Smore Cookie Bars

If you are trying to stay away from sugar these days DO NOT MAKE THESE...I reapeat...DO NOT MAKE THESE.

They are our family's new addiction. Uh-oh


Smore Cookie Bar

1 c. butter, softened
1 ¼ cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 c. flour
2 c. mini marshmallows
1 ½ c. chocolate chips
5 graham crackers, broken

Grease 9x13 pan. Cream butter and sugar. Beat in vanilla and eggs. Add flour, baking powder and salt. Mix well. Fold in marshmallows, chips and crackers. Spread into pan.

Bake 350 for 25 minutes.

Cool. Cut into bite size bars.

Tilapia with Mango Avacado Salsa

As you can tell, Danny and I love fresh tasting, flavorful meals.  Made this one with the remaining tilapia in the freezer and ingredients I had from my bi-weekly fresh produce box (along with some past experience at making mango salsas). Fresh, healthy, and delicious!  Danny rated it a 10!

3 servings:

Ingredients:
3 Tilapia fillets
sea salt
Fresh ground pepper (we love the peppercorn medley grinder you can find in the store)
lemon pepper
cumin

Salsa:
1 mango
1 avacado
1 tomato
1/4 red onion, finely diced
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely diced
juice of 1/2 or 1 lime
1/8-1/4 cup chopped cilantro (I just eyeballed it, but that's probably how much I used)
cumin
salt

Start by preparing the mango avacado salsa.  Chop the mango, avacado, and tomato into small pieces.  Put them together in a bowl with the diced red onion, seeded and diced jalapeno, lime juice and cilantro.  Sprinkle some salt and cumin on top.  Mix gently (so you don't mash the avacado).  Let sit at least a half hour while cooking the fish for the flavors to combine.

Preheat the oven to 400. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray generously with Pam.  Lay thawed tilapia fillets on sheet.  Season with sea salt, pepper, and a little lemon pepper and cumin.  Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until the tilapia is still moist but flakes with a fork.  Top each fillet with a generous heaping of mango avacado salsa, and enjoy!

P.S. That mango salsa would be delicious with chips or probably on other types of seafood or chicken. Yum!

Double Chocolate Cookies

We let Skylar choose some cookies to make in honor of her getting six stitches in her forehead today. She did a dang good job! Mom says she has a new favorite cookie, and I may have to agree with her. These cookies are delicious. I had to modify the recipe according to what we had on hand, and here is exactly what we did.

Double Chocolate Cookies (a chocolate cookie with chocolate chips)

1 bag semisweet chocolate chips

1 C all purpose flour

1/4 C cocoa powder

1/8 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

5 Tb butter, at room temperature

3/4 C packed brown sugar

1/4 C white sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Divide the bag of chocolate chips in half. Melt half of them in the microwave at level 7 heat, however you do this in your microwave. I plug 1:00 in my microwave and push "power level," hit 7 and then push start. Then I stir the chocolate chips and repeat the process in 10-15 second segments until the chocolate is smooth.

Set the chocolate aside. Mix butter with sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla and continue to mix well. Add melted chocolate, stir.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients until well mixed. Mix in remaining chocolate chips. let dough sit for 45 minutes in order to let melted chocolate cool in the dough. While you are waiting, preheat the oven to 350. Bake the cookies for 8 minutes. They will harden a little while cooling so do not over cook. Let cool for at least five minutes and enjoy!

Hope you like these as much as we did!