Things Found on Pinterest

Of all the recipes to end my new years resolution (I actually made these about three weeks ago) I’m glad it was these cookies. They were worth it; so much so that I had to make another batch after the first one was gone! The white chocolate chips in this recipe really add that “cream” flavor to these cookies! I found this recipe through Six Sisters’ Stuff, and if you don’t already follow them on Pinterest, you should! Their recipes are amazing!

 

I wouldn’t change a thing about this recipe and so I’m going to follow it word for word from the original. To recap the recipe, you will need:

• 2 1/4 C. flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 c. butter (softened)
• 1/2 c. brown sugar (packed)
• 1/2 c. white sugar
• 1 (4.2 oz.) pkg. Cookies n’ Cream pudding mix
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 c. white chocolate chips (1 bag)
• 15 Oreo cookies, very coarsely chopped

Makes 3 dozen cookies.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream the butter and sugars, adding the pudding mix until well blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda with a whisk, then add it to the butter mixture. Stir in the white chocolate chips and Oreo cookies.
3. Drop cookies onto a greased baking sheet by rounded spoonfuls. Bake for 10 minutes or until very lightly golden at the top.

Also, just food for thought, but some other similar recipes on Pinterest that I found looked pretty good too, so I’ll provide the links here:

Cookies and Cream Cookies (with filling on the inside)

Cookies and Cream Cookies (with frosting) 

Happy Baking!

– Jen

I’ve been going on a Pinterest craze lately looking for diet foods for my new years resolution (yes, the typical diet and exercise one). One recipe in particular piqued my interest: Make Ahead, Healthy Egg McMuffin Copycats. It interested me because not only does it sound delicious but healthier than it’s McDonald’s counterpart. In the blog post, the author freezes the McMuffins after preparing them so they can be reheated the next morning for a quick and easy breakfast.   Here’s what you’ll need:

•  Whole wheat english muffins (I used the light version)
• Eggs
• Sliced cheese of preference
• Canadian bacon slices
• Cooked Turkey Sausage Patties (Optional; I skipped this part because I’m not a fan of sausages)

1. Start by spraying a muffin tin pan with cooking spray. The author of the blog suggested using jumbo muffin tins or ramekins, which would mold the eggs to better fit in the McMuffin, but I did not have either on hand so I went ahead and used the regular muffin tins, which worked fine. Preheat Oven at 350 degrees. 2. Put the eggs in the tins and add salt and/or pepper as desired. Poke holes in the egg yolks so that the yolk isn’t too concentrated and the McMuffin will be more flavorful. Bake for 25-30 minutes. 3. While the eggs are baking prepare the rest of the ingredients by separating the english muffins and adding the cheese and bacon to one side of the muffin. Fold in the edges of the cheese so that they better fit the muffin. Add The eggs after they are finished baking. 4. Wrap them in wax paper of tin foil and put them in freezer zip loc bags for storage in the freezer. 5. There are two ways you can reheat the English muffins, which are by microwave or oven. Frozen McMuffins take 30-40 minutes in the oven and 3 minutes in the microwave. Thawed McMuffins take 15-20 minutes in the oven and under a minute in the microwave. I tried both and can say that it is better to have the McMuffins reheated in the oven than the microwave, especially since the cheese can thin out too much in the microwave. These McMuffins were fast, easy to make and came out pretty well. Reheated just isn’t the same as fresh food, however, and they would have tasted much better had they been fresh. Overall, I would recommend this recipe, but I am less willing to endorse them as a make ahead freezer breakfast.

Some of you may have seen a pin of a chocolate chip cookie with an Oreo at the center. I decided to recreate this cookie, but cheat a little. I bought the new snack size Betty Crocker chocolate chip cookie mix along with bite size Oreos. This way, since they seemed to be a rich dessert, I could test them out without having more than I can eat (plus they were on sale for a dollar each, so it was a $2 dessert! Can’t beat that!).

Here are the steps to making mini Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies!

Makes 8 big cookies.

Prep time: 5 mins.

Bake time: 13 mins.

1. Make cookie mix as directed.

2. Scoop cookie dough out and flatten (I used my fingers). Put an Oreo in the center of the cookie dough.

3. Take another scoop of cookie dough and put it on top of the first scoop with the Oreo, and then mold the top of the cookie dough to the bottom so it completely covers the Oreo.

4. Afterwards, stick in the oven as directed. The package instructed me to leave the cookies in the oven for 10 minutes, but I left it for an extra 3 because the cookies were about double the size that they were supposed to be on the package. Make sure to let them cool afterwards, and Viola! You have a super-easy but delicious cookie! They came out fairly large, so I can only imagine how the regular sized ones must be!

Enjoy & happy baking!