Candy Christmas tree

 made up with 2 Miniature Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, 1 Regular Reeses Peanut Butter Cup, 1 Hershey Kiss then decorate.

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes

Yield: About 2 dozen

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/3 cup unflavored vegetable shortening
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 2 large egg yolks
• 2/3 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
Frosting
• 3 oz cream cheese, softened
• 3 Tbsp butter, softened
• 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 - 1 1/2 Tbsp milk

Directions

• For the cookies:
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger for 20 seconds, set aside.
• In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, shortening and sugar until pale and fluffy. Mix in egg yolks one at a time. Mix in pumpkin puree and vanilla extract. With mixer set on low speed, slowly add in dry ingredients and mix until combined.
• Scoop dough out and shape into 3 Tbsp balls (I just filled 1/4 cup 3/4 full). Place on baking sheet (you'll only be able to fit about 8 per sheet, these are fairly large cookies), and using your fingers lying flat, evenly flatten cookies into rounds until they are slightly under 1/2-inch thick. Bake in preheated oven 11 - 12 minutes. Cool on baking sheet several minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cool frost with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting. Store in an airtight container.
• For the frosting:
• In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip together cream cheese and butter until pale and fluffy. Mix in cinnamon, vanilla extract and powdered sugar. Mix in enough milk to reach desired consistency and mix until smooth and slightly fluffy.
• Recipe Source: Cooking Classy

30 after school snack ideas

As always, please click the link to go directly to the source of each recipe.  Thanks!
http://www.thirtyhandmadedays.com/2014/09/after-school-snacks/

FRUITY

Rainbow Fruit Cups from My Frugal Adventures

Watermelon on a Stick from Somewhat Simple

Frozen Grapes from Eating Out Loud

Monster Fruit Dip

One Ingredient Banana Ice Cream (guess what the 1 ingredient is?) from the Kitchn

Rainbow Smoothie Pops via She Knows

 

Frozen Yogurt Dots from One Good Thing

Yogurt Bars from Kids Activities Blog

Peanut Butter and Honey Dip via I Heart Naptime

Banana Dog from Living Locurto

Vegetables

Fish in the River via Food.com

Vegetable Flowers via Spoonful

Cucumber Dips from Makes the Best of Everything

Baked Zucchini Sticks with dip 

Granola / Energy Bites

The best granola bars! from Knitty Bitties

Granola Bar Poppers from Smart School House

Energy Bars from Cookie Mondays

No Bake Granola Bars from Made from Pinterest

Cinnamon Caramel Apple Energy Balls via the NY Melrose Family

Muffins

Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

Applesauce Muffins from Simple as That

Crackers

Back to School Mix

Apple Cheese Crackers from Somewhat Simple

Homemade Graham Crackers from bebe a la mode

Cracker Letters form Kids Activities Blog

Drinks

Fresh Fruit Flavored Milk from Your Homebased Mom

Berry Green Smoothies from A Pumpkin and a Princess

Protein Smoothies from the Taylor House

Make sure to check out these kid approved lunch box & snack ideas:

Spring Cleaning Recipe for the Grout

7 cups water, 1/2 cup baking soda, 1/3 cup lemon juice and 1/4 cup vinegar - throw in a spray bottle and spray your floor, let it sit for a minute or two... then scrub.

FUDGE Brownies *No Bake*

Is it fudge or a brownie?  You taste and decide.

My opinion on these is that it's somewhere in between fudge and a brownie.  Creamy like fudge, but less dense.

What I like about these is that unlike fudge and some baked brownie recipes, these are not sickeningly sweet, despite the amount of sugar used.

If you wanted to cut down the sugar some, substitute the graham crumbs for saltines.  That would probably work and give a different turn on the texture.

The original recipe, which was from an ancient Bake-Off book from the late 1950s called for all butter, but these days I'm into subbing coconut oil for at least 1/2 the butter.  You can substitute all coconut oil if you wish and an unprocessed coconut oil would add a nice coconutty flavor!  They could probably be made entirely vegan with a soy/almond/coconut milk substitution, HOWEVER (and it's a big HOWEVER) it would have to mimic evaporated milk...most of the water content would have to be removed.  I'm not even sure if they sell such a thing...but if they do, it's probably a safe substitution.  If you choose to use any of the above in their normal state, the sugar/milk mixture will have to be boiled longer--to what is known as "soft-ball" stage, so you'd need a candy thermometer.  But do this at your own risk, because I'm not sure what your results will be.  They'll be TASTY but they may not set up.

• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup butter (I used 1/2 butter, 1/2 coconut oil)
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs

Spray or grease a 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 inch pan.  Set aside.

Place evaporated milk, sugar and butter in a large, deep saucepan.  Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. When mixture begins to boil, reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Mixture will foam and rise...you need a DEEP saucepan as the volume will double when boiling...this is important!!!

Add the flour, chocolate chips, walnuts and graham cracker crumbs.  Stir until well combine.

Pour in prepared pan and let cool.  Pan may also be placed in the refrigerator to speed the cooling process (about 30 minutes in refrigerator).

Cut into 9 bars when cool.  Serves 9

No-Bake Brownies

No-Bake Brownies

Roasted Red Potatoes

 Quarter the potatoes long-wise. Toss in olive oil, salt, pepper, and rosemary. Arrange potatoes in muffin tin as shown. Add garlic clove in the middle of the potato quarters. Add half a teaspoon of olive oil on top of each garlic clove. Bake 375 Fahrenheit or 190 Celsius for 25 minutes!

Zucchini Brownies with 1 minute frosting

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 1/2 cups grated zucchini, undrained (about one large)
1 Minute Frosting
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease and flour a 9x13 pan.
3. Combine oil, sugar, egg and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder and baking soda. Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture and stir well. It will appear quite dry... TRUST the recipe. Gently stir in the zucchini and spread the mixture into your prepared pan.
4. Bake 25-30 minutes.
Frosting
5. While cake is cooling, combine butter, milk and sugar in a small pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Allow to boil vigorously for 30 seconds. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips. Immediately pour over warm brownies. Let cool completely before cutting.

Notes:

These were super moist and delicious… and you’d never know there was a secret ingredient in there!

One thing you need to know about this recipe… when you get the flour/sugar combined… just before you add the zucchini the consistency will seem dry.. almost sandy.  TRUST the recipe.. just go with it! You’ll be glad you did!  Stir in the zucchini and your batter will moisten and be nice and thick and yummy.  Make sure you don’t squeeze or drain your zucchini and you’ll be just fine!

The 1 Minute Frosting is a recipe I’ve been using for years and it’s easy and yummy!  It works perfectly on any cake or brownie recipe that is contained in a pan!

Follow Spend With Pennies on Pinterest for more great recipes!