Chocolate Lasagna

Chocolate Lasagna from Olive Garden is sinful! Homemade chocolate lasagna is just as delicious. I kid you not. Be prepared to not want to step on the scale for a few days. I made this batch for some out-of-town friends we had over recently. It's a great summertime dessert--so cool and delicious.

CHOCOLATE LASAGNA

Package regular Oreo cookies

6 TBSP melted butter

1- 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 TBSP cold milk

12 ounce tub Cool Whip, divided

2 – 3.9 ounce packages Chocolate Instant Pudding

3 1/4 cups cold milk

1 1/2 cups mini chocolate chips

First, food process or crunch Oreos in a baggie with a wood roller until they are finely crushed. Melt butter and combine butter with the crushed Oreos. Spread the mixture on the bottom of a 9 x 13" dish.

Mix the cream cheese with a mixer fluffy. Add in 2 TBSP of milk, and sugar, and mix. Stir in 1 and 1/4 cups Cool Whip. Spread this mixture over the crust.

In a separate bowl, combine instant pudding with 3 and 1/4 cups cold milk. Whisk until the pudding starts to thicken. Use a spatula to spread the mixture over the previous cream cheese layer.

Spread the remaining Cool Whip over the top. Sprinkle mini chocolate chips evenly over the top. Place in the freezer for 1 hour, or the refrigerator for 4 hours before serving.

Sugar Cookies You'll Never Forget

If you are like me and love a great sugar cookie recipe, I have a recipe for you to try! Well, it isn't my recipe but Mandi at Vintage Revivals introduced me to it.

This recipe is different because once you roll the balls, you don't put it in the oven and stop there.

Instead, you will use the stickiness from the dough to coat the bottom of a glass, stick the glass in sugar, then smoosh the ball down, thereby coating the dough with a yummy layer of sugar.

The sugar sticks to the cookie when cooked, making it not only yummy but pretty if you are one who doesn't add icing to your sugar cookies.

These cookies are awesome to freeze and don't change texture at all upon defrost. I personally don't have the willpower NOT to defrost them.

We made this batch for our neighbors who have used their snow removers to free our driveway more than once this year. We wanted to make them a happy, sunny color hoping that we are done with snow around here!

Go to Mandi's site to get the full recipe. You so will not regret it. This sugar cookie recipe is a keeper!

Dusting off the Bread Machine

I own a bread machine that is so large, it looks like some strange, gargantuan, futureistic, something-or-other but it is simply a bread machine. There is no reason it should be so large but that is probably due to its age. I'm sure they are much smaller nowadays.

So, I dusted (literally) off my machine and set out to bake a banana chocolate chip bread for the kids to have as an afterschool snack. Is there anything better than some warm, yummy bread on a snowy day?

I am using the recipe from this book.

I gathered my ingredients.

The beauty of the bread machine is you just throw the ingredients into the bowl, set the machine and open it later to a beautiful loaf (not to mention the sweet smell that fills the house!). A couple of tips: you ALWAYS have to add the wet ingredients first and make sure you test your yeast. The way to ensure your yeast is working is to add some warm water to a cup and add two tsp of sugar. Then, sprinkle some yeast in the cup. Within 15 minutes, the yeast should foam and give off the "yeasty" smell. If it fails to do either, your yeast is old. I don't always keep fresh yeast on hand so it really is easy to have some old yeast in your house.

All the receipes call for "bread flour." I just used regular flour though I hear that bread flour is preferred. Just like the yeast, I really don't keep fresh bread flour in my house. If you don't either, just use regular old flour, it will be ok.

Here are my ingredients in the pan.

Within 5 minutes, my ingredients are stirring together into a nice dough.

After school we serve it up with some butter and honey and some tea. So delish! Do you have an ancient bread machine too? Or do you have a new one? Are the new ones pretty snazzy? How often do you use yours?

My Favorite Things Thursdays

It's Thursday and time for My Favorite Things Thursday linky party. Please join the party if you have a favorite recipe, app, craft idea, everyday product, fashion idea, or favorite pin. Anything goes really!

I love this time of year! My favorite place to visit this time of year is Starbucks! It's everyone's favorite, right??

My newest obsession is the Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate and the Caramel Apple Cider. Oh my! There is no better way to spend an afternoon than curled up with a good book while sipping your Starbucks. I love it!

What's your favorite Starbucks item?

Zucchini Time!

I love this time of year where the zucchini are in abundance and I try to find as many new zucchini recipes as possible.

The kids were wanting an afterschool snack so I decided to make them some yummy zucchini bread. I've tried "healthier" recipes but I haven't liked any of them so I just use half white flour and half whole wheat flour. You can also substitute apple sauce for the oil (I didn't have any apple sauce o hand). Recipe is at bottom!

First, you whisk the eggs.

You then add sugar to the eggs and start shredding the zucchini. Add zucchini and vanilla to the egg mixture.

Work on the flour mixture separately. And here's where I failed to take pictures--to excited I guess.

Bake your two loaves at 325 degrees for 70 minutes or until done.

Is there nothing better than a warm, buttered piece of zucchini bread at the end of a long school day? I think not!!

ZUCCHINI BREAD

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup white sugar, 1 cup brown sugar

2 cups grated zucchini

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. baking powder

3 cups flour (I use half white, half whole wheat)

3 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. baking soda

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour two loaf pans.

Beat eggs until light and frothy. Mix in oil and sugar. Stir in zucchini and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir into the egg mixture. Divide batter into prepared pans. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until done.

Peanut Butter Cookie Love

I don't know any cookie I love more than peanut butter cookies! Snickerdoodles are a close second I guess. I came across the recipe for this cookie on Kevin and Amanda's blog. Click the link to their site for much more detailed pictures and the recipe.

I've never made my own peanut butter before so that part of the process was super fun. I even had leftover for MiniB's PB&J sandwiches this week.

What is your favorite type of cookie?

Smores--Oreo style!

I saw a picture of Oreo Smores on Pinterest. I knew my kids would love it, and since making smores is on our summer to-do list, I bought the stuff. We're in the middle of fire-ravaged Colorado so we are under a fire ban. That means it was gas stove smores for us!

You have to try this! My kids were so excited you'd think Santa was coming tonight. Make sure you buy the Double Stuff though. There is an added bonus with the creme from the Oreo. Delish! Brian sure loved them!

Lemon Bar Yumminess

I LOVE all things lemon. I craved lemon anything when I was pregnant with MiniMe. I never pass up a good lemon bar and have a stockpile of lemon bar recipes. This ranks as one of my top recipes.

Check out the Food Librarian's blog at this link for the recipe. It is DELISH!!!!

National Bundt Day 2011

S till playing catch up on my blog. November 15, 2011, was National Bundt Day and if you haven't heard of The Food Librarian, you simply must check out her blog.

Here is Mary's round-up of all of us who made a bundt on National Bundt Day. I made a lemon bundt. Delish! Mary sent me a new button for my apron. It is my second year making a bundt for NBD. I'm starting a collection of sorts of bundt pans. The Monkey Bread bundt recipe (see image below), has been my family's favorite. I have made the Snickerdoodle bundt that was pretty popular with my kids too (see Mary's blog for both recipes).

Thin Mint Pancakes

I love Thin Mint cookies. I can't get enough of them this time of year.... so much so that when I read The Food Librarian's post about Thin Mint pancakes, I had to try it. They are truly yummy.

Melted Snowman Sugar Cookies!

I got the idea for these melted snowman sugar cookies from Smashed Peas and Carrots. Please visit and you'll find not only a lovely blog but an awesome tutorial and recipe for these snowmen.

My daughter did all of the decorating. It was a fun project for us! :)

Chocolate....

N eed I say more?

Granola...YUM!

I love granola topped on my morning yogurt so I was super excited to find a homemade granola recipe. It is super easy to make and will last you for a while. I think it would even make a great gift!



Here's the recipe for you:

HOMEMADE GRANOLA

4 cups rolled oats
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 cup vegtable oil
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup water
1 pkg. dried cranberries (I also added some dried strawberries and blueberries to mine)

Heat the oven to 300. Stir together oats, wheat germ, nuts, sesame seeds, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the oil, honey, and water. Stir until well combined and then spread evenly on a cookie sheet. Make sure your sheet has sides on it.

Bake the granola until lightly browned, approximately 40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes so it browns evenly. Let it dry and then stir in the dried fruit.
Yield: 7 cups