Sugar Cookie Mix with Additions!

White Chocolate Chip & Chocolate Covered Pretzel Sugar Cookies

White Chocolate Chip & Oreo Sugar Cookies

I love using mixes to bake with, when I'm feeling a little lazy or want to make something quick they are perfect. I wanted to make something quick for my boyfriend last week and he loves sugar cookies and he suggested sugar cookies with pretzels and chocolate chips. (He loves the chocolate chip cookies with the chocolate covered pretzels) So I decided to make these sugar cookies with white chocolate chips and cut the dough in half and added chocolate covered pretzels to one and crushed oreos to the other!

Sugar Cookie Mix with Additions

1 bag of sugar cookie mix

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 egg

1 1/4 cup white chocolate chips

1/2 cup chocolate covered  pretzels

1/2 cup broken oreos

1) Put cookie mix in a large mixing bowl. Add softened butter and  egg and mix until combined. 


2) Fold in the white chocolate chips and divide the dough in half.


3) Fold in the pretzels and oreos. Refrigerate the dough for a minimum of one hour.


4) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto a cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.

Italian Anise Cookies

My dad has been begging me to make these cookies. He always buys Anise Cookies at Market Basket when he goes grocery shopping. I personally don't like them, I'm an chocolate girl. I love chocolate desserts, just doesn't seem like a dessert if there's no chocolate! I made these super moist and large because who wants to eat a small, dry cookie? Yeah that's what I thought, no one! These cookies are great around Christmas time and are super light. 

(Recipe from Women's Daily)


Italian Anise Cookies


Dough:
3/4 cup sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs
1/4 cup low fat milk
1 tsp anise extract
2 3/4 cup A-P flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt


Glaze:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
4 to 5 tsp milk
1 tsp anise extract


1. Heat oven to 325 degrees F and spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray.


2. Dough: Beat the first 5 ingredients in a large bowl with a mixer until blended. On low speed,beat the next 3 ingredients until blended.


3. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough on the prepared baking sheets.


4. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove cookies and move to wire rack to cool.


5. Glaze: whisk 1 cup confectioners' sugar, 4 to 5 tsp milk and 1 tsp anise extract in a small bowl.


6. Dip the tops of the cookies in the glaze and let set.

Ryan's Blueberry Birthday Cake

For my brother's 16th birthday he asked for a blueberry cake. I had no idea how to go about this. I knew there was strawberry cake mix and recipes for homemade strawberry cake, but I could not find a recipe for a blueberry cake. So instead I decided to try a white cake with blueberries folded in. It was a hit! Everyone loved it, even my boyfriend and I didn't even think he liked blueberries! 

I had a couple mishaps with this cake but they were easily fixable. When taking out my cakes both broke! :( so sad, but I did a little frosting fix and it looked good as new. The problem is the cake is super moist so it has to cool for a longer amount of time than the original recipe instructs. Also I would butter and flour the pans instead of using cooking spray to a smooth transfer to the cooling rack. 

Try this summery cake today!

(Adapted from Sandra Lee's Blueberry Lattice Cake)

Blueberry Birthday Cake

1 package white cake mix

1 package (4-serving) instant vanilla pudding mix (I used sugar free)

3 egg whites

1 cup low fat milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup fresh blueberries

2 containers vanilla frosting

1 bar baker's white chocolate 

blueberries to garnish

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour 2 (9-inch) cake pans and set aside.

2. In  a large mixing bowl, combine cake mix and pudding. Add the egg whites, milk, and oil. Beat with an electric mixer on low for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then continue beating on medium for 2 minutes until the batter is light and fluffy.

3. Toss 1 cup of blueberries in 3 tablespoons of flour and fold into the cake batter. Divide the batter evenly between the pans. 

4. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a knife  inserted comes out clean. Cool in pans for 20 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack. Cool completely on wire rack.

5. Shave baker's white chocolate with a vegetable peeler and set aside in the freezer. Frost cake when it is completely cooler. Garnish with blueberries and white chocolate shavings.

Sweet & Sour Shrimp Stir Fry

I love stir fry! I literally came up with this recipe 10 minutes ago and just made it. I got the idea from Clean Eating's sweet & sour chicken recipe. This recipe is SUPER easy and healthy! This recipe is a single serving recipe and brown rice can be added to it to make it a dinner dish.

Sweet & Sour Shrimp Stir Fry

Stir Fry:

2 cups frozen oriental stir fry vegetables

4 oz. frozen shrimp

Sweet & Sour Sauce:

1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce

1 tsp honey

1/2 tablespoon lime juice

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1. Coat a small skillet with non-stick cooking spray as well as a stove top grill. Add the frozen vegetables to the skillet and cover to heat. Transfer shrimp to grill and heat through.

2. In a small bowl microwave honey, then add soy sauce, lime juice, minced garlic, and ground ginger. Mix until combined.

3. Once shrimp and vegetables are warmed through, add the shrimp and sweet & sour sauce to the skillet with the vegetables.

4. Serve and enjoy!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yesterday I went to the Kiss 108 concert with my friend and she told me to make some cookies that I thought everyone would like. I didn't think the girls would like them as much as they did! They were gone before I could blink! You can't bring food or drinks into the concert so everyone chowed down on these before we went in. They loved the hint of cinnamon with the chocolate chips.

I'm planning on for my next cookie adventure to make chocolate chip cookies with pudding mix, so keep an eye out for those soon! :)

(Recipe from Nestle)

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 cup egg beaters

2 tablespoons low fat milk

1 cup old fashioned oats

1 cup white chocolate morsels

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup sliced walnuts 

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl. Beat butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and vanilla extract in a large bowl. Beat in egg beaters. Gradually add in flour mixture and milk. Stir in morsels and oats. Drop onto baking sheets in heaping tablespoons.

3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown with soft centers. Transfer and cool on baking racks for 2 minutes. (I like my cookies super soft and chewy so I baked them for around 8 minutes)

Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookies

I saw the original recipe for these cookies on Sugar Derby's website and I knew I had to try them. I was feeling a little lazy today though since I've been at work since 6:30 am. YUCK! So I went out and bought Ghirardelli chocolate chip cookie mix. I wanted to make these for my friends since we're all back from college now! I love Ghirardelli so I knew it would be a good mix. I changed a couple things pertaining to the way I made these cookies though didn't quite follow the directions because I wanted to experiment!

Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookies

(Adapted from Sugar Derby)

1 box Ghirardelli chocolate chip cookie mix

1 egg

1 stick butter, melted

1 cup white chocolate covered pretzels, crushed

1. In a small bowl melt butter in microwave. Set aside to cool.

2. Add the egg to the cookie mix and the cooled butter.

3. In a ziplock bag crush the pretzels. (I used an ice cream scoops) REMEMBER we don't want a pretzel powder we want PIECES of pretzels!

4. Fold in the pretzels and chill the mixture in the fridge for about an hour.

5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and drop heaping tablespoons of mixture onto cookie sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until edges are golden brown.

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

 

So the other day we had some brown semi-rotting bananas in the fruit bowl at my house. My mom told me to do something with them, she suggested bread, but instead I made muffins. Muffins are so much better, you can take them with you in the morning and they're perfectly portioned out! This recipe comes from an old cook book my Memere had. It's called The Blender Cookbook. Pretty funny! I didn't blend this recipe though I wanted to keep the bananas chunky. 

(Recipe from The Blender Cookbook)

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

1 3/4 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 small ripe bananas, mashed

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

walnuts to garnish muffin tops

1. Sift flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cream of tartar, and salt and set aside in a small bowl.

2. Mix the eggs, softened butter, mashed bananas, sugar, and vanilla extract. 

3. Pour the dry ingredients over the wet and fold in gently. Fold in the chocolate chips.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and scoop mix into lined muffin tins. Sprinkle muffin tops with chopped walnuts and bake for 20-30 minutes.