Easter Treats-Pretzel M&M Hershey Kiss Things

I'm not sure what they are called but they are delicious and easy.

You should make these for your boyfriend, secret crush or co-worker for Easter.  He/she will love them.  They could also be fun to make with kids.  (I personally could have used someone to unwrap all the Kisses for me.)

HOW TO-Buy square pretzels, M&M's (peanut or regular), and Hershey kisses.  Place pretzels on a cookie sheet and put Hershey Kisses on top.  Preheat oven to 350 and bake for 2 minutes.  Kiss will be slightly melted so you can press an M&M into it.  Then put them in the fridge to harden them.  They are so simple but the combo is soo good.  The hardest part is unwrapping all the kisses. 

And they are pretty.

Are you making any Easter treats?

The Weirdest Thing I've Ever Pintered-Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough??

Have you ever seen something on Pinterest (or the Internet) that just seemed too good to be true or just plain crazy?  Well that's what I thought when I saw this pin for "healthy" chocolate chip cookie dough dip.  It wasn't that I didn't believe it could be healthy.  It was that I thought it would taste disgusting since one of the main ingredients was chickpeas.  But I was curious.   So I decided to give it a shot.

I did as the recipe said and mixed together the chickpeas, peanut butter, vanilla, etc in my food processor and then added in the chocolate chips.

So the big question.....How was it?  It's hard to say.  It tasted pretty good.  There was a slight hint of chickpea taste and texture and I honestly just kept thinking about the chickpeas the whole time I was eating it.  It definitely wasn't disgusting.  I felt healthier eating it than I do when I "taste" raw cookie dough.  I really wish I could have had a blind taste test without knowing about the chickpeas.  I think that would have made me like it more.  My husband seemed to like it ok but I didn't catch him running back in for extra servings.

But yes I would maybe make this again.  It would be fun to take it somewhere and see if people like it before telling them there were chickpeas in it.  Someone do this and let me know.

In other news, I also pintered these really easy pretzel and peanut butter truffles.  I thought these were really good and I'm definitely going to make them again.  You just food process some pretzels and mix a little peanut butter in until you can form balls.  After freezing the balls, dip them in chocolate and let them set.  Good stuff.  Make some for your boyfriend for Valentine's Day.  Or maybe your Dad if he really likes peanut butter.

So those are my recent Pinterest projects.

Has anyone else made the "healthy" cookie dough?  It was a really popular pin on the site.

What have you been pintering?

Should I stop using the word 'pinter' as a verb?  Yeah probably.

The Usual Suspects aka Best Movie Night Ever!

One time, several months ago, some of my friends and I were at our weekly trivia meet up when a question came up about the movie, The Usual Suspects.  Approximately 5 of us said "I really need to watch that movie, I heard it was good."  And the other 2-3 people were all, "You have never seen that movie?  What is wrong with you people?"  And that is the night we all decided we'd get together and watch The Usual Suspects. 

Then we forgot about it. 

Then one day Curly T was like, "yeah my apartment complex has this movie theater that I can rent out.  Wasn't there some movie you guys wanted to watch?"  And thus began our quest to find a night that we could all watch the movie and that the movie theater was actually available for rent.  A mere 2 months later we finally nailed down our date.

We decided to all bring food but to not tell anyone what we were bringing.  We ended up with an amazing assortment which included, chicken nuggets, taquitos, lettuce wraps, raspberries, guacamole, spinach dip, bread...

Then there was the candy.  Apparently we all thought we should bring candy.  I brought my personal movie watching favorite, Twizzler Bites (I like them because they are cherry flavored instead of strawberry).  There were also Mini Reeces Cups, Junior Mints, Whoppers, Sour Patch Kids, etc.  Plus of course popcorn in a variety of flavors and styles.

Here is my personal candy bowl and beer.  B decided to bring the 'usual suspects' of beer aka all the beers we normally order when we go to bars.  So there was a nice mix of Budweiser, Michelob Ultra, Wildflower (a Greensboro Natty Greene's specialty), some Stouts, etc.

Here is the lovely group picture I forced everyone to take before the movie started.  See it's a real theater!

And here is when the movie screen stopped working for no reason.  Luckily we fixed it (well after awhile).

"Dude, quit posing for pictures and fix it.  I want to know
who Keyser Soze is"

And here's my homemade contribution to the food table....Guacamole with Chipotle Peppers.  Good stuff if I do say so my self.  (Recipe-2 avocados, 2 peppers from a can of chipotles in adobo sauce chopped and a spoon full of the sauce, the juice of 1 lime, sea salt, pepper, a quarter of a red onion chopped, a sprinkle of garlic salt-Mash it all together...Adapted from this recipe).

Reasons this movie night was the best movie night ever....
-I got to bring my own blanket and sit where I wanted to
-The movie screen thing broke in the middle so we had an impromptu dance party while we were waiting for it to cool down (or something).  Well it was more just B demonstrating some commercial for some dancing video game for x-box.
-There was lots of candy and beer that was easily accessible to me (mostly because I sat beside the cooler)
-Some dudes came to the attached cafe area in the middle of the movie and when we went out to use the bathroom we saw 5 dudes with no shoes on, sitting on a blanket together eating figs (or something like that).  Not sure what was going on there.

What movie should we watch next time?  Fortunately Curly T and I both hate horror movies so that's out.  And I'm pretty sure no one is going for my suggestion of Gigli (when you hear that something is the worst movie ever, don't you want to see why?  Plus I heart Ben Affleck).  We need something that is awesome (perhaps classic) and that will be good for a group of people with a variety of interests.  Any ideas?

No-Bake Baking....

I decided to do some baking on Sunday but I actually went with items that didn't involve baking (more just melting)...

So if you want to make something really easy this week for a Christmas party or what not, here you go....

Chocolate Chow Mein Cookies...
1 bag of Butterscotch chips
1 bag of Chocolate chips
1 can (mine was 5 oz) of Chow Mein Noodles

-Melt the chips in a double boiler or the microwave and then stir in the Chow Mein Noodles.
-Scoop spoonfuls on to wax paper and let it harden

**I recommend breaking up the chow mein noodles a little before mixing them in or you will break you face trying to eat them.**

You can also do this with just butterscotch chips or with peanut butter chips or whatever.  I have also seen them with peanuts added in.

Next I wanted to make something vegan to send to my Mother-In-Law for Christmas.  So I asked Leah from Lovely Life of Leah for some help.  She gave me this recipe from the Alicia Silverstone book, The Kind Diet.  So I headed out to Earth Fare (sort of like Whole Foods) and bought..............

Crispy Peanut Butter Treats
Brown Rice Syrup (1 3/4 cup)
Brown Rice Cereal (aka healthier Rice Krispies) (1 box)
Carob Chips (1/2 cup)
Natural Peanut Butter (3/4 cup)

You basically just heat the syrup over the stove until in liquefies and then melt in the peanut butter.  Then you pour that on the cereal and mix it together in a bowl.  Add in the carob chips once it cools and then spread it in a pan.  The wax paper helped on that.

Veganlicious-OK so these weren't that bad.  I like the peanut butter flavor.  I was not a huge fan of the carob chips so I just didn't put that many in.

So that was my Sunday afternoon.

What did you do this weekend?

DIY Christmas Ornaments Straight from my Tree...And My Favorite Tree Decorating Snack

Last year I stole/borrowed/was given a box of ornaments from my Mom's house.  They feature many ornaments from my childhood as well as several homemade ornaments.   Here are a few.

The handmade sleigh, made from popsicle sticks...

Here is the lovely ornament I made last year by covering a clear ornament with tissue paper and a glue/water mixture...

Many years ago my mom made a bunch of these needlepoint ornaments...

And here is my favorite...the wooden frame with my face picture in it.  What a great smile I have.  And nice girl scout uniform I'm wearing...

I didn't make this ornament but it's currently one of my faves.  I demanded that we get some sort of Christmas ornament when we were on our honeymoon in Hawaii so we got this pineapple.  I like it...

Whenever I decorate the Christmas tree, I always like to enjoy a nice bowl of Chex Mix.  I pretty much just follow the recipe from the box.  I just used cashews (instead of mixed nuts) and pretzels (no bagel chips) and only 2 types of Chex (instead of the recommended 3) this time.

How is your Christmas tree? 

Do you make any ornaments?

Do you have any traditions (like Chex mix) for tree decorating night?

PS-And no, Chex did not sponsor this blog but when I was reading back through it the last part sounds a little like a commercial for Chex.

PPS-Shana is having amazing week long Christmas giveaways on her blog so check those out if you want to win something cool.