Nutella No-Bake Cookies

When I was a kid, I used to love when my mom would make no-bake cookies.  She rarely ever made them, so they were an awesome treat when she did.  Since she rarely made them, I thought they were some magical treat that was really hard to make.

I didn’t realize how easy they were to make until the first time I made them on my own.  Even though they still tasted great, it kind of ruined the “magical, really hard to make” feeling I had for them as a kid.

Which is why I had to switch them up to make them taste better.  Adding Nutella shouldn’t make that big of a difference, but it really did.  When you add Nutella, they kind of taste like fudge.  Fudgy oatmeal cookies that take 10 minutes to make… what gets better than that?  The magic was back for me after I made these!

What was your magical treat as a kid?

Nutella No-Bake Cookies
Adapted from: Food Network 

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 4 tablespoons cocoa
• 1 stick butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup Nutella
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 3 cups oatmeal

Directions

1. In a heavy saucepan bring to a boil, the sugar, cocoa, butter and milk.
2. Let boil for 1 minute then add Nutella, vanilla and oatmeal.
3. On a non-stick surface, drop mixture by the teaspoonfuls, until cooled and hardened.

Quick and Easy Nutella "Candy Bars"

I’M BACK!!!

Kellen had a wonderful 21st birthday!

We were planning on leaving on Friday morning of last week, but ended up leaving at 11 p.m. and getting to his house at 3 a.m.!  Definitely worth it because I know Kellen wouldn’t have been able to wake up Friday morning. 😉 So we got there and obviously went straight to sleep!

We spent the next few days eating and laying around at the pool.  Soo relaxing not to have to worry about anything at all.  We ate at Kellen’s favorite place, China Palace, somewhere around 329042 million times.  Needless to say, I’m sick of Chinese food.  Luckily his mom made us some pretty good dinners in between.

We obviously both think we’re really cool…

…when we have sunglasses on.

On his actual birthday, we ate at China Palace for lunch (go figure) and some new Mexican restaurant for dinner.  Being the nice girlfriend that I am, I planned a surprise party with all of his friends, so Kellen’s mom and I spent most of the dinner stalling while everyone showed up.  We went to his friend’s house to “go pick her up on the way to the bars” and when we got there, everyone jumped out and surprised him.  It turned out perfectly!

SURPRISE!!

That night we just hung out for a while and eventually ended up at the bar.  Kellen had a really good time:

The rest of the week was just takin’ it easy, eating, and hanging out with friends.  I had a lot of fun, but it’s nice to be home again.

So, I suppose you want a recipe?  Perfect!  I really missed baking while I was gone (isn’t that cheesy?) so I made something immediately when we got back.

The thing is, I’m not eating sweets this week.  I can’t even remember the last day I went without having some kind of dessert… probably since lent last year.  So, I’m doing a ‘cleanse’ and cutting them out… but only for a week.  So my mom and dad have the job of dessert tester this week. I’m just hoping you all will trust their judgement considering they love sweets just as much as I do.

The other thing is, it’s too freakin’ hot to be baking right now! So I made a no bake dessert… I’d love to tell you how great it is, but I have no idea.  What I do know is that my parents both gave it an A, it’s super easy to make, and it looks and smells delicious.

Help, please! I’ll be gone from this Thursday until Sunday the 31st and I’m in need of some guest posters.  If anyone would like to do one for me, I’ll love you forever. 🙂

Nutella “Candy Bars”
Gingerbread Bagels

1 cup Nutella
2 cups graham cracker crumbs (finely ground)
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, melted

4 Tablespoons Nutella
1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips.

Put 1 cup of Nutella in a large bowl.

In a food processor, grind up the graham crackers. Measure out 2 cups of graham cracker crumbs and add them to the Nutella.

Add 2 cups of powdered sugar. Mix everything together.

Pour in 1 cup of melted unsalted butter and stir to completely combined.

Spray the inside of the pan with non stick spray. This will help the wax paper/parchment paper stick to the pan. Line a 9 by 12 baking pan with wax paper or parchment paper.

Put the Nutella Candy Bar mixture in the pan and press it down evenly.

For the topping:

In a microwavable bowl, melt together 4 Tablespoons of Nutella and 1 1/2 cups of semi sweet chocolate chips.

Pour of the Nutella Candy Bars and spread it out evenly.

Refrigerate the Nutella Candy Bars for 1 hour. Let the Nutella Candy Bars come to room temperature before you eat them!