Pumpkin Spice No Bake Cookies

A fun twist to traditional no bake cookies! I used vanilla pudding and added pumpkin pie spice, but there is also pumpkin spice pudding you can buy (I couldn't find it at the commissary but I think Walmart has it). If you use that instead, omit the 1 Tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice.

INGREDIENTS:

1.5 cups white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

2/3 cup milk

3.4 oz box of vanilla instant pudding

3.5 cups quick cooking oats

1 Tablespoon and 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

In a large saucepan, combine sugars, butter, and milk.

Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Let boil for 2 minutes (this is important for it to set correctly!).

Remove from heat. Stir in pudding until completely  mixed. Add the oats, spice, and vanilla.

Drop by spoonfuls onto waxed or parchment paper. Allow to cool completely so they set. Enjoy!

Recipe was adapted from HERE

No Bake Cookies

I love no bake cookies! I don't make them very often because I have no self control and will eat the entire batch within a day. 😃
My favorite thing about this recipe is that it is peanut butter free. We don't have allergies in our household, but I just personally prefer my no bake cookies made without peanut butter! 



INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
2 cups white sugar
5 Tablespoovs unsweetened cocoa
Splash of Vanilla
3 cups quick cooking oats
1/2 cup coconut 

DIRECTIONS:
Mix the butter, milk, sugar, and cocoa in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes.

Remove from heat. Add a splash of vanilla. Mix in the oats and coconut. Drop by spoonfuls onto wax or parchment paper. Let cool. Enjoy! 

Pecan Tassies

I had never even heard of these until I met Matt. They are his favorite Christmas sweet, so I had to learn how to make them. Turns out, it isn't that hard haha. It definitely is time consuming, but worth it!

The wrappers are not necessary, but make clean up about a million times easier. It also makes making them go quicker, because you don't have to clean the pan between batches. I recommend having at least a couple mini muffin tins so you can get a batch ready to go while another is baking. This recipe makes roughly 90, depending on how thick you make the crust (they freeze well too!).

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups butter or margarine, softened, plus 3 Tablespoons melted

12 ounces cream cheese, softened

4 cups flour

3 eggs

2.5 cups brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.5 cups chopped pecans

DIRECTIONS:

In a large bowl, mix 2 cups butter and the cream cheese. Beat in 1 cup of flour at a time to form the dough.

In another bowl, combine eggs, brown sugar, melted butter, and vanilla extract. Stir in pecans. 

Roll dough into small balls and press into mini muffin pans, spreading the dough up the sides.

Fill the crusts with the pecan mixture.

 Bake around 18 minutes, until crust is lightly browned and filling has puffed up.

Let cool for a few minutes and remove carefully from pan. Enjoy!  

Marshmallow Lime Jello Salad

This has a lot of names.

Fruit Salad. Jello Salad. Pineapple Jello Salad. That green marshmallow stuff we eat at Thanksgiving.

No matter what you call it, it is good! :)

INGREDIENTS: 

1 cup boiling water 

2 small packs lime Jello

1/2 (10 1/2 oz.) bag miniature marshmallows 

8 oz cream cheese, room temp 

1 lb can crushed pineapple (reserve 1 cup juice) 

8 oz Cool Whip

DIRECTIONS:

In a large bowl, combine boiling water and jello. Stir until Jello is dissolved. Add the marshmallows.

In a separate bowl, combine cream cheese and pineapple (excluding the 1 cup juice).

Stir pineapple juice into Jello mixture. Fold in cream cheese mixture and cool whip.

Pour into a 9x13 pan (or a very large bowl). Chill in fridge overnight.

Cranberry Sauce

This cranberry sauce is SOOOO good! Even Matt, who claimed he didn't like cranberry sauce, loves it. Good on turkey, potatoes, and plain. Best part, it is quick and easy - and can be made a day or so ahead of time! In fact, making it ahead of time allows the flavors to blend, so it is even better.

INGREDIENTS:

12oz bag cranberries

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup orange juice

1/2 cup water

DIRECTIONS:

In large saucepan, combine sugars, juice, and water over medium heat. Add cranberries.

Cook 10-15 minutes, until all cranberries have popped (they do splatter a bit, so if you have a splatter guard, you might want to use it!). Whisk occasionally, helping to mash the cranberries. Pay attention to it as it easily boils over.

Pour into bowl and chill in the fridge. It will thicken as it cools.

Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies

These are some of the best sugar cookies I have had! They are soft, moist, and delicious! The frosting is awesome, too. It gets hard enough to stack the cookies (some frosting sticks to the bottom but not very much...and it might not if a person waited a little longer to stack them), but stays soft too, if that makes any sense. 

INGREDIENTS:

For the cookies:

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1.5 cups white sugar

2 eggs

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

2.5 cups white flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

For the frosting:

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup shortening (I used butter flavor)

2 Tablespoons milk plus 1.5 teaspoons milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

food coloring, if desired

DIRECTIONS:

For the cookies:

In large bowl, cream sugar and butter together until smooth.

Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in remaining ingredients.

Refrigerate dough for at least one hour for easier handling.

Roll out dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper. Use a cookie cutter, and place cut out shapes onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake @400F for about 6 minutes, until bottom edges are just beginning to brown (the tops will still look white). Remove from oven and off of baking sheet immediately. Cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting:

In large bowl, cream together the powdered sugar and shortening.

Slowly mix in milk and vanilla with an electric mixer until stiff and smooth.

Add food coloring if desired.

I found this recipe here and made a few adjustments, including cutting down the servings.  I made 25 good-sized cookies with this. If you need more, its easily doubled. The frosting recipe (from here) makes enough for all of the cookies plus a couple more.

Snickers Caramel Apple Salad

Yes, it is as delicious as it sounds...unless you think it sounds gross, haha. In that case, it is delicious and you need to try it!

INGREDIENTS:

6 apples, chopped into bite sized pieces (red, green, or a combo of both)

6 regular size Snickers candy bars, chopped into bite sized pieces

12oz container of Cool Whip

5.1 oz box of Instant Vanilla Pudding

Caramel ice cream topping for garnishing

Milk, if desired, to help thin the pudding mix (1/4 cup or so)

DIRECTIONS:

In a large bowl, combine the dry pudding mix and the cool whip (if desired, add milk to the dry mix first, then combine with the cool whip).

Add in the chopped snickers and apples. Mix well. It takes a little bit to get everything covered, but it is so worth it!

Top with the Caramel and enjoy!

NOTES:

This makes a large batch, so if you are making it for only a few people, try cutting the recipe in half. Mine got a little watery by the next day....still edible but didn't look as appealing.

Bloody Finger Cookies

Such a fun Halloween treat! Our 3 year old refused to even try one and that kid loves cookies, but the other 2 kids gobbled them up.

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 egg
1Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking powder
3.5-4 cups of flour (higher humidity requires more)
almond shard
Cocoa powder (for dusting the cookie)
red food coloring 

DIRECTIONS
Mix sugar and butter together until well blended. Mix in egg, vanilla, and nutmeg.
Add baking powder and flour. Mix into a sticky dough (although you should  be able to hold it without it sticking to you).
Roll into thin lines (I did mine about the length and width of my middle finger, but I have small hands. Just remember it will get spread a little.)
Place an almond shard on the tip for a fingernail and make marks for the knuckles. Place a drop of red food coloring at the base for blood (do not rub it in, it doesn't look like blood after cooking if you do).
Baked @ 300F on a greased cookie sheet for approximately 7 minutes (oven times will vary).
Remove from oven and dust with cocoa powder for the dirty look. Enjoy!

Recipe and idea adapted from HERE

Chocolate Chip Cookie and Double Stuf Oreo Brownies with Caramel

Best and worst brownies ever! Best because...well...I mean, look at it. Chocolate chip cookies topped with double stuf oreos topped with dulce de leche topped with brownies. Worst because you can't stop eating it even when you have had enough! Lucky for me, Matt is taking most of it into work.

Also, it isn't technically caramel in them, it is dulce de leche (which is sweetened condensed milk heated up). But it was already a long name, so I am just claiming its caramel :)

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
2.5 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
11.5 oz bag chocolate chips
1 package double stuff oreos
dulce de leche (optional)
1 box brownie mix PLUS ingredients for brownies

DIRECTIONS:
Cream the butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add flour, baking soda, and salt and mix. Fold in chocolate chips.
Spread cookie dough into lightly greased 9x13 pan (or use parchment paper if you have it. I didn't.) Top with single layer of oreos.

Pour dulce de leche on top of oreos.

Prepare brownie mix as directed on box. Pour on top and spread evenly.

Bake @350F for 40-50 minutes (previous comments claim 30 minutes was enough, many people say closer to 1 hour are needed, including me. It all depends on your oven). For my cookie dough to be cooked, my brownie edges got harder than I liked, but I just cut them away and there was still more than enough. Enjoy!

recipe from HERE

Reese's Stuffed Oreos.

Double stuffed oreos, with a reese's peanut butter cup in the middle, dipped in chocolate. Seriously, whats not to love?! Super easy and quick! The only hard part (and the longest!) is waiting for the chocolate to set so you can eat them.

INGREDIENTS:
Double stufed oreos (as many as you want, you need 2 for each 1 you make)
Reese's Peanut butter cups (regular sized)
Bakers melting chocolate

DIRECTIONS:
Pull apart the oreos so you have one side with the frosting, one side empty.  Unwrap some Reese's.
Place a Reese's on top of a frosted oreo, and top with another frosted oreo. Press down to stick it all together.

Dip in melted chocolate. Sprinkle with crumbs of the empty-sided oreo.

Let the chocolate harden and ENJOY!

recipe from HERE

Reese's Bars

I suppose they aren't technically "Reese's bars" since they don't use any Reese's in them. But, they taste SO close to being a Reese's that its the best name for them!!

Simple (5 ingredients), quick (no baking, just melting some stuff), and delicious (tastes like a Reese's, duh!). What more could you want?!

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup butter, melted
8 graham crackers, crushed to crumbs
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup  plus 4 Tablespoons peanut butter
1.5 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:
Mix melted butter, graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and 1 cup peanut butter together until well blended. Spread evenly into ungreased 9x13 pan.
Over low heat (or in microwave), melt chocolate chips and 4 Tablespoons peanut butter together, mixing til smooth. Spread evenly over graham cracker mixture. 
Chill in fridge for at least 1 hour before cutting. The last time I made them it took a couple of hours before the bottom was firm. Its worth the wait though! Enjoy!

recipe from HERE