Skillet Cookie

Happy Monday Everyone!!

Here's how my Monday started. 12:10 AM the thunder wakes me up. Now with that being said, I do not like storms. I'm not terrified, but I could do without the thunder. Our 60 lb love bug, Mason, feels the same way. He sleeps on the back deck, and I felt awful for him last night. SO, I went outside and brought him in for the night. He slept in the bathroom on one of our comforters. Well, let's not forget Tedi. He knew his buddy was coming in, so I had to let him stay in the bathroom too or else....there would be scratching and barking until they were reunited. Goodness :)

4:30. Chris's alarm goes off. I sleep deeper than he does, but I ALWAYS wake up first when that thing goes off. Finally, I convince him to shut the blasted thing off, and by 6AM I am up for the day.

I'm sure you're wondering when the cookie is going to come into the picture :)

Well, I completed some NCLEX questions, worked out with Insanity Insane Abs(so much sweat...ew), and then lunch. YUM!!

So the afternoon keeps ticking on and I'm bored. What's better than whipping something sweet up to enjoy? The answer: nothing.

I perused Pinterest, and found this recipe. I slightly modified it because I didn't have the chips, and I added a little bit of me. Here we go:

Ingredients
3/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg and 1 yolk
2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cups chocolate chips.

Because I didn't have the chips I had to change mine up a little bit. I had a melting chocolate. I just grabbed a cube and chopped it.

Mix the butter and 2 sugars together. Once they are combined and smooth, add in the egg. Stir in. Next, mix in the flour, baking soda, salt, and vanilla.

After all this is mixed together, fold in the chips or if you're like me, the chopped chocolate.

Preheat your oven to 350 and grease your cast iron skillet.

Pour the batter evenly into the skillet.

Another me touch: Pour caramel sauce over the batter and top with sprinkles. The best are rainbow.

Bake it for about 15 minutes or until the edges are slightly brown. The inside will look like its not finished baking, but it will look more solid once you set it out to cool.

 Can life get any better right now? Cookies, chocolate, caramel, and rainbow sprinkles!!

You're more than welcome to come join me for a refreshment or pick me up.

Golden Oreo Cake Batter Blondies

While preparing for our cookout this week, I went through my Pinterest boards to find a dessert recipe. Earlier in the week I had remembered searching through a blog that I adore, and I found a recipe for golden oreo cake batter blondies. I knew that would be my new recipe for the week.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

First mix together 1 yellow cake mix, 1/4 cup of oil, and 1 egg. I used my stand mixer for this. After those 3 ingredients are mixed together, slowly mix in 1/3-1/2 cup milk. I filled my 1/2 cup measuring cup, turned my mixer on low, and slowly added in the milk. I ended up staying between 1/3-1/2 rather than choosing one or the other. The batter will be thick and sticky.

Next, I added in 1/2 cup of sprinkles. I took my mixing bowl off of the mixer and used a large spoon to fold these in. It was quite the workout :)

After the sprinkles are folded in, you are going to fold in 1 1/2 cups of crushed oreos. To make this a little easier and to be sure that I had the oreos mixed thoroughly, I folded the oreos in by 1/2 cup measurements.

Now you are ready to place these in your greased 8x8 baking pan.

Here is what the batter looks like after smoothing and evening it out. Once you are satisfied with this, top with more sprinkles and crushed oreos. It now looks like this.

YUM!!! Place in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Your house is going to smell delightful, and trust me on this one, it is hard to wait 30 minutes for these to cool to cut. These were a hit at the cookout, and the taste and texture of the blondies are perfect.

When you pull them out of the oven, the middle is going to look like it is not cooked all of the way. Wait 30 minutes to cut them, and by that time, the middle will have become more stable.

1 yellow cake mix
1/4 cup oil
1 egg
1/3-1/2 milk
1/2 cup sprinkles(have extra to top with)
1 1/2 cup crushed golden oreos(have extra to top with)

A Year of Bliss

I still cannot believe that today is our ONE year anniversary. It seems like yesterday that I was picking up my dress, helping my MIL make the Groom's cake and goodies, spending the night before with my family, and getting dolled up for pictures. I felt incredibly beautiful on that day, and it meant even more to me that I walked down the aisle to the same song that my mother did.
 http://sfstrings.com/music/MIDI/BACH_AVE_MARIA.MID

Everything was beautiful. Granted, things did not go the way that we had planned that day, the outcome of this huge event in our lives was perfect. We had a wonderful honeymoon filled with lots of fun and relaxation. Our trip back home to the states was exciting to say the least :) Here's a part of it

Why yes, that is Chris Brown. Our plane from Miami to Birmingham was cancelled, and Mr. Brown was the the Miami International Airport.

Happy Anniversary to us, and many more to come. I have married my soul mate, best friend, and my perfect prince. Nothing is better than being treated like a queen and knowing how loved and adored I am. I am truly blessed.

Chicken Teryaki

It has been 11 days since I graduated, and I have to say I am finally relaxed. I have gotten myself on a little schedule again, and I love being able to spend time to pamper myself. I have been quite creative with cooking lately, and I very proud of that. From the pizza casserole, adding my own touches to the meatballs, and trying new recipes.

*A little can go a long way*
This is true in nursing as well as every other aspect in life. For example, last week I was on my way to get my CPR/BLS renewed and there were two RN's at the gas station I stopped at. I approached them, shook their hands, and wished them a Happy Nurse's Week. I don't know how if affected them, but knowing that I thanked them for all they do made my day. Giving is always better than receiving. That is another reason why I chose nursing as my career.

So...onto the 'yaki. I was on one of my favorite websites, Pinterest, on Monday, and I came across a crock pot chicken teriyaki recipe. It can't get any better after you add the words "crock pot" to something.

This is modified from Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom's blog.

Ingredients:
1 lbs of boneless skinless chicken thighs
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 1/2 teaspoons cold water
Cooked rice

Place the chicken in the crock pot. Mix the sugar, soy sauce, apple cider, vinegar, ginger, garlic, and pepper together, and pour on top of the chicken. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Pour liquid from the crock pot into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Mix together cornstarch and water, and once mixed stir into the crock pot liquid. Bring sauce down to medium and keep stiring until the sauce has thickened.

Boil rice. For vegetables, I used a frozen bag of gumbo style veggies. I would have preferred to use an asian style, but that was unavailable :)

After the sauce, veggies, and rice were complete, I shredded the chicken. Then I placed it all in a bowl.

Crock Pot Meatballs

It is hard to believe that I have been graduated almost a week. This time last week, I was a house cleaning mad woman preparing my house for my Mom, Dad, and Sister's arrival. I was exhausted because I couldn't sleep because of all the excitement of pinning, graduation, time with my family, parties, cake(YUM!!), and most of all spending time with the family I have spent the most time with these past 2 years....the UAH CON Class of 2012.

Everyone has been saying I deserve this time off and to relax. This is probably the hardest thing for me. I'm a busy body. I love having things to do. I adore having lists that I can check off, and I don't have that right now. SO....I've been reading books for FUN, working out to take my mind off of things, looking at coupons, and making delicious food. Today I'm making one of my favorites! CROCK POT MEATBALLS MMMMMMM!!!!

I first found the idea on Pinterest, and I followed the picture to another blog: http://www.sixsistersstuff.com.
If you haven't tried any of their recipes, today is the day! What I love about this recipe is that it doesn't require many ingredients at all and MOST importantly, the meatballs are B1G1 at Publix this week, so head on over there.

Crock Pot Meatballs:
2 packages of Armour meatballs(I used turkey)
1 18 oz jar of grape jelly
12 oz chili sauce(Ok, I got the 10 oz can, and it was fine. This is basically the chili you put on hot dogs.)

It sounds like a weird combination, but the flavors together are unbelievable!

Put them all in the crock pot, stir them all around, and put your crockpot on high for 6-8 hours. When it is around 10 minutes before dinner, I boil rice(brown, of course). Once the rice is finished, plate it and top with your delicious meatballs and sauce. ENJOY!!!

A Wife

This time last year, I was finishing my second semester in nursing school at UAH. I was stressed to be max 1. because I cannot stand psych and 2. I was a little over a month away from walking down the aisle. All I remember is having so much to do.

The end of April was incredibly stressful because of finals and the always dreaded HESIs, but something was different last year. On April 27th, I had to go in to UAH to do simulations. I remember being terrified and within 2 hours of being at the school, we had already been under lockdown twice. Chris and I made it home safely, but we weren't out of the clear yet. The first day following the torndado, Chris and I got our power back. His family came over and I took care of their needs while Chris volunteered with our church. He came home burdened and in a state I have never seen him in. This was the first time that I got to care for him with what I felt like was a wife.

The days following we volunteered with our church to bring in supplies, prepare meals, open our house to friends/neighbors, and volunteer clean up. Chris and I both had to debrief each other when we got home, and that's when it fully hit that I had nothing to worry about or stress about compared to everyone we had seen.

Our relationship grew even more, and I was anxiously waiting to walk down the aisle to my future. May 22 was a beautiful day. Our pictures were perfect, the cakes were beautiful, the wedding party was fabulous with all that went on, and most of all our families were there to love us through the biggest day of our lives thus far. I walked down the aisle to the same song my Mom did, and all I could do was cry. This moment was beautiful and overwhelming. I was about to be named Mrs. Christopher Rigoni II.

From that day until now, I have been the most blessed wife in the world. My precious husband, who is 5 years older than me, never fails to let me know how much I mean to him. It can be just a look to see the passion in his beautiful green eyes to playing with my hair on days when I can't sleep. He is the best answered prayer, and I am so thankful for my Father in Heaven preparing me for him and him for me. I would wait a thousand more years just to be with him one more day.

In the next month, a lot of celebration will be happening. My pinning ceremony is May 4, graduation May 5, and a couple weeks after we will be celebrating our one year anniversary. I can't wait!!

Rainbow Chip Cookie Pie

Today is a VERY important day to Christopher's family. We have a family reunion to celebrate, but MOST of all his 99 year old great-grandmother will be there. I hope and pray that when I am her age that I am as healthy as she is. I have no words to even explain how much of an amazing and inspiring woman she is. I've known her almost 3 years, and she was the very first member of the family that I met. I adore Grandma, and I can't wait to hug her today.

Last weekend, Chris and I were talking about what we wanted to bring to the reunion. I LOVE to bake so I know there would be a sweet made. I decided on a rainbow chip cookie pie because the photograph looked to appetizing. Trust me, it does not compare to how delightful it tastes. You're taste buds will go into a coma :)

Recipe:
1 pie crust. I used chocolate because its better than graham ALWAYS
1 package of cream cheese
1 8oz. container of cool whip
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups Keebler Rainbow chocolate chip cookies
1 package of m&ms

Let your cream cheese soften first. I then put mine into my mixer on medium until fluffy. Once it reaches the desired texture, add in the lemon juice and sugar. Mix until combined.

Fold in the cool whip and rainbow cookies. I added extra cookie once I folded them in because I didn't think that there were enough cookies.

I mean, how good does this look?
Once all the ingredients are combined, put in the pie crust and refrigerate for 3 hours. After the filling has become a cheesecake like texture, top with m&ms.

The finished product :) I am anxiously waiting for time to come for the family to taste this.
This side of the family does something called "picking." Everyone who plays a guitar, piano, etc. brings their instrument and just plays together. At Christmas, everything was chaotic, so Poppa didn't get to have his play time then. Yesterday, Chris and I took his guitar to get restrung so that we could make Poppa's day today. I'm sure my love will leave earlier than I will to make sure his Poppa gets this time. Here's pic of my soulmate once we finally got home last night

I know what you're thinking: How sexy is he :) Such a sweetheart. I'm blessed to have a man that puts Christ first in all we do and treats me like a queen. We have been married 10 months already. It has flown by! I can't wait to see where God takes us.