Gooey Oreo Chocolate Cake Bars

I dont know when my obsession with Oreo cookies began but once it started it has not ceased to exist even for a moment.  I don't care how I eat them, dipped in cold milk, hot chocolate, in my ice cream or eaten right out of the package. I know I know Oreos aren't exactly figure friendly or considered a healthy treat but lets be honest...any good treat is gona be a little naughty, right?! Well naughty is exactly what this dessert bar is, and packed full of Oreo cookies...double stuffed to be exact. I found this recipe on Picky Palates amazing food blog and I knew that I had to make it at once!

Gooey Oreo Chocolate Cake Bars

Recipe from Picky Palate

Ingredients:
1 devils food cake mix
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips
14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
20 double stuffed Oreo cookies, broken into bite size pieces

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a 9x13 inch baking dish with tin foil sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Place cake mix, butter and egg into a large bowl and mix to combine all ingredients. Press mixture into prepared pan and top with broken cookie pieces. Pour sweetened condensed milk over cookies and top with chocolate chips. Bake for 25 minutes and let cool completely. Cut into squares and enjoy!

Candlestick Candy Jars

Turns out after going through what seemed like endless boxes, as Ben and I decided to clean out our garage, I must have been some kind of candle holder collector. I mean I had so many candle holders I couldn't believe my eyes! What to do with all of them?! Oh I know, how bout spray paint them an assortment of colors, glue plastic tupperware containers on top and use them as candy jars!!! 

Turns out thats just what I ended up doing. I happened to order thai food one night for dinner and the food came in these perfectly sized, tall plastic containers with lids that were exactly the diameter of my candlesticks. How perfect was that! So I hot glued each base to the candle holder and filled those puppies with some favorite sweets! They have been a hit ever since!

Easy Crochet Baby Sweater

If you know me you know that I have a bit of a crochet obsession. I own way to much yarn for my own good! I find that it is a very relaxing hobby for me and I have loved creating all kinds of crocheted items. With a new baby on board now I of course had to outfit him with some crocheted sweaters for the cold winter months. This time I am sharing this easy tutorial with you so that you can make your little one a sweater as well!

In fact I went a little crazy and now my baby boy has an entire winters worth of sweaters to wear! And if crocheting isn't your thing, you can always purchase any one of these beauties in my Etsy shop!

Here are the measurements for sizes newborn to 9 months old:

0-3 months: 16 in / 40.5 cm

3-6 months: 17 in/  43cm

6-9 months: 18 in/ 45.5 cm

You will want to use a different size hook for each of the sizes. I would use an H hook for the newborn-3 month size and then just use a size larger hook for each of the larger sizes.

Key:
ch= chain
dc= double crochet
sc= single crochet

Start by chaining 36
Row 1: 1 dc in fourth chain from hook, and in next 3 chs, 3 dc in next ch, 1 dc in next 5 chs, 3 dc in next ch, 1 dc in next 10 chs, 3 dc in next ch, 1 dc in next 5 ch, 3 dc in next ch, 1 dc in last 5 ch, ch 3 and turn work over.

Row 2-5: .Dc in the very first chain and continue until you reach the middle dc of the 3 dc grouping where you will do 3 dc. Repeat, remembering to put your 3 dc into the middle dc of each of the previous 3 dc groupings.

Row 6: Shaping the arm holes. Ch 3, 1 dc in the very first chain and in each chain until you get to the middle dc of the 3 dc grouping, Ch 4, skip to the next middle of the dc of the 3 dc grouping and 1 dc in the middle of the 3 dc grouping. Dc in each chain until you get to the middle dc of the next 3 dc grouping, ch 4, skip to the next middle of the dc of the 3 dc grouping and 1 dc in the middle of the 3 dc grouping. Dc in each of the next chains until you get to the end of that row.

Row 7-15: Ch 3, 1 dc in each chain across row, starting with the very first chain, until you reach row 15, remembering to chain 3 at the end of each row before turning to work on your next row.

Trim: to do a trim around the vertical opening of the sweater edge, ch 1, 1 sc in the ridge, 1 sc in the post, repeat this for the entire row. When you reach the corner ch 1, turn and repeat steps until you reach the bottom corner. 3 sc in corner, ch 1 and 1 sc in each ch around bottom of sweater until you reach opposite corner, 3 sc in corner, ch 1,  1 sc in the next ridge, 1 sc in the next post all the way until you reach the corner of that row, ch 1, turn and 1 sc in each chain until you reach the first sc of the 3 sc grouping in the bottom corner.

Button Holes: Ch 1, turn, sc in each of the next chs until you reach your determined button hole spot and ch 3 and sc in the same chain, 1 sc in the next chs until you reach your next button hole spot and ch 3, sc in the same ch and continue until you have added all of your button holes and have reached the top corner of your sweater. 3 sc in corner ch, ch 1 and 1 sc in each chain around the neck.

Hood: Attach yarn at corner of neck with slip stitch, ch 3, 1 dc in each ch across, ch 3, turn, 1 dc in each chain for 12 more rows. If you would prefer to do a collar instead of a hood you will stop at row 4 and just fold down the collar

Turn sweater inside out and fold sweater over and line up your hood rectangle. Slip stitch each matching chain until you reach the end, ch 1, tie off and sew in your tail.

Arms:
Row 1-9: Start in the middle bottom of the arm opening. Attach your yarn to one of the chains and ch 3, 1 dc in each ch (In the corners where the posts are you will 1 dc into ridge, 1 dc in post, 1 dc in ridge). Continue with one dc into each chain. Write down the number of dc's you made in the first round of your first sleeve so that when you move to the next sleeve you will be sure to have the same amount so that one sleeve is not larger or smaller than the other. When you have a dc in every chain in the first row, slip stitch into the 3rd ch that you started with, ch 3 to go up to your next round and continue to do 1 dc in each chain around and slip stitching into the first ch 3 and repeat for 8 more rounds followed by 2 rows of sc.

Minty Gooey Cake Bars

This last St. Patricks day I was searching for a new dessert that was either literally green or had a minty component to it. And thats about as far as our St. Patricks Day celebration goes in our family. Luckily I have Pinterest in my life and luckily there was a plethora of both green and minty desserts for the making. Thats when I stumbled across a dessert from Picky Palate, whose website is full of delicious food for the making. I read the recipe she had made for Minty Gooey Cake Bars and almost fell out of my seat. Holy decadent!! I almost got a cavity just reading the ingredients. That being said I knew it was going to be a winner of a recipe and one that I HAD to make for our upcoming St. Patricks Day. And of course I had to make it a bit early just to be sure that it was delicious….

Spoiler alert...this recipe is flipping amazing and is being filed away in my go to, need to impress, having a sugar craving, make more than on St. Patricks day file. The plate was devoured in a matter of minutes and not without serving up a big glass of ice cold milk with each bar. Delish!!

Minty Gooey Cake Bars

from Picky Palate

Ingredients:

1 box yellow cake mix

1stick softened butter

1 large egg

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup Andes mint pieces

1 small can sweetened condensed milk

20 girl scout thin mint cookies, or Grasshopper cookies, broken into pieces

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 9x13 inch baking dish with no stick cooking spray. Place cake mix, butter and egg into a large bowl; mix until dough forms. Press dough into bottom of prepared baking dish. Top evenly with chocolate chips and Andes mints. Drizzle sweetened milk over the top and top with broken pieces of mint cookies. 

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until baked through. Immediately after removing from the oven, take a plastic knife around edges of pan to loosen. :et cool completely cool before cutting into squares.

Painted Bookshelf

After

I picked up a little bookshelf from a local thrift store to use in our house and after living with it for a few months I decided it needed a little sprucing up. I didn't want to paint the entire unit so I opted to try just painting the sliding doors.

Before

After removing the doors, I used painters tape to stripe them out. I then lightly sanded then wiped down the exposed wood parts.

And I alternated painting the stripes white and gold. The surface of the doors was very smooth so the stripes came out perfect.

It adds the perfect amount of interest and funk to the otherwise plain bookshelf of its former life. Im pretty happy...its amazing what a difference it makes making just a simple little change.

Fig, Prosciutto & Kale Grilled Cheese

I was looking through my cabinets the other day for a snack for my son and found an economy size bag of dried figs that I had purchased from Costco months early and hadn't even used a 1/16 of. I wasn't sure E was going to go for the texture of the dried figs but I decided to try anyways. Turns out he has found another obsession aside from applesauce, bananas and watermelon. He has mowed through this bag with no trouble at all! In fact I have had to start regulating his fig intake so that his bowls don't spontaneously combust on me! As the bag was dwindling down I realized that if I wanted to use figs for anything I had better make my move before E finished them off. That was when my fig, proscuitto and kale grilled cheese made its appearance.

This grilled cheese combines flavors that you might not ordinarily think of using together, but they work soooooo perfectly! Its both sweet with the dried figs and salty with the cured prosciutto. A perfect combination! And of course I had to throw a little healthy into the mix and what better way than to use some vitamin packed kale. My husband gave it a definite two thumbs up while licking his fingers. This recipe will definitely be making a debut on our monthly rotation for sure!

Fig, Proscuitto and Kale Grilled Cheese

Ingredients:

sandwich bread, I used sourdough

butter

dried figs, 5 per sandwich

proscuitto, 3-4 thin slices per sandwich

kale, ribs removed

grated mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Reserve about 5 figs per sandwich, depending on how large the bread is that you are using. Slice each of your figs into at least 4 thin slices; set aside. Prepare your bread by lightly spreading butter on the outside pieces. Place a layer of mozzarella cheese down on one of the un-buttered sides of your bread. Place your cut figs fairly close together on top of the cheese. You want to make sure that you get a piece of fig with every bite. Layer your proscuitto down next. Place a layer of kale down over the proscuitto and top with an additional layer of grated mozzarella. Place your remaining piece of bread over the cheese with the buttered side up. Heat a large pan over medium heat and cook your sandwich until a gold crust forms on the bread. Turn and repeat on the other side. Serve and enjoy!

Turkey Larb

A few of you might be completely turned off by the name of this recipe, maybe even more than a few. In fact when I told my husband what we were having for dinner he thought I said turkey lard!!? What the heck is larb, you say? Larb is actually a type of Laotian meat salad that is regarded as the national dish of Laos. It is most often made with chicken, beef, duck, turkey, pork or even fish and flavored with fish sauce, lime juice and fresh herbs. The meat can either be raw or cooked (don't worry...the meat in this recipe is definitely cooked!). The bottom line is that the dish is incredibly fresh, flavorful, healthy and delicious!! 

Turkey Larb

Ingredients:

Dressing-

1/3 cup fresh lime juice, about 5 limes

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, about 1 large lemon

2 tablespoons fish sauce

2 tablespoons honey

Larb-

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/2 red onion, diced

3 shallots, thinly sliced

1 (4-inch) piece lemon grass, minced

1 Thai chili or 1 serrano chili, stemmed and thinly sliced

salt and pepper

1 1/2 pounds ground turkey

1/2 cup chopped fresh mint leaves

1 head bitter lettuce, leaves separated 

Directions:

For the dressing, whisk together all ingredients in a small bowl and set aside. 

For the larb heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions, shallots, lemongrass, chili and salt to taste. Cook until the vegetables begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add the turkey and season with salt. Cook, stirring frequently, until the meat and vegetables are cooked through, about 6 minutes. Add the dressing to the pan and cook for 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the mint. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Spoon turkey mixture onto the lettuce leaves and arrange onto a serving platter.