Death By Chocolate Cookies

This next batch of cookies to whip up in this series is for that serious chocolate lover in your life.  Another super simple and really decadent chocolate cookie.  You could whip up a batch of these and give them as a gift and they would be all set.  Or you can eat them all yourself.

Death By Cookies

1 chocolate cake mix

2 eggs

1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted

1/4 cup white chocolate baking chips

1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate baking chips

In a large mixing bowl combine the cake mix, eggs, butter and baking chips to form a thick sticky dough.  Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto a lightly greased baking pan.  Bake 9 to 11 minutes at 375 degrees until the edges just start to brown.  Remove to a cooling rack then store in an airtight container.  Makes approximately 2 dozen cookies.

Quick, easy and once again thrifty too!  Definitely Christmas tin worthy just like the rest of the cookies in this series.  I hope you have tried and enjoyed some of these recipes we've been posting as we had a gob of fun coming up with them and of course taste testing.  There is no sacrifice too great for my readers!  A lot of friends and my co-workers reaped the benefits as well and they approved each recipe so plenty of quality control going on here.

I hope you try one or two of these cookie recipes or all of them if you wish.  They are fun to make and really delicious.  Happy baking everyone!

My 2020 Day Planner

I thought I would take a moment and share with you my latest project I've been working on.  This has been a lot of fun for me and was a great way to test out our new Craft Center.  I am happy to report it works terrifically!  When I got ready to start this project I knew where all of the supplies I would need were and was able to gather them all up in about a minute.  Perfect!

The pocket on the right holds stamps, stickers and address labels

If you have been around here for very long you may recognize my day planner.  It used to be my household journal, however I realized that I wasn't really using it much.  However, I thought that if I combined it with my 2020 day planner it might see a bit more action in the coming year.

I am most excited to start my gratitude journal
I'm having a hard time waiting until Jan 1 to start it too! 😊

I put it all together using paper, stickers, colored pens and other supplies I already had in my craft stash.  I had purchased quite a bit of stuff in 2018 including some day planner stickers.  I have since given some away, but still have plenty to use for several years ahead.  I also reused a lot of the existing components in my household journal.

Even my chore list is pretty

I downloaded templates from The Scattered Squirrel to make my month at a glance calendar pages as well as my monthly planner pages.  I really like that site and suggest you check it out if you need to make up a planner of any kind on a budget.  Tons of great templates and ideas for constructing your own planners whether they are full size or half size pages.

My whole month at a glance

Weekly menu planner page with an area for my shopping list
I made this on Excel so let me know if you want a copy

I wanted my planner to be colorful and cheerful and I think I accomplished that quite nicely using scrapbook papers, colored pens and papers, stickers and some sticker tapes.  All of my pages are half sizes and initially I was concerned it might be too small, however I've done a trial run since November and I'm finding it works perfectly for me.

The meal planning section has a pocket for storing paper coupons
I also included a "Things To Buy In 2020" list

Extra meal planning sheets and a great coupon I have
to use at Albertson's next year

I have my month at a glance calendar page and monthly planner as well as weekly menu pages.  A gratitude journal, a section titled Blog Thoughts where I can jot down ideas for the blog as they pop into my head, a section for gift planning, my contacts, and plenty of space to add on.  I'm thinking about doing a journal page each month too to kind of document our month a little more and hopefully include some pictures as well.

I will be working on my 2020 Goals section next - Yay!

A place to jot down gift ideas and planning

On pretty paper!

It will be a work in progress as I use it throughout the year so I'll be sure to update you from time to time as to how it is going.

Last Week's Thrifty Moves

I was hoping for a quiet and restful Sunday and it was somewhat.  I ended up baking two batches of cookies so I could do the next do cookie blog posts and then I put together a huge lasagna when we found out my oldest was coming home from college two days early and would be here in a couple of hours.  The lasagna worked well for Sunday dinner and leftovers kept several people well fed throughout the week for supper and lunches.

While everything baked I finished wrapping up Christmas gifts as well as a birthday gift for a friend.  I used all items I already had on hand to wrap the gifts and they turned out quite pretty.

It has been cookie baking central around here lately!

Another busy week was had with Tuesday as our marathon day beginning with me dropping my daughter off at school at 6:00 in the morning, home to work on my day planner project before a very full day of work and then home to pick my daughter up and take her to school again to cheer at a basket ball game.  While she did her thing I waited for her in the comfort of a nearby library with my laptop.  We got home just before 8:00 for a quick late supper of leftovers.

Did I also mention we were hosting a couple college students that evening too?  Since we live close to the airport my daughter offered them a safe haven (the floor of her bedroom) to crash until she ran them to the airport on Wednesday at 4:00 in the morning.  We just couldn't have two young girls sleeping in the airport overnight waiting to catch their plane.  Our airport is very nice and safe, but it wouldn't have been very comfortable.

Wednesday night things began to wind down a bit as we eased out way into the weekend.  Still a lot to do and get done, but not quite as hectic as the beginning of the week.

My oldest daughter signed up with a temp agency as well as Door Dash to earn some extra $$ while she is home on winter break.  She worked on a cleanup crew for a corporate Christmas party Wednesday night and even brought home some of the leftover food that was served.  She has Door Dashed every day this past week and made some fairly decent money too.  I'm really proud of her for getting these extra jobs to ease her finances as she heads into her second semester of college next month.

It wouldn't be Christmas around here without some old fashioned sugar cookies

I worked a lot of overtime last week with a 10 1/2 hour day on Thursday.  I'm not complaining at all as we have a few new doctor bills coming in that will need to be paid this month.  I think I earned enough last week to pay one of them too.

Friday my girls spent the evening doing Door Dash, her sister goes with her after dark as a safety precaution, and I stayed home to get caught up on chores as well as work on my little project I've been doing.

Saturday my youngest had her cheer and dance team Christmas party to attend.  We baked some naked sugar cookies for her to take as they were decorating cookies as one of the activities.  We also put together a sweet little exchange gift with items we already had on hand, pretty much leftover items from our gift box and a re-gifted gift card to a local coffee shop.  We used a cute bag from our gift tote and attached a Christmas ornament to the front of it too.  It turned out really nice.

While we waited for my youngest to finish up at her party I accompanied my oldest on a couple Door Dash runs.  She made a little money making wise use of the time we had to wait.  We even fit in a quick errand she wanted to run.

At home that evening we fixed some snacks and played a couple games making for a fun evening.  As we were wrapping things up my oldest got a Door Dash offer so the girls headed out while I cleaned up and got the house tidy and back in order.  I watched a couple Youtube videos and then they were home and we were all ready to call it a day and head to bed.

Some of the 15 Minute Chores I accomplished to keep my home in order:

Laundry Room & Half Bathroom - vacuumed floors, cleaned sink.  Daily swish & swipe.

Dining Room - vacuumed floor.

Kitchen -  vacuumed & spot mopped the floor, cleaned stove and microwave.

Bedrooms & Main Bathroom - vacuumed & dusted.  Cleaned sink & toilet.  Daily swish & swipe.

Other - three large loads of laundry, vacuumed & dusted living room, hallway & entry.

How was your thrifty week?

Red Velvet Cookies

If you love red velvet cake then you will undoubtedly love these cookies.  Frosted with a little cream cheese frosting makes them the perfect treat for any special occasion.

Red Velvet Cookies

1 red velvet cake mix

2 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 Tbs water

1 tub cream cheese frosting

In a large mixing bowl combine the cake mix, eggs, oil and water to form a thick sticky dough.  Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto a lightly greased baking pan.  Bake 9 to 11 minutes at 375 degrees until the edges just start to brown.  Remove to a cooling rack then, once they have cooled completely, top with cream cheese frosting.  Store in an airtight container.  Makes approximately 2 dozen cookies.

These are both rich and delicious little cookies.  Very pretty too.  I think they'd not only be great to give out at Christmas, but also as a Valentine's Day dessert or gift.  Any red velvet lovers out there?

Christmas Potpourri

Here is a nifty idea perfect for this time of year.  Since it is orange season and my youngest loves to eat oranges we are left with a pile of rinds fairly often.  I simply take those orange peels and place them in my smallest slow cooker with a few shakes of cinnamon and some clove from my spice cupboard, fill it up with water and turn it on high.  Once it is up to temperature I turn it to low and let it go all day.  It fills our house with the most wonderful scent of Christmas.

Snicker Doodle Cookies

If you enjoy snicker doodles I think you will really enjoy these.  A cinnamon sugar cookie to warm your heart and soul.

Snicker Doodle Cookies

1 white cake mix

2 eggs

1 stick butter or margarine, melted

2 Tbs all purpose flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 Tbs. granulated sugar

In a large mixing bowl combine the cake mix, eggs, butter and flour to form a thick sticky dough.  Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto a lightly greased baking pan.  Combing cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle the tops of each cookie.  Bake 9 to 11 minutes at 375 degrees until the edges just start to brown.  Remove to a cooling rack then store in an airtight container.  Makes approximately 2 dozen cookies.

So good!  I do think a yellow cake mix would work too but I haven't tried it.  The white cake mix tends to give  it a good sugar cookie taste.  And again, I definitely think these are Christmas tin worthy as long as there are any left.  Quick, easy and thrifty too!  Who doesn't love that?!

Have you tried the "Andes" Candy Cookies I made last week.  Check back on Friday for my next easy and thrifty cookie recipe.  We've got another good one coming up.  Yum!

Christmas Cards Are In The Mail!

I put my Christmas cards in the mail yesterday morning and with Christmas barely over two weeks away things are really heating up around here.  School activities are keeping us hopping too as we wind down and prepare for finals, parties, and the last of the activities before winter break.

I have all of my Christmas shopping done and Sunday I wrapped up the last two gifts I had for my girls.  Since we are keeping our gift giving relatively simple I wanted to make sure the gifts I got them really fill a need as well as a want and I think I did a good job on that.  I have picked up all the few stocking stuffers and ordered their gift from Santa.  Friends will be getting a tasty treat from our kitchen and my co-workers will each get a jar of pear butter I made this fall with pears from our tree.

Due to a fantastic sale and a kind butcher we will be enjoying our traditional Christmas dinner as usual.  I was able to find some beautiful New York Strip steaks on sale for $4.99 a pound.  The butcher cut us the most beautiful steaks.  We will now be having those with Au Jus and Yorkshire pudding along with a nice green salad.  The girls are thrilled as am I.  We have everything we need to make our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals.  Plus loads of stuff to bake any sweet treat we choose.

The best part is having both of my girls home

How are you doing with your Christmas preparations?  Any special plans?  Or traditions?