Homemade Christmas Oreos

It is no secret that I have been on a homemade Oreo kick, and I'm not even sorry about it! So to keep with that I have added these super fun Christmas time homemade Oreos to the mix! They're so good, very little mess (granted I don't count the sprinkles as a mess cause I had so much fun rolling the frosting in them) and very festive!

Recipe
1 pkg Devils Food Cake Mix

2 Large Eggs 

1/2 C Canola oil (or vegetable oil)

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 Cubes Butter
8 oz Cream Cheese
5-6 Powder Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
2-3 Tbsp Evaporated Milk (Based on consistency)

Roll into small balls (just slightly larger than a quarter). Smash out dough. No need to grease the cookie sheet.  However, make sure that you scoop dough balls and shape the dough similar in size so they have a cookie match.  Bake at 350 (if you are at sea level consider going a a little lower in temperature) and then I bake them for right about 8 minutes.  Let them cool on cookie sheet for a couple of minutes. Frost inside generously and sandwich cookies together, roll side frosting into Christmas sprinkles!

Game Day Football Oreos

Game Day Football Oreos! These are so fun, they are the same recipe as the homemade Oreos I featured previously and the only change is shaping the dough a little different and adding the decorative top! These are so fun! I got to go to a NFL Thursday Night Football game recently and experience my first ever NFL game and it was such a blast! So for all of you enjoying this time of year with all the NFL and College Football these cookies will make it that much better!  

Recipe
1 pkg Devils Food Cake Mix

2 Large Eggs 

1/2 C Canola oil (or vegetable oil)

Roll into small balls (just slightly larger than a quarter). Smash out dough and form into a football shape, (not just a circle but more of an oval with points on the end was what I had to keep telling myself).  No need to grease the cookie sheet.  However, make sure that you scoop dough balls and shape the dough similar in size so they have a cookie match.  Bake at 350 (if you are at sea level consider going a a little lower in temperature) and then I bake them for right about 8 minutes.  Let them cool on cookie sheet for a couple of minutes. Frost inside and then put a portion of frosting in a decorating bag and make the lines on top of the cookie like a football has, as pictured.

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 Cubes Butter
8 oz Cream Cheese
5-6 Powder Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
2-3 Tbsp Evaporated Milk (Based on consistency)

Witch Finger Bread Sticks

These bread sticks give "finger foods" a whole new meaning just in time for Halloween!

1 Package (1 scant Tablespoon) active dry yeast
1 C Warm Water (110-115 degrees F.)
3 Tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Salt
2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
3 C Flour
1 Egg White
1 Tbsp Water
Sprinkle of Parmesan cheese (optional)

Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large mixing bowl.  Stir in sugar, salt and oil.  Add 2 cups of the flour and beat until smooth.  Add enough remaining flour to make a soft dough ( I use about 3/4 C).  Knead on a floured surface for 6-8 minutes until smooth and elastic (I use some of the additional flour from the 3rd cup to flour the surface). Spray bowl with nonstick cooking spray; place dough in bowl, turning to coat all surfaces with spray.  Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size, about 1 hour.  Punch dough down and divide into at least 12 pieces.  Roll each piece into a rope.  Spray a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray and sprinkle with cornmeal. Place bread sticks one inch apart on prepared sheet.  Let rise, uncovered, until double in size about 45 minutes.  Beat egg white with 1 Tbsp water.  Place almond slice on as decorative nail (for spooky effect) sprinkle with Parmesan cheese (optional) then brush egg wash over bread stick.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Place a large shallow pan filled with very hot water on the lowest rack of oven, and put baking sheet with bread sticks on the middle rack.  Bake bread sticks for about 10 minute, brush again with egg white and bake 5 minutes more or until golden brown.   Living at sea level I bake slightly shorter amount of time and slightly lower oven temperature.

Mickey Pumpkin Bars

Friends these pumpkin bars are so so good! There are so many things that I love about them but mostly I love that they are easy to make, stay fresh for days on end, feed a crowd, can be made well beforehand, are hard to mess up and are super moist and tasty! Our neighbor shared them in our Church Cookbook and they are just the best! They cut super smooth, which is oddly so satisfying, but also look at how fun it is when you use cookie cutters for them, making mickey and pumpkin shapes somehow makes them even more magical!

Pumpkin Bars:
4 Eggs
1 & 2/3 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Oil (the Costco olive oil works great, but so does just regular vegetable oil)
2 Cups canned pumpkin
2 Cups unbleached flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt (my mom has used regular salt and it works great too, if you do use sea salt make sure it's just fine sea salt you wouldn't want to use the coarse salt)

Beat together eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin.  Whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients just until nice and smooth, scraping sides - do not over beat.  Spray large cookie sheet with cookie spray and make sure to use a paper towel to get it up on the sides as well. Bake at 350 degrees for 22 minutes (I'm more at sea level so I did more like 335 degrees for 22 minutes and it worked great).  Then Frost when cooled.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

3 Cups powder sugar
3/4 Cup butter, softened
6 oz cream cheese
1 & 1/2 tsp vanilla.

Homemade Halloween Oreos

Homemade Halloween themed Oreos for the win!! These are delightful! I use this recipe whenever I need a quick cookie with little mess! I mean with a pre-made cake mix as the main ingredient that means that most the measuring is done for you and that leads to less clean up, which I am all about!



Recipe
1 pkg Devils Food Cake Mix

2 Large Eggs 

1/2 C Canola oil (or vegetable oil)

Roll into small balls (just slightly larger than a quarter).  No need to smash the cookies and no need to grease the cookie sheet.  However, make sure that you roll balls similar in size so they have a cookie match.  Bake at 350 (if you are at sea level consider going a a little lower in temperature) and then I bake them for right about 8 minutes.  Let them cool on cookie sheet for a couple of minutes. 

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 Cubes Butter
8 oz Cream Cheese
5-6 Powder Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
2-3 Tbsp Evaporated Milk (Based on consistency)

Dye Frosting colors according to desire, in this case yellow and orange.

Mickey Mouse Waffle Give Away

Friends! My brother (Disneyland Eric) is at it again, giving away all the legit prizes over on his Youtube channel and he's giving away another Mickey Mouse Waffle Maker.  We're obsessed with these, it's the one that you can make waffles the size of the ones in the parks (not the one that says waffle maker but magically makes Mickey pancakes) and while I'm secretly hoping that I win I still wanted to share this awesome giveaway with my friends! No follow loops no required re-posts or shares, just my brother and his Youtube channel give it a follow and fill out the form! Plus his Youtube channel is packed with fantastic reviews, tips and fun Disney adventures. On our Disney Cruise this year as a family we had people coming up to him on a daily basis asking if he was THE Eric from Disneyland Eric and thanking him for his awesome videos and tips, it was awesome so enter to win enjoy the channel and good luck! Click Here or on the youtube video below to be taken to the video and channel and registration form! Details in the link or the clip below!

Power Protein Peanut Butter Balls

Sharing one of my most popular recipes from the blog again, these peanut butter balls will give you that extra boost of energy and are the perfect after school snack or mid-day pick me up! Also that cute Disney Store Halloween Dish Towel coming in clutch and incredibly adorable for a background!

1/2 C Creamy Peanut Butter
1/3  C Honey
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 C Oats
2/3 C Toasted, Sweetened Shredded Coconut
1/2 C Ground Golden Flaxseed meal (I use Bob's Red Mill)
6 Tbsp Mini Chocolate Chips

In a mixing bowl. stir together peanut butter, honey and vanilla.  Then add remaining ingredients and stir until evenly coated.  Transfer mixture to refrigerator or freezer and chill until set.  Remove from refrigerator and shape into little balls.  Store in refrigerator in an airtight container.
I'll be honest that I have a hard time shaping all of it into balls so if you want it more sticky with a better chance of having it all shaped into balls add a little additional creamy peanut butter and honey.  I just keep the recipe as is and form most of it into balls and leave the rest to snack on as a family like a granola mixture. Enjoy

Hidden Mickey Chocolate Chip Cookies

Friends I am so excited to share my FAVORITE Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe EVER!  Plus a definite bonus with the hidden Mickey.

Here’s the scoop, I don’t know how less than crazy amazing cookie recipes are still in circulation, I feel like it would be survival of the fittest and only the best cookie recipes would remain in this day and age.  But I have been to enough church, neighborhood, school and community functions to know that there are still less than stellar cookie recipes out there (and I’m not talking like just not baked to my personal preference cookies, I am talking just not great cookies) they are still lurking out there.  So if you are looking for an incredibly sound cookie that you can bake to preference, that freezes well and that is sure to be a crowd pleaser… and potentially the BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE RECIPE you've ever tried then… this recipe is for you!

A few things to note are your elevation level and your baking time and preference will need to be slightly tweaked based on your location and cookie desires but this cookie is so good! I am confident you will be very pleased with this recipe!

1 3/4 C sugar
1 3/4 C brown sugar
3/4 C Crisco Shortening 
3/4 C Butter (salted)
4 eggs medium (or 3 lg)
2 tsp vanilla
5 C flour
2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Baking Soda
Whole package of mini chocolate chips (10 oz package) and 1 C regular sized Chocolate Chips (Guittard or Nestle).

Cream: Sugar, Brown Sugar, Crisco Shortening, Butter, Eggs and Vanilla. 

Combine: Flour, Salt and Baking Soda.  Note: It is important to use a spoon and spoon in the flour to your cup and then carefully level it off, if you simply dive right into your flour container with your measuring cup and pack it in you will get too much flour. 

Then slowly add flour mixture to previously creamed ingredients.  Note: be careful not to over mix at this stage just mix until it is all combined.  Also be sure to mix in the parts of dough that get stuck at the bottom of your mixer, neglecting to do that can result in the flour not being combine enough and some cookies being dried out while others not holding their shape.

Then add in Chocolate Chips

I then use a 1.5 inch (diameter) scoop to scoop cookies.  You can use whatever size you would like just watch closely when baking to adjust time appropriately.

Bake at 340 degrees for 12 minutes for higher elevation and for lower elevations I do 325 for 12 minutes... But if I'm feeling like I want a little more doughy cookie I do 325 for 11 minutes and 30 seconds. The cooking part is where you will want to vary it based on your preference if you like it a little crispier and more of a caramelized taste you will want to cook it a little longer or slightly hotter. 

For Hidden Mickey place large chocolate chip in cookie and add ears with the mini chocolate chips, understand that the cookie will expand and spread the chips while baking so when it comes out if the ears are to far apart you will want to try and quickly move them closer upon pulling them out, be careful not to burn yourself!  Another option is to place large chocolate chip in dough making sure no other chips are around it and placing in the mini chips as ear once you have pulled it out before the cookie cools.   

Mickey Themed Baby Shower

For all you Disney lovers or friends of Disney lovers here are some of my favorite details from the Baby shower my mom threw me last summer!

I meant to post this immediately after the shower but once our new little addition arrived my progress on the blog came to a screeching halt, while his arrival was relatively smooth considering my high risk complications after his birth I developed some quirky and very painful problems and so my recovery stunted my ability to post all the fun pictures of our Mickey Mouse themed Baby Showers!  So I'm back and sharing my ideas for all you who are planning a Disney baby shower for all those Summer time babies!

Mickey Desserts:

Okay we LOVE cookies! Making, decorating and eating cookies is our jam in our family so although cookies are not always the ideal dessert to serve at a party (because they are time consuming and do not stay fresh for long) we ventured to decorate our own Mickey themed baby cookies.  After looking at posts on Instagram and Pinterest ideas we went for it and decorated some of my very favorite cookies ever! I know we're not decorating professionals and I'm sure many of you could do a much better job but it was fun for us to generate our own ideas off of other ideas we had seen so if you're like me here are some fun ideas to add to your own! 

Mickey Baby Shower Game: 

I'll be honest I'm not the biggest baby shower game fan, some are fun and some are a lot to take in... but one game that we love to do for bridal and baby showers is a memory game that comes with corresponding themed candy for the winner of the matches.  For example matches on the board included: "Baby Laundry" and the person who won that match get a "Mounds" Bar or "Dad" and the winner gets a "Big Hunk" or "Baby Giggles" and the winner gets a "Sinckers" bar... I like this because even if you played it at a previous shower no one is made to get candy and I seriously doubt that the matches will be in the same place as the last shower so it's new all over again! But this is not inherently Disney themed and so to add just a touch of Mickey we made Baby Mickey themed  numbered cards with a Mickey Baby and Disney Font numbers! We loved how this turned out and it kept the theme consistent.  

Mickey Favors:

We LOVE Chocolate Caramel Dipped Pretzels as favors! They are the perfect little treat for people to take with them and save for later or snack on on the way home.  We did the pretzel rod wrapped in caramel then dipped in chocolate and drizzled with white chocolate and then sprinkled with blue disco dust (aka edible glitter). That plus this cute Baby Mickey that says "Thanks for Coming to My Party" and we had the perfect little good bye treat!

Mickey Silverware Holder:

A simple and fun touch to the spread!

Mickey Cheese Cubes for kabobs: 

We thought this was a fun way to have just a little hidden Mickey magic among our serving.

Mickey Invites:

We also were able to find some adorable invites, banners and thank you notes from an etsy shop that matched our Baby Mickey theme perfectly and there were so many cute options I'd encourage you to just look on there to choose which provider will match your desired theme!