My philosophy for making unhealthy food: If you have to make it, make it for other people. Otherwise you will be stuck eating all of it by yourself!
So here are some of my favorite potluck pleasers!
Pumpkin Spice Cookies
This is probably the easiest holiday cookie recipes you will find, and goodness, these are some of the most delicious and moist cookies ever!
Here's what you need:
1 box spice cake mix
2 cups canned pumpkin
1 1/2 (or so) cups chocolate chips
Mix all three ingredients together. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes!
Yellow Cake Mix Cookies
I had to drop off goodies for some people at church, and since I found out kind of at the last minute, I looked around for what I had for this recipe I found online... and I had all 4 ingredients! That's right, only 4 ingredients for this "seriously so good" dessert!
Here is the instructions from the site:
1 package of yellow cake mix
2 whole eggs
1/2 c vegetable oil
3/4 c chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350F. Spray or line two baking sheets.
In a bowl, mix cake mix, eggs, and oil with a wooden spoon until combined. Add chocolate chips and mix. Drop a tablespoonful or so of dough onto the prepared sheets, leaving an inch between each cookie. Bake for 8-10 minutes until cookie has set but has not yet browned, rotating the pans halfway through the baking. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool.
Girls' Night Cupcakes!
Yesterday, I invited all the girls from work over to my house for a girls' night... and it rocked! I took this as a perfect opportunity to make more cupcakes! And let me say, they were wonderful! I had a bunch of cake mixes that I needed to use up, so I just used a box devil's food cake mix for the cake part. However, after looking at all the disappointing ingredients found in the store-bought frostings... my husband helped convince me that we would all be better off if I just made my own. So after some researching, I found this recipe . For my cupcakes, I doubled the recipe and added some food coloring. Here it is:
Pink Buttercream Frosting
32 oz. powdered suger (1 large bag)
2 sticks (1 cup) butter softened at room temperature
6 Tbsp. milk ( I think I added 1-2 Tbsp. more at the end to get the right consistency)
4 tsp. vanilla extract
3 drops red food coloring
Add butter to mixing bowl and sift powdered sugar into bowl. Using a beater on a low speed, beat butter and sugar together. Add milk and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add food coloring and mix until pink.
I also added a chocolate covered pretzel to each cupcake, you can find the recipe here :)
3-2-1 Bean Dip
This is my aunt's recipe, and has been a family favorite at every family function. I now take it to work potlucks, and now my coworkers demand that I bring it every time! I don't mind either. It is the easiest thing to bring to a potluck (and it will be the first thing gone)!
Ingredients
3 cans of chili con carne (2 mild and 1 hot)
2 8oz packages of cream cheese (I use 1/3 less fat)
1 16oz. tub of sour cream (I use reduced fat)
(this is why it's called 3-2-1 bean
Add all ingredients into a crock pot, no need to stir yet. Turn crock pot on high for 3 hours, stirring at the top of every hour. Serve with tortilla chips. Enjoy!!
Football Cupcakes
My husband LOVES football. More specifically, the Seattle Seahawks. So I thought of ways to incorporate that into his birthday "cake". I found this video and it was exactly what I was looking for! Cute and easy! So here are the pictures to what I did. This is also a great treat to make for during the Super Bowl!
Instead of using m&m's for the boarder of the football, I used about 3/4 of a package of white chocolate almond bark, melted it in a pan, and died half of it green, and half of it blue... Seahawks colors!! (when coloring white chocolate, use food coloring that is not water based... trust me).
I spread the chocolate on wax paper over a baking sheet and let it cool in the fridge.
After it cooled, I broke it up in pieces with a knife.
I used one package of Devil's Food Cake mix and it made enough to make two footballs, but I made one football and then had matching cupcakes.
I used an 11x17 glass baking dish. I would have used a baking sheet, but I liked the high side walls just in case of an accident :) And it seemed to fit perfectly anyway!
I spread the frosting just like in the video, with extra frosting on the side to support the chocolate pieces.
For the extra set of cupcakes, I used one extra tub of frosting. I used the whipped chocolate kind and it was perfect for this cake! Since my husband and I work together, I took everything to work and surprised him with this football creation. The extra cupcakes were great for the co-workers grabbing. Since it was my first time decorating like this, it took me about 40 minutes because I did NOT want to mess up. Prepare to get messy, I don't know how they stayed clean in the video! Overall, these were a big hit, and I would make them again for the next football fan!
