Special K Blueberry Krispies Bars

Special K Blueberry cereal is a new flavor for us and I’ve blasted through a couple boxes of it in the last couple weeks. I even filled a container with the fruity flakes and clusters before I ran out the door the other day. By the time I got to work, I had crumbs trailing down my shirt and in my bra. I made Special K Blueberry treats that night. The sticky marshmallows seem to keep the cereal crumbs out of my shirt.

I still love traditional Special K bars, well, as traditional as they can be since I have a special Special K bars recipe (of which I am sworn to secrecy by my sister who holds the proprietary ingredients). There are just some things best kept between sisters.

Special K Blueberry Krispies

4 tablespoons butter

6 cups mini marshmallows

6 cups Special K Blueberry cereal (or any kind of your favorite cereal)

Melt the butter in a small saucepan or in the microwave. (I’ve found that using a large plastic bowl in the microwave works best.)

Stir in the marshmallows, coating with the melted butter.

Over medium heat or in the microwave, slowly melt the marshmallows. This only takes a minute or two. Spray your spoon or spatula with cooking spray. Stir butter and marshmallows until creamy. Add cereal. Stir until all the cereal is coated with marshmallow mixture.

Spray a 10×8-inch or similar pan with cooking spray or gently grease with butter. Dump the cereal mixture into the pan. To spread evenly, spray the back of a large metal spoon with cooking spray and spread the mixture.

Cool bars completely. Cut and serve. Store in an airtight container.

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They Ate All But Three | Chewy Cocoa P.B. Chip Cookies

It’s not clear to me how it happened, but somewhere between the pumpkin pie, washing the dishes, opening presents, and setting out all the goodies, all but three of my chewy cocoa peanut butter chip cookies disappeared.

And I faintly recall what sounded like a Food Network cookie review behind me as we washed dishes. There was talk of “they’re so soft,” “I like the crunchy edges,” and “there’s a perfect ratio of chocolate and peanut butter.”

Speaking of Christmas cookies, we can’t be the only family that’s overly ambitious with our Christmas baking. Between the bakers in my family, there are six ovens, six mixers, and countless pounds of sugar involved in the making of our annual goodies feast. Of course, we eat a traditional meal of turkey, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole, too.

And this table is not an accurate account of how many sweets we really had because there are more in the refrigerator and a big stack sitting on my entryway bench that hadn’t made it to the table yet. Luckily, we all pack up containers of our favorites and enjoy them for a few weeks after Christmas.

Chewy Cocoa Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

2 cups sugar

1-1/4 cups butter, softened

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

10-ounce package (1-2/3 cups) peanut butter chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat sugar and softened butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Stir together and then gradually add to the butter mixture; beating until well combined. Stir in the peanut butter chips until they are distributed evenly into the cookie dough.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 9 to 10 minutes. Do not overbake. The cookies will not look like they are done but they will puff up a little when baking and then they’ll drop when they are cooling. They are soft with a little crunch around the edges. Cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes and then move them to a cooling rack.

Forget about cooling completely. Start eating them after they’ve cooled 15 minutes or so. Store in an airtight container. Makes approximately 3 dozen cookies.

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Minty Cream Cheese Cookies

It’s a cookie that swerves completely off the track from traditional chocolate chip cookies. You’ll grab a cookie thinking you’ll eat just one. You take a bite, roll your eyes back in delight as you chew the lightly crisp edge. With the next bite comes the soft, dense center that’s dotted with minty chocolate chips. A few more bites and you don’t even realize it but your hand is reaching for another.

1 cup butter-flavor shortening

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

1-3/4 cups mint chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°. In a medium bowl, beat softened cream cheese until smooth. Add shortening, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until well combined.

About half a cup at a time, mix the flour into the cream cheese batter on low speed just until blended. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Drop the dough by tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart. The cookies don’t spread so they are about the size that you place them on the pan.

Bake 8 minutes or until just lightly browned. Don’t overbake. Cool a few minutes in the pan and then transfer to a cooling rack. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

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You know how most cookies are best warm out of the oven? These are good then too, but they seem even better after they’ve been sitting around a few hours or a day or so. What’s even better is if you make the dough, refrigerate it a day or two and then bake them. But keep your eye on the dough. Once the kids find out it doesn’t contain eggs, they’ll be sneaking spoonfuls when you’re not looking.

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The mint candies will be gone soon | Mint Pretzel Kisses

We’ve all seen them, probably even eaten a few — pretzels with melted candies gently pressed into their salty crevices. With all the different flavors people have created, I still go back to my favorite that my mom started making a few years ago. She uses Mint M&M’s candies. They’re the white, green, and red milk chocolate candies that have only been available around the Christmas holiday. So stock up, because they will be hard to find soon.

A few fun recipes I’ve seen for different pretzel snacks are Rolo Pretzel Turtles from Steamy Kitchen, Rolo Pretzels with Pretzel M&M’s from Two Peas and Their Pod, Candy Cane Pretzel Kisses from Cookies and Cups, Peanut Butter M&M Pretzel Kisses from Simply Scratch, and Dark Chocolate Mint Pretzel Kisses from Cookin’ Cowgirl.

Mint M&M’s Pretzel Kisses

Bag of mini pretzel twists or squares

Bag of HERSHEY’s Milk Chocolate Kisses

Bag of Mint M&M’s Chocolate Candies (They are usually in the Christmas candy isle.)

Preheat the oven to 200°. Place pretzels on a cookie sheet. (The number of HERSHEY’s Kisses you have determines how many pretzels you need.)

Unwrap the Kisses and place one in the center of each pretzel. Bake in the oven for 2-1/2 to 3 minutes. The Kiss will not look melted. Remove the pan from the oven. Immediately and gently push one mint M&M into each melted kiss. Let cool completely before storing in an airtight container. If there’s any left after sitting out all day.

If you haven’t made these before, here’s a tip. If you don’t bake these long enough, the kiss will be melted only on the top half. When you try to push the M&M into it, it won’t really stick well. On the other hand, if you bake these too long, the chocolate and turn hard again and when that happens, there’s no going back. You can’t reheat them to fix it. My suggestion, bake at 2-1/2 minutes and then remove the pan and try an M&M. If it works right away, great, you are done. If it seems to only push down halfway, stick in the oven for another 30 seconds. Check again. It only takes a few seconds too long to over-bake.

What kind of pretzel snacks do you make?

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{Desk-hopping Cosmic Caramel Oatmeal Bars}

The recipe for these gooey, candy-topped oatmeal bars has been playing musical desk drawers since 2007. It showed up five years ago when my day job office put together an employee cookbook.

A student employee, John, brought the recipe card to work to submit to the cookbook. He has since moved on within the company but the recipe has stayed in my work group ever since, moving from desk drawer to desk drawer, even between buildings.

I added peanut butter to the crust but you could skip it if you want. And be creative with the toppings. Butterfinger pieces might be an excellent choice in place of M&M’s. You could even add chopped nuts or crushed pretzel pieces to add a salty crunch.

The original recipe was called Pizza Bars, but that seemed a little too plain for these hyped-up, caramel bars loaded with chocolate and oatmeal. So, they have a new name now, along with a new home — my recipe box, and yours.

Cosmic Caramel Oatmeal Bars

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup creamy peanut  butter

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 cup flour

2 cups quick-cooking oats

1 package caramels

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1 cup mini M&M’s

1 cube vanilla almond bark

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a jelly roll pan. Unwrap caramels and place in a small saucepan. Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine soda, salt, flour, and oats. Set aside. In a medium mixing bowl cream butter, peanut butter, and brown sugar. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating until combined. Press mixture into greased pan.

Bake at 350° for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. While it’s baking, melt sweetened condensed milk and caramels over low heat in a small saucepan. Stir constantly as it burns easily. Remove from heat once creamy.

Pour the caramel over the baked crust. Toss the chocolate chips onto the hot caramel and let sit for a couple of minutes, just until the chocolate is soft. Gently spread the chocolate over the bars. Top with mini M&M’s.

In a small bowl, melt almond bark and oil in microwave, stirring until smooth. Drizzle with a fork over the bars. Let cool for a couple of hours before cutting. Store in an airtight container. Do not store in the refrigerator as the caramel sauce becomes hard.

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What toppings would you add to make these your own creation?

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{Candy-coated Chocolate Oatmeal Bars}

Since a few of you don’t jump up and down drooling for peanut butter and chocolate, I made you a peanut butter-less version of Reese’s P.Bitty Bars. You get the same gooey chocolate middle and crumbly oatmeal layers, minus the peanut butter. Besides, I really needed to use up a bag of red and green M&M’s before I bring home Halloween candy.

Creamy chocolate filling:

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

4 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate

1 teaspoon vanilla

Oatmeal Dough:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1-1/4 cups packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups flour

2 cups old-fashioned oats, or quick-cooking oats are fine too

1/2 cup M&M’s mini baking bits (You can use regular M&M’s, just chop them up.)

Preheat oven to 350. Line 13×9 baking pan with non-stick foil, letting ends extend over edges. Or, simply spray baking pan with cooking spray.

Over low heat in a small saucepan, slowly melt chocolate and sweetened condensed milk, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and let cool for 1 minute, then stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla. Set aside to cool while you make the dough.

In a large mixing bowl, beat softened butter, brown sugar, 2 teaspoons vanilla, baking soda, and salt. Beat until fluffy. Add flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating just until combined. Stir in oatmeal. Mix will be crumbly. Firmly press 2/3 of the dough into the bottom of the pan.

Spread the chocolate filling evenly over the dough.

With a pastry blender or with your hands, mix M&M’s baking bits into the remaining dough and then sprinkle over the chocolate. Lightly press the mixture into the chocolate so that once baked, the topping doesn’t fall off when you cut the bars.

Bake 25-30 minutes until lightly brown. Cool completely. If you used a foil-lined pan, pull the bars out and cut into squares on a cutting board. Otherwise, cut bars in pan. Store in an airtight container.

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{It’s just Chex® mix, but make it like you mean it}

As much sugar as I go through, you may be surprised to hear that it’s easier for me to hold back on sweet things than it is for me to stop eating salty snacks.

Chex^® Mix is my major downfall — not the store-bought, packaged-three-months-ago-with-trace-amounts-of-salt-and-Worcestershire-sauce Chex Mix — only the homemade stuff will do. So when I make it, I make it like I mean it. Salty, Worcestershire-y and enough cashews that the nut fighting is over.

The recipe can be found on any Chex box and on most similar store brand cereal boxes. I make mine using wheat Chex and corn Chex (a ratio of about 75:25, heavier on the wheat variety), an extra tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, an extra tablespoon of butter and a few extra dashes of each of the seasonings. I mix in twice as many cashews as mixed nuts. (When I double the recipe, I use one regular can of mixed nuts and a larger can of cashews.) I don’t usually add the pretzels or bagel chips but I have added Pepperidge Farm Goldfish^® crackers. It’s all about what fits in a handful.

If you want to look at the recipe online, here is the link. While you’re there, check out the Caramel Crispy Chex Mix recipe. It is outrageously better than caramel popcorn! I use one variety of Chex cereal and I substitute Cap’n Crunch^® cereal for the rest. Since the Chocolate Chip Crunchewy Cookies are one of the most popular recipes on my blog, I figure people must really love Cap’n Crunch.

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Time for you to share what you love – how do you make your Chex^® Mix like you mean it?

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This post has nothing really to do with General Mills or The Quaker Oats Company. It is not a paid endorsement of any of the above products. I just write what I want to write and hope it relates to what interests you.

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{Popcorn balls for Paige}

She came. And she went. For almost one year we had the pleasure of working with this sweet, professional young lady. But as a newlywed, Paige is ready for the next chapter in her life as she moves to a new town in support of her husband’s career. Her new co-workers are lucky to have her!

I thought of the perfect treat for Paige’s farewell. She commented once that she loves popcorn balls but she doesn’t make them. I’m not crazy about popcorn in general so I haven’t made popcorn balls before, but I was up to the challenge. I was surprised at how easy they were to make! The recipe is from Karo^® Syrup. Click here to view the recipe.

So Paige, here’s to you – may you settle in quickly to your new home and may you find just as much happiness as you bring to others.

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{…you scream! | Frozen grasshoppers with mint fudge sauce}

Wait! Before you think you don’t have the right pan to make this minty, fudgey, kids-love-it treat, you can make this easy recipe in a traditional 13×9-inch cake pan.

As a matter of fact, I’ve always made my grasshopper ice cream dessert in a cake pan, but I wanted to try it in my mini cheesecake pans. Next time, I’ll go back to my 13×9 pan because the minis melted quicker and were more cumbersome to handle. Besides, my son who claims these are one of his favorite desserts, ate two anyway. 

So here’s how you make it:

{Frozen grasshoppers with mint fudge sauce}

1 box of your favorite brownie mix for 13×9-inch pan – and the ingredients to make them

1/2 gallon of chip and mint ice cream

whipped cream

Andes Creme de Menthe Baking Chips to sprinkle on top

Mint Fudge Sauce* 

1 cup Andes Creme de Menthe Baking Chips

1 cup whipping cream

1 Tablespoon butter

Bake the brownies according to package directions in a 13×9-inch pan. Set aside to cool brownies completely. (If you use mini cheesecake pans, bake the brownies approximately 15-17 minutes and then gently press down with a tart shaper.)

Meanwhile, make the fudge sauce. In a small saucepan over low heat, combine 1 cup of Andes baking chips, whipping cream and butter. Stir together until melted and smooth. Set aside to cool. The sauce will not be thick. Drizzle half of the sauce over the cooled brownies. Store the remaining sauce in the refrigerator to drizzle over the dessert when serving.

Take out the 1/2 gallon of ice cream and let soften in the refrigerator until it’s smooth enough to spread over the brownies. Using all of the ice cream, spread evenly over brownies.

Cover the cake pan and freeze for at least 4 hours. Cut into slices to serve. Top with whipped topping, drizzle with mint sauce, and sprinkle with Andes baking chips.

*Instead of making the mint fudge sauce, you can simply use hot fudge ice cream topping.

You can make this dessert fit your taste. Use a different flavor of ice cream and ice cream topping. Maybe even a simple vanilla bean with caramel topping. What kind will you make?

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{Magic Chicken Noodle Soup}

It’s a mystery to me why chicken noodle soup warms the soul and seems to have healing powers that even the kids recognize. The first time I made a batch of homemade chicken noodle soup, my son happened to be sick. But after he ate the soup, he felt so much better that he started calling it magic chicken noodle soup. Hmmm. Sounds like the making of a new children’s book…

Now, I use store-bought chicken broth so it’s not truly homemade soup. But, it’s better than any canned soup, and with the fresh carrots and celery, it’s a meal you’ll be happy to serve your family. (Just don’t forget the dash of magic.)

{Chicken Noodle Soup}

2 to 3 cups cooked chicken (1 large rotissarie chicken shredded, OR 1 pound unbreaded chicken breasts cooked and shredded)

3/4 cup diced carrots

1/2 cup diced celery

1/4 finely diced white or yellow onion (If you use a red onion, the kids will “see” it floating in the soup and the soup will lose all of its magic.)

2 Tablespoons butter

10 cups (80 ounces) chicken broth

1 teaspoon dried marjoram

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1-1/2 teaspoons salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

3 cups uncooked medium egg noodles

Cook egg noodles according to package directions. Drain, dump into a large soup pot and set aside.

In a large saucepan over medium heat, saute the carrot, celery and onion in butter until tender.Stir in chicken, seasonings, and 4 cups of the broth. Bring to a boil. Pour the soup into the large soup pot and add the remaining 6 cups broth. Cook 15 minutes or until completely heated through. Makes 12 servings.

This recipe makes a large enough batch for a couple of family meals and a few lunches.

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