Cookie Dough + Peanut Butter Cup Fudge

Since I had all those milks left over from yesterday's cupcakes, I decided to use them and make some fudge! First the cookie dough fudge:

12 tablespoons salted butter, softened
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups powdered sugar
1 cup chocolate chips

Line a 9-by-9-inch pan with parchment paper. In mixer, cream together butter, condensed milk, and heavy cream on medium speed. Add vanilla and mix again. Add brown sugar and mix on medium speed until all ingredients are combined, occasionally pausing to scrape down the sides. Gradually add flour and powdered sugar, continuing to pause to scrape down the sides as needed until all ingredients are combined. Stir in chocolate chips and pour fudge into prepared pan. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before cutting and serving.

I can't even explain how good this is. It tastes like a dang chocolate chip cookie, in fudge form. Oh man. I can't.
Next, I made a peanut butter cup fudge
24 Reese's Regular Size Peanut Butter Cups ( I didn't have these, so I used the football shaped Reese's and it worked just fine)
14 oz can Sweetened Condensed Milk
3 Cups Chocolate Chips

Line an 8x8 inch pan with aluminum foil and lightly spray with cooking spray. Space 16 Reese's Cups along the bottom of the pan. In the microwave melt the chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk stirring every 30 seconds so that the chocolate doesn't burn. Spread evenly over the peanut butter cups. Chop remaining 6 peanut butter cups and gently press onto the top of the chocolate. Refrigerate until set and cut into squares.

As you can see, I used a bread pan because I didn't have quite enough milk left over. But also: delicious! And both are super easy, so make it!

Tres Leches Cupcakes

Now, I've made Tres Leches cupcakes before. They were...all right. But I decided to make them again, I was having a visiting teaching lunch, and the theme was Mexican. I tried a new recipe this time, here we go:

¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs, separated
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup coconut milk

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy on medium speed. Add egg yolks one at a time, mixing until combined. Add the vanilla, mix to combine. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. Alternately add the dry mixture with the buttermilk to the creamed butter beginning and ending with the flour. In a small bowl, beat the egg whites on high speed until stiff peaks form. Gently fold into  cake batter. Fill paper-lined wells 3/4 full. Bake for about 18 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then take out let cool a little more, but not too much.  Stir together the evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and the coconut milk. I used a chopstick and poked a bunch of holes in the cupcakes all over and then poured the mixture onto them - evenly distributing the milk between them.  Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight before frosting. (Since it's so cold, I just put mine in the garage for a few hours.) Then I made a ducle de leche frosting:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2-4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup dulce de leche

Cream the butter well, and then add the powdered sugar, until its  a good consistency that you like, and then add the ducle. Frost.

These were good, but again, I had the problem of them just not quite being wet enough. Maybe I'm too picky with my tres leches. But these are really good, and I do recommend them.

Weekly Darth

Here are the gems of this week, guys.

 He just woke up from his nap here, look at those sleepy eyes.

 Excuse him, he is very busy and important.

I don't even know what he's doing here, but what a great face.

Foto Friday

Basically, 80% of the pictures in my phone are of baby, and the other 20% are Cookie. I'm ok with this, I've dealt with this. Anyway, here's one I snapped of Cookie this week. This is pretty normal, she literally just lays around all day.

Energy Balls

So a goal for this year is me trying to be a bit healthier. I'm not going to stop eating sugar, or stop drinking my Sodalicious' but I'm trying to make a few better choices. So I decided to make some healthy energy balls that I found online. Here's the recipe:

1 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup flaxseed (can be ground or whole, I used whole here, but I think I'll do ground next time)
1/3 cup agave
1 scoop protein powder (the recipe called for vanilla, but I just used a regular non-flavored one)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Stir together all the ingredients in a large bowl. Refrigerate for 2 hours. Then, remove from fridge.

 Roll into balls.

(yes this picture is upside down, deal with it)
Store these in the fridge between eatings, you need to keep them cool or else they'll fall apart. But, these are really tasty. I think I would go ground flaxseed next time, because the whole ones get stuck all up in my teeth, and I don't care for that. But otherwise, these are good.

Foto Friday

I was taking this snapchat of Cookie the other day, and as I turned the camera on her so that it would include her, she did a head-cocking thing that I thought was really cute.

What a great dog.

Weekly Darth

 Baby loves baths now. Loves them. In this particular scenario, he turned on the shower, and scared himself, and this is the result. I know it's not funny, and yet, I cannot stop laughing at it.

 His new thing is sticking things into the middle of his binky. Here, he's put his toy drill in there, what a weirdo.

He's figured out where his belly is. He's showing me.

More Wedding Shenans

Last night was my brother-in-law’s final wedding reception (yes, I have to say final, because they had 3. Over the course of a month, they had 3 separate wedding receptions around the state). Though we were basically just ornamental (really, I didn’t know anyone there besides our family, and didn’t have to talk to anyone, so after an evening of just sitting around and chatting, we took a picture to commemorate. Basically I just wanted to put it on here for memories.

Cookie Cups with Snickers

So, last night, I had a little time on my hands before Husband was done with school, so I made a little treat. I had some leftover caramel frosting, and some Snickers from when I did the cupcakes, and decided now was as good a time as any to use them. I had some pre-made cookie dough in the fridge, so here's what I did. I put some mini cupcake papers into a mini cupcake pan, and pressed some dough into them. (I did 48) I baked them at 350 degrees, for 10 minutes.

As they were baking, I had a bag of mini-Snickers. I cut each mini Snickers in half.  Then when the cookie-cups came out, I pressed one of the halves into the middle. I waited about 10 minutes, and then took the cups out of the pans, to cool completely. After they cooled, I used the caramel frosting left over from my Snickers cupcakes, and frosted these.

They are amazing, delicious, and look great (once the frosting is on. Without the frosting, they look awful). Make these when you're in a bind!

Foto Friday

Tonight, after Husband got home from school, he had some homework that he had to do, before school tomorrow. Since it's my first week of school, I had some homework myself. So he sat down at the counter, and I sat down at the table, and we both did our homework, silently. What a grand date night, eh?

Weekly Darth

Now that baby Darth is gone, I miss that joker. I wish they lived closer so that I got to see him all the time, but that's ok. Someday we'll live near each other, and we'll be best friends.

 Is this not the coolest baby you've ever seen? Honestly.

Before he left, baby hung out with a bunch of us, one being PJ. This is essentially how he looked at her every time she talked to him.

He loves himself some popcorn - he just shovels it all in, as much as he can.

Peppermint Dip

Tonight we had Stamp and Chat, and naturally, I forgot to take a picture of the cards before I put them away. I guess that I could get them back out, and take a picture, but just take my word that they're adorable as always. Tonight's treat theme is Winter treats, so I made a peppermint dip. It's so easy and delicious!

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
½ cup powdered sugar
Almost 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract - I did about 1/4 tsp but then added a dash more
8 oz container Cool Whip
1 Cup Andes Peppermint Crunch Baking Chips
To dip:
Chocolate Graham Crackers
Regular Graham Crackers
Chocolate Covered Pretzels
Nilla Wafers

Beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar and peppermint extract and beat until smooth and totally combined. Add the Cool Whip and beat until combined. Fold in the Andes Peppermint Crunch Baking Chips. Transfer dip to a serving bowl and chill until ready to serve. Serve with the dipping stuffs.

Guys, this was so good, I can't even describe. I accidentally ate so much of it, it's so tasty.

Philly Cheeseteak Quesadillas

For dinner tonight, I tried something I saw on Pinterest, of course. It was super delicious and super easy. Let's break down the ingredients.
4 tortillas
1 green pepper, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1/2 lb sliced deli roast beef
1/2 lb provolone cheese, shredded

In a saucepan over medium heat, heat up some oil. Saute the onions and peppers until a little tender. Remove from heat and set aside. Then I used a skillet, and put a little more oil there, and place a tortilla on there. Sprinkle a little cheese on there, and then place a few slices of the roast beef. Place some of the onions and peppers on there, and then sprinkle more cheese on there. Put another tortilla on top of that. Let it cook until the bottom is golden brown, and then flip it over, cooking until that one is golden brown as well. Let it chill out for a few minutes, to let the cheese and tortilla set, and then cut into slices and enjoy!

I have these arranged on my plate like this, because I put some ranch dressing on here, and dipped the quesadilla in that. It was good! These are delicious, so I recommend them.

2016 is here!

I can't believe it's already 2016. I learned yesterday, after my last run of 2015, that I had run 757.1 miles last year! It's not as high as I wanted it to be, but I mysteriously got sick so much last year, I had to cut my mileage due to that. Hopefully I won't have that obstacle this year, and I can be healthy and meet my 3 miles a day goal.
Another goal I'd like to hit is to read 30 books this year. I barely scraped by with it this last year, and that's because I counted a children's book (about 10 pages) as one of the books. And I scraped by because I started and finished a book yesterday, barely making the goal but that's all right I say.
And lastly, a goal for 2016 is to get a 4.0 in both of the semesters of 2016. I have done this for the last two semesters (and getting a stupid 3.9 my first semester) so I have faith that this can happen - if I work my butt off.
Happy New Year, everyone! Let's make 2016 a great one.