Nutella Peanut Butter Bars

Stop what you are doing right now and go make these. I'm not kidding. Get up and go to your kitchen! I'm pretty sure you'll have everything you need to make them. We are having a hard time not taking forks and just eating it straight out of the pan. They really are that good. So please for the love of all things gooey and scrumptious, do yourself a favor and make these! You'll thank me...

1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup peanut butter
2 cups oatmeal (not quick)
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
Nutella for spreading

Cream first 3 ingredients together. Add the vanilla, eggs, and peanut butter and combine. Add the remaining ingredients and mix together. Spread dough on a greased cake pan (the pan i used is slightly bigger than a 9x13). Make at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until golden brown. After baked through, dollup about 1C-1 1/2C peanut butter on top. Put back in the oven (make sure the oven has been turned off) for about 5 minutes. Pull the pan out and spread the peanut butter. Let that set up for a couple of hours or a good 30 minutes in the fridge. I just left mine on the counter while we were at church today and they were perfect by the time we came home. This will allow the peanut butter to stiffen up. Once that has set, spread with Nutella. Dive right in, don't forget the glass of milk.

These are divine....in fact....i'm gonna go have another one! :)

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Angel Food Cake

My grandmother used to make angel food cake all the time. It was sooooo good! I have very fond memories of that cake. So when the kids and I were invited to have Mother's Day dinner with some friends I immediately thought of making this cake to bring. I just hope it turns out as good as my grandmother's did!!

Angel Food Cake

• 1 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 3/4 cups white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups egg whites
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Beat egg whites until they form stiff peaks, and then add cream of tartar, vanilla extract.
2. Sift together flour, sugar, and salt. Repeat five times.
3. Gently combine the egg whites with the dry ingredients, and then pour into an ungreased 10 inch tube pan.
4. Place cake pan in a cold oven. Turn the oven on; set it to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Cook for about one hour, or until cake is golden brown.
5. Invert cake, and allow it to cool in the pan. When thoroughly cooled, remove from pan.

ColeSlaw with Corn

This was originally a Paula Deen recipe. I tweaked it (of course) and here's my version!

• 1 head green cabbage, shredded
• 1 pkg shredded carrots
• 5 fresh ears corn,
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• garlic powder to taste
• seasoned salt/pepper to taste

Directions

In a stock pot, cook corn until completely cooked. Cool and remove corn from the cob.
In a medium bowl, combine shredded cabbage, carrots, and corn.
Mix in mayo and seasonings to taste. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. This is better the longer it sits!

It was really good and the corn in it gave it a sweetness. Perfect for a potluck or to serve with hamburgers and hot dogs! 

Happy Mother's Day!

Mushroom Swiss Steak in the Crock Pot

Mushroom Swiss Steak in the Crock Pot
1 large onion, chopped (1 cup)
1 bag baby carrots (fresh)
1pkg fresh mushrooms
1 1/2 lb boneless beef round steak, cut into serving-size pieces
2 cans (10.5oz) cream of mushroom soup

1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce

1.  In 3- to 4-quart slow cooker, layer onion, carrots, mushrooms and beef. Sprinkle pepper over  beef. In medium bowl, mix soup and tomato sauce; pour over beef.
2.   Cover; cook on Low heat setting 8 to 10 hours. 
3. Place beef on serving platter. With slotted spoon, remove vegetables from cooker and spoon over beef. Stir gravy in cooker with wire whisk to blend. Serve gravy with beef. 

weight watchers points per serving: 6

This is our dinner for tonight! I love the idea of crock pots! After the crazy busy week we've had there's nothing like putting dinner in the pot and leaving it all day to cook. I can only imagine what the house will smell like when we get home from church. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!!!

This meal is hearty and scrumptious!! You can serve it over noodles or not. I don't think i'll be serving it over noodles this time around. With the veggies cooking along with the meat and sauce it's a complete meal in a pot! No other dishes to mess up!! I like that for sure!!!

Happy Sunday and I hope you enjoy your day!!

*picture courtesy of betty crocker website

Happy Easter from our family to yours! Amid all the candy and bunnies and fun, let us not forget the reason we are celerating! 

Homemade Creme Eggs

Something fun for Easter. I made these for my boys to give their teachers as well as their bus driver. All seemed very appreciative. If you like Cadbury's creme eggs, then you'll love these!! I saw these and just had to try them. I'm not a fan of this particular candy but my kids are and we had just enough of the eggs left that they were able to have one each and they LOVED them. Asked me to make them again. Not sure i'll be doing that anytime soon as they were not quite as easy as they sound. But they were fun and I am really glad I was able to do them!

*1/2 cup light corn syrup
*1/4 cup butter, room temperature
*3 cups confectioner's powdered sugar
*1 teaspoon vanilla
*1/4 teaspoon salt
*yellow food coloring
*1 (12 ounce) bag milk chocolate chips ( i would HIGHLY recommend you use the Wilton candy melts here-so much easier to work with!)


Cream together the corn syrup, butter and vanilla.
Sift in the confectioner's powdered sugar and beat until incorporated.

Now it's time to make the "whites" and the "yolks!"
Take out about a third of the filling and stir in some yellow food coloring. Viola! It's that easy!
Put the two bowls in the fridge, as they're easier to work with once they're set up a little.

This step is sticky! Keep some extra powdered sugar on hand to dust your hands with. (This step got me frustrated because the filling is so sticky.)
Make little yolk balls out of the yellow mixture. Place them on some parchment or wax paper. If using wax paper, spray with cooking spray or you'll have a mess on your hands.....again, I should know. grrrr. Put them back in the fridge or even the
freezer to firm up. If it's hot or the slightest bit warm in the kitchen these things will melt in a heartbeat. If it's high humidity when you are doing this, DON'T. They'll melt faster than you can work with them.

When the yolks are set up, you can start embedding them in the whites. Scoop an amount of white filling out and flatten it into a circle. Place the yolk ball inside, and
wrap the white around it. Know what to do next? Stick it in the fridge.


Melt the chocolate + 2 teaspoons of shortening in the microwave in short bursts until just melted.
Either dip fillings into the chocolate with a fork and let set on parchment, or skewer the fillings and dip them that way (a'la cake pops).  Stir constantly, you don't want your chocolate to burn. Nothing worse than burnt chocolate, believe me, I know...grrr!

Once the chocolate is set, you can dip them again for an extra chocolatey shell or melt a different color and drizzle over the top like I did. I also found some colored sugar in the pantry and decided the eggs needed that too. I thought they turned out pretty-pretty enough to eat apparently!

Have fun!!!!!!!

Easy breakfast

Good Sunday morning!! (or afternoon as the case may be!)

Here's what I had for breakfast this morning. Super easy and very satisfying and yummy!!!

Waffle Scramble
*1 whole grain low fat waffle
*1/4 C egg beaters
*1 slice american cheese (i used the weight watchers brand sliced cheese-if you use regular american sliced cheese add 1 extra point to your points total-if you care about that sort of thing)
*1C chopped spinach
*1/4C chopped fresh mushrooms

Cook waffle in toaster. While it's toasting heat the spinach and mushrooms in a skillet until warmed through and the spinach has started to wilt. Add egg beaters and scramble.

Top hot waffle with egg mixture and top with slice of cheese.

Enjoy!!!

WW points: 4

Taco Soup

I saw this recipe on my friend's blog. I tweaked it a bit to better suit our family. It was really tasty! Her's called for ground beef but I liked the idea of using shredded chicken. Use which ever you prefer!! You could also add corn and remove the spinach etc. This is one of those fabulous recipes that you can mix and match to your liking! Go crazy with it!!!

Taco Soup

recipe courtesy of my friends blog

1 1/2 lbs shredded chicken
1 large onion, diced
1 pkg frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cans diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 pkt original hidden valley ranch dressing (dry)
3 cups water, or more
2 TBSP chopped fresh cilantro

for serving:
Tortilla chips
Shredded nacho cheese or sharp cheddar

Saute onion until soft.
Combine chicken, sauteed onions and the rest of the ingredients in a big pot. Simmer for one hour. Stir frequently.

Serve with tortilla chips and cheese.
6 servings

Points per serving: 6

This was so good and hearty and filling I can't even tell you!!! My kids liked it too, which was surprising since I put spinach in it. But they enjoyed it. I'll be making this again for sure!!!

Cheesy Spinach Phyllo Rolls

I made these today to take to a going away party that was for some friends. They are moving to Ft. Lewis next week so several folks gathered at the park for good food and good talk. This was my contribution. I found the recipe on the Kraft website. It's very similar to spanikopita. They were really good!!!!!

Cheesy Spinach Phyllo Rolls

1 egg , beaten

1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained

1 cup ATHENOS Traditional Crumbled Feta Cheese

1 tub (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Garden Vegetable 1/3 Less Fat than Cream Cheese

4 green onions, finely chopped

15 sheets frozen phyllo (14x9 inch), thawed

1/3 cup butter, melted

MIX first 5 ingredients until well blended; set aside. Brush 1 phyllo sheet lightly with butter; top with 2 more phyllo sheets, lightly brushing each layer with some of the remaining butter. Place remaining phyllo between sheets of plastic wrap; set aside.

SPREAD 1/5 of the spinach mixture along 1 short side of phyllo stack; fold in both long sides then roll up, starting at 1 of the short sides to make log. Repeat with remaining phyllo sheets and spinach mixture to make 4 more logs. Brush with remaining butter. Make small cuts in tops of logs at 1-inch intervals. Place in large freezer-weight resealable plastic bags or wrap tightly in plastic wrap.

FREEZE up to 3 months. When ready to bake, remove desired number of logs from freezer. Refrigerate, tightly wrapped, several hours or overnight until thawed. Unwrap, then place on baking sheet. Bake in 375°F-oven for 25 min. or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheet 5 min.; transfer to cutting board. Use serrated knife to cut each log into 6 slices.

I don't know if you guys celebrate this day or not. Either way, what we will have for dinner could go with any night. I didn't want to do the traditional corned beef, because, well I'm not a huge fan of it and I knew my kids wouldn't be fans either. So....i looked up some other recipes and found this one. Enjoy!!!

Irish Chicken and Dumplings

• 2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of chicken soup
• 3 cups water
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 2 onions, quartered
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 5 carrots, sliced
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen green peas
• 4 potatoes, quartered
• 3 cups baking mix
• 1 1/3 cups milk

Directions

1. In large, heavy pot, combine soup, water, chicken, celery, onion, salt, poultry seasoning, and pepper. Cover and cook over low heat about 1 1/2 hours.
2. Add potatoes and carrots; cover and cook another 30 minutes.
3. Remove chicken from pot, shred it, and return to pot. Add peas and cook only 5 minutes longer.
4. Add dumplings. To make dumplings: Mix baking mix and milk until a soft dough forms. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto BOILING stew. Simmer covered for 10 minutes, then uncover and simmer an additional 10 minutes.

points for this are 10 per serving


And for dessert we are doing this lovely little gem:

photo courtesy of oopsie daisy

* Instant vanilla pudding (with a bit of green food coloring)

* Milk

* Whipped cream

* Oreo and sprinkles

* Foil-wrapped chocolate (I used some peanut butter filled dove chocolates)

* Clear plastic cup

Now mix up the pudding.
Combine 2 Tablespoons instant pudding with 3 Tablespoons milk. Stir well. It will thicken up a bit. Place the chocolate in the bottom of the cup.
I transferred the pudding to the cup now. I added some whipped cream, an Oreo, and yes, even some green sprinkles!

If you want full details for the this recipe head on over to oopsie daisy here.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Mardi Gras Menu

It's that time again, Mardi Gras. Now I've never been personally but would love to experience at least once in my life. But since I can't go....I'll eat like i'm there!! This is the first year that I'll be doing a king cake (minus the baby part of it). I'm really excited about it actually. More than I thought I would be! HA!!

Here are the recipes I'll be making tonight:

Bacon and Shrimp Creole

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 2 celery ribs, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped green pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 can (14-1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 can (8 ounces) tomato Sauce
• 3/4 cup cold water, divided
• 1/4 cup crumbled cooked turkey bacon
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 pounds uncooked medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 3 cups hot cooked brown rice
  

Directions

• In a Dutch oven, saute the onion, celery and green pepper in oil until tender. Add garlic; saute 1 minute longer. Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, 1/2 cup water, bacon, parsley, sugar, salt, thyme, curry powder, pepper and cayenne. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
• Combine flour and remaining water until smooth; gradually stir into tomato mixture. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until thickened. Reduce heat; add shrimp. Simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes or until shrimp turn pink. Serve with rice. Yield: 6 servings.

Points for this yummy dinner are 8, serve with a nice veggie to add bulk and no points! Yummy!!!!!

Mardi Gras King Cake
(the original recipe had an almond paste for the filling, i don't like almonds so i changed it to be more like a cinnamon roll. Either way it's cake and you can't go wrong with cake!! -the points I list are based on the cake with the changes that I made)

• 1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast

• 1/2 cup warm water (110° to 115°)
• 1/2 cup warm milk (110° to 115°)
• 1/3 cup shortening
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 4 to 4-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tbsp I can't believe it's not butter spread
• cinnamon
• sugar (like a cinnamon roll center)
  GLAZE:
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 to 4 tablespoons water
• Purple, green and gold colored sugar

Directions

• In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the milk, shortening, sugar, salt, egg and 2 cups flour. Beat on medium speed for 3 minutes. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough (dough will be sticky).
• Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
• Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide in half. Roll one portion into a 16-in. x 10-in. rectangle. Spread butter to within 1/2 in. of edges. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Roll up jelly-roll style, starting with a long side; pinch seam to seal. Place seam side down on a greased baking sheet; pinch ends together to form a ring. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
• Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. For glaze, combine the confectioners' sugar, vanilla and enough water to achieve desired consistency. Spread over cooled cakes. Sprinkle with colored sugars. Yield: 2 cakes (12 servings each).

Points for the cake are 5. I know I was shocked too!! But you get 12 slices out of each cake-that's a huge piece!!! Plus since it makes 2 cakes, keep one and give one!

Greek Tortilla Folds

I really enjoy Greek food. Gyros are my favorite. Sometimes you have a craving and can't get it. We have one Greek place in town and it's a sit down place and not a take out. So there goes that idea. But I found this on the Betty Crocker website and decided it looked good enough to eat! I had ground pork in the freezer instead of beef and I used tortillas instead of pitas. Trying to cut points where ever I can! hehe! 1 lb lean ground pork

small onion, cut in half lengthwise, sliced

cloves garlic, finely chopped

teaspoon dried oregano leaves

teaspoon salt

cup sliced ripe olives

cup finely chopped peeled cucumber

cup chopped seeded tomato

cup Yoplait® All Natural Fat Free plain yogurt (from 32 oz. container)

teaspoon dried dill weed

6 whole wheat tortillas

1. 1 In 10-inch skillet, cook ground beef, onion, garlic, oregano and 1/4 teaspoon of the salt over medium-high heat 5 to 7 minutes, stirring frequently, until beef is thoroughly cooked. Drain. Stir in olives.
2. 2 Meanwhile, in medium bowl, stir together cucumber, tomato, yogurt, dill and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt.
3. 3 On each of 4 individual serving plates, Spoon 1/4 of beef mixture on half of each pita. Top each with yogurt mixture; fold other half of pita over filling. Serve with remaining yogurt mixture.

Serves 6 and is 9 points per serving

Dr. Seuss Birthday Dinner

This week we celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday. His actual birthday was March 2. My boys' school held a week long celebration. I decided that the night of his actual birthday we should do something fun to celebrate. So our dinner centered around his books. I printed pictures off the computer and put them up on the wall by our table. I printed small copies of book covers for our cups (we each got a different book) and then printed off bigger copies for our chairs. I also printed up a menu (so we'd know what we were getting) and we had a great time talking and eating all things Dr. Seuss.



Here are 2 of the recipes from tonights feast (the other things we ate, didn't need a recipe)

Pink Yink Ink Drink
1/2 pint fresh blackberries
1C 1% milk (this is what we drink-use whatever milk you have)
6 fresh strawberries
1 tbsp sweetner or 1 tsp honey (I used the sweetner for the points-sweetner has 0 points)

Puree' blackberries
pour into glasses
put milk, strawberries, and honey/sweetner into a blender and blend.
strain mixture (completely optional-i did not do this)
pour strawberry mixture over top of blackberry mixture and enjoy!
*points value....1 per serving serves 4



Dr. Seuss's Sneetch Treats (Oatmeal Raisin Walnut Cookies)
8oz butter
1 1/2C brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2C all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 1/2C uncooked instant oatmeal
1/2C chopped walnuts
1C raisins
2 hershey bars, broken into squares
6 large marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Combine melted butter, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla. Mix well.
Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add to butter mixture.
Add oatmeal, walnuts and raisins. Mix well.
Drop batter by tbsps onto ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten each cookie slightly.
Bake 12 min until golden brown and firm. Remove to a rack to cool completely.
Once cookies have cooled, toast marshmallow over open flame. Place chocolate on bottom of cookie and top with marshmallow and another cookies (basically making a s'more).

serves 6 at 24 points per s'more.....yeah I didn't eat one. But the batter was really good, I just had to sample it.The kids really had a great time with this. It was a lot of fun to come up with and I think i'll be doing something like this every year!!

Zucchini and Shrimp Sautee'

I love zucchini. I mean I really love it! To say it's probably my favorite veggie is probably an understatement. I ADORE it. So I came up with this little dinner thingy...the other night. It was really good and I had a hard time keeping my fingers out of the pot! I'm so not kidding. Make this.....tonight......it's that good!

(i really need to start remembering to take pictures of what I make....but like i said earlier, i love zucchini and well....ate it before i remembered i needed to take a picture. hehe)

Zucchini and Shrimp Sautee'

4 med zucchini's , sliced
2C shredded carrots
2C cabbage, chopped
1 med. onion, chopped
8oz small-med sized shrimp (or more if you like)
1 14oz can diced tomatoes with juice
garlic powder*
oregano*
salt*
pepper *
(*the above to taste-i usually don't measure my spices-i just dump and taste and I go)

Place about 2tbsp veg oil in skillet and cook zucchini, carrots and onion until tender and zucchini is browned. remove to a plate and set aside. Add tomatoes and warm through, then add shrimp cooking only for a couple of minutes until pink. Add other veggies back into pot and season to your liking.

Eat and enjoy! This would be good over rice or a pasta. We ate it as is with a side of fruit cocktail. It was so good! I was seriously licking the pot! ;)

For those who are counting, this delightful meal served 5 and was worth 6 points a serving.

Cheesy Chili Mac

This was really good. 3 out of 4 of us ate it. Not sure why the other one didn't. It was really good, I had a hard time eating my one portion of it!! Yum!!!

This was originally a WW recipe, but I tweaked it with what I had on hand.

Cheesy Chili Mac

29 oz can diced tomatoes in juice (do not drain)
chili powder to taste
cumin to taste
1 pound ground hamburger
1/2 C fat free cheddar cheese, shredded
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 C ketchup
1C cabbage, chopped
1C spinach, chopped
1 can corn, drained
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 1/2C uncooked macaroni (I used shell mac because it's what I had)

In a medium skillet brown beef with onions, bell pepper, spinach and cabbage.
Cook until meat is browned and veggies are soft. Drain excess grease.

In another pot cook macaroni according to package directions. Drain. Add tomatoes and their juice, corn, ketchup, beef mixture and spices to taste. Heat through. Spoon into bowls or onto plates and top with cheese.

This yields about 1 C chili and 1 tbsp of cheese per serving and it serves 8. This made enough (obviously) that we could put the leftovers in the freezer for another night! I love meals that do that!!! Less cooking later. I'm always excited about that fact!!

Points for this meal are 7 per serving.

I must say again, how good this was. As for spicy, this wasn't because we don't like spicy food, but hey, if you love it, add more chili powder. I thought it was perfect!

Tonight for dinner we are having tortilla soup. You can find my recipe for it here. It's really good and the more veggies you add, the better for you.

Here are the points value for this soup per serving (it serves 4):

with sour cream added: 8 points
w/o sour cream: 6 points
with shrimp: 7 points (I added this tonight because I had some frozen in my freezer. You could leave this out.)
with chicken (no sour cream-if you add the sour cream add 2 points) as in original recipe: 8 points

that leaves plenty of room for dessert, depending on how you ate during the day!!


I also added some fresh spinach to mine soup tonight for some extra veggies. I bought some fresh yesterday and I could not resist adding it to the soup.

Enjoy it (again)!

Sugar Cookie-Chocolate Crunch Fudge

Ok so I know this isn't really a "healthy" recipe.....but yesterday was Valentine's Day and I made this for my boys' teachers and their bus driver. I have to say that I haven't eaten any of it (I have enough chocolate that I received to take care of that!) So I was able to pass it out and not feel guilty for making it. But I will give you points at the end in case you are interested.

This recipe is one that is printed in the Pillsbury 2011 Calendar. If you get this calender then it's February's recipe and like me, look at it every day! I made a couple of small modifications for what I had on hand, but otherwise I didn't change the recipe.
Sugar Cookie-Chocolate Crunch Fudge
2 tbsp light corn syrup
2 tbsp butter or margarine
1/4 tsp salt
1 can (14oz) sweetened condensed milk (NOT EVAPORATED)
1 roll ready made sugar cookie dough (in the refrigerated section), cut into chunks
2 bags (12 oz each) milk chocolate chips
5 tsp vanilla extract
6 chocolate chip granola bars, coarsely chopped

In a 3 quart heavy saucepan, cook corn syrup, butter, salt and milk over medium heat 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until well blended. Reduce heat to medium-low; stir in cookie dough chunks (they will melt into the mixture so don't be alarmed). Cook 3-5 minutes, stirring constantly, until mixture is smooth and candy thermometer reads 160 degrees F. Remove from heat.

Stir in chocolate chips and vanilla until chips are melted and mixture is smooth. Add chopped granola bars; stir until well blended. Cook over low heat 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly until mixture is shiny. Spread in ungreased 12x8in or 13x9in pan. Refrigerate uncovered at least 2 hours or until firm.

Cut into 8 rows by 6 rows. Serve immediately, store leftovers in the fridge.

photo courtesy of Pillsbury

My oldest got to taste them and said they were really good and begged and pleaded for us to keep a couple of them. So I did....but I still haven't had one..

Point for this is: 4 per square (this recipe yields 48 squares)

A new way of eating

I joined Weight Watchers today. There. It's out for the world to see now. So i'm now going to make sure every thing I make has a points value and any recipe I post, I will post the points just in case you are doing weight watchers or are even interested. Let's just say that now that we are done with having kids I have some much needed weight to lose and I thought the best way to do it was to join Weight Watchers*. I am excited about their new program and I think I'll be able to do well on it. I'm doing the online version because I just can't bring myself to go to meetings. Plus with the hubs being on the other side of the world, that's just not an option. I have to admit i've been playing with it all day. But that's not why you are here (all 3 of you that visit this blog). You want recipes....food......all things yummy for your tummy!!

Tonight's recipe is brought to you courtesy of Stephanie at Fun Foods on a Budget. She made this particular recipe a couple of years ago. I stumbled upon it and decided to give it a try. It was fabulous and I think you need to try it to. Click on the link to take you to her blog for the recipe!! Enjoy!!

RUNZAS

for those interested......points for this meal are 11 (for 1 of the runzas). Yeah that's a lot but if you bank up during the day, it doesn't seem like that many.

*Weight Watchers did not ask me to endorse their product and in no way gave me any incentive to do so.

My new favorite cookie!!

I'M BACK!

I have had a great time just hanging out with my family and our newest bundle of joy! She's doing great and growing like a weed!! We also got a surprise as her daddy was able to come home from his deployment to meet her. Unfortunately he missed the birth, but he still got to meet her before heading back out into the desert. It was a wonderful holiday. I hope yours was wonderful!!

My parents were here to help out over the holidays and my mom shared this fabulous recipe with me. I just had to share it with you all. It's officially my new favorite cookie. So YUM!!! And really the possibilities are endless as to what you can put in the cookies. This was originally a Paula Deen recipe. I've seen her make it on her show a few times and just never did anything about it. I regret that more than you know!! These are fabulous!!! Hope you try them soon!!

Monster Cookies
adapted from a Paula Deen recipe*
* 3 eggs
* 1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
* 1 cup granulated sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 12-ounce jar creamy peanut butter
* 1 stick butter or margarine, softened
* 1/2 cup mini m&m's
* 1/2 cup chocolate chips
* 2 heath bars, chopped (or 1/2 cup toffee bits)
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 4 1/2 cups quick-cooking oatmeal (not instant)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats.

In a very large mixing bowl, combine the eggs and sugars. Mix well. Add the salt, vanilla, peanut butter, and butter. Mix well. Stir in the chocolate candies, chocolate chips, raisins, if using, baking soda, and oatmeal. Drop by tablespoons 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Do not over bake. Let stand for about 3 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool. When cool, store in large resealable plastic bags


*We had some fabulous meals over the break and I'll be back soon to tell you all about them!*