Kristin's Khaos

Thursday, May 1, 2014

White Chocolate Cookies n Cream Cookies

White chocolate chips AND a Hershey's Cookies N Cream bar...in a COOKIE...need I say more?

I was scouring Pinterest to see what kind of cookies I was going to make to send with my boyfriend and his crew for this weekend's upcoming off-road race and stumbled upon this recipe at Lil Luna. Before I could even read the full name of the cookies he wanted them!!

What you'll need:

- 1 cup brown sugar

- 1 cup sugar

- 1/2 cup butter

- 1/2 cup oil

- 2 eggs

- 1 tsp. baking soda

- 1 tsp. salt

- 1 tsp. baking powder

- 1 tsp. vanilla extract

- 3 cups flour

- 1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

- 1 cup Cookies N Cream Bars chopped

What you'll do:

- Preheat oven to 350.

- Cream butter, oil and sugars. Add eggs and beat until fluffy.

- Add remaining dry ingredients and extract.

- Fold in white chocolate chips and chopped up Cookies N Cream bar.

- Place on greased cookie sheet and bake for 7-9 minutes.

Enjoy! =)

P.S. I got a text about an hour into their drive and one bag of cookies (about 30) were already gone! I think it's safe to say these cookies are a hit!

I'll definitely be making these again!!

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Easter Bark

This year I wanted to make something festive for my family. While browsing the Pinterest boards, I stumbled upon an Easter bark recipe from The Browy Blog that looked too good to not try!

Not only was this super easy to make but it also tasted really good - perfect combo! ;)

- First, you'll need to get several different colors of chocolate melts. I got one bag of lavender, yellow, bright white, and blue from Michael's Craft Stores; however, almost all craft stores have them and even some supermarkets!

- Next, I separated each color into a microwave-safe bowl and melted each color down.

- While the chocolates are melting, line a cookie sheet with wax paper.

- Once the chocolate is completed melted, spoon it out onto various areas of the cookie sheet (as opposed to having each color in just one spot). Doing this will make it easier to swirl all the colors together.

- After you have poured each color onto the lined cookie sheet, tap the pan on the counter to draw the colors together.

- Grab a toothpick (or knife) and swirl away!

- I dropped Cadbury Mini Egg's onto the mixture for an extra treat! However, any Easter candy will work...

- Let cool in the refridgerator for 10 - 20 mins or until chocolate is hard.

- Break the bark into small pieces.

- I placed my Easter bark in an Easter themed goodie box (also from Michael's Craft Store) with some Easter basket grass, cellophane, and some ribbon before giving them out!

Enjoy! =)

Monday, April 21, 2014

Lucky Treats

Inspired by the "luck of the Irish", here's a spin on traditional rice krispy treats - lucky treats!

I found the idea and recipe on Sweet C's Designs...These were SO good and SO easy to make!

You'll need:

-3 cups of marshmallows
-4 cups of Lucky Charms
-1/4 cup of salted butter

What you'll do:

-In a large pot, melt butter
-Add in the marshmallows, stir constantly until mallows are completely melted, remove from heat
-Add Lucky Charms, continue to stir
-Pour mixture into a well greased cookie sheet or dish
-Let cool and cut into squares

Enjoy! =)

In a large pot, add butter and begin to melt on medium.

Add marshmallows and stir constantly until mallows melt.

You may see slight browning- if your mallows aren't fully melted as the sugar browns, pull them off the stove and continue stirring. They should melt from the heat.

Add lucky charms to pan and stir well to combine.

Pour mixture into well greased casserole dish and let cool.

When set, cut and enjoy!

3 cups marshmallows (if using jumbo, make them heaping cups)

4 cups Lucky Charms

1/4 cup butter, salted

3 cups marshmallows (if using jumbo, make them heaping cups)

4 cups Lucky Charms

1/4 cup butter, salted

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

T-Shirt Quilt

Do you or someone in your life have a TON of t-shirts that you don't wear anymore but don't necessarily want to get rid of? My boyfriend has this problem. My solution...a t-shirt quilt!

I searched the web to get ideas on how to begin and saw sites charging up to $600 for you to send in your shirts and then they assemble the quilt for you and ship it back. While I'm sure it would turn out absolutely perfect, I wanted mine to have the "handmade" aspect to it - I think that makes things more sentimental. Luckily, I was able to find a website, You Can Make This, that had a PDF pattern guide for a simple, do-it yourself t-shirt quilt. I did have to purchase it for $7.50 in order to download it - but it was well worth it!

Don't be intimidated it wasn't really as hard as it sounds. Fortunately for me, I had my mom to provide her sewing machine and to help and supervise with the actual sewing but if you can sew in a straight line - you'll be fine!

The pattern called for 12 shirts (keep in mind you will be cutting these up so make sure they are shirts you plan on no longer wearing) in order to make a 4 foot x 5 foot quilt.

After a quick trip to JoAnn's or your local fabric store to pick up the other essentials:
- 6 Yards of Fusible Interfacing
- 2 Yards of Cotton Fabric for Sashing Strips
- 2 Yards of Fleece
- Marking Pen or Chalk
- Thread to Match Fabric
- 1 Size 14 Universal or Knit Sewing Machine Needle
...you're ready to begin!

Mind you, there is A LOT of cutting, pinning, and sewing but it totally doable. We finished the quilt over the span of a weekend but if you really put your mind to it, you could have finished it in one day.

Here is my finished product...

T-Shirt Quilt

My shirt consisted of all racing related shirts since he is a race mechanic but you can use any type/theme of shirts. I ended up giving this quilt to my boyfriend as part of his Valentine's Day gift and he LOVED it!

It ended up being about the size of a twin bed quilt and is actual really warm! It is a perfect blanket to use on a chilly night!

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

One Pan Chicken

Looking for something easy and healthy to make for dinner? This dish has it all in one - your protein, your vegetable, and your starch...that's about as easy as it gets!

One Pan Chicken...

You'll need:
- 2 Chicken Breasts
- 2 Sliced Potatoes
- Veggies (I used broccoli this time but have used zucchini, squash, and asparagus - all are great!)
- Butter
- Packet of Italian Salad Dressing

Place items into a baking pan as shown...

Once your items are in the baking pan, I sprinkle the entire packet of Italian dressing all over the chicken, potatoes, and veggies. Then I cut and place some tabs of butter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour .

ENJOY! =)

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

M&M Cake Batch Cookies

When I asked my boyfriend what sort of sweets he wanted for Valentine's Day he said "chocolate" and "cookies"...I added in the part where it needed to be festive!

Luckily, I was able to find a recipe for M&M Cake Batch Cookies from The Frugal Gals. It was really simple - all you need is:

- 1 box of Betty Crocker Chocolate Cake Mix
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup of Canola or Vegetable Oil
- 1 Bag of Valentine's M&M's

Mix ingredients together in a large bowl, let sit in the refrigerator for about 45 minutes to chill, then bake for 9-10 minutes at 350 degrees on an ungreased cookie sheet.

This batter is incredibly sticky!! It was a bit of a nightmare to roll into little balls - the batter would get soft and then stick to my hands...but it was worth it - they are delicious!!

Enjoy!! Perhaps, with a nice tall glass of milk!

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Sweetheart Trail Mix

I wanted to make something sweet for Valentine's Day but enough for a group of hungry co-workers to share...my solution was Sweetheart Trail Mix! So easy and so good!!

All you need are four simple ingredients and of course a bowl. I couldn't find a bowl decorated for Valentine's Day that was big enough so I decided to make my own! I headed to The Dollar Tree and found this hot pink bowl and grabbed my Puffy Paints from Michael's and got to work...

I couldn't find a Valentine's Day bowl...so I made my own!

The ingredients...Crunch N' Munch Caramel and Butter Toffee (it's a blend of popcorn and peanuts - similar to Popcornopolis), Valentine's Day M&M's, Sweetheart's Conversation Hearts, and Flipz White Fudge Covered Pretzels.