Easy Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Bars

I adapted this delicious and easy recipe from All Recipes December/January 2016 magazine. They are so yummy!

Easy Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Bars

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups of flour

1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar

3/4 cup peanut butter

1 stick of butter, softened

3 Tb. milk

1 large egg

1 Tb. vanilla extract

3/4 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1+ cup of chocolate chips (I used Guittard Milk Chocolate)

Directions:

1. Mix butter, peanut butter, and brown sugar together until nicely blended. Preheat your oven to 375*.

2. Line a 9 x 13 baking dish with aluminum foil, leaving a 2 inch overhang on the edges.Then spray with bakers joy or another nonstick spray.

3. Add in milk, vanilla, and egg to your butter/sugar mixture. (I totally forgot to add the milk and mine still turned out good).

4. Whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda. Carefully add to your dough and mix together.

5. Add in chocolate chips, mixing to incorporate them throughout the dough.

6. Evenly press the dough into your pan.

7. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool on a baking rack for another 20 minutes.

8. Lift out of the pan and then cut into bars.

Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

I made these easy and delicious cookies for my nephew's mission farewell. I got the recipe from my December/January All Recipes magazine :). Super yummy! They do take a few hours to cool in between making the dough and baking, so keep that in mind!

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies:

Ingredients:

1 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

2 Cups Granulated Sugar

1/2 Cup of Vegetable Oil

4 Large Eggs

2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

2 Cups of Flour

2 teaspoons of Baking Powder 

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Mix together cocoa, granulated sugar, and oil in the bowl of your mixer.

2. Add in eggs 1 at a time and then the vanilla. I like to do this while it is mixing.

3. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in another bowl and whisk together.

4. Add the flour mixture to the cocoa mixture and mix together.

5. Cover and refrigerate for 4-8 hours. Or overnight.

6. Using a melon baller or a small cookie scooper, scoop out the dough and roll into balls and then cover in powdered sugar. Put on a prepared baking sheet about 1 and 1/2 inches apart. Bake at 350* for about 12 minutes.

8. Let sit on baking sheet for about 2 minutes after taking them out of the oven then transfer them to a cooling rack with a slotted metal spatula for best results. Let cool for about 15 minutes before storing!

Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Delicious Spanish Rice

So Sorry I forgot to post this when I did the enchiladas.  We LOVE this Spanish Rice that we call Cindy's Rice because my awesome friend Cindy gave it to me.  I watched her cute mom make it when we lived in Arizona and she is an awesome cook!

Cindy’s Rice

2 cups uncooked rice

2 TB oil

1 cup tomato sauce

4 cups water

1-2 garlic cloves, pressed

4 tsp chicken bouillon granules.  (If using cubes, I unwrap them and put them in a baggie and smash them with a mallet or you can put them in the microwave with part of the water to dissolve them)

Optional: A bit of Fresh or dried cilantro 

Heat the oil for 5 minutes on medium high heat and then add rice.  Fry, stirring almost constantly until it is browned a little. Pour in everything else and turn down heat to let it simmer covered for 20 minutes.

I took step by step pictures and can't find the now but here is what the finished product looks like.  Enjoy!

Meaningful Family Tradtions

When Mike and I started our family we really wanted to have family traditions that were meaningful and also fun. We have only been parents for 12 years, and we do a lot of tweaking, but here are some of the things I've observed about family traditions.

Incorporate your childhood
Our kids love it when we do something as a family that we did when Mike or I were kids. They love visiting the hollow where Mike played as a little boy and they love it when we do holiday traditions that our families did.
We decided to do  Pajamas on Christmas Eve. That was something that my family did when I was little and our kids seem to love it. I know families also give their kids Christmas pajamas on Thanksgiving so they can enjoy them all season.
Mike's family has always done the Nativity on Christmas Eve. I love our kids getting dressed up with their cousins to recreate the night Christ was born. We have used towels and robes and blankets to dress everyone up before. My wonderful sisters-in-law made amazing costumes a few years ago and that has been really fun too.

Go with what's important to you
There are so many things that you could do with your family. It is very overwhelming to get on pintrest and try to figure out what would be the most fun or the most meaningful. YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING! Not only that, but you don't have time to do everything either. I feel like it's important to teach our kids to simplify and to enjoy the things they're doing instead of feeling like a crazy person trying to be "the best mom ever."
Every year we have the kids decorate their tree (we have 2). One is a cute, themed tree that sits in the front window, but the other sits in our living area that we spend most of our time in. That tree is covered in ornaments that they made themselves and little things that represent Christ. The tree that has all those ornaments on it is a tree that Mike and I got on our first Christmas together. It is fiber optic and totally out of style, but it's a sentimental gesture to keep it. The kids think it's pretty cool too.
We did the Elf on the Shelf for the last few years, but this year we're not (My kids are older now anyways). There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing it, I just felt like we needed something a little different. Since we are Christian we went with the 25daysofchrist.com ornaments.

They come unfinished so you can make them your own and also come with a booklet that has scripture references to both the New Testament and The Book of Mormon. We are going to double up next week to start it because our older 2 have been in Arizona this week. I am excited to focus more on why we celebrate Christmas this year.

 

 

Find somewhere to give

I am absolutely, 100% into giving more than receiving. It might not seem that way to the people in my family, but that's because most of what I give goes to those that absolutely need it. I have the kids brainstorm with us to find out how we can help others and sometimes it's how they can help the members of our own family. Usually it's service oriented (because that's my love language) and rarely has anything to do with "wants", but rather has to do with "needs." Find somewhere to give to others. We are so blessed and we have too much. It's better to give to those who truly need it rather than having a hundred presents under the tree.

 

Be purposeful about your family traditions. Even if you're the only person in your immediate family, find things that you can do that make the holiday season a joy to you and to those around you. We are here to help others and to live in joy.

 

Lots of love,

Nicole

Snickers Surprise Cookies

This is another recipe from Judy :).

I made these cookies for my friend who recently had surgery. I brought her some Sausage Tortellini Soup and Parmesan Rolls as well. We've had a huge bag full of miniature sized Snickers staring at me for the last couple of months. I decided it was time to put them to use!

These are super delicious and fairly simple to make.

Snickers Surprise Cookies

Ingredients:

1 Cup of Butter
1 Cup of Peanut Butter
1 Cup of Sugar
1 Cup of Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
2 tsp. of Vanilla
3 1/2 Cups Flour
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Baking Soda
2 pkg. of mini Snickers

Directions:

In your mixer combine butter peanut butter, and sugars. Slowly add in eggs and vanilla.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Slowly and carefully add the flour mixture to the dough. Mix well.

Take a Tb. of dough and shape it around a mini Snicker. Roll into a ball. Continue with the rest of the Snickers until you run out of dough.

Bake at 350* 10-12 minutes.

And then try not to eat all of them :)

Enjoy!