My husband is the king of deals (online deals, that is). He may not be an extreme coupon-er, but when it comes to finding deals on the internet...he is the best! A few weeks ago he bought a ton of our favorite kind of peanut butter because Amazon had a great deal (I can't remember the exact deal and he is not here to ask or else I would share it). Since we have had over 6 jars of peanut butter sitting in our cabinet right now I decided to put some of it to use tonight. I made some cookies!

I try not to keep cookies around the house too often, but I have made a batch the past few Mondays because Jeff has had class until late. So, out of boredom and feeling sorry for my hubby that works so hard at school, I've been baking :)


Sometimes I feel like adding some oats makes cookies a little healthier. Silly, I know! This was a great recipe and I will definitely be using it again. Not as great as my whole-wheat chocolate chip cookies, but still good. I'm off to snug my pup and watch the Bachelorette. Waiting for my hubby to get home from class to enjoy the dinner I smell cooking in the crock-pot right now! Hopefully he arrives home soon...or else I may have to start without him ;)

Tomorrow Jeff and I are traveling to his parent's house to celebrate Easter with his side of the family. Since we will be in Florida next week (yippeee!) and his siblings are also traveling Easter weekend, we decided to all celebrate the weekend before. I was in charge of dessert since my brother-in-laws are amazing chefs and always take care of the meal for us! I thought my nieces and nephew would love these bird's nest cookies (and probably all of us adults too)! So, I am sharing them with you in hopes that you will have time to go buy the ingredients before Easter next weekend.

Do you like my nail polish? I'm loving it! I bought it at Target last night and think it is a great color for our upcoming trip to Florida on Monday.


I'm going to make these again for Easter with my side of the family-my little cousins will love them! You could also probably use peanut butter chips instead of butterscotch. However, my nephew is allergic to peanuts so we avoided the nuts (and if you are taking these to a party with any kids you may want to also since you never know who might be allergic).


Easter is my favorite holiday (yes, I enjoy Easter even more than Christmas). And although my favorite part of Easter is the sound of trumpets playing at church, these adorable bird's nest cookies have added to my love of this holiday!


I have off of work today so I am able to enjoy the day with Jeff (who always has off on Fridays). We went on a 5.5ish mile run, made these cookies and are now heading to the park with Ollie on this beautiful day. Need to fit in some last minute shopping and packing sometime today as well.

Also, just wanted to finally tell everyone (since we have had keep it to ourselves for 15 weeks) that my sister is pregnant! I cannot wait to be Aunt Cait to the little peanut inside her belly. Want to read about her pregnancy story? Check our her blog HERE. We are beyond excited for her and my brother-in-law!

Have a great Friday :)

I have a great recipe for you today! There aren't a lot of things I love more than oatmeal these days. Oatmeal on-the-go is something I love even more than oats in a bowl! These vegan banana & chocolate chip oat bars are quick to make and quick to grab. They were much faster to eat for breakfast this morning than making myself a bowl of oatmeal. Not only are they whole wheat but also vegan...and healthy! Only a little bit of sugar and no butter in these bad boys. And while they are perfect for breakfast, they are just as good with a cup of tea as an afternoon snack.

I realized last night that I have been a horrible wife. I haven't made my husband any homemade cookies in quite some time. I've made dinners and health foods and nut butters...but no good ole' chocolate chip cookies. Since Jeff has midterms next week and has been studying his butt off every night, I thought these would cheer him up-I think it worked (for about the 5 minutes they took to eat, then he realized he had to continue studying).

Does your grandmother or mom always have a go-to cookie recipe that they are pros at making? I think this recipe just may be mine. In years down the road I can see myself making these for my kids and grandchildren. I love picturing that.

As you probably (or should) already know it is Girl Scout cookie season!! Jeff and I bought our first ones of the season a few weeks ago at a grocery story near my parent's house. How can you say no to the little girls selling them? I used to be one of those girls, so I always feel bad for them and have to buy a box (or 2 or 3). Today Jeff and I decided that $3.50 was far too much money for a box of a few cookies, and made our own!

We took a lot of pictures for this post, so hopefully you can follow along! First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. While the oven is preheating, begin my mixing the butter and sugar together in a large sized bowl.


Next, add in the flour, salt and baking powder.


Finally, add the vanilla extract and milk and you should have batter that looks something like this (who needs spoons when you have hands?):


Now the fun begins! Roll the dough out (on top of parchment paper so it doesn't stick to the table). Make sure it is about 1/4 of an inch thick.


Now the next step is probably easiest with a round cookie cutter, but since we didn't have one we improvised with a small votive candle holder.


Make as many round cookies as you can. The dough is easy to work with, so re-roll it as many times as you need to. After cutting about 1 1/2 inch circles out, make a small hole in the middle of each cookie (you may use a straw, knife, finger, etc.).


Place on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven for about 10-12 minutes or until browned. While these are baking you may want to begin getting your ingredients ready for the topping!

Unwrap the caramels. Place in a bowl with the milk and salt and microwave for about 3 minutes stirring occasionally (if your microwave is more powerful, use less time).


Next, spread the coconut on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for about 20 minutes. Stir it every 3-5 minutes. Hang in there with me...I know there are lots of small steps with this recipe but the end result is worth it!


Once the caramel is melted and coconut is toasted, fold the coconut into the caramel mixture and stir well. Using a small spoon, place the mixture on top of the cooled cookies (about 2 tablespoons per cookie). Please note: those are not my manly fingers...they are Jeff's.


Finally, melt the chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave. Heat for about 30 seconds then stir, and repeat until melted completely. Dip the base of the cookies into the chocolate and place onto parchment paper. Once all cookies have been dipped, place the remaining chocolate into a zip block bag and cut a small hole in the corner. Pipe the chocolate onto the cookie in a zig-zag pattern.


Place in the refrigerator for about 5 minutes to allow the chocolate to harden. And then you're done! All of your hard work has paid off-because you now have more than a dozen Somoa Girl Scout cookies!


This recipe could put those cute little Girl Scouts out of business ;)

We are heading to Chipotle (our favorite) for dinner with my sister and brother-in-law tonight. Waking up bright and early to pick up our new puppy Ollie! Pictures will most definitely be posted tomorrow of our new little family. Hope you're enjoying your weekend as much as we are!

As promised, today I made some more holiday treats! Combine these with my last holiday treat post and you have yourself an amazing Christmas gift for someone special in your life. But first, I'll share with you a little bit of what Jeff and I spent doing last night...

We attempted to make a gingerbread house (no, not from scratch). We bought a kit from Michael's a few weeks ago and since we had nothing to do last night but watch the Giants win, we figured it was a perfect time to make it. Little did we know, it would be a much more complicated process than planned!

Want to see the end result? (note: even my center piece was covered in icing by the end)

Now, do you want to see how it got this way? We started off our evening quietly, with some football and chips and dip...

After our belly's were full, we brought out the gingerbread house...

Jeff got to work right away with the icing. He iced, and then I placed the walls onto the icing...and captured his every move on camera of course! So far, so good...


Then things started to get a little messy. Ok, A LOT messy :/ The icing bag that came with the kit broke and everything went downhill from there.


At first, Jeff kept trying to carefully place the icing on the house despite the broken bag. Eventually though, he gave up and did this:


Which turned into this of course:


Oh well, we just ate some of the candy instead. The house didn't taste good anyway! And since last was an absolute failure, I figured I would try and succeed at making some more holiday cookies today. DONE. These cookies are not only very festive looking, but taste amazing (that is, if you love chocolate & peppermint).