Easter Treat: Cadbury chocolate nests

Hello there! I know it may seem like my posts have been slacking the last couple weeks, and your first thought may be that I have writer's block or don't know what to write about. But it's actually the opposite—I have so much going on and so many things I want to write about! I know I won't be living in New York City forever, so I decided to view myself as a tourist while I'm living here to really experience the city the best I can. And with my new tourist mindset, I have been so busy doing New York things! I promise I'll have lots of exciting posts coming up about NYC and travel, but until then, here is a recipe that I tried this past weekend. I wanted to make something quick and easy to help get me into the Easter spirit, and of course I had to incorporate my favourite Easter candy, Cadbury mini eggs! This is probably the easiest treat you can make and so delicious, so if you have these ingredients lying around during Easter weekend, you should definitely give these a try!

I was a huge fan of these treats, and I will definitely be making them again!

Banana Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have always loved baking, and recently I decided to try out a new recipe...banana walnut chocolate chip cookies! If you want to learn how to make these delicious cookies, then keep on reading!

The ingredients you will need are:

1 and 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup mashed banana (about 1 banana)

1 cup oatmeal

1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

 Before you start mixing everything, preheat your oven to 375°F.

First, mix together the flour, salt, and baking soda in a small bowl, and set it aside until later.

Then in a separate bowl, mix together the sugar, brown sugar, and butter. If you'd like you can use an electric mixer or mix by hand like I did!

 Next, add the egg and vanilla extract to the sugar/butter mixture.

Once that's all mixed, add in the mashed banana. Using ripe bananas works the best, so if you have bananas that are starting to turn brown, they're perfect for this recipe!

 Then it's time to add in the flour mixture. Stir it in a little at a time to help it blend better.

 Once your dough is a nice texture, time to add in the best ingredients—the chocolate chips, walnuts, and oatmeal.

 Once everything is mixed together, put the dough onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake for 12-13 minutes. I set my oven to "convect" so the heat in the oven would evenly distribute, but if your oven doesn't have a convect setting, rotate the cookie sheets halfway through baking so they cook evenly. I was able to make 40 cookies from this recipe.

When the cookies are a golden brown colour, take them out of the oven and put them on a wire rack to cool. And then it's time for the best part...eating them! I loved these cookies so much, and between myself, my mom, and my dad, the cookies were gone within two days! I will definitely be making these cookies again :)

yum yum yum :)

Snowed-In In Massachusetts

This past weekend I had three days off from work, so I decided to head home to Massachusetts for a few days. I booked my bus a while ago and was not prepared for the blizzard I would experience over the weekend! New York City has been pretty lucky this Winter, and while it has been freezing cold and icy, there hasn't been a ton of snow. I knew New England was getting hit a lot harder, but it was so shocking going home and seeing just how much snow there was! My town is on the beach, and we decided to drive around on Saturday before the snow got too bad, and it was actually really beautiful. The bay almost looked like Antarctica!

On Sunday there was another blizzard, and we got about 2 more feet of snow on top of the 5 feet we already had. We had a relaxing day in, and my mom and I made probably the most delicious pancakes I've ever had! We used a Bisquick mix, but decided to change it up a little and added blueberries, oatmeal, cinnamon, vanilla extract, and almonds. They were so amazing! And we also made some mimosas to go along with the pancakes. Check out how amazing they looked...

After enjoying the pancakes, my dad and I took our dog out and played in the snow a little bit. My dog is a labradoodle and being half poodle, she usually hates going in any type of water, snow included. But on Sunday, the lab side of her came out and she loved playing in the snow! It was so adorable watching her run around and have so much fun!

Look how high the snow is in our yard! For reference, I'm 5'6" and the snow piles were even taller than me!

my house peeking out from behind the huge piles of snow!

Since it was so snowy, we couldn't do too much, so we relaxed and watched a bunch of movies. Over the weekend, I watched Gone Girl, 22 Jump Street, My Life In Ruins, and Let's Be Cops. I really enjoyed all of the movies! I had seen 22 Jump Street before and loved watching it again. My favourite was Gone Girl because I thought it really stayed true to the book, the acting was amazing, and it was so suspenseful!

a nice relaxing fire while having a movie marathon

Meanwhile, this was the view looking outside...

This weekend was also Valentine's Day, so we exchanged gifts! I got some delicious chocolate and a scratch ticket that won $10!

On Monday, before heading to the bus station, my mom and I went to see 50 Shades of Grey. We both read the books, and the movie was actually better than we expected! It wasn't as graphic as the book, but I thought they portrayed the story well, and I think Dakota Johnson did a great job playing Ana.

Now I'm back in New York City, settling back into the work week after a nice weekend at home. I saw that Massachusetts got even more snow today and is expecting more this week, so I can't even imagine how crazy it will be a week from now! I'm pretty grateful New York City hasn't been hit with the same amounts of snow as Boston. And on the bright side, it's getting closer and closer to Spring, so hopefully it will start warming up soon!

How to Make Ice Box Cake!

Last week, I was home for my Spring Break, and one thing I always love to do while I am home is bake! This break, I decided to switch it up and make something different than the standard cookies and brownies I usually bake. When I was little, the woman I went to for day care was an amazing chef and baker, and one of my favourite recipes of hers was something called Ice Box Cake. When my mom mentioned it, I decided I had to try making it!

Here's how I made the Ice Box Cake. Best part: it's so easy and takes just about 5 minutes to prepare!

To make Ice Box Cake, you'll need two boxes of pudding mix, milk (to make the pudding), a box of graham crackers, a pan to put it in, and that's it! So simple!

First, mix up your puddings. I used one box of chocolate pudding and one box of white chocolate pudding, but you can use whatever flavours you like.

I used almond milk to make the pudding a little bit healthier!

Next, lay your graham crackers along the bottom of your pan. Make sure there are no gaps!

Then, pour one of your puddings on and spread it evenly across the graham crackers.

Repeat the last couple of steps. Make another graham cracker layer on top of your pudding, again making sure there are no gaps, and then spread your second pudding over it.

You can either stop here or do what I did and sprinkle some graham cracker and Oreo crumbs over the top. To do this, I put the graham crackers and Oreos into a big plastic bag and went over it with a rolling pin until it was just crumbs. Sprinkle these over the top, and then you're done!

Once your cake is prepared, put it into the fridge for at least three hours, and then it's ready to eat. 

Enjoy!

So delicious!