The BEST Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I think I bake cookies every month, if not every couple of weeks. Especially when it's cold or raining, but then again...I also love to open the windows and bake when the sunlight is pouring in too, so I suppose I bake as often as I can. Anyone else guilty of this?! The only *dilemma* is that my kids also LOVE to bake, and the thing is, they think they're really helping. And they're not. I feel like my life is a constant, "Reese, not yet," or, "Pierson, just be patient," while I juggle reading instructions, measuring ingredients, and helping them not dump flour and sugar all over the floor. But it's cute. And these memories are priceless, so lo and behold, we bake together often. 

Here's the recipe for my absolute favorite oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, adapted from Liv for Cake's blog: 

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt [I always eyeball this]
1 c unsalted butter at room temp [mine's typically colder than room temp but I warm it up a few seconds in the microwave and they turn out delish nonetheless]
1 c light brown sugar packed
1/4 c granulated sugar
2 eggs room temperature [I always pull from fridge because I forget to set them out!] 
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 c rolled oats
2 c chocolate chips [I usually end up pouring in a whole lot more.....oops]

Directions

-In a medium bowl, whisk flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
-In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and sugars on med-high until pale and fluffy (approx. 3 minutes).
-Add eggs one at a time, fully incorporating after each addition, and beat on high for 1 minute. -Add vanilla.
-Turn mixer to low and add flour mixture, mix until combined.
-Add the oats and chocolate chips. Mix until just combined.
-Chill dough in the fridge for an hour (optional, and I did 30 minutes)
-Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
-Using a small cookie scoop, place cookies on baking sheet 2" apart.
-Bake for 8 mins or until edges are lightly browned but center is still soft and unset.
-Cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet, then transfer to cooling rack to cool.

I could eat these for breakfast, lunch, AND dinner. And honestly, I had two for my breakfast this morning. Make them, share how they turned out, and have fun baking!! 

PS: I never put raisins in these. I love the texture from the oats, but I don't particularly care for an oatmeal RAISIN cookies, so I just use a ton of chocolate chips instead ;) 

Valentine's Day with Bertolli®: More than Just Dinner

The following content is intended for readers who are 21 or older.
This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and ConAgra Brands. All opinions are mine alone. #MangiaTonight #CollectiveBias

Valentine's Day was yesterday and guys, I think you'll be proud of me. I surprised my sweet husband (who usually does ALL the cooking) with such a great dish. And the best part? Bertolli® Frozen Meals at Kroger created more than just dinner for us; it was the memory and moment we had together that I am now cherishing! Using one of his very own own signature appetizers, I had so much fun bringing the Italian lifestyle to the table with the help of Bertolli®.

Now that we have two kiddos, Valentine's Day looks fairly different from our earlier years of marriage. We usually try to have them eat with us every night, but both of us were looking for a little extra quiet yesterday. I knew that making this meal 'for two,' instead of the four of us, would be just fine in my husband's book. While he helped with their baths, I prepped the appetizer: a caprese baguette with a divine balsamic reduction. This pairs SO well with Italian food and served with Bertolli® Chicken Alfredo & Penne, it did NOT disappoint.

Is your mouth watering yet? Mine is while writing this and I just had this meal! Let me share with you how to create this yummy dish:

1. Slice the baguette on a diagonal in about 1-inch slices.

2.Mix together 2-Tbsp of olive oil, 1-tsp garlic powder, and 1-tsp red pepper flakes with 1-tsp salt. Brush each piece of bread with the olive oil and herb mix. Broil under high heat until golden brown.

3. Slice plum tomatoes and fresh mozzerella into thin slices.

4. Top each piece of bread with a slice of mozzarella and a plum tomato slice. In a small saucepan, bring 1/2 a cup of balsamic vinegar to a boil. Continue boiling, stirring occasionally, until the vinegar has reduced by half. Remove the vinegar from the heat and cool COMPLETELY.

5. Top the baguette, cheese, and tomato with a splash of balsamic vinegar.

Five easy steps, y'all, for SUCH a great appetizer that paired perfectly with our Bertolli Chicken + Penne Alfredo dish. And the best part? My husband was SO proud that I handled this all on my own. It's not that I *can't* cook (obviously!), it's just that this is HIS calling; but man did it bless his heart for a night off!

We sat and made a toast--to eight years of marriage, nine of celebrating Valentine's Day, and for a quiet night in, JUST the two of us. I am so thankful to Bertolli for bringing excitement to an everyday meal such as this one. (Fun fact: Bertolli's 'Mangia" motto means 'to eat' in Italian!) And as much as this couple loves to eat, (can I get an amen?) we also love creating simple yet intimate moments and memories such as this.

Here are some helpful photos so that you can easily find this Bertolli dish at YOUR local Kroger store:

And here for the baguette we used:

What's your favorite way to spend a date night at home? If you want to try out these Bertolli Meals for Two, be sure to pick them up at your local Kroger Banner store in February to get them at the lowest price possible! You can't beat this deal and you will not be disappointed after cooking this dish. Give the caprese baguette a try too; you can never go wrong with bread and pasta! 

“Bertolli® is a registered trademark of R&B Foods, Inc., used under license.”

Valentine's Day Pretzel Bites

This past Christmas my sister-in-law and her children were making pretzel bites for the kids to gift their teachers. Her three were sitting at their kitchen table, carefully unwrapping every Hershey's Kiss©, and my son eagerly joined them. She told me that it was a great activity to help them stay busy, because they seriously focus so well on individually unwrapping each one to place on top of the pretzels.

While I scrolled Pinterest in search of Valentine's goodies, I remembered this idea! There's lots of variations of it, but we chose to do mini pretzels, kisses, and valentine themed m&m's for ours this morning. My kids were so excited to do this together, and I made a whole Instagram story of them unwrapping and chatting, giggling together and talking about how I would put the m&m's on top after they had warmed in the oven. 

They of course intermittently asked, "Mommy, can I eat one??" to which I obliged because they were doing SO well. And together, they finished the entire task all by themselves! That's a lot of pretzels for a three and four-year old! So here's how you do it, though I feel like it's pretty self-explanatory based on the pictures ;) 

-Buy your favorite [or cheapest in my case] brand of mini pretzels
-Hershey Kisses
-M&M's [we used the Valentine's themed]

-Pre-heat oven to 300°
-Line up the pretzels over wax paper on a cookie sheet
-Have kiddos unwrap the kisses and set on top of the pretzels
-Put cookie sheet w/ pretzels + chocolate in the oven for about 3 minutes
-Gently press m&m on each pretzel

And then I put ours in the fridge to get nice and solid. The kids had a few after their lunches and they LOVED them. I keep opening the fridge and snacking on them in between writing this blog post, brewing coffee, and rotating laundry, ha! 

Easy

Time-Consuming for Energetic Kiddos 

DELICIOUS! 

The recipe to THE perfect rainy and cloudy afternoon, at least in my book! Enjoy, y'all! And thanks again to my sis-in-law Jana for the idea! She is the best! 

Fridays + Donuts

Since I've sat down to write this, I've seriously been up and down the stairs eleven times. And yes, I counted. Reese is having some sort of nap regression with me staying home; some say she's super excited about being with Mommy more, I think she just hates me. This last time I went up, it's because I heard a super loud THUD; don't worry, it wasn't her falling from the bed, it was her putting her new Bitty Baby cradle IN to her bed, so that it can take up half the room lying next to her. [I've told her since Santa brought it, she cannot sleep with the cradle IN the bed, it can lie on the floor NEXT to her bed.] Well, by opening our monitor on my phone, I see that she's finally ASLEEP with said cradle next to her head, and I am NOT opening that door to move it. 

Lord help me. 

Okay, so shew! It's FRIDAY! And I've had a whopping three days at home alone with the kids. Yesterday we got two inches of snow so that meant the schools were closed (laughing so hard), but I suppose it's for the best; there were 120 accidents in the morning during regular commute! This city and snow just don't mix. But that also meant a day off with my husband and we thoroughly enjoyed the day: sledding, hot chocolate, a trip to Target, watching the snow fall outside; I'll do a whole blog post soon but not now. I'd like to hurry up and finish this so that I can go shower and MAYBE lie down for a few minutes before the children are awake again! 

Browsing Instagram this week I quickly stopped scrolling when I came to a picture posted by Kristen (@oldjoy). She had a gorgeous photo of donuts and a link to her blog post. I had to check it out because 1. I love to bake and 2. donuts are my jam. 

Because today is Friday, and I wanted to celebrate surviving my first (half) week (more laughing) doing this whole stay at home mom thing; the kids and I made donuts. I asked their previous sitter [a dear friend of mine] and her 1-year old to join us, and that was really fun to spend some adult time while the kids semi-played together. 

I made the frosting for these first, and I literally just replicated Kristen's recipe: 

1. melt 2 TBS butter
2. mix 1.5c of powdered sugar and the melted butter
3. add milk slowly, 1TBS at at time (she used 4, I ended up using 5)
 
And for the donuts, I used a simple Pilsbury cake mix (strawberry) that literally just needs to be poured into a bowl and beat on medium speed with 3 eggs and 1/2 cup of vegetable oil. 

The kids helped (oh yes, helped is such a kind word here) and were very anxious for the donuts to be done cooking and cooling so we could cover them with icing. (Once they're completely cooled, just flip the donut upside down and dip in the icing mixture.) We added sprinkles to ours and they turned out super cute. 

Next time I think I'll add vanilla or something to the icing mixture? It was good, but for my personal preference tasted a little too much like plain sugar. OH, and I should mention that I used a simple donut maker pan (purchased from Amazon) to make these cuties. Anyway, time to run! I'm super excited for this time I have with these rugrats (my friend's 1-year old Jadon is pictured above, he is the sweetest human ever); and I also so glad that it's FRIDAY and we all get a weekend with Daddy. Cheers, friends! Happy donut making and TGIF!