Cowgirl Cookies

The Hubby received a Cowgirl Cookie jar for Christmas from one of his students. I decided to make them for Christmas.

I don't know the exact recipe, but I know this is really close to all the ingredients that were in the jar. The student layered all the ingredients in a mason jar with a cute note attached.

Here is the recipe!

Cowgirl Cookies

1 1/3 cups of rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1 1/3 cups of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

If you were giving this as a gift, you would layer all your ingredients in a jar.

If that was the case you would want to include a card that stated the following:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease your cookie sheets and set aside. 

In a medium bowl mix 1/2 cup melted butter, 1 egg, and a teaspoon of vanilla. Dump in the jar ingredients and stir together. You may have to use your hands to complete the mixing. 

Shape into 2-inch size balls and place 2-inches apart on your cookie sheets. Bake for 11-13 minutes in your oven. Allow the cookies to cool for a couple minutes on the cookie sheets before you transfer them to wire racks to cool completely!

These are a yummy, chewy cookie that everyone seemed to enjoy! They also make a fun gift!

Until next time,

Kara




Recipe source from Allrecipes

Triple Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cookies

The Hubby had a pitch-in lunch at school on Friday. I decided to make my traditional chocolate chip cookies and then throw a non-traditional cookie in the mix.

I made a triple chocolate- chocolate chip cookie! These were super rich, but good!

If you are up for something different and you're a chocoholic, give this a try!

Triple Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cookies  

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup of white chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 375° F.

Then combine your flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a small bowl and set it to the side. Beat the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl until creamy. 

Add in your eggs  and beat until light and fluffy. Gradually add in flour mixture. Stir in your chocolate chips and white chocolate chips with a wooden spoon to avoid breaking the chips apart. 

Then drop by rounded tablespoon onto un-greased baking sheets. I like to add a few chocolate chips to the top of the cookies before baking. This just makes for a prettier cookie!

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until cookies are puffed. Make sure not to over bake. These are a dark cookie, so you will not be able to judge it based on being brown! 

Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

These are a yummy cookie to add into your line-up!

Until next time,

Kara

This recipe was inspired by Double-Chocolate Dream Cookies

Bacon-Ranch Dip

Football season is finally here. In our house this means soup, snacks, fantasy teams and afternoon naps (for me at least). 

Let's not discuss how mad I am at Peyton Manning... I just don't think he realizes how important he is to my fantasy team and how he under-performed this week. C'mon Manning!

At least my food is always good during football season, even if my players aren't playing well. 

Since I'm on the low-carb diet, it's hard for me to eat a lot of dip without chips, so I decided to turn one of my low-carb wraps into chips, so I can eat this dip. Because it is heavenly good!

Bacon-Ranch Dip
1 container of sour cream
1 packet of dry ranch seasoning
1 bag of real bacon bits
1 cup of shredded cheese, I like the mixed bag kinds

This is a easy recipe that is just so good! You just need to throw all these ingredients into a bowl and mix them up. Store in the refrigerator for a few hours before serving!

You could add some green onions for a little more flavor, but the Hubby doesn't like them, so I left them out!

You can serve this with crackers or chips! It's the perfect dip to snack on all Sunday long!

Until next time,

Kara

Caramel Apple Cocktail

In Indiana we are known for our being able to experience all seasons in the same week! 

Well I think we steadily fit a couple in this week. It was 95, then dropped down to a high of 67 and a low of 48 within two or three days!

It's like you need to carry a tank top, light sweater, and your winter hoodie all around in your car because you just never know what the weather will be like when you get done with work at 5:00.

ANYWAYS, this weekend the weather felt so much like fall; which leads me to get my Halloween decorations set up, thinking about going to the apple orchard to get pumpkins and to get apple cider and cinnamon sugar donuts! 

Since I haven't had time to head to the orchard yet, I picked up a gallon of apple cider at the grocery store and decided to make our favorite fall cocktail!

Caramel Apple Cocktail

8 oz of apple cider

2 oz of Smirnoff Kissed Caramel vodka

This cocktail is super easy and yummy! You could enjoy it warm or cold. The Hubby prefers to drink the cold version. 

But this would be super easy to pop the cider into your slow cooker and serve it warm! Kids could enjoy the warm cider and the adults can add the Kissed Caramel vodka.

To make the cocktail just add ice to your glass, combine the cider and vodka and mix with a spoon. It's sweet and so good!

My sister-in-law (who HATES vodka) said it was really good and you wouldn't know there was alcohol in it! I'll take that as winning.

I rimmed my glass with a little dulce de leche just for an extra boost of caramel flavor, but this cocktail is a definite winner for the fall season!

Until next time,

Kara

Kit Kat Cookies

It's September, that means it's birthday month. My birthday was last week, my Dad's was Tuesday and yesterday was the Hubby's.

I always like to make something for the Hubby on his birthday. He will eat cake if we are somewhere like a wedding, but not very often does he just want a piece of cake. He likes brownies, cookies, and candy bars. 

For his birthday this year I decided to combine two of his favorites: chocolate chip cookies and Kit Kat candy bars!

This cookie is sweet, chewy, and delicious! 

Happy birthday honey!

Kit Kat Cookies
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
10 snack size Kit Kat bars, chopped in thirds
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Start out by creaming together the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. 

While that is working in the mixer, in a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set this bowl to the side. 

Now that your butter and sugars are creamed together, add your egg and mix until completely incorporated. Then add your vanilla. 

Turn down your mixer while you add your dry ingredients (otherwise you and your kitchen will be covered in white...not that I know by experience or anything!). 

Once this is just combined, add your Kit Kat's and chocolate chips. The mixer will break up the Kit Kat bars into smaller chunks. If you don't want to use any chocolate chips, bump up your Kit Kat amount or maybe you like white chocolate chips or maybe you want to use the white chocolate Kit Kat bars... the combinations are endless!

Once everything is incorporated, cover your mixture and chill for a couple hours in the refrigerator.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line your cookie sheets with parchment paper. (as you notice I had ran out and forgotten to buy more! OOPS!)

Scoop out 2 tablespoon sized balls (I used my ice cream scoop to portion it out). 

Bake these for about 10-12 minutes. I recommend 10 minutes. The cookies will look slightly underdone, but you will have carry over cooking and it will give you a moist, chewy cookie.

Let them cool on the pans for a few minutes, before transferring them to cooling racks. This should get you about 22-24 cookies.

Then you can enjoy these with a cold glass of milk! 

Until next time,

Kara




Recipe adapted from Crazy For Crust

Recipe #3, Cake Ball Truffles!

This is our 3rd a final dessert of the week from Chelsea's shower this weekend! 

Let's recap.

We had the Cherry Limeade Cupcake! It was a lime cupcake with a cherry buttercream.

Then we had the Dulce de Leche Churro Sticks. It's pie crust filled with dulce de leche and they were rolled in the cinnamon sugar!

Our final recipe this week is the Cake Ball Truffles!

Cake Ball Truffles
1 box of yellow butter cake, plus the ingredients listed on the box
1 container of vanilla frosting
chocolate almond bark

This is the type of recipe that once you learn the process you can change up all the flavor combinations.

Just make your boxed cake mix according to the instructions. I always add an extra teaspoon of vanilla when I make a boxed cake mix. I baked mine in a 9 x 13 pan.

After it's baked, you want to let it completely cool.

Then once it's cool, you just want to destroy the cake. You can use the food processor or just use your hands to make it cake crumbs. 

Once you have crumbs, you can add your can of frosting. Mix it up until it's well combined.

Now you want to take a ball of cake mixture and roll it up into a ball. You will have to work it between your hands. Then line them up on a cookie sheet and pop in the fridge or freezer until it's set up.

Then you need to melt your almond bark. Once it's melted you just roll around the cake truffles in the chocolate. You can use sprinkles to decorate the truffles before the chocolate sets up. The chocolate will set up quickly since the cake balls were chilled.

I decorated these with a white pearl, but you could use sprinkles, melted chocolate, coconut, or nuts! Again, the flavor combinations are fun to play with.

I stored them in the fridge until ready to serve. This recipe would be great with red velvet cake mix, cream cheese frosting and white chocolate almond bark. How great would that be at Christmas?

Or for Thanksgiving do a pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting and white chocolate almond bark?

OR MAYBE a death by chocolate... chocolate cake, chocolate frosting, and chocolate almond bark!

The possibilities are endless and it's super easy to do with kids!

Until next time,

Kara

Dulce de Leche Churro Sticks

We are back with recipe #2 from Chelsea's bridal shower!

I am a sucker for anything remotely caramel flavored. When I saw Cookies & Cups post a recipe for these churro sticks I was pumped! I thought this is something a little different for the shower.

This recipe is pretty simple and the possibilities are endless! And honestly, who doesn't like anything rolled around in cinnamon and sugar?!? 

Dulce de Leche Churro Sticks

1 box of refrigerated pie crusts

1/2 can dulce de leche

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2-3 teaspoons cinnamon

1/3 sticks butter, melted

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

I floured my counter and rolled out both pie crusts. 

Then I took about half my can of dulce de leche and spread out all over one pie crust. 

I covered the first pie crust with the second and used my pizza cutter to cut strips.

I then placed the strips on my baking sheets and used a fork to seal the edges of the sticks.

I baked them in the oven for 20 minutes until they were a light, golden brown. 

While they were baking I mixed my granulated sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl.

When the sticks came out of the oven, I had to use my pizza cutter to cut off a little dulce de leche that leaked out and burnt. Ooops.... No harm done! You just have to roll with it in the kitchen.

Next you brush each side of each stick with melted butter and roll it in the cinnamon sugar mixture.

Set on a baking rack to cool a little bit, but these are great eaten warm or at room temperature!

If you don't like dulce de leche, you could fill these with Nutella, caramel sauce and diced apples, peanut butter, whatever your heart desires! Or just bake the pie strips and roll them in cinnamon sugar!

Until next time,

Kara

Dessert Week! Starting out with Cherry Limeade Cupcakes

This past weekend, we celebrated my college roommate, Chelsea, getting married. I was on desserts for the shower and it turns out they were a hit. 

I'm so glad I didn't have to bring a single leftover home.There is nothing worse for a low carb diet then desserts, but I'm proud of myself. I didn't eat one thing! Well if you don't count me having to taste everything while I was baking (who serves something they haven't tried!?! Not this girl.)

This week I will go over the 3 recipes that I created for the shower!

So we will start the week out with a bang and a Cherry Limeade Cupcake.

In college we would hit up Sonic for happy hour. I would always go with the orange slush and Chelsea always got a cherry limeade. I decided to go with her favorite drink flavor profile for a cupcake!

Cherry Limeade Cupcakes

Lime Cupcakes
1 box white cake mix, plus ingredients indicated on the back of the box
3 limes
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cherry Buttercream
1 cup butter, softened 
4 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons maraschino cherry juice
1-3 teaspoons sugar free cherry jello
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Lime Simple Syrup
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water

This recipe is pretty simple. You need to preheat your oven to whatever temperature it indicates, mine was 350.

I zested 3 limes and set it to the side. Make sure you just zest the green skin, we don't want the bitter white part!

You will need to have a white cake mix that calls for water. My mix specifically required 1 1/4 cup of water. I only used 1 cup of water and did 1/4 cup lime juice. it was about 2 1/2 limes. Finish your batter the way your instructions indicated and add an extra teaspoon of vanilla and your lime zest.

Now you can make it into your cupcakes. Only fill your liners 1/2 full. This will allow you to get 24 cupcakes. I used an ice cream scoop to portion out my cupcakes!

Bake according to your box directions.

Next we make our simple syrup! To make a simple syrup you just need to add equal amounts of liquid and sugar to a sauce pot and bring to a boil. This will dissolve the sugar and reduce into a syrup. In our case we used lime juice and sugar!

Just set it to the side to cool.

While your cupcakes are baking you can work the butter cream. Cream your butter and powdered sugar together and add the teaspoon of vanilla. Then I added the 3 tablespoons of maraschino cherry juice. I tasted the mixture and decided it wasn't cherry enough. 

I then started adding a teaspoon at a time of sugar free cherry jello. This allowed me to get a more intensive cherry flavor and a nice pink color without any food coloring. You can determine how intense you want your flavor!

I allowed the cupcakes to cool on a baking rack. Once cool, I brushed the tops with our lime simple syrup. This gives an extra kick of lime flavor while keeping the cakes moist.

I allowed the buttercream to sit in the fridge while the cupcakes completely cooled. Pull your buttercream out a little before you want to use it and top your cupcakes. I used a star tip to fancy mine up a bit, but these would taste good with the buttercream just slapped right on!

I decorated the cupcakes with a wedge of lime and a maraschino cherry!

I'm so happy for Chelsea and her new hubby to be! November will be here before we know it! I'm glad I could be a part of leading up to her special day.

I hope you enjoy.

Until next time,

Kara

Loaded Mashed Cauliflower

I have officially been on a low carb diet for over a month now. It's actually a lot easier than I ever expected it to be. The worst part is not really getting to bake and eat desserts!

My favorite vegetable has always been potatoes. I could eat them baked, mashed, fried, boiled.... you get my drift, so it's no surprise that this is one vegetable that I have missed while trying to eat my low carb diet. 

I have seen the cauliflower recipes on Pinterest to substitute for potatoes. I decided to try it. It was a pretty good success. I don't think it will ever replace my love of potatoes, but it's a good stand in!

Loaded Mashed Cauliflower

Cauliflower
Sour Cream
Bacon, cooked & crumbled
Cheese, shredded
Butter
Green Onions, chopped
Milk or chicken stock

This recipe is really easy and adaptable depending on how many people you are feeding. Since I was just making enough for myself, I used between 1/4-1/2 head of cauliflower. I would use a whole head for 3-4 people.

Chop the cauliflower into small florets and toss into boiling water. Cook until tender (my test is being able to easily insert a knife).

Drain the cauliflower in a colander and I like to toss it back into the hot pan to help with excess moisture.

Toss into your blender with a spoonful of sour cream and tablespoon of butter. Pulse, if too thick, add a splash of milk or stock. Blend until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I like to top mine with shredded cheese, green onions, crumbled bacon, and a small dash of sour cream.

I was really happy with how this turned out! Hopefully this will help me keep on track and I tried a new vegetable! Look at me go!

Until next time,

Kara

Pepperoni Chips

I have started a high protein, low carb diet. I have been really trying to be good when it comes to staying on track.

But even saint's get tested and I'm not even close to that! So I decided to try to make something that was salty, crunchy, and delicious, so that I wouldn't want to eat potato chips.

Wait for it..... PEPPERONI CHIPS! Yeah, you heard me right. Soak it in... they are crunchy, spicy, salty, and DELICIOUS!

They are also super easy!

Pepperoni Chips

Pepperoni's (turkey or regular)
Baking Sheet

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Lay out your pepperoni's on your baking sheet and pop them in the oven for 6-8 minutes. 

Take them out and use a paper towel to soak up excess grease. 

Then pop them back in the oven for 2 minutes. (You may have to adjust baking time for the size of your pepperoni, mine were small).

Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the pan.

Enjoy! You can eat them plain or with your favorite dip instead of chips!

Until next time,

Kara



Recipe adapted from George Stella's Low Carb & Lovin' It