Sprinkles Galore

Because I love all things sprinkled and delicious, I was taken by the blog theBERRY's post which includes 34 (!!!) pictures of sprinkle-y confections today.
Here's one of my favorites but let's not kid ourselves, I love so many of them it's hard to choose.
Click the picture below to be taken to the colorful, delectable post. Be prepared to crave something sweet afterwards!

Skinny Cow Sweets...You'd Never Know They're Low Calorie!

I cannot, for the life of me, give up sweets! I've tried and I just can't, I get irritable and annoyed. Peanut buttery chocolate candies are my absolute favorite; I found some peanut butter chocolate truffles at Costco awhile back that are so insanely delicious, it has taken me a lot of restraint not to finish the container already.
So rather than eliminate sweets altogether, I either eat a favorite, regular treat and just limit my portions (i.e. one cupcake for the day, then no other sweets), or I have something low calorie yet still yummy, like a Skinny Cow product!
I've tried quite a few of the varieties, I particularly like the Chocolate Truffle Bars or the Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Sandwiches. And their new candy (Heavenly Crisps and Dreamy Clusters) is amazing as well. Basically, I haven't found a single treat that I don't like and I'm quite picky about how I want my sweets to taste (i.e., can't stand grocery store cupcakes around here, as the frosting is way too sweet.)

I think my only complaint, which I really had to think about for awhile because I couldn't come up with anything, is that the ice cream goodies are pricey. Around here, they're about $6 a box, so I try to get them when they're on sale, which is rare. But they're super yummy and taste like full-calorie treats!

Some of the ice cream treats:



And the new candies!:

Toasted Almond Brittle Bars-So Yummy!

Normally, chocolate and peanut butter sweets are my weakness, but this year I tried a new recipe I found called "Toasted Almond Brittle Bars" from McCormick. They are absolutely delicious, they taste exactly like almond extract smells; a little like marzipan, just nutty and sweet. And despite the word "brittle" being in the name, they aren't hard at all, due to the softer crust. Here's the recipe, hope you enjoy them like I do! Photo below is my own.

Toasted Almond Brittle Bars

2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened at room temperature
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar)
1/4 teaspoon salt

Almond Brittle Topping

1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract


1- Mix flour, 1 cup butter, confectioner's sugar and salt in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until coarse crumbs form. Press firmly and evenly into greased 15x10x1 inch baking pan. Bake in preheated 350 degree F oven 20 minutes or until golden brown.
2- For the topping, mix corn syrup, brown sugar, 1/4 cup butter and cream in medium saucepan. Bring just to boil on medium heat. Remove from heat. Stir in almonds and extracts. Pour over hot crust, spreading evenly.
3- Bake 15 minutes or light golden brown and until filling is set. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars. Makes about 3 dozen bars.






Enjoy!

Dessert Time! Chocolate Brownies!

I've had an obsession with brownies lately, I hadn't had them in a long time so now I've already made 2 batches lol. I barely got any out of the first one!
This is a super simple recipe, makes the brownies moist, not dry or chewy like some are.

You need...
1/2 cup butter or margarine -- softened
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups chocolate syrup
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

And the steps:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 13x9x2-inch baking pan.
2. In large bowl, beat butter and sugar.
3. Add syrup, eggs and flour. Beat well.
4. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan.
6. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of
7. pan.
8. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars.


Enjoy!!

(Picture from apartmenttherapy.com)

Oh.My.Gosh. Chili's White Chocolate Molten Cake!

We had some errands to run today and ended up at Chili's for lunch/dinner. After trying the new-ish mini chicken tacos which were great, we all split a White Chocolate Molten Cake. I wanted chocolate originally, but me being the only real chocolate lover, I lost lol. So we got the white chocolate but it was SO delicious! It's something like a butter bundt cake filled with white chocolate, topped with vanilla ice cream and a bit of white chocolate shell topping. And for decoration, there was a little strawberry sauce on the plate. I can't say enough about it other than that it was SO good and now I want to go back and try the chocolate lol. But beware, it's LARGE, so you'll need to share it with someone. We split ours between 3 people.

If you want to learn how to make something similar, there is a very close, pretty simple one here: http://www.recipelink.com/mf/14/33376

And to tempt you further, here's a pic of it that I found from restaurants.uptake.com!