Snicker Bar Cookies

In the spirit of using leftover (Halloween, or otherwise) candy to make bars or cookies, I decided to use up more of our leftover candy and make some Snickers Bar Cookies (if you're interested, see the recipe for Reese's Peanut Butter Blondie Bars here).
So, these awesome little morsels use Snickers candy bars with peanut butter cookie wrapped around them.  Then you drizzle a little chocolate icing on top and wa-la, a sweet treat.  Everything in moderation.  I won't put extra fats or sugars in most recipes, but I will always still post recipes for sweets.  I definitely enjoy unhealthy treats, but I believe a healthy lifestyle includes giving in to chocolate (and other sweets) every once in awhile.  Plus, you can always a modify a recipe by using light butter, agave (or other natural sweeteners), whole wheat flour (instead of all all-purpose), etc.   I hope you enjoy these!

Ingredients:

1/2 - 1 Package of Snickers Mini Snack Size Candy Bars (depending on how you cut them, see Directions #1).
3/4 Cup Light Butter (1 1/2 Sticks)
3/4 Cup Peanut Butter (I used organic and crunchy, but you can do whatever type you prefer)
1/4 Cup White Sugar
1/4 Cup Agave Nectar (or just use 1/2 Cup total White Sugar)
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
1 Cup All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Sea Salt

Icing Ingredients:
1/4 Cup Cocoa Powder
1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar
1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1/2 -1 Tbsp. Milk

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cut candy bars in half or into fourths (I cut them into 4 pieces).
2.  Cream together the butter, peanut butter, and sugars.  Add in the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla.
3.  Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.  Slowly mix the dry ingredients in with the wet mixture (about 1 cup at a time).  Don't overmix, just until well-combined.

4.  Take a spoonful of dough and wrap around a piece of Snickers, roughly in a ball shape, completely covering the candy bar piece.  Place onto baking sheet about 2-3" apart.
5.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Cool on wire rack.

Icing Directions:
1.  Combine the icing ingredients (cocoa, powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk) in a small bowl.
2.  Drizzle over the cooled cookies.

Let dry and Enjoy!

Skinny Strawberry Banana Muffins

The inspiration for these muffins was that it was time for breakfast and I was hungry.  I had some over-ripe bananas on my kitchen counter and a bag of frozen strawberries in the freezer just waiting to be used.  So, I searched a little bit online and found some recipes for Strawberry Banana Muffins.  I used Joy of Baking's recipe, but modified it a bit to make it a little healthier.  My version uses less butter, some applesauce, adds in whole-wheat flour, and uses a partial sugar substitute.  And they still taste awesome.
Serve these pretty muffins for a quick grab 'n go breakfast, an anytime-snack, as dessert, or for a party.

Ingredients:
1/4 Cup (1/2 Stick) Light Butter, Softened
1/4 Cup Applesauce
1/2 Cup Light Brown Sugar

1/4 Cup Agave Nectar (or substitute brown/white sugar if you don't have this)

2 Eggs

1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 1/4 Cup Ripe Bananas, Mashed (about 3 Bananas)
1 lb. Frozen or Fresh Strawberries, Cut into Bite-Size Pieces

3/4 Cup All-Purpose Flour

1 1/2 Cups Whole-Wheat Flour
1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Line a muffin pan with paper liners (or you can spray the muffin cups directly with non-stick cooking spray.
3.  In a large bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.  Fold in the strawberries (coating them in the flour helps prevent sinking while baking).
4.  With your Kitchenaid, or other mixer, combine the butter, applesauce, brown sugar, and agave until well-combined.  Mix in the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla and the bananas.  Thoroughly mix.
5.  Slowly mix the strawberry-flour mixture in with the wet mixture.  Don't overmix.
6.  Pour batter into muffin cups.  Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Cool on wire rack and Enjoy!

Makes 12 Regular-Sized Muffins or 6 Jumbo-Muffins or 24 Mini-Muffins.

Freezer-Friendly: After baking and cooling, place muffins in a dated/labeled freezer bag.  Remove as much air as possible and freeze for up to 3 months.  To defrost, pop back into muffin pan and bake at 350 until warm, or defrost slightly in microwave.

White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

I am definitely enjoying having some snacks around the house now that I'm living with a little baby and like quick snacks to grab.  Some of my favorite cookies are my Oatmeal Chocolate-Chip Raisin Cookies and I've made them a couple of times since my son was born (7 weeks ago already!).  I decided to try a different twist on oatmeal cookies.  This time, I've made them with white chocolate chips, dried cranberries, and oatmeal.   These cookies are even healthy, made with organic ingredients including fiber-rich cholesterol-lowering oatmeal, vitamin C and antioxidant-packed cranberries, and heart-healthy whole wheat flour.  Yum.


Ingredients:
1 Cup Butter, Softened
3/4 Cup Brown Sugar, Packed
1/2 Cup White Sugar
2 Large Eggs
2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 1/4 Cup All-Purpose Flour
3/4 Cup Whole-Wheat Flour

1 tsp. Cinnamon 

1 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Baking Soda

2 3/4 Cups Quick-Cooking Oats

1 Cup Dried Cranberries
1 Cup White Chocolate Chips

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  In a large bowl (or your Kitchenaid mixer if you have one), cream together the butter and brown and white sugars until smooth and creamy.  Beat the eggs in, one at a time, then add in the vanilla. 
3.  In a separate bowl, combine the whole-wheat and all-purpose flours with the baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.  A half-cup at a time, slowly beat in to the mixture. 
4. Stir in by hand the oats, white chocolate chips, and cranberries. 
5.  Drop by the heaping spoonful onto baking sheets about 2 inches apart.

6.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Transfer to wire cooling rack.

Enjoy!

Nutella Cupcakes

I came across this great recipe from Tartelette in honor or Nutella Day (February 5th).  I thought these sounded heavenly, sweet hazlenut, chocolate, and coffee mixed together and topped with a cream-cheese nutty frosting.  Yum.  I had to try them out.  These cupcakes are not only tasty, but make a great gift.  I modified this recipe just a tad, adding hints of vanilla into my recipe.

This recipe yields about 12 cupcakes--feel free to double (or triple) it if you'd like to make a big enough batch to give some away and keep some at home!


Ingredients


Cupcakes:

• 2/3 Cup Butter, unsalted
• 1/3 Cup Light Brown Sugar
• 1 Tbsp. Ground Coffee
• 2 Tbsp. Milk
• 1 tsp. Vanilla
• 1/4 Cup Nutella
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Cup All-Purpose Flour
• 1 tsp. Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp. Salt

Frosting:

• 8 oz. Neufchatel or Light Cream-Cheese 
• 2 Tbsp. Butter
• 1 tsp. Vanilla
• 1/2 Cup Confectioner's (Powdered) Sugar
• 1/4 Cup Nutella

Directions:


Cupcakes:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Place 12 muffin liners in a muffin pan.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt until well-combined.
3. With a mixer, combine the butter and brown sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.  Reduce to low and add in coffee, milk, vanilla, and Nutella.  Once combined, add in the eggs, one at a time.
4.  Slowly add in the flour mixture until mixture is smooth. Note: The batter will be really fluffy and not the same consistency as most cake/cupcake batter (you didn't do anything wrong!). 
5.  Pour batter into muffin liners about 3/4 of the way full and bake for 20-25 minutes.  Cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:
1.  With an electric mixer, combine the cream cheese and butter until smooth.  Add in the vanilla, powdered sugar, and Nutella and mix on low until well-combined.

Decorating:
1.  Using a pastry bag with tips, frost the cupcakes and sprinkle with chocolate sprinkles, chocolate shavings, or mini chocolate chips!

Enjoy!

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Red is the color of Valentine's Day, the color of love, and the color of cupcakes!  Red Velvet cupcakes are a hit with almost everyone and make a wonderful sweet treat for Valentine's Day, which is just around the corner.  For another Valentine's Day recipe, check out my Chocolate Sugar Cookies.

I've created a recipe using a combination of Vanilla Garlic's recipe on Simply Recipes and from Martha Stewart.  This recipe yields about 24 cupcakes, so feel free to half it for a small batch of 12.

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

• 1/2 Cup Butter (1 stick)
• 1 1/2 Cups White Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 2 1/2 Cups Cake Flour (can substitute 2 Cups All-Purpose Flour + 1/3 Cup Cornstarch)
• 2 Tbsp. Cocoa Powder
• 1 tsp. Baking Soda
• 1 tsp. Baking Powder
• 1 tsp. Salt
• 1 Cup Buttermilk (Note: You can make your own buttermilk by combining 1 Cup Milk + 1 Tbsp. Vinegar and letting sit for 10 minutes)
• 1/2 tsp. Red Food Coloring (use gel) (or use beet juice if you want to avoid food coloring)
• 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
• 1 tsp. Distilled White Vinegar

Frosting:

• 1/2 Cup Butter (1 stick)
• 8 oz Neufchatel or Light Cream Cheese
• 2-3 Cups Powdered Sugar
• 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

Directions:

Cupcakes:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Place 24 muffin liners in 2 muffin pans.
2.  In a large bowl, combine the cake flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
3.  Using a mixer, whisk together the butter and sugar until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.  Add in the eggs, one at a time (scraping sides of bowl as needed).  On low, whisk in the food coloring, vanilla, and vinegar.
4.  Add flour mixture and buttermilk in alternating batches (just easier for consistency--so it's not too difficult to mix and so it doesn't splash everywhere).  Mix on medium until well-combined.
5.  Pour batter into muffin liners about 3/4 of the way full.  Bake for 14-18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool completely.

Frosting:
1. Using an electric mixer, cream together butter and cream cheese until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.  Reduce speed to low and add powdered sugar and vanilla, mixing until smooth.

Decorating:

1. Using a pastry bag and your preferred tip, pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes.  I used a pastry bag with a Wilton #1 tip.  You can also cut a hole in a plastic/ziploc bag or even spread it on with a spoon or butter knife.  Top with red sprinkles, chocolate shavings, a piece of Valentine's Day candy, or whatever other creative topping you can come up with!

Enjoy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

Chocolate + Peanut Butter=Heaven (at least for me).  I've been craving that oh-so-yummy combination in the last days, or weeks (who knows!), of my pregnancy, so decided to make some today.
Ok, so maybe I can't find a lot of redeeming "healthy" qualities in these cookies, except for substituting whole-wheat flour for part of the traditional flour used in cookies.  But hey, everyone needs a little decadence once in awhile, right?   However, to make your cookies as healthy for you as you can, be sure to use organic ingredients and try to restrain yourself from eating more than a couple in one sitting!  Pair them with a nice cold glass of milk and say "Ahh." :) Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 Cups Butter, Softened (2 1/2 sticks)
• 1 Cup White Sugar
• 1 Cup Brown Sugar, Packed
• 2 Eggs
• 3 tsp. Vanilla Extract
• 1 1/4 Cups All-Purpose Flour
• 3/4 Cup Whole-Wheat Flour
• 3/4 Cup Unsweeted Cocoa Powder
• 1/2 tsp. Sea Salt
• 1 tsp. Baking Soda
• 1 1/2 Cups Peanut Butter Chips

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  In a mixing bowl (or your Kitchenaid), beat butter and sugar together until well-combined.  Add in eggs and vanilla.
3.  In a separate bowl, combine the flours, cocoa, salt, and soda.  Gradually add the flour mixture to the egg/butter/sugar mixture, beating until well-combined.
4.  By hand, stir in the peanut butter chips.
5.  Drop by spoonful onto ungreased cooking sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Cool on wire rack.

Storing:  These cookies will store well for nearly a week in an air-tight container at room-temperature.  Otherwise, you can also freeze the cookies for up to 3 months (or the cookie dough alone).

Enjoy!

Banana Walnut Muffins

Yum, healthy banana muffins with walnuts.  Did you know walnuts are a great source of omega-3 fatty acids (those great brain builders) and improves your cholesterol?  And bananas pack on the potassium.  Enjoy these yummy muffins for breakfast, or any time of day.

Ingredients:
1 Cup All-Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Whole-Wheat Flour
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
3 Large Ripe Bananas, Mashed
3/4 Cup White Sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1/3 Cup Butter, Softened
1 Cup Chopped Walnuts

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Coat muffin pan with cooking spray, or put in paper liners.
2.  Combine the flours, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl.
3.  In a separate bowl (or your Kitchenaid--although using a mixer is not necessary for this recipe--by hand is fine), mix together the bananas, white sugar, egg, vanilla, and butter.
4.  Slowly fold in the flour mixture and combine until smooth.
5. Stir in the walnuts.
6. Pour batter into muffin cups.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until muffins bounce back when you touch them.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Muffins

More pumpkin recipes!  These muffins are a healthy mid-day snack or morning breakfast.  I hope you like them!


Ingredients:
2 Eggs
1 Can Canned Pumpkin
1/2 Cup Skim Milk
2 Tbsp. Cooking Oil
1/4 Cup Orange Juice
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

1 1/3 Cups All-Purpose Flour
3/4 Cup Whole-Wheat Flour
1/3 Cup Sugar
1/4 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 1/2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp. Ground Nutmeg

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In mixing bowl (or your Kitchenaid mixer), mix together first six ingredients (eggs, milk, cooking oil, orange juice, and vanilla).
2. In a second bowl, combine the flours, sugars, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
3. Add flour mixture to egg mixture and  stir until moistened and combined.
4. Spoon batter into muffin cups (should make about 16 muffins).  Bake at 400 degrees for 12-18 minutes, or until the muffin tops are lightly browned and spring back when you touch them.

Enjoy warm, with a little butter or dunked in your favorite fall coffee or latte.  I'm loving mine dunked in my vanilla Soymilk.  Yuuum.

Perfect Pumpkin Cookies

Time for another fall favorite--cookies meets pumpkin!  These cookies are really fluffy, cake-like and reminiscent of carrot cake, in my personal opinion...but with a pumpkin twist.  Using organic ingredients, wheat flour, mind-boosting cinnamon, and lots of pumpkin, they're not too bad for you either (of course, I'm assuming you can stop after 2 cookies)!

Ingredients:
1 Cup Butter
1 Cup White Sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 Can Pumpkin (15 oz)
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. Nutmeg
1 Cup Whole-Wheat Flour
1 Cup Organic All-Purpose Flour

Frosting Ingredients:
1/4 Cup Softened Butter
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp. Milk
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 1/4 Cup Powdered Sugar

Directions:
1.  Preheat Oven to 325 degrees F.
2.  Cream together softened butter and sugar.  Beat in egg and vanilla, then canned pumpkin.
3.  In a separate bowl, combine baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and both flours.  Slowly beat in to butter/egg mixture.  Stir by hand with firm spoon if needed at the end.
4.  Drop by heaping spoonfuls about 2" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool on wire rack.
5.  For frosting: Combine the softened butter and brown sugar, mix well.  Stir in the milk and vanilla, then the powdered sugar.  Add more powdered sugar for a thicker consistency, more milk for thinner consistency.

Spread frosting on cookies and sprinkle some cinnamon on top.  Feel free to get festive, and color your icing orange or green with sprinkles.  Or as an alternative to frosting, mix in some chocolate chips with the cookie batter before baking.

Enjoy!

Oatmeal Chocolate-Chip Raisin Cookies

I am in love with these cookies.  This will be my 2nd batch in less than a month.  By using organic ingredients (if you can--I did on everything but the sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla) and using part wheat flour with fiber-rich oatmeal and raisins and memory-boosting cinnamon, these cookies are a pretty healthy dessert also!  Great treat on a cool fall night!  Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 Cup Butter, Softened
1 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup White Sugar
2 Eggs
3 Tsp. Vanilla Extract
1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
3/4 Cup All-Purpose Flour
1/2 Tsp. Baking Soda
1 Tsp. Salt
2 Tsp. Cinnamon
2 1/2 Cups Quick-Cooking Oats
1 Cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 Cup Raisins

Directions:
1. Preheat Oven to 325 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl (or your Kitchenaid mixer if you have one), cream together the butter and brown and white sugars until smooth and creamy.  Beat the eggs in, one at a time, then add in the vanilla.
3.  In a separate bowl, combine the whole-wheat and all-purpose flours with the baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.  A half-cup at a time, slowly beat in to the mixture.
4. Stir in by hand the oats, chocolate chips, and raisins.
5.  Drop by the heaping spoonful onto baking sheets about 2 inches apart.
6.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Transfer to wire cooling rack and enjoy!

Makes between 3 and 4 dozen cookies (depending on how heaping your spoonfuls are)