S'mores Cups

Happy National S'mores Day! Ok, so it's probably not a national holiday, but I like to pretend everyone gets the day off to enjoy the deliciousness of sugar and carbs. Unfortunately, I don't go camping and I'm nowhere near a bonfire. You aren't either, huh? That's ok, you don't have to in order to eat these mini s'mores cups! My husband said they're the best thing I've ever made and he'd pay to eat them again, they're that crazy good. However, they are the messiest thing I have ever made, from beginning to end. You have been warned.


If you like s'mores, here's what you'll need to make s'mores cups:

* Graham crackers (I used 8 long pieces which probably could have made 10 or 11 mini s'mores but I just made 6)
* 1/2 cup of milk chocolate chips
* Marshmallows (since I made 6 cups, I only needed 3 marshmallows)
* 2 Tablespoons of butter




Start by crushing your graham crackers. Don't have a food processor? Neither do I. I prefer hammers.

Once they're thoroughly crushed, melt your butter and combine the two in a bowl. Here's where the messiness began.

Attempt to pour in the crumbs into your greased up mini muffin tin and make a little divot in each with your fingers. You will most certainly make a mess, but it's ok. Messes are fun. And delicious.

Brush off the excess and stick in the oven for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. While they're baking, prepare your chocolate chips and marshmallows. Each cup will get 4 chocolate chips and half of a marshmallow.

Once they're done baking, put 4 chocolate chips in the center and then place your half marshmallow (sticky side down) directly on top of the chocolate chips (which are probably starting to melt).

Stick the pan back in the oven for another 3 minutes. When you take them out, your marshmallows will have grown in size and will be nice and fluffy. Let them cool for 15 minutes before removing from the pan.

Melt your remaining chocolate chips in the microwave for 30-45 seconds, drizzle over the marshmallows, and top with your extra graham cracker crumbs. Warning: you will want to eat these over a plate, a napkin, or something because even eating them will be very messy but oh so gooey and delicious!

Why can't we have more holidays like this?

TOTAL COSTS: About $8 (if you don't have any ingredients - prices from Vons)
$1.67 for marshmallows
$2.50 for graham crackers
$2.50 for chocolate chips
$.99 for butter

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: About 30 minutes

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 2 out of 5
I wouldn't say they're difficult, they're just very messy. Be careful not to burn the cracker crusts, or burn the chocolate while it's melting in the microwave. Other than that, they're easy enough and, dare I say, more delicious than a conventional s'more!

The Fudgiest Brownies You've Ever Tasted... with Avocado??

"Brownies with an avocado in them? Are they going to be green?", I asked myself. This post from SouthernInLaw makes them sound delicious but c'mon, lets be honest, it also sounds slightly disgusting. No one dips a Hershey's bar into guacamole for a reason. However, just because it sounds odd, doesn't mean it's necessarily bad. I gave this one a shot and if you're a chocoholic, you're in for helluva treat. If you don't have that much of a sweet tooth, this might not be the recipe for you. But it's gluten free, low fat, low in sugar, and grain free so for all of those with specific dietary needs, this might be a good dessert option!

To make these you'll need:

1 ripe avocado
2 eggs
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon of water
3.5 oz of dark chocolate (bar or chocolate chips, up to you!)
1 cup + 1 Tablespoon of cocoa powder
1/4-1/2 cup of sugar (I used 1/2 cup and should have used more, however if you want this to not be as sweet, then go for 1/4 cup)
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
Pinch of salt


Not sure if you picked a ripe avocado? Take off the tip - if it's green underneath, it's ripe. If it's brown, it's not. Also, give a squeeze. If it gives a little but doesn't leave an impression on the avocado, that's another sign it's ready to be cut open!

Start by preheating your oven to 355 and either in a food processor or mixer, combine your avocado, eggs, vanilla, and water until all lumps are gone.

In a separate bowl, melt your dark chocolate in the microwave (mine took about 1 minute), add to your avocado puree and mix until just combined.. I think next time I make this I'm going to try with milk or semi-sweet chocolate, as it was more bitter than sweet.

Next, add in your cocoa (I think the recipe is asking for a lot but that's just me), sugar (again, up to you on how sweet you want to make these), baking soda, and salt. Be careful adding the cocoa powder, as it can make quite a mess if it's all dumped in at once!

If you think it's too thick, add another Tablespoon of water. I didn't and yeah, these puppies were definitely thick!

Pour the mixture into a greased up 8"x8" pan and smooth the mixture out before baking for 20-25 minutes. Be sure to do the toothpick test (stick a toothpick in and if it comes out clean, it's all done!)

Let it cool in the pan before removing and let it chill in the fridge before serving. I've got to say, these are the fudgiest brownies I've ever had! Not cakey, very dense. You can't taste the avocado at all (and they're certainly not green) but my gosh are they chocolatey. Not for the faint of heart, these brownies are most certainly thicker than your average brownie but in small amounts, definitely fulfill your sweet tooth cravings!

And as my mother would say, "Have a glass of milk with that!"

TOTAL COSTS: About $18 (if you don't have any ingredients - prices from Vons)
$1.99 for an avocado
$2.79 for eggs
$3.49 for bag of dark chocolate chips
$3.99 for cocoa powder
$2.69 for sugar
$1.59 for baking soda
$.99 for salt
Homemade vanilla extract from scratch

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 50 minutes + overnight
30 minutes to prep
20 minutes to bake
Cool and chill overnight

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 1 out of 5
The hardest thing is picking an avocado that's ripe enough! Other than that, it's just a matter of throwing things in a bowl and then into a pan. Simple enough for even the non-baker in your family to accomplish.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Fudge

Chocolate is the greatest discovery by man, in my opinion. Dark chocolate is good for your heart, milk chocolate is good for your soul. It's always there to lift you up when you're down and it doesn't think you're needy when you haven't had enough of it. So when I saw this post by LaurensLatest, I immediately fell in love with chocolate all over again. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups into fudge?? Be still, my beating heart... the best part? No oven or stove necessary. Just grab these ingredients and an 8"x8" pan:

* Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (I recommend keeping them in the freezer until you're ready to make these - 2 bags should do you)
* 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
* 3 cups of chocolate chips (I used 2 cups and it came out just fine. Note that 2 cups = 1 package of chocolate chips)
* Aluminum foil
* PAM

Start by lining your pan with aluminum foil, lightly spraying the foil with PAM (so the chocolate doesn't stick to it), and laying down your Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I found I wasn't able to make four down and four across so I filled in the holes with broken pieces of Reese's.

Next, add your condensed milk and chocolate chips in a large bowl and microwave in 30-second intervals until the chocolate is completely melted (mine took about a minute total).

Now this will be extremely thick, almost like frosting on a cake, so carefully cover your Reese's with the chocolate goodness.

If you want, chop up some Reese's and sprinkle on top to complete the top layer.

Stick in the fridge for four hours and badda boom, badda bing, you've got yourself dessert for at least a week! Did I say dessert? I meant breakfast.

TOTAL COSTS: About $11
$6 for two bags of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
$2.58 for a can of sweetened condensed milk
$2.50 for a bag of chocolate chips

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 30 minutes + 4 hours to chill

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 1 out of 5
This is super easy to make but keep in mind it will be very difficult to cut and you're going to want to make small pieces (the ones pictured above were way too big!)

How to Bake a Brownie Inside an Eggshell

When I first joined Pinterest, this was one of the first posts I laid eyes on and I've been too intimidated to try it until now. I was intimidated partially because a.) it's in a foreign language  and  b.) it would require converting everything from grams to cups but those were easy feats to conquer. I've converted everything for you here so you can try these at home and impress (or confuse!) your guests at your next dinner party!

To make the brownies you'll need:
* 3/4 cup of chocolate to melt (I used chocolate chips)
* 1/2 cup of butter at room temperature
* 3 eggs
* 3/4 cup of sugar
* 1/2 cup of flour
* 3 Tablespoons of cocoa powder
* A pinch of salt
* Eggshells (I decided to fill four eggshells but I could have easily of filled a dozen with the amount of brownie mix I had leftover!)

To prepare the eggshells you'll need:
* 1/2 cup of salt
* 4 1/4 C of water
* Some vegetable oil
* A skewer or toothpick
* A corkscrew

Start by taking your corkscrew and poking a hole in the bottom of an egg. You'll want the hole to be the size of your pinky finger.

Once the hole has been made, peel off the shell and using a skewer or a toothpick, start to jab the egg yolk and egg whites inside the egg.

This will help make it easier for the egg to come out of the shell. Do this for all of the eggs you plan to have empty shells of. Once the egg is completely out of the shell, rinse off the inside and outside of the eggshell.

Combine your 1/2 cup of salt and 4 1/4 C of water in a bowl and dunk your eggshells into the water. Make sure the eggshells are completely submerged and filled with water, otherwise they'll float to the top. Once the bubbles have stopped coming to the top, you'll know they'll stay on the bottom.

Let them sit in the salt water for 30 minutes.

And give them another 30 minutes to dry, with the hole down on top of a paper towel.

Once they're dry, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and pour a little vegetable oil inside each eggshell. Roll it around so the oil coats the entire inside of the shell. This will help prevent the brownie from stick to the sides of the shell when baking. Pour out any excess oil that might be inside the shell.

Now it's time to make the brownie mix! Melt the butter and chocolate (as I said, I used chocolate chips and it worked just fine) in a microwave for 30 seconds and then 10 second intervals after that, so as to make sure the chocolate doesn't burn (mine took 50 seconds total).

In a separate bowl, add the 3 eggs and sugar and mix (I used what used to be inside the eggshells - no point in letting it go to waste!)

Once the chocolate has cooled, add it to the sugar and egg mixture.

Add your cocoa, flour, and pinch of salt to make your brownie mix complete!

Pour the brownie mix into a plastic bag and cut off one of the corners, as this will make it easier to fill the eggshells with brownie mix.

Slowly add the brownie mix to each eggshell, filling them up 3/4ths of the way. If you hold the eggshell up to a light, you'll be able to see how much you've filled.

Once your eggshells are filled, carefully place them in a muffin tin (you can use foil to keep them centered, if you like) and stick them in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

When you take them out, they'll be very hot but you need to cut off any excess brownie mix or else it'll be harder to do once it has cooled. I recommend holding the eggs with a wet paper towel or oven mitt and using a knife to cut off the excess brownie that has spilled over.

Let them cool completely before removing the shell (I put mine in the fridge for half an hour and that did the trick).

Remove the eggshell and eat your egg-shaped brownie! I had one right after another... needless to say, they're a little addicting! Your dinner guests will be so confused when their dessert is presented to them as an egg!

TOTAL COSTS: About $20 to make at least 9 brownie eggs (if you buy a dozen)
$2.50 for chocolate chips
$.99 for butter
$2.49 for eggs
$2.69 for sugar
$3.29 for flour
$4.49 for cocoa powder
$.99 for salt
$3 for vegetable oil
Corkscrew and toothpick/skewer already on hand but you could use a fork to poke the hole and the toothpick or skewer is only to help get the egg yolk and egg whites out faster... if you have patience, then you don't need anything.

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 2 hours, 18 minutes
5 minutes/egg to empty
30 minutes to soak in salt water
30 minutes to dry
25 minutes to make batter and fill
18 minutes to bake
30 minutes to chill

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 3 out of 5
These are actually a lot easier to make than one might expect. You have to be very careful not to burn yourself when getting the excess brownie off the egg but other than that, it's just a matter of being patient. Waiting for the egg to drip out of the shell, waiting for the eggs in the salt water, waiting for the eggs to dry, waiting to devour them...

Strawberry "Cheesecakes"

I don't like cheesecake. Is that weird? I love most desserts but cheesecake I just can't wrap my head around. However, these cheesecakes I devoured almost the second I was done making them. They're easy to make and, dare I say, they're healthy! Ok, they're healthier than an actual slice of cheesecake. These would be a great dessert option for the person who doesn't want a heavy cake or pie on their plate but something light and sweet instead!


To make these you'll want to grab:

* At least a dozen strawberries
* 4 oz. of cream cheese
* 1/4 cup of powdered sugar
* A splash of vanilla extract
* (optional) Chocolate chips for melting
* (optional) Graham crackers for sprinkling on top




Start by cutting off the stems of the strawberries (so they'll be able to stand on their own) and slice an "X" halfway through the strawberry. Do not cut all the way through or you'll have one heck of a mess!

In a mixer, combine the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Once combined, pour it into a plastic bag, cut off a corner of the bag, and fill the strawberries in the "X" you just made.

Melt some chocolate chips in the microwave at 10 second intervals (as you don't want them to burn) and lightly drizzle over the strawberries. I recommend crumbling up some graham crackers too, to act as the "crust" of your cheesecakes.

And that's it folks! Fast, easy, and if you stick them in the fridge until they harden, they're addicting as well!

TOTAL COSTS: About $12.50 to make as many strawberries as you can! (prices from Vons)
$2.99/lb. for strawberries
$1.99 for cream cheese
$2.49 for powdered sugar
$2.50 for chocolate chips
$2.50 for graham crackers
Made my own vanilla extract

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 20 minutes to make 12

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 2 out of 5
It's really quite simple - the only thing you have to watch out for is not burning the chocolate in the microwave. Piping the cream cheese filling into the strawberries would be easier if there was someone holding the strawberries open but I did these by myself without any problems!