S'mores Pie

 Hey friends!

How was your weekend? We kept things very low key around here, mostly just running errands and doing chores around the house. We watched a couple of scary movies on Saturday night (Ready or Not and The Invisible Man) and I liked both of them even though I'm a big scaredy cat. Have you seen Emily in Paris? I'm watching it right now and it's really cute. It reminds me a lot of Sex and the City but on a millennial scale. (Which makes sense because Darren Star...) I've been enjoying watching it when I'm getting cleaning and cooking done. It's very lighthearted and easy to follow, I recommend it if you are looking for that type of show! If you want something a little more intense definitely check out Bly Manor on Netflix. If you haven't watched it already, it's definitely creepy but I love the storyline and that you really need to be paying attention to the story. 

Anyways, on to todays recipe! This weekend I made a S'mores Pie and it was delicious. I have been looking at the recipes for this on Pinterest recently and was thinking about making it for Thanksgiving so I wanted to test it out and last night was the perfect night to do that. 

I followed this recipe so definitely go check it out but I wanted to share how the process went for me here as well. 

We only needed four ingredients: 12oz semi sweet chocolate chips, 1 cup of heavy whipping cream, 4 cups of mini marshmallows, and 1 graham cracker crust.

I purchased the pre-made graham cracker crust from the grocery store but you can definitely make your own if you are looking for more of a challenge.

The first step is to make the chocolate ganache which sounded intimidating to me but it was super simple. All you do is mix the chocolate chips and heavy whipping cream in microwavable bowl. I heated mine in 30 second increments and then whipped it until it was smooth.

Then I poured the ganache into the pie crust and put it in the fridge. The recipe recommends putting it in for at least 2 hours. Mine was in for 6 hours uncovered and did just fine. 

Now right before serving you need to add the marshmallows and toast them. I used the broiler in our oven for this. (I had no idea we had a broiler) I put the broiler on high, making sure the oven rack was as far up as possible and I only let the pie sit inside for 30 seconds or so. Make sure you are watching it because those marshmallows heat up fast! 

Here is the completed pie. I think it looks amazing!! It definitely is something that looks super enticing and I am seriously considering making it on Thanksgiving. 

I think it tastes amazing as well. It definitely is super rich chocolate, so if you aren't a chocolate fan you might not like this one. But if you like chocolate and s'mores you will love it!

My toughest critic (Tim) said it was good but agreed with me that the chocolate was very rich. He had a piece and I had two (whoops). I think this is such a fun (and easy) dessert and I can picture myself making this for my kids someday!

Have you made any new desserts lately? I would love to know what they are!

My Slightly Organized Kitchen Drawers and Cupboards

Hi everyone! Today I am sharing my "slightly organized" kitchen drawers and cupboards. I am labeling this "slightly organized: because BOY do we have far to go. This is a starting point and I truly hope that one day my drawers and cupboards will be Home Edit worthy but for now at least we know where to find everything!

For now we just have random organizers inside the drawers but I definitely want to create a more uniform look in the future but will be buying items slowly since buying a ton of product does get super pricey. Also, I feel like we filled up this kitchen super fast! We have been in this house for one whole year at this point and when we moved here I felt like we had so much room and now I could use some more space! My mom keeps telling me that everyone feels this way about their home, that there's never enough space but I know our house is on the smaller side so we will have to figure that out one day!

Anyways, let's take a look at what's going on in those kitchen drawers and cupboards and what my plans are for this kitchen in the future.

Here are my first two kitchen drawers. These hold all of our silverware and other kitchen utensils. The silverware organizer is just a cheap one that we picked up from Target back when we first moved into our apartment years ago and it works just fine but I would love one that is lighter and brighter. Also, our silverware is only a few years old but I can see it starting to tarnish. I need to either figure out how to fix that or purchase some new silverware at some point. Anyways let's take a closer look at each of these drawers.

Keep in mind too that our dishwasher was running at this point so some items are missing. I would like to get a slim container to hold all of our chip clips which all just get placed on the side of the silverware. In the back behind the silverware we also need a small container that can hold all the random items that get shoved back there. 

This drawer is full of organizers but also full of a ton of stuff! Tim and I need to go through this drawer together and decide if there are items we can get rid of. When I went through it by myself I identified a lot of items I could get rid of but I never want to get rid of things without checking with Tim since he is the true cook of the house. 

We also have a ton of coozies but I can't bring myself to get rid of some since they came from events we went to. I definitely need to declutter though. After watching Get Organized with The Home Edit on Netflix I feel ashamed that my kitchen doesn't look as pretty as they make others look!

This is our double cabinet that holds some of our food. The rest of our food is on the back of our basement door and on the shelves at the top of our basement stairs. I purged a ton of items in this cabinet right before this picture was taken. We also needed to grocery shop so there isn't a ton in here but honestly I prefer it that way!

This is our appliance cabinet, along with our cutting boards and grilling tools. We have quite a bit and I don't love the look of appliances on the countertops so it's nice that we are able to store them down in this cabinet. 

This is our notorious junk drawer. I don't love the concept of junk drawers, but there is definitely a need to store these types of items. These containers slide around in the drawer and drive me crazy. I need to purchase some museum putty to hold them in place. Add that to the "to buy" list.

This cabinet holds all our Tupperware on the top and our bowls and plates on the bottom two shelves. I love our fiestaware dishes. This is one of the cabinets I feel pretty okay about and there's not much I can do to make it any different!

Our island has two pull out drawers which are great for our pots and pans. I like the way that the top drawer looks with our colanders, pots, and glass trays. It is definitely nice and neat which I appreciate.

The second drawer however.....I'm not sure what to do here. There isn't enough room here for any organizer and we probably have too many pans. Right now it's just a lot of stacking and unstacking items but some day I will find a solution for it!

Also in the island we have three smaller drawers. The top holds some of Sophie's items. We keep smaller treats and some other items in here. 

I am a dish towel hoarder. This drawer is full of dish towels and there are a few molds for dog treats inside there as well. I am not allowed to buy any more dish towels! I always find such cute ones and can't help myself. 

This drawer holds our cling wrap, aluminum wrap, and all our ziplock bags. Honestly we don't use these items all the time so it's nice to have them in a bottom drawer where we don't need to reach for them constantly.

Our corner cabinet holds all of our glasses and mugs. We have far too many for only two humans living in the house. The top shelf looks slightly empty but that's because we had a few in the dishwasher, it is honestly normally full. We definitely don't need anything else in this cabinet!

This next cabinet holds random dishes, measuring cups and mixing bowls. I am in and out of here whenever I'm cooking for the mixing bowls and measuring cups but I honestly don't use any of our serving dishes very often. I love the Disney dishes my college roommate Megan gave us for our wedding but we haven't had much of a chance to use them yet!

Above our microwave we have all our spices. This is fairly organized although I would love to make this look more uniform in the future. I also want to make new labels and have bigger spice jars. 

This little drawer next to our stove just holds our oven mitts. 

We have this little cupboard next to the stove with a super small cabinet door. I just keep a few appliances in here including the blender I use daily.

Above our refrigerator I keep items we don't access every day. Vases are on the left and then on the right we have a ton of water bottles and cups that we received from different events. We could probably go through this cabinet and get rid of quite a bit but that will be a future project.

Lastly, under the kitchen sink! I decluttered this area before taking this picture but I do need to order some products to make this area look a bit nicer. I also plan to put some liner down to brighten this area up. I am thinking about getting some lazy susans for the cleaning products and some containers to hold things like trash bags and sponges. 

So that's a tour of my slightly organized kitchen. I hope that some day my kitchen will be as beautiful as The Home Edit makes kitchens look! I will definitely keep you updated on any updates I make and I plan to get started soon!

Have a great day everyone!

 

Easy Christmas Bark Recipe

Today I have my work Christmas party and as part of my contribution I made Christmas Bark. It's a super easy recipe that I found on Pinterest and adjusted slightly to fit my taste so I thought I'd share it with all of you in case you are looking for something really easy to bring to your holiday party this year.

Here's what you will need:

Baking Pan (I used a cookie sheet)

Tin Foil

Chocolate Chips (3 cups)

Shortening ( 2 Tbsp)

Pretzels (I purchased the mini pretzels and crushed them up)

M&Ms

Christmas sprinkles

**Note: You can really include anything in the bark. The original recipe I found had peanuts, but I don't like peanuts mixed with chocolate (I know I'm weird!) so I didn't include them. You could certainly include different candies other than M&Ms this is just what I used!**

First, I lined my cookie sheet with tin foil.

Ready to get started.

I took my three cups of chocolate chips (I had a little bit over the three cups, but I just used an entire bag of Nestle chocolate chips and it all fit on the baking sheet.

I poured these into a microwaveable bowl and heated the chocolate up in one minute increments. After two minutes I just did a final thirty seconds to finish melting the chocolate. You'll want to stir each time and you'll know it's done when the chocolate is smooth.

The length of time will depend on your microwave so keep an eye on your chocolate!

Next, add in your shortening and microwave in ten second increments until smooth. Mine took 20 seconds and it was good to go!

Next,  pour your chocolate onto your cookie sheet and start adding your extras.

I used red and green M&Ms.

These are the mini pretzels I used.

These are the sprinkles I used. 

One of the tips I read was to make sure to press firmly down on everything that you put in the chocolate otherwise it would not stay when it firmed up. I pressed down on the M&Ms and pretzels and some were hidden inside the chocolate as well. I didn't press on the sprinkles though since they were so small it would've taken me forever.

Then it's time to let the bark firm up! I placed it in the fridge for two hours. 

Here is the end result:

Once the bark is firmed, just pull it apart into a bunch of smaller pieces! 

Overall, a super easy recipe!

"Snow" Day Healthy Banana Muffins

Last week we were all prepared to have a huge blizzard here in Rhody. I actually started my day off at work but the roads started to look really bad so I headed home in the late morning. About an hour after I got home it turned to rain....therefore it was my "snow" day.

Since I was already home and hanging out I decided to whip up some healthy banana muffins. My mom always would bake banana nut muffins and I would devour them in twos or threes. Since Tim and I are trying to lose weight, eat healthy, and work out at least 4-5 times a week I decided to try a healthy recipe I found on Pinterest.

I found this recipe on ifoodreal.com and the muffins turned out pretty well. I do have to tell you they are nothing like those muffins that my mom used to make but since they are a healthy version I didn't expect them to be. I did love when I got a banana bite because that was by far the sweetest part of the muffin. Tim reviewed them as good and I was pretty impressed that I made them from scratch.

So if you want to re-create this recipe this is what you need:

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of bananas. (I used three bananas and the original recipe called for them to be very ripe, but I just used the ones I had bought the day before at the grocery store. I think you could honestly include a fourth banana if you wanted)

1 Egg

1/2 cup  Unsweetened Applesauce

1/4 cup  Maple Syrup or Raw Honey (I used maple syrup)

1 tsp Baking Powder, aluminum free

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/4 tsp Salt

1 tsp Vanilla Extract, pure

1 1/3 cups Whole Wheat Flour

3 tbsp Olive Oil

Cooking Spray (I didn't use cooking spray because I used cupcake liners instead)

Directions

- Preheat oven to 375 and either spray your muffin tin (12 muffins) or put cupcake liners inside.

- Beat your egg in a mixing bowl

-Add bananas to bowl and mash well

-Add all remaining ingredients except for the flour and mix everything together.

-Add the flour and stir all ingredients.

-Fill each tin (or cupcake liner) with batter and bake for 22 minutes.

- Take out muffins, allow to cool and then enjoy!

If you are looking for a healthier version of a banana muffin then this is it, just remember there is no sugar to taste...it will taste healthy! I am enjoying trying new healthy foods but I do miss my sugar! :)

Visiting Friends for the Weekend!

As you might have seen in the blog earlier this week, I have been away for the weekend visiting a friend in NYC. I decided to bring little gifts to both my friend Rachel who I am traveling with to New York, and my friend Katie who I am going to be staying with for the weekend.

On Thursday I baked some cookies...

and then bagged up a few cookies for each them. I put them in ziploc bags so that way they would stay fresh. I also threw a few hershey kisses inside.

I had a bunch of M&Ms from Christmas and I fished out a bunch of red ones to throw in the bags as well- close enough to Valentines Day!

Then I stapled up the bags!

Voila! Pretty pretty gifts! I love bringing a hostess gift when staying with someone =)

I'll be back tomorrow to update you on the weekend in New York! =)

Oh we need a little Christmas....

Not that much longer till Christmas- I keep thinking that I only have to make it through 2 more weeks of work and then I will have some time off- I can't wait!!

You were probably wondering what I bought all of those hershey kisses and m&ms for during my coupon haul the other day... well I was making Christmas treats of course!

I've talked about these lovely treats before- my mom and I love making them because they are so easy! Simply buy pretzels, m&ms and hershey kisses. Place a hershey kiss on top of a pretzel on your baking tray and then place in the oven for 3 minutes at 225*. Immediately after taking them out of the oven, place your m&m on top of each creation. Then put them in the fridge so they firm up and then enjoy! Or give them to friends to enjoy!

They are easy to make and are going to be a great addition to my gifts for friends and co-workers!

My mom and I spent the greater part of yesterday afternoon making tray after tray of these (and eating a few along the way of course!) It is a fun thing to do with my mom and we always manage to get laughing as we try to put the m&ms as quick as possible and then are forced to eat the ones we mess up on. 

I also did a bit of coupon shopping at Rite Aid yesterday on my way home. Here's the haul:

Look how long that receipt is! I also placed in the envelope that I used to store my coupons while shopping- you can see how I had everything figured out in order for my transaction to work out like I planned! 

Here's what I did...

The carefree and OB products were $2.50 each and when you bought 2 you received 2 rewards dollars. I used $3 in coupons to bring my out of pocket total to $7. With the $4 in rewards I received- I really only spent $3 all on all four items- making them $0.75 each.

The windex was 2/$7. I used a $1 coupon which brought my price to $6. I got $3 in rewards back making each windex $1.50 each.

The scunci hair elastics were $2.79 but I had the in-ad coupon for $2 off. So they were $0.79.

That is all I planned on buying...but I saw the activity pads in the clearance bin and thought they would be perfect for the adopt-a-family. Guess how much they were each.... $0.50 each

So I spent $17.32 on my order out of pocket- but $1.53 of that was tax (which is 0.07% where I live) and I got $7 in register rewards- making my actual spending for all the items I bought $8.79.

Crazy right?!

If I hadn't purchased the activity pads on impulse- it would have been $6.79- but they were a good deal and well worth it to make a little kids Christmas!

Hope you all are having a great weekend! What have you been up to this weekend? Any exciting plans for today?

I am off to celebrate Christmas with one (possibly two) of my best friends tonight!

Productive Saturday

When I got out of work today, I was in hardcore project mode. I had my sights set on a few projects for this afternoon...

First up, take all the bins out of my closet, reorganize and label them...

Although the job wasn't quite as daunting as I had thought it would be, it still took over an hour and a trip to Walmart to complete. I managed to organize all of the bins into a few categories: kitchen, christmas, childhood, and household. I have so much stuff for my future home, so I want to save it all but obviously I can't just place pots and pans around my bedroom as decoration. I mean, I guess I could, if I was a weirdo =)

So another project I've been working on  was organizing some accessories in my closet. I purchased these three bins from Walmart. 

In bin #1, all my makeup bags and travel bags....

I  bin #2 hats and gloves....

In bin #3 bathing suits!

Sorry for the dark pictures but my closet was looking a little dark when I took these pictures!

Finally, I planned on making some cookies for my family that I will *hopefully* see tomorrow.

Considering I only had green and red icing, I think I managed to do pretty well =) I hope you can pick out the Harry Potter pumpkin cookie...

Finally a few pictures of our house model:

Yes, she is a model. Do you expect any less from this little princess?

Do you make cookies for each holiday?

What's your favorite treat to make for Halloween?

I have a few Pinterest-y ideas for recipes I hope to make this year. I do make cookies every year, at least for Christmas. I want to broaden my horizons this year because unlike cooking, baking is something I actually enjoy so hopefully I will get to try out a few recipes!