Spread Cheer This Holiday Season With Betty Crocker

With all of the traveling Jason and I have done over the past few weeks, little time was left for Christmas and holiday preparations. Between parties, baking, family time, shopping, preparing gifts, mailing packages, etc - just the thought of my never ending to-do list made this momma-to-be tired!

When faced with the challenge of baking cookies (with just a little over an hour to spare) for an upcoming Christmas party, I almost panicked. Lucky for me, I had the help of WalMart, Betty Crocker®,  and a good friend! Problem solved!

Betty Crocker® easy to bake cookie mixes are available in a wide variety of flavors, but I narrowed down my choices down to Sugar Cookie and Peanut Butter. At a low price, they are budget friendly, too! Want to spread Christmas cheer with a simple surprise? This is a great way to do so - read on to find out how!

As I mentioned before, I was short on time so my friend Melissa and I got right to work on the cookies! Baking is always more fun with a friend, anyway!

One of my favorite things about the Betty Crocker® cookie mixes was the simplicity of use. Each package only required a few ingredients (usually items that would be stocked in a pantry or fridge anyway)! I even forgot to check the ingredients before leaving the store but lucky for me, all ingredients were on hand at home!
 

While Melissa prepped the peanut butter cookies for baking, I was busy rolling out dough for the sugar cookies.

Although baking time for each type of cookie was different, we were finished in no time! 

Cutting out Christmas shapes in the dough was fun, too! 

After baking was complete, we enjoyed a cookie (or two...ok or maybe three...).

Spending time with Melissa was a great way to enjoy a little girl time while calming the pre-holiday jitters. We also shared a few of the cookies with our husbands and enjoyed spreading a little holiday cheer in the mean time!

I can't wait to bring these cookies to my upcoming Christmas party! They're so tasty, no one will believe how easy they were to bake! I didn't add any icing or sprinkles to the sugar cookies because we enjoy eating them as is - however, these would be fun to decorate with icing, sprinkles, and anything else you can imagine (and would also make a fun Christmas activity for the kids). I'm looking forward to a few of these "traditions" in the upcoming years! :)

How are you spreading cheer this holiday season?

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Betty Crocker.  The opinions and text are all mine.

Father's Day Weekend

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend spent with their families. If you're one who lost your father or had to spend Father's Day without him, my heart goes out to you. This was my 2nd Father's Day without my grandfather and I missed him terribly. However, I did get to enjoy the day with Jason's side of the family! We made up a large group and enjoyed lunch together! After it was all said and done, Jason's mom realized she didn't take any pictures...neither did I. #bloggerfail

What I do have pictures of are other events that happened over the course of the weekend!

On Saturday morning, I ran 6 miles with my BRF Heather. Unfortunately, my watch died mid-run (which seems to keep happening lately because I keep forgetting to plug it in).

We enjoyed the run but it was SO humid and warm out, even at 6:30 a.m.! By the time we finished, I was DRENCHED.

After the run, I stopped for my yearly donut run. You see, I love donuts but don't allow myself to have them but about once or twice a year. Patients sometimes bring donuts to us at work, but that hasn't happened in a long time....so I had my own "donut saturday"! :D

For the record, I only deserve a donut after completing a marathon. :) I ate these because I wanted to. Hah!

The puppies enjoyed a donut hole, too! :) Rotten little beggars!

I didn't stop there....after donuts, I spent a few hours outside and pulled weeds in the flower beds. I also made a new froggie friend. Isn't he cute?

Late morning was spent tidying the house up a bit because we had a bridal party workday for an upcoming wedding, which lasted the remainder of the afternoon.

In the middle of all of that, I also made cookies for Father's Day per my Father In Law's request. :) 

In total, my FitBit step count was at 19,600. That's the highest it's been in a while!

Completely off subject, I am LOVING this coffee creamer! SO tasty!!

Last but not least, I face timed with my dad and mom a bit which was fun! Even though I didn't get to spend Father's Day with him, I was still able to say hello and wish him a good day!

Our church also complied a special video for Father's Day which turned out incredibly cute!  You might even see a familiar face or two in there! :)

How was your weekend? Any fun festivities/races/training runs?

Hoppy Easter and Bird Nest Cookies

Happy Easter! My little bunnies had a visit from the Easter bunny last night and were all too thrilled to try on their new outfits.

(Ok, maybe I had to bribe them with a treat or two!)

Hoppy Easter from my family to yours!! I hope you all have a wonderful day as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord!

After Church, we are going over to Jason’s family’s house for Easter Dinner. I was asked to bring a few sides and at the last minute, I decided to throw a dessert in there, too. The dessert was WAY too cute not to share!

Warning: These cookies are not healthy by any means, but they sure are cute…and delicious, too! :0)

Bird's Nest Cookies 
Adapted from: Creations by Kara

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
8oz cream cheese
2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp coconut extract
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
Vanilla Icing
Flaked coconut and green food coloring
Cadbury eggs (or you could use PB eggs, Robin eggs, etc.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and gather your ingredients.

Let the butter and cream cheese come to room temperature, then beat with a hand mixer until smooth – do not melt them in the microwave. Beat in sugar. Add egg, vanilla, and coconut extract. 
Mix well. (Side note: The coconut extract will make your batter have a really strong coconut taste – no worries, the cookies don’t taste that strong!)

Stir in the baking powder and flour (one cup at a time).

Roll dough in balls (about the size of ping pongs). Place on lightly greased cookie sheets (I used a cooking stone). Make an indentation in each one using the back of a Tablespoon. The dough is very sticky, so you may need to dip the back of the tablespoon into flour to make the indention. 

Bake cookies for 12-15 minutes (I had to bake mine on the stone for 18-20 minutes, 12 minutes was not long enough). Some turned out more dark than others. (I really like crispy cookies and these had the perfect consistency – gooey in the middle and crispy on the outside!)

Remove from oven and while the cookies are still warm, use the spoon to press down the indentation again. Let cookies cool completely. Mix coconut with a couple of drops of green food coloring in a small bowl. Stir until coconut is tinted green.

Fill a small Ziploc bag (or icing tool) with vanilla icing, then cut a small corner off the Ziploc back.

Fill the indention of each cookie with icing (just enough to cover the bottom and sides – you don’t want a ton of icing). Sprinkle green coconut in indention – the purpose of the icing is to help the coconut stick.

On the back of each Cadbury egg, place a small dollop of icing, then arrange on green coconut in whatever shape/way you’d like! I used three eggs on each cookie.

Serve and enjoy!

Ingredients

I let the butter and cream cheese come to room temperature before trying to work with them. Once soft, I beat with a hand mixer until they were smooth – it’s not a good idea to melt the butter/cream cheese in the microwave to make this process faster.  (Trust me, I’ve done it before cause I’m not the most patient person!)

Cookies ready to go on my cooking stone. I made indentations on each cookie using the back of a Tablespoon. The dough was very sticky, so I had to dip the back of the tablespoon into flour to make the indention.

Once out of the oven, I had to re-define the indentions (you can see the ones on the left of the picture aren’t quite as bowl shaped anymore).

Once cookies were cool, it was time to decorate!

I used vanilla icing to help everything stick! I didn’t fill the indentions completely, I mainly scraped icing along the sides of the indentions with my Ziploc baggie.

I also used a small dollop of icing to help the Cadbury eggs stick.

Each cookie held three Cadbury eggs. You could also use any type of candy egg you’d like – Robin Eggs, PB eggs, etc. Anything would work!

These cookies are very tasty and make a cute addition to any Easter dessert bar. Enjoy!!