Olympic Rings chocolate chip cookie brownies

I made a double batch of chocolate chip cookie dough this afternoon , and since this is Olympic week, we decorated our giant cookie with the Olympic rings.

Kim and Luke seperated the colors and then got to eat the orange, since there is no orange in the Olympic Rings.

Before baking.

This is my regular Nestle toll house cookie recipe from the back of the chocolate chip package.

I doubled it, used a bag of semi sweet choc. chips and milk choc. chips, baked it in a double sized cake pan at 375 degrees for about 35 minutes.

Make sure you don't push the M&M's into the cookie dough. If you do, they seem to disappear into the dough when it cooks. Just lightly place the M&M's onto the top of the dough.

That's one heavy, giant cookie brownie!!!

Here, Kim and Luke were taking it to show Daddy.

We are loving the Olympics.

Check out some of our other activities:

Silly Kimmy is here
preschool crafts and book are here

Silly fun is here

Our lapbook part 1 is here

Simply Made Sunday--Betty Crocker Salty Sweet Peanutty Treat

Ohhhh, what a yummy, yummy treat!!

Thanks to Betty Crocker, I received ingredients to have a Betty Crocker cookie party, and we made

Salty Sweet Peanutty Treats.

The first activity associated with this recipe was unwrapping 24 caramels.

It take a lot of concentration for a 4 year old to get those little caramels unwrapped.
Look at our fun spoons that Betty Crocker sent us, along with a whole booklet of great recipes!

The botton layer of this treat is a package of Betty Crocker chocolate chip cookie mix.

Mix this according to the package directions.

Mark was the official cookie mix "mixer".

Spread this into the botton of a 9x13 inch pan. Bake this at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.

While this cooks, chop 1 1/2 cups of peanuts---or have a 3 year old smash them with a spoon. Kimmy really enjoyed this part of the recipe.

In a saucepan on the stove, mix 2 tbls. butter, 1 can sweetened condensed milk and the caramels.
Cook on low heat until melted.

Get a bowl of pretzels ready--you need these in just a minute.

Get a nine year old to carefully stir the caramel mixture under low heat.

After ten minutes, remove the chocolate chip cookie layer.

Push pretzels into the semi-cooked cookie dough, overlapping slightly.

Top this layer with

all of the chopped peanuts.

When the caramels are completely melted

pour over the top of the cookie dough, pretzels and peanuts.

It looks good now, but

it looks even better after baking at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes.

When this is completely cool, (we waited until the next day), drizzle with 1 cup of melted semi-sweet chocolate chips.

I wasn't too sure about this, it looked very "hard" to me, that is why you see the pieces missing. Daniel and I just had to "test" these. We didn't want to take something unchewable to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Sunday dessert.

It is NOT too hard--it is heavenly

A truly decadent delight!!
It tastes like a cross between chocolate chip cookies, snickers bars, and peanut brittle.

This is a keeper!!

Simply Made Sunday-- Cheerio Crunch

This is a yummy, cruchy treat to use up the Cheerios which Grandma gave us that she keeps buying by mistake. (She needs to remember that Grandpa like Honey Nut Cheerios)
Ingredients needed:
8 Cups of Cheerios
2/3 cup of butter
1 cup of brown sugar
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
1 cup of M&M's candy

Pour 8 cups of Cheerios into a large bowl

Put 2/3 of a cup of butter into a sauce pan.

Add 1 cup of brown sugar to the saucepan

Cook the butter and brown sugar over medium heat

stirring constantly until the mixture comes to a boil.

This get very hot--Luke only helped at the very beginning.

Remove from heat and stir in 1/4 tsp. baking soda and 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Pour the sugar mixture into the Cheerios.

WARNING: it is VERY hot

After mixing the sugar and Cheerios together, place on a large cookie sheet and bake a 250 degrees for about 10 minutes.

Remove carefully from oven and return to the big bowl.

Shake the bowl as the Cheerios cool so they don't stick together.

Add one cup of M&M's

Another yummy, yummy treat!

A family favorite!

Check out this weeks recipes at Raising Itty-Bitty Bookworms.

Simply Made Sunday-Chocolate dipped peanut butter Ritz Bits crackers

This week Mark made a treat for us all by himself. We were experimenting to see what special goody Mark could make for Thanksgiving.

This is definetly a winner!!
You need:
a box of peanut butter Ritz Bits
light cocoa candy melts
green candy melts
a star cake decorating tip
2 ziploc bags

Mark melted the chocolate melts according to the package directions in the microwave.

Melt for 1 min. at half power and then stir. Repeat this process for 30 seconds at half power until completely melted, stirring between each microwaving.

Dunk your Ritz Bits into the chocolate, covering the crackers completely.

He placed his on the shiny side of parchment paper so they can easily peel off after they have hardened.

He then got out the green candy melts and the cake decorating tip.

He used a different, easier technique to melt the green melts.

Because we didn't need a lot of melts, he simply put them in a secure ziploc bag and then placed the bag and melts in the hottest tap water.

It only takes a few minutes for them to melt.

It's fun to squeeze out the lumps and make sure all the candy is melted.

We then put the cake decorating tip into the corner of another ziploc bag and added the green melts to this bag, squeezing the candy out of a hole cut in the corner of the ziploc.

He then added decoration to this yummy, yummy treat.

Grace and Kimmy were very jealous that Mark got to do this on his own, but I like to let different kids do things by themselves some of the time.

Mark was sooooo proud, it was worth the whining of the younger kids.

Now Mark will have his own treat to bring to Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma's house.

Of course, this batch is long gone, but I think I will have him use orange and yellow and red melts for the Thanksgiving tray. That will make them look very autumnal!!

Simply Made Sunday--Chewy peanut butter cup brownie cupcakes

These are "simply" easy and so, so yummy!
The simple part is that you use a chewy brownie mix, and the yummy, yummy part is the mini peanut butter cup that is in the middle.
We used a regular size cupcake pan and lined it with baking papers. The hardest part of this is the unwrapping---which Kim and Luke were very good at!

The tricky part is making these last until the brownie batter is mixed up.

Make the brownie mix according to the package directions.

My kids do love dumping,

and mixing.

Fill the cupcake papers halfway full.

Push a mini peanut butter cup into the center of the brownie batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

These go quick, so

grab a glass of milk before they are gone!

Check out more recipes at Raising Itty-Bitty Bookworms.