Cherry Blossom Mini Cheesecakes!

With all this warm weather, I've been eating a LOT of ice cream.  And you KNOW how much I love my ice cream....one of my favorite Culver's sundae ever was their Cherry Blossom sundaes (cherry pie filling & chocolate..mmm none of that maraschino stuff)- which were the sundae of the month every April & they stopped producing in 2006 :( 
(why can I remember that but not remember things like do you store Cefprozil suspension in the fridge? when is generic Diovan coming out? What are important counseling points on glycopyrrolate including what the brand name is?. ugh.)
Anyways! My point was- that sundae was delish & I REALLY miss it! So here is my dedication to the sundae- introducing my cherry blossom mini cheesecakes- I consulted many of my recipes & miss-mashed them to create this recipe here:

Cherry Blossom Mini Cheesecakes

Ingredients---
Crust:
-1 1/4 c crushed chocolate cookies (I use oreos & scrape out the cream...and eat some of the cream so it's not wasted!!!)
-3 tbsp butter
-1/4 (ish) c mini chocolate chips

Cheesecake:
-2 (8oz) cream cheese, room temp
-3/4 c white sugar
-2 eggs
-1 tsp vanilla
-1 (21 oz) can cherry pie filling
-Hershey's syrup

Directions:

-to make the crust- crush chocolate cookies; melt butter & mix in cookie crumbs. let cool slightly & stir in chocolate chips.  Press a spoonful of this mixture in the bottom of a lined cupcake pan- makes 18 (or so) cheesecakes

chocolate!

---I dropped a cherry from the pie filling on the top of the crust layer on every cheesecake

-Cheesecake- preheat oven to 350 degrees
-Beat the cream cheese until smooth, mix in the sugar, eggs, and vanilla
-Spoon some of the cherry syrup from the pie mix into the cheesecake batter & swirl (didn't measure, and mine didn't even look pretty it just all turned pink....can't say presentation is my strong suit)

I thought this was SUCH a great idea! but my skills were lacking!

-dispense batter evenly amongst cupcake pans

mmm chocolate. cherry. cheesecake. what's not to love?

-bake for 20 minutes
-let the cheesecakes cool
----top with cherry pie filling & drizzle Hershey's syrup over the top

these are kinda messy with the Hershey's syrup but oooo good stuff!

-store in refrigerator and ENJOY!

Coco-Oat Chunk Cookies

mmmmm whipped up a new cookie recipe last night- and it's my first baking in over 2 weeks since I got sick- and let me tell you these are some yummy cookies!  Easy, tasty, and nice & chewy.

Coco-Oat Chunk Cookies

Ingredients:
-1 c butter, softened
-1/2 c white sugar
-1/2 c brown sugar
-1 egg
-1 tsp vanilla
-2 c all-purpose flour
-1 tsp baking soda
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 1/2 c quick-cooking oats
-1 c flaked coconut (sweetened)
-hershey's milk chocolate candy bars

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees
-Cream butter & sugars in bowl until light & fluffy
-Beat in egg and vanilla
-Combine flour, baking soda, and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture & mix well
-Stir in oats & coconut

-Drop onto cooking sheets (I lined with parchment paper) (the dough is a little sticky, but you can roll into      balls too and flatten slightly)
-Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned
-Break candy bars into squares
-Place a chocolate piece into the center of each warm cookie

 

-Cool cookies, and EAT! 

These are awesome warm and are still nice and soft & chewy the next day....as for day 2, there aren't any left to test (haha)

Grilled APPs (grilled fruit in foil!)

Whoa whoa whoa- I know you're all thinking, did Kelli upgrade to a smart phone? she can't even get apps.  If she has apps & how does she even know which ones are good?  Nope, my APPs are apples, peaches & pineapples, & I grilled these up for a nice dessert after stuffing my face with a cheeseburger & onion rings. (Like I would feel less guilty overeating if I added in a little fruit instead of one of the chococaramelly brownies?).

Still...not creative with a name, and ate more than I should have.  And I don't have an exact recipe for this, but it's one of those you can experiment with-if I can't mess it up, you can't either, I have faith!!!

Grilled fruit in foil! (keep it clean)

Ingredients:
-2 apples (I used gala)
-1 container sliced pineapple (or pineapple cut up fresh)
-1 package of frozen peaches (or peaches cut up fresh)
-any other fruits you enjoy eating- we thought blueberries, grapes, etc
-butter
-brown sugar
-cinnamon
-lite corn syrup
-tin foil

Directions:
Chop up your fruit choices
Mound them on a layer of tin foil
Dab on butter (use a couple tablespoons)
Sprinkle with brown sugar, cinnamon

pineapple, peaches, apples

 -Pour some corn syrup over the fruit mix and seal fruit in tin foil
Place on grill & grill on medium heat for about 20-25 minutes

Remove from grill, open, and enjoy! this would be great with vanilla ice cream....and to provide some aromatherapy to the kitchen..mmm

The only downside- I LOVE grilled pineapple, like straight up on the grill, creating the grill lines, and this is definitely not as delish as that.  but I was pleasantly surprised & will for sure add in other fruits next time.  Also, I think I would mix up the whole kit n caboodle (wow, did I just say that?)-the fruit, sugar, cinnamon, syrup-maybe even melt butter and mix EVERYTHING----when I was eating-it was good, but some pieces were GOOD (covered with more sugar/cinnamon).  Live and learn- now go out and enjoy the warmer weather & grilling season :)

Chococaramelly Brownies

Clever, ey? Ok....no.  This is why I couldn't do marketing or anything that involves any creativity other than creatively trying to convince people to take their medications appropriately.  Basically I set out this morning with the goal of dressing up a box of brownie mix, and yes I scrolled through pinterest looking for ideas, and even turned to my allrecipes.com and Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk recipes and finally something clicked- Chocolate Caramel Brownies!  these are chocolate-y caramel-y fudgy bites of goodness....luckily they are rich so you only need a small piece...but I can't say that I stopped at only one.  See if you can resist:


Chococaramelly Brownies


Ingredients:
-1 box brownie mix (and ingredients to make according to box- water, oil, eggs)
-12 Ghiradelli chocolate-caramel squares (or other chocolate candy with soft caramel-like carmello bars)
-1 jar caramel ice cream topping

3 things??? done.

Directions:
-Preheat oven according to box
-Prepare brownies according to box
-Spray 13x9 pan with cooking spray
-Pour about 1/4-1/3 brownie batter in pan to cover the bottom
-Place 12 chocolate caramel candies on top of batter

mmm could eat just this!

-Pour remaining batter over chocolate
-Pour some caramel topping over brownie mix (I didn't measure, I just dumped some on)
-Take knife and swirl caramel into the brownies

Can't say I'm a master marble-r

-Bake according to box
-Let cool & eat!!!!

the pic doesn't do it justice!

Nice & gooey on the inside

I was kinda sad back when I was grocery shopping as the Ghiradelli chocolates were on sale at Walgreens- after 3 Walgreens & no milk chocolate caramel, I gave in and just bought dark chocolate caramel squares.  Did I save ANY money? no....gas prices aren't the best. Did I save ANY time? no....thank goodness Jethro & I can both contain our bladder.  But honestly the dark chocolate was great! Made the brownies a little more rich- and healthier, right?!?! haha.

Enjoy :)