Oreo Truffle Easter Eggs

I love making candy.  Well, not candy... but chocolates.  You can make exactly what you like and then yum... gobble them up. 

I found this great Easter Egg silicon mold at my favorite store, Decorette Shop.  I could stay there all day!  I love it!

Oreo Truffle Easter Eggs

* melting chocolate

* Oreos

* cream cheese

I painted different colored chocolate into the mold.  I use Guittard Chocolate A'Peels because it tastes amazing.  It melts so smooth and thin.  It's not all goopey like some of the other cheaper candy melts.

Let it harden before you add in the filling.

We filled ours with Oreo Truffle filling.  YUM!  I crushed about 12 Oreos in the food processor.  Add about an ounce of softened cream cheese and mix.  You want it a pastey consistency so add more cream cheese a little at a time until it is a thick as you would like.  I love the cream cheese in it so I added about 4 ouces but you might want to add less.

Press the Oreo filling into the chocolate shell.

Melt more of the chocolate melts and pour over the top of the Oreo filling.  You'll want to lightly tap the mold on the counter top to get out any air bubbles. 

Let harden and then pop out of the molds.

This is about as fancy as I could get.  I don't have the patience to do anything more detailed.  But my kids didn't mind. They loved them!  And they were soooooo delicious!

Enjoy!

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Giveaways, Giveaways & More Giveaways

Congratulations to Renee C. on winning the $10 Paypal giveaway! $10 in free money! Yipee!

We have some giveaways coming up that you won't want to miss!

I would also like to thank all the amazing blogs that have done such fun giveaways!  We've been pretty lucky lately.  Here's what we've won (in the last 2 months)...

2 boxes of Pretzel Pete's Gourmet Pretzels from Grandma Juice

$15 gift card to Amazon from The Frugalista Chick

5 boxes of General Mills Cereal from How Was Your Day?

A month free with Love With Food from Mi Savings Mama and Mizz Review Lady

$25 gift certificate to Sonic from Views from the Ville

A box of fun sample products and t-shirt from Mary's Cup of Tea

A fun Zebra glasses case and contact holder from Look What I Got For Free

$25 Amazon gift card from Building Carpenters

A box of Guylian Belgian Chocolates from Energizer Bunnies' Mommy Reports

Sterling Silver Sweetheart Locket from Mizz Lady Reviews

Balance Bar Gift Set from Mi Savings Mama

Homemade Silly Putty (or Flarp)

Silly Putty.  If you're anywhere in your 30's or 40's you remember silly putty.   I remember being in 3rd grade and my best friend's dad used to work at night and sleep during the day.  We used to sneak inside the house during the day and she would say "we don't have to be too quiet, he has silly putty in his ears."  I know, totally weird memory.  I would wonder why he would put silly putty in his ears and wondered if it flattened out and got in his brain when he slept.  

I saw this over on Pinterest and knew we had to make it.  We've made homemade bouncy balls which were pretty cool.  I wasn't sure how different these would be until I looked at the ingredients.  Different so I figured this "science experiment" would be different.  

We gathered our supplies and headed to my work.  It's a great place to do crafts and then the kids play until they are red in the face and exhausted.  (I work in a school so it's empty on the weekend.) 

Homemade Silly Putty

Source: Filth Wizardry

Equal parts Elmers Glue-All (multi purpose glue) and Sta-Flo liquid starch  

Food coloring

It's important that you don't substitute another brand or type of glue for this one.  We tried with Elmers School Glue and it was a sticky gross mess.

Measure out your glue.  Add the food coloring to the glue and stir.

Add the same amount of starch to the glue mixture and stir.  It instantly starts to turn into a gooey mixture.  So cool and gross.  At this point you want to let it sit for about 5 minutes so the glue can absorb the starch. 

Pour the excess liquid out and plop the goo on a paper towel for a minute or so.

Now this is the totally gross part.  Kneed the goo for about 5 minutes.  It'll be gooey and sticky and slimy at first.  Push through it and keep kneading it.

Voila - homemade silly putty!

It even copies the newspaper.  Remember doing that???

But even cooler... it's also Flarp.  Have you heard of Flarp?  If you're a kid you have.  It's Flubber that farts.  (I know - totally childish.)  But my kids thought this was sooooooo cool! 

Get a small cup and push the goo down to the bottom of the cup.  It farts.  And my kids laughed for about 45 minutes while doing this.  Perhaps it's gross and a tad inappropriate.  But 45 minutes of hard laughter?  Totally worth it! 

I'm linking to the parties on my sidebar.

Unicorn Poop Cookies

I know.  Don't judge me.  You're thinking "that's totally gross!"  But admit it... you're next thought is "but totally cool!"  Right?  Come on, admit it.  These cookies are totally gross and totally cool at the same time.  That's why we had to make them.  A friend on Facebook posted this link on my wall with the comment "if you haven't made these yet, you need too."  Oh, how people know me so well.  Of course I had to make them.  They're Unicorn Poop Cookies for heaven's sake!

Unicorn Poop Cookies
Source: Instructables

* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 1/4 cup shortening* 1 cup sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 tsp. vanilla
* 2 1/2 cups flour
* 1 tsp. baking powder
* 1 tsp. salt
* Food coloring
* disco dust
* sparkle gel
* star sprinkles
* rainbow Dragees (I used sugar pearls)

In a mixing bowl, cream butter, shortening and sugar.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Slowly add flour, baking powder and salt. 

Divide into smaller bowls and add food coloring.  We used neon colors in blue, green and purple and then red and yellow.  That's unicorn-y right?  Chill for at least an hour.

Now comes the hard part.  Who knew making poop would be so time consuming.  =o)

Make snakes with each color.  You don't want them too thick because you have to use all 5 colors (or however many you chose) to make one large snake.  Be careful!  They break easily.

Make one large snake out of each smaller snake.  This is hard if you use too much flour.  They won't stick together.  So be patient.

Now make your poops.  

Bake in a 400 degree oven for approx. 8 minutes. 

When you take them out of the oven, immediately press in the sugar pearls.  You want to break through the surface and push them in about halfway (or else they will fall out.)

Let the cookies cool.

Now it's time to add the sparkle gel.  Use a new paintbrush and brush a thin layer of the gel over the entire cookie.  Make sure to get inside the cracks.  This won't harden when it dries and will remain somewhat tacky.  Just don't stack your cookies and your good.

Add the stars on top of the gel.  I bought stars that were too big =o(  (Note to self for next time.)

Now it's time to add the disco dust.  This is tough and it's expensive.  I pinched a tiny bit out and sprinkled it on top of the cookies.  I wish it came in a shaker bottle but it doesn't.  

And now enjoy!

Come on... admit it... you want to make them =o)



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Gooey Cookies & Cream Bars

Have you ever had one of those days when everything goes wrong?  You wake up and you don't feel so great?  You're late for work?  Then work just doesn't go as planned (meaning kids freaking out, parents yelling for reasons that make no sense and co-workers stressing out because students are out of control)?  I'm the one that has to deal with all of that at work and normally I can chug through it and life is good.  But this week?  I'm exhausted.

So I decided to bake.  That always seems to help.  It gets my mind off of "life" and, well, it just plain tastes great when I'm done =o)

And how could I go wrong with this amazing recipe?  When I saw this over on A Dash of Sugar and Spice I immediately bookmarked it.  Cookies and Cream?  We are HUGE cookies and cream fans.  My son loves, loves, loves Oreos!  So I thought this would be perfect.

Gooey Cookies & Cream Bars
Source: A Dash of Sugar and Salt

* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 1 large egg
* 1 tsp. vanilla
* 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
* 3/4 cups crushed Oreos (about 10 cookies)
* 1 tsp. baking powder
* 1/4 tsp. salt
* 2 King Sized Cookies and Cream candy bars (or white chocolate bars)
* 1 (7 ounce) jar of Marshmallow creme
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line an 8x8 pan with aluminum foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray.

Crush Oreo cookies.  I used Who Nu cookies.  Have you heard of them?  They claim to be "healthier" than regular cookies.  They have fiber and vitamin C and calcium in them.  See?  So my cookies are healthy, right???

Stir together cookie crumbs, flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.

Cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl for about 3 minutes.  Add egg and vanilla and mix thoroughly.  Add flour ingredients and mix until combined.  Divide the dough in half and press half the dough into the bottom of your prepared pan.

Line your candy bars over the bottom layer.  You may have to break them up to make them fit. 

Carefully spread the marshmallow creme over the candy bars.

To add the remaining dough over the marshmallow creme, make a "pancake" out of a small amount of the remaining dough.  Lay these over the marshmallow creme.

Carefully spread the dough over the creme.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until lightly golden brown.  Let cool completely in the pan.

Carefully lift out cookies and cut into bars.

Heavenly, right???  These are seriously the best cookie I've had in awhile.  They were rich and gooey and delicious!!!  I just wish my pictures turned out better =o( 

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