Butterscotch Pudding Triple Chip Cookies

Hello Bloggy World!

I just couldn't wait to share these cookies with you!! I found them via Pinterest of course! (http://pinterest.com/alyssa_zech/ Follow me I will follow you back!!). They come from a blog called Two Peas and Their Pod. Check them out for lots of delicious looking recipes!

Look at that deliciousness!! It uses butterscotch chips, white chips, and chocolate chips! NUM!! The butterscotch pudding I only found at Cub and not Target, so it may not be found at all grocery stores. I was also already planning on stocking up my baking cabinet for the holidays, so I had an excuse to be buying so many different kinds of chips. If buying butterscotch chips is not in your budget (believe me, they aren't a chip I bake with often enough to keep in my cupboard), substitute peanut butter chips, mini peanut butter cups cut into pieces, or just totally omit and add more white and chocolate chips!

My husband has claimed these as his new favorite cookie and demands I make them every week. So make room in your baking schedule and try these out for sure! 

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Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter softened

3/4 cup brown sugar packed

1/4 cup white sugar

1 (3.4 oz) package butterscotch instant pudding mix

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup butterscotch chips

Go Time!:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease and set aside. 

2. Using a mixer, beat together butter and the sugars until creamy. Add in butterscotch pudding mix, eggs, and vanilla extract. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. (I fully admit that I did NOT combine the dry ingredients together, but rather just added them one at a time to the pudding mixture. Cookies still turned out awesome and fluffy!)

Add the dry ingredients to the pudding mixture and mix until just combined. Stir in the chips.

3. Drop cookie dough by rounded tablespoons onto baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, or until slightly golden around the edges. Remove cookies from oven and let cool on baking sheet for two minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. 

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I hope you enjoy this recipe! I am already planning on making them again just for Hubby later this week or early next week again. 

Stay tuned for Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies!! 

Who am I??

Hello Bloggy,

Wow. I realized I never did an introductory post before. I will give a quick run-down:

I dated my Hubby since I was 16 and a sophomore in high school. He is my best friend and I thank God I found him so early. After some rough patches, we finally married in 2009 when he was home on military leave. While we had been engaged before he left for a deployment in Iraq, we had felt lead to wait until he got home to have the wedding. However, three months in, Hubby changed his mind! He gave me two weeks notice (!!) before he was scheduled leave, so I planned a small backyard wedding. We had a second, larger, 'regular' wedding in May 2010 when he was home. So if you ever hear me joke that I have been married twice....it's true :))

We lived and loved happily ever after until just this past March I discovered I was pregnant. It came as quite the shock as Hubby and I had just had a lengthy discussion about never having children. We had made beautiful plans to travel and go back to school. Those plans are now on the back burner as we prepare for this surprise baby! Now, however, I am 36 weeks and currently experiencing baby hiccups. Seems my baby girl just loves to move around all the time!

Taken by my Mom

Can I boil my life down to those two major points? Yes. Yes I can.

Because of this impending Baby, I have resolved to become more organized. Reading blogs about becoming a mommy, labor, and breastfeeding lead me to find some super awesome blogs about time management, running a household, cleaning, and crafting. It inspired me to start a blog of my own. And that is what you are reading here! I use this blog to share my goals, thoughts, devotions, and recipes. It may be pretty random but I like it.

Fun Facts about me:

Things I watch on Netflix: Doctor Who (!!), Vampire Diaries (guilty pleasure), Downton Abbey, 30 Rock, Alias, and Once Upon a Time.

Things I watch on TV: Dancing with the Stars. ....I am suuuper bad at keeping up with TV.

Things I do in my Free Time: Read, bake, Pinterest, Netflix, organize, and exercise.

Fave Color: pink

Fave Food: Sugar :))

Current Fave Bible Verse: "Before he created the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes" Ephesians 1:4 NLT

Fave sport: Cheerleading!! And I enjoy watching football. Go VIKES!!




Now, Bloggy World, I hope you know me a little bit better! Have a fantastic day!

Caramel-Apple Cookies

Whoa!!!

Are you shocked Bloggy?? This will be my THIRD post in one week!! Amazing, I know. But I simply could not pass up the opportunity to share this amazing cookie recipe with you any longer. I first found it in Parents Magazine.

C aramel-Apple Cookies

Sorry I didn't take any pictures of my own, I couldn't stop eating to pick up my camera. Normally I am not a baked apple kinda gal. I like my apples COLD and CRISP not warm and mushy like in apple pies. Blech. So even I was surprised that I wanted to give this recipe a shot. And I am so glad I did. The apple pieces did not turn mushy or brown for me, and when they were still fresh from the oven I swear I hardly noticed them at all! 

The recipe itself does not call for a certain kind of apple, and as I fully admit I am an apple baking noob, I just randomly picked one at Target. I used a Gala apple. It worked perfectly for me and now its probably the only apple I would use. I might try a Granny Smith next time around as I feel that is the official "Fall Apple". 

My last note: I also did not make my own caramel drizzle. I was not sure I would be able to find vanilla caramels and so I didn't even try :) I just used caramel drizzle from a bottle (the kind usually used for ice cream).

Without further ado::

****

Ingredients

2 sticks salted butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup graham-cracker crumbs

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 small apple, peeled, cored, and finely chopped (3/4 cup)

1 cup vanilla caramels

3 Tbs whipping cream

Go Time!:

1 Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or grease. In a bowl, beat butter on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Beat in sugars until fluffy. Then add eggs and vanilla. Beat.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, crumbs, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Add to butter mixture and beat until combined. Stir in apple.

3. Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Arrange balls 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Bake for 12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Removed and let cool on wire racks

4. In a bowl, mix caramels and cream. Microwave on high for 30 to 60 seconds or until nearly melted, stirring once. Stir until smooth. Drizzle over cookies; serve when hardened. 

****

Me again. I preferred these cookies warm. And the batter was delicious! Just saying. 

I don't know about you guys, but I am not a professional baker. I usually ignore things like 'shape dough into 1 1/4 inch balls'. I just plop them on the sheets and hope for the best. It has yet to fail me. 

I also find some recipe directions ridiculous. Do you??? Is it just me?? Step Four: "...stirring once. Stir until smooth". Why is there a specific direction to only stir once if you have to stir until smooth anyways??? 

Oops. Now you definitely know I am not a professional!! 

Tried a link up at Homemaker By Choice!

Ten Goals for October

Ten Goals for October

1. Plan for at least ONE shoebox for Operation Christmas Child

2. Read four books! (This includes finishing the one I am now in the middle of)

3.Start Bible Study/meditation; 15 minutes every day after breakfast

4. Memorize 3 new verses

5. Workout 3x a week

6. Have cheer learned (words, stunts, motions)

7. Pack hospital bag with a checklist of what would still need to be added last minute

8. Clean, sand, and paint dresser

9. Continue reading the New Testament in the Message (1/2 way through Romans)

10. One date night with Hubby