Lasagna

So the parents are gone for a while. I want to live. So I make dinner! This is my first attempt at making my Mom's delicious Vegetarian Lasagna. And it actually turned out pretty good! Ahem, yes you're won't look as cheesy up top, but that would be because you didn't make any mistakes :P I on the other hand, forgot to add in the layer of cheese :P So I just added it all on top haha XD Still was great!

Perfect Pasta Salad

 Delicious food+hot summers day+memories=One fantastic meal :)

Here's the recipe:

1 box multi colored spiral noodles

however the heck much you want of Mozzarella cheese

however the heck much you want of green bell pepper

however the heck much you want of pepperoni

however the heck much you want of Italian dressing

however the heck much you want of black olives

Pretty simple, eh? ;)

Caramel Brownies

There once was a girl named Kristen. After a hard days work, Kristen came to her beloved home. For the past few days, Kristen had been trying to explain what a caramel was to her Hispanic co-worker. After no success, she finally just brought one to work. Having talked so much about this delicious candy, Kristen wanted to make the fantastic, ooey, gooey Caramel Brownies. So she did! (But she chooses not to have crunchy brownies, so she left out the nuts)

 

However! Kristen did not get to eat her yummy food, because she went to go spend the Friday evening with her good friend, Kylee, Bayley, and Austin, where they happily spent a couple dollars on some of the best chocolate they've had in a long time :)

 She even met up with her good Cedar bud, Tyson! (This picture was actually confused for a wedding picture. Love it)

 After a night in down town Salt Lake, some more good friends from Cedar came to visit!! XD Brad (the one on the right) was actually my co-host for the year long show, The Stupid Cupids, I had on Power 91 down at school :) Drew (the one on the left) was also part of the school's radio program for a while, so he was a frequent guest on mine and Brad's show :) Finally, at 12:30 in the morning (which technically is Saturday, so it's not my treat day anymore, but we'll forget that little detail ;) ), Kristen was able to indulge in her dessert with great company :) All in all, it was a delicious and nostalgic day :)

100 Cookies in One Night? Done.

So tomorrow's a big day for my bestie, Bayley. She's turnin the big 20! She's havin a little partay of sorts and asked me to make some cookies for it. At first I thought, oh I'll just make about 3 dozen cookies. But I don't want to make just one type of cookie, that's boring :P So I made this one from my mom's blog and then using my mom's chocolate chip recipe, made the middle cookies, but switched out the chocolate chips for M&M's. This turned out to make A LOT of cookies. I was shocked! But I had a system and it went pretty well :D Then, for Bayley's birthday present, I was making her favorite, Inception cookies, that had a little laminated note in the middle of each cookie. 20 cookies, with 20 reasons why she's my best friend :) Cute, eh? So after I made the first two cookies, I had to make these. By around midnight, I was finally finished baking. Ho.Ly. Cow. I've never made so many cookies in one night in my life and I don't think I want to do that again. At least for a while ;)

M&M Cookies:

2 sticks butter

1 c brown sugar

3/4 c sugar

2 eggs

1 TBS vanilla

3 c flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 bag chocolate chips (or M&M's in this case)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Add flour and soda. Mix well. Stir in chocolate chips or M&M's. Bake for 8-10 minutes. 

Inception Cookies:

Using the same ingredient as the recipe above, make the cookie batter. Grab a normal size portion of the cookie dough, split it in half, and place a mini Oreo (or if you want them to be hideous jumbo cookies like I did, place 2 normal sizes of cookie dough around either side of a normal sized Oreo) on one of the halves. Place the other half on top and seal the edges of the cookie dough, shaping the cookie back into a ball shape. Place on the cookies sheet and bake like normal!

Gingersnaps

Let me introduce you to some of my good friends :) That's Austin, Bayley, me of course ;), and Paul. We've all been friends since high school, and I don't think our friendship will ever end! I dunno about you, but I think that's pretty cool :) So we decided to make some yummy cookies tonight. No one had any ideas of what to make, so I suggested these. Gingersnaps baby! It was fun to spend the night baking, but what was even better was spending it with these awesome people :) 

 

Behold: The Cinnamon Streusel Muffin

So my little sister, Sarah and I had the house to ourselves tonight. We had nothing planned, it was Friday, so what do we do? Make something delicious of course ;) I found this recipe in this book and HAD to try it as soon as I could. We most definitely were NOT disappointed. I actually think I did a little dance when I had my first taste ;)

Streusel topping:

asdf 1/4 c all-purpose flour

1/4 c firmly packed brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

3 TBS really cold butter

Muffin recipe:

2 c all-purpose flour

1/2 c sugar

1/4 c firmly packed brown sugar

1 TBS baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 c milk

1/2 c melted butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 beaten egg

Heat oven to 400 degrees with oven rack in middle. Lightly spray12 cups in a standard muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray. (I just used the paper muffin cups) 

Stresual Topping:

Combine flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry blender until resembles coarse crumbs with some pea-sized pieces. 

Muffins:

Combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in center of the flour by pushing ingredients out toward sides of bowl. 

Combine milk, melted butter, vanilla, and egg in a medium bowl. Pour milk mixture into the flour mixture, and stir only until the flour is moistened even thought the batter is not smooth. Scrape down sides of bowl.

Divide batter into prepared muffin cups, filling them about 2/3 full. Sprinkle about 1 TBS of streusel over each muffin.

Bake 18-20 min or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of a couple of muffins comes out dry. Cool slightly and remove from the pan.

Run a small metal spatula around edge of each muffin to loosen it, and lift gently from the pan. Serve muffins warm with butter or jam.

Volcano Cookies

...or No-Bake Cookies as the rest of the world knows haha. These things are heavenly goodness! And I finally know how to make them not be puddles! BE SURE TO LET OATS SIT IN THE CHOCOLATE MIXTURE AFTER YOU STIR THEM IN FOR 10 MIN! :) That's how they don't turn to slop ;)