Nutella Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup Nutella
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F. Blend all ingredients together well. Form into 1" balls. Place on cookie sheet. Press down firmly with bottom of a glass. Bake 7-8 minutes or until set. Cool.

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My Take
First off I didn't have all-purpose flour, so I knew the self-rising flour was going to make them fluffier than what the original picture showed. They didn't turn out too far from it. I should have not tried to use my beater to mix it though, that just made it crumbly so I ended up mixing it with my hands. Next time I'll use a fork or something else for sure. Other than that, I only had to bake them slightly longer than it originally called for. The last cookies of the batch are a tad bit grainy because that's when I was pressing the last little bits together and they weren't fully mixed, so they had some sugar that was in there, but the rest of the batch turned out just fine.

 

Original Recipe Here

No Bake Cheesecake

Ingredients
2 packages (20 sheets) graham crackers
11 tablespoons (1 3/8 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons sugar
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
1 14-ounce can (1 1/4 cups) sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
Put graham crackers in a large resealable plastic bag, and crush them with a rolling pin until very fine crumbs form. Pour crumbs into a medium bowl; stir in sugar. Add butter, and stir until well combined. Press the crumb mixture into a 9-inch springform pan, spreading it 1 1/2 to 2 inches up the side; press flat. Chill crust in freezer at least 10 minutes. Meanwhile, make the filling: Using an electric mixer set at medium-high speed, beat the cream cheese in a large bowl until smooth. Beat in the condensed milk a little at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary. Beat in the lemon juice and vanilla. Pour the filling into the crust; smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until firm, 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Unclasp sides of pan, and remove cheesecake.

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My Take
So since I didn't get a chance to eat any of my last cheesecake and it's my favorite thing in the world (okay besides my dogs and photography), I decided to make another, just regular cheesecake. I found this recipe on Martha Stewart's website and since she's the queen of everything awesome I figured I couldn't go wrong. I don't have a springform pan thing, so I just used store bought crust and it worked just fine. I did find that I had extra of the filling and I didn't want to over flow it, so I just spread the left overs on some graham crackers and had that as a snack while I waited for the other one to set. YUM!!! I think I might make those for a party snack; have graham crackers with cheesecake spread on them and have little bowls full of toppings like caramel or cherry pie filling...om nom nom nom! Anywho, this cheesecake has more of a thick pudding consistency and I like those better than say a standard NY cheesecake, so I'm totally in love with it. I will definitely be making it again and trying different varieties of it. I think a strawberry cheesecake would be to die for!

Original Recipe Here

Frozen Peppermint Cheesecake

Ingredients:
2 cups chocolate wafer cookie or sandwich cookie crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
1 (14 oz.) can Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 teaspoons peppermint extract
2 cups heavy cream, whipped
Red food coloring (optional)
Smucker's® Chocolate Fudge Spoonable Ice Cream Topping (optional)

Directions:

1. LINE 9-inch round cake or springform pan with foil.
2. COMBINE cookie crumbs and sugar in medium bowl. Add butter; mix well. Press 2 cups crumbs firmly onto bottom and partway up sides of prepared pan. Chill.
3. BEAT cream cheese until fluffy in large bowl. Gradually add sweetened condensed milk until smooth. Stir in peppermint extract and food coloring, if desired; mix well. Fold in whipped cream. Pour filling into pan.
4. COVER; freeze 6 hours or until firm. Garnish with fudge topping, if desired.

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My Take
I got to make this recipe at my dad's house since they've got all the utensils to do it. Carol thought she had peppermint extract and didn't so we just used vanilla instead and added extra pieces of the crushed peppermint candy to get the peppermint flavor. We also didn't make the crust like the recipe calls for, we just used the pre-made Oreo crust and we didn't put the ice cream topping on either. Currently it's sitting in the freezer setting...I don't want to wait, I want to try it out now!! lol. So besides having the cheesecake part everywhere, I had no idea that you could make whip cream with just one ingredient. Good thing Carol was there to tell me I had to whip it first because I would have just poured the heavy cream into the bowl and then it wouldn't have been so fluffy. Then she showed me how to fold it in and go from there. The only downfall is it became less pink after that, so I'd add more food coloring next time (I only added four drops today).

The other thing is this recipe makes WAY too much for just one cheesecake so we had to make another mini one. It probably would have made an second one, but we didn't have another Oreo crust.

Original Recipe Here

Mini Deep Dish Pizza

3-4 whole wheat wraps (try to find ones with at least 3 grams of fiber or more per wrap)
1 (15oz) can pizza sauce (you may have some left over, depending on how much sauce you like)
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
48 mini turkey pepperonis (or the 12 whole turkey pepperoni’s, each cut into 4 even pieces)
1 tsp basil/oregano mix OR Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp garlic powder
pinch of sweetener, (sugar/stevia/splenda)
pinch of black pepper

*Put your own spin on these by adding anything that you would normally like on a pizza just before popping them in the oven!

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray a 12 count muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Start by laying each tortilla out individually on a flat surface, and use an empty can, cup, or cookie cutter to cut 3-4 medium circles out of each wrap. I used the empty pizza sauce can, which worked well!3. Press each wrap circle into muffin tin using your fingers. Note: it doesn’t have to cover the entire side of the tin, it should just fit snuggly!
4. Meanwhile, pour pizza sauce into a medium sized bowl….Add in the parmesan cheese…And the spices. Stir until everything is well combined.
5. Drop about 1-2 tbs of sauce in each wrap, this really varies according to how much sauce you like!
6. Divide mozzarella cheese evenly over each mini pizza.
7. Place 4 mini pepperoni’s on top of each pizza.
8. Bake in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, or until cheese is melted and lightly browned.
9. Wait for pizzas to cool, and remove from muffin tin using a fork or knife. Pizza’s should pop out with ease!

Calories: 66 Calories Per Pizza
Weight Watchers Points Plus: 3pp for 2 Pizzas, and 5pp for 3 Pizzas

Servings: 12 Mini Deep Dish Pizzas

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These were so quick and easy to make. I was done with the prep right as the oven was finished warming up. I didn't actually pay too much attention to the recipe since I didn't actually need to eat 12 of them. I only made three so I didn't mix the ingredients together or any thing like that. I just cut out the circles from the wraps, put in a tablespoon of pizza sauce in each one , sprinkled a little bit of each spice and parm, then put in three of the normal sized pepperoni (I didn't use turkey one's either), and put the cheese on top. Next time I'll probably use a little more pizza sauce and more mozzarella to fill them up a bit more, but other than that they were perfect. I also didn't spray the muffin pan because I don't have any spray, but I ended up not needing to either. I had to buy a muffin pan because I didn't have one of those either, but I bought the non-stick pan so I figured I was safe. Also, twelve minutes was a tad too long to cook mine. I checked them at ten minutes and they were a little on the dark side, but nothing that I couldn't handle. If I hadn't plan on making dessert as well tonight I probably would have made more than three pizzas for myself, but I wanted to have room to at least try both things. They were really yummy and SO easy to make. These are great for quick dinner, and between these and my Cake in a Cup, I am way full!! I actually think I'm going to make these tomorrow before I head out to go to school.

Original Recipe Here

Pizza in a Blanket

Crescent Rolls

Pepperoni
String Cheese
Ranch/Marinara Sauce

(You can make as many or as few as you like.)

Separate the crescent rolls into triangles. Place 4-5 pepperonis on each triangle and top with half a string cheese. Roll up and bring up sides to seal.

Bake according to directions on crescent roll package.

Original recipe can be found here.

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First, I don't like ranch nor marinara on my pizza so I left that part out. But I am particular to flavored crust so I bought the "Buttery Flaky" crescent rolls and sprinkled some garlic salt on top of them before popping them in the oven. The total prep time was less than 10 minutes and that's with me being a complete idiot when I comes to opening tubes of rolls. My baking time was only 13 minutes, so these would be great to grab as a quick snack. They're delicious, but they are a little dry, so I think the next time I'll probably add just a little bit of pizza sauce to it before I roll it.

I would call this one a success! I had no disasters happen, no giant messes to clean up and they're perfectly done. I'm pretty sure it's a miracle lol.