photo credit: The Pioneer Woman
As most of you know, I have a LOVE for all things Pioneer Woman. I check her blog daily and scour her blog and website, Tasty Kitchen, for new recipes. This one was a hit!
It was super easy and it was a recipe that I decided to do last minute because I happened to have all the ingredients in the house one night.
I give it 8/10 for deliciousness and simplicity.
Prep Time: 10 Minutes Cook Time: 15 Minutes Difficulty: Easy Servings: 24
Ingredients:
■2 sticks Butter
■1 cup Packed Brown Sugar
■1 whole Egg
■2 teaspoons Vanilla
■2 cups All-purpose Flour
■2 cups Chocolate Chips (milk Or Semi-sweet)
■¾ cups Finely Chopped Pecans
Preparation Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Add egg, vanilla, and flour and mix until combined. Spread on cookie sheet with an offset spatula until thin. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden. Remove pan from oven and sprinkle on chocolate chips. Return to oven for 1 minute. Remove from oven and spread chocolate thinly over the cookie layer.
Sprinkle with chopped pecans. Cut into squares. YUM!
Another sweet treat I tried out was this:
Chocolate and Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies
photo credit: The Pioneer Woman I knew that both my sister and husband LOVE peanut butter so I decided this would be a nice treat for them over the holidays. They thought they were AWESOME! My mom and I ended up just loving the cookies plain without the filling. They were almost a little too sweet for me but I think they were just right for Caitlin and Trey. I recommend refrigerating them though so that they last longer.
I give this one a 5/10. Pretty simple to make, but a little too rich for my liking.
Prep Time: 10 Minutes Cook Time: 12 Minutes Difficulty: Easy Servings: 36
•FOR THE COOKIE:
•2 whole Large Eggs
•½ cups Vegetable Oil
•¼ cups All-purpose Flour
•1 box Devil's Food Cake Mix, 18.25 Oz
•_____
•FOR THE FROSTING:
•4 ounces, weight Cream Cheese, softened
•¾ cups Smooth Peanut Butter
•1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
•2-½ cups Powdered Sugar
•3 Tablespoons Milk
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lightly whisk eggs and oil in a medium bowl. Mix in flour and cake mix until well blended. Roll into 1 inch balls and bake for 8-10 minutes on an ungreased cookie sheet. Cool completely on a wire rack.
For the frosting:
In a medium bowl cream together cream cheese, peanut butter and vanilla. Add in powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Add in milk a little at a time until you get the desired consistency.
Spread about 2 Tablespoons of frosting onto the bottom of one cookie and then place another cookie on top, bottom sides facing in. Repeat with remaining cookies and frosting.
YUM! I also tried a beef stew the other day that I plan to review, as well as some stuffed mushrooms I made over the holidays. Get excited!
A couple of weeks ago, Trey and I, my dad, Mike and my two best friends, Jessica and Courtney participated in the Central Texas Warrior Dash. Trey and I had a "kind-of" been preparing by running a few times a week, but I had definitely not run 3.1 miles yet so I was very nervous going into it. 
The day before the race, I got hit with a major cold. After taking every drug I could, nothing would get rid of it and I was dreading running the next day. I absolutely did not want to miss out on the race and knew I would regret it if I did. So I mustered up the strength and decided to conquer it running with tissues in my hands the whole time.
All throughout the course there were hills, which after running in Houston, I was definitely not prepared for. Note to self, practice on hills for next race. 
The next obstacle was tires, and then following that was running through a creek. Going into this I though pssh, no big deal, a creek, that should be easy. HAH. This creek was COLD, and extremely muddy. Running through it up to your knees, your feet just sunk in the cold mud.
Thank goodness, I had caught up to Courtney and was running/hopping in her tracks behind her. Seriously, Court, thanks for waiting for me. That was a lifesaver. It is such a bummer running by yourself and I know you are one of the reasons I got through the rest of the race.
I had now come to point that I was dreading, the fire jumps. This was a point where I can say I did not slow down, I wanted over that fire as fast as possible. It surprised me how much heat it put out but it was over in the blink of an eye.
Mike kicked butt and ran it in 23 min, and my dad was close behind. I am also so proud of my husband and friends. Trey finished right behind Jessica, and his time was about 37 min. For not training really, that's pretty impressive!
After the race, we had the fun task of getting clean. This took longer than the race did I think!
Once we were clean, we got to enjoy our free beers and were able to people watch for a bit. Hunger got the best of us, and we decided to head to Austin to eat at Shady Grove. Overall it was a GREAT day!
