it didn't have as much sugar. So I added some to mine. So, yeah, mine wasn't as healthy as it should have been. But since I still wanted to be able to post a skinny recipe, I decided to add a low-call sweetener. I used Splenda, you can use whatever you want. I didn't include amounts with the sugar, because it's really up to you and what kind of sweetener you choose.

Either way, this is a breakfast you can enjoy, and still feel good about eating.

Almond Joy Oatmeal

Breakfast that tastes like your favorite candy bar, and is still good for you!

     serves 2    Prep Time:5 min     Cook Time:5 min       Total Time:10 min

Ingredients:

• 1 C old fashioned oats
• 2 C unsweetened, vanilla almond milk (I use Almond Breeze)
• 4 T shredded coconut, unsweetened
• 4 T sliced almonds
• 4 tsp chocolate chips (semi-sweet is best)
• Pinch of salt 
• Low Cal Sweetener (however much you want to add)

Directions: Prepare the oats according to your favorite method, stove top or microwave. Once cooked, stir in the coconut, almonds and salt and top with chocolate chips. You can eat it like that, or sir in the chocolate so it gets melty and gooey.

Adapted from Cookin' Cowgirl