Images

These are an awesome vegan, grain free treat, and so easy to make. Maple syrup, honey, sesame seeds and add a little spice if you want them to have a kick, throw in the oven and done! oh and I forgot to add this: add a dash of moscato, red wine, white wine, (whatever flavor you prefer) I used moscato, to thin it out and add some flavor.

I wanted to say that Christmas arrived early for me..or Hanukkah…depending on who you are asking.  Kitchen Aid stand mixers were 30% off on Amazon about 1.5 weeks ago which meant …why not get the Pro as it ended up being almost 50% off with other discounts.  I haven’t used it yet but I plan on making something this weekend.  I have seen several recipes I want to try that are either going to be cookies brownies.  I need to push myself back into the cupcake/cake pop arena but I need some solid time to figure out what I am going to make (I can never decide on recipes). 

I haven’t posted in a little while.  The holidays are generally crazy for me with work, not necessarily family but work work work.  I dislike traveling to colder weather, which is what I have to do during the holidays.  I don’t adjust well and then there is always the issue of going to a state where there is no gym and my bed isn’t familiar….sigh.

Oh yeah, and here is a picture of my badly behaved dog on the table after dinner.

 Anyways, back to the important stuff……I have to admit that I am addicted to Starbucks.  I love their Blonde roast however it has way to much caffeine in it and I feel like I am going to jump out of my skin after a 1/4 of a tall sooooooo..I switched back to old faithful; the nonfat Caramel Machiatto or the nonfat Pumpkin Spice Latte (which I just discovered sadly).  There are actually a lot of drinks that I like there but I try to keep my grande under 160 calories because I personally think that it is ridiculous to drink anymore than 200 calories in a coffee drink.  I would also rather eat my calories than drink them which probably isn’t bad but it does require a little work to get my fancy drinks to 160 or below. In addition, I don’t really like to drink anything “skinny” because of the sugar free syrups that I believe to taste pretty gross (they are also not so good for you because they mess with your sugar alcohols which effect metabolism or something…my trainer explained it to me a while ago).

Back to the point of this story; I love Starbucks eventhough they are a big bad corporation and there is a select set of people who “hate on them”. I have a friend who works at Starbucks and says the perks are awesome.  Okay! now the point of my story…..drum roll please…..because my fiance and I are trying to buy a new house I am being forced to save money *Gasp* which means I had to find other means to obtain my caffeinated beverages without using my debit card. Enter…..SHOPKICK.  Shopkick is an app i discovered on facebook about a year ago.  Basically, you download the app for Android or Iphone (I have an Iphone), you make a log in and then you go to any of the stores listed and scan items with your phone. You will receive points for scanning the items and the points add up to gifts.  I have only received Starbucks gift cards however they have a lot of different prized and you can save your points and get vacations and things of that nature.  I can’t save anything, so I basically get a 5-10 $ gift card several times a month.  It’s so amazingly easy, once you accrue points you click on the gift card option and they email you a gift card…DONE…THAT’S IT!!. With that said, I want to note that  I only use this app when I am going into a store for something or if I am dragged into the store by my fiance.  For example; he drags me into best buy, I open the app, I get points for walking in and I scan some stuff while I am there. Target is another establishment that is on the list consistently, you walk in, open the app, get points for walking in and scan some stuff.  Last time I was there I left with over 800 points.  This app is a nice way for me to get a free drink(s) and to utilize my time properly when I am in random stores. Okay so that is done…I felt like I should spread the wealth. 

here is the link to the webiste, but it’s just as easy to download the app

http://www.shopkick.com/

Speaking of neat things…another way to save money (if you have a Kuerig) is to buy the refillable K-cups.  They have them at Bed Bath and Beyond or Amazon and I’m sure any other store as well.  So you just dump your favorite coffee into the K-cup and brew, they are about 12-15 $ for 4 refillable cups which (if you do the math) is A LOT cheaper than the $1 per k-cup that you are usually charged for a 12 pack that lasts most people 1 week.

Salted Caramel Cupcakes……not my own recipe…so i am going to link this below..I usually do my own recipes but didn’t feel like it.  I had a friend over so we made these..the caramel sauce is the hardest thing to make because of the exact temp it needs to be to taste right. We were super nervous we were going to mess it up….but they were soooo good!!!!

I also made red velvet cupcakes today with chocolate dipped Milanos and cream cheese frosting….what what!! I couldn’t eat these either which sucks but it gives the fiance something to take to work.  Several of my frosting tips fell in the garbage disposal and got messed up so my frosting looked a little jacked on some of these cupcakes. 

i can’t remember if i posted this before…but these were a huge hit!!! White chocolate Rice Crispy Treats.  I got so many compliments on these easy treats when I took them to work…..

There really is no specific recipe for rice crispy that I have run across that does not end up being awesome.  

Melt the butter 1/4 cup..I try to use the least amount of butter possible…so sometimes I sub in 1/8 cup earth balance (which works as well as butter) and 1/8 butter or slightly less than 1/8 of each.  Sometimes you have to add more to make it work but generally I can get away with using slightly less butter and earth balance and still making awesome treats.

Add the marshmallows, I use one bag of small marshmallows, add then slowly and let them melt. You can add more to make it thicker, I sometimes add 1.5 bags depending on how rich you want to make it.

Here is where you can get creative..I added 3/4-1 bar of Giradelli white chocolate baking chocolate. You can find this in the baking aisle at most regular grocery stores. Add this in and let it melt.  You can also take butterfinger and put it in a food processor and then add it to the mixture. Take the chocolate off the butterfinger before adding it to the food processor to avoid a big mess. I have also tried putting froot loops in a food processor and adding them to the rice crispies, which is also really good. 

Then add the rice crispy cereal approx 4-5 cups, I used the chocolate cereal but you can use the white. Let it get coated well. Turn off heat under pot.  Take your spoon (preferably metal) and run hot water over it (this is to avoid a huge sticky mess on your spoon).  You will have to keep running hot water over the spoon when the mixture starts sticking.  Spray the pan with coconut oil cooking spray or some kind of cooking spray. 

Spoon the mixture into a pan, take your spoon and try to flatten it and shape it so they will cut into more even squares.  I run the spoon under hot water and kind of pat the treats down into an even rectangle so they cover the entire pan.  Put in fridge until they harden, take out and cut into squares.