So a couple weeks ago my good friend Alaina and I decided that we wanted to go up to Chicago to see a movie in Millennium Park on a Tuesday. Last Tuesday was the day that we thought would work, but unfortunately our work schedules didn't allow us the time to do that. Instead we decided to do dinner, dessert and a movie at Alaina's apartment. I was doing dessert but couldn't decided on what to do. I scrolled through Pinterest in hopes of some sort of inspiration of an amazing but easy dessert. I came across a couple options, but one stood out to me. Butterfinger Apple Nachos. A somewhat healthy dessert. 

I easily became tempted by the fact that not only do I love apples, but the fact that they had caramel, marshmallows, white chocolate chips and Butterfingers on them. Sounded wonderful to me! So I made my decision. My dilemma was that I was at the office on Tuesday afternoon and only had a microwave at my disposal to make it. So off to Kroger I went for supplies. One of those being a glass liquid measuring cup. I was going to use to the microwave to melt the marshmallows. Not sure how it would turn out but willing to try, I bought my ingredients and headed back to the office.

Forgive me for not taking pictures while I was making it, but I was in a hurry. I had 45 minutes to cut everything and figure out the microwave to melt the marshmallows. Here's the ingredients and about how much I used.

Butterfinger Apple Nachos

3-4 large Granny Smith Apples

1/4 bag Mini Marshmallows (1lb bag)

1/4 cup butter

1/4 jar Kroger caramel sauce

(OR 1/2 bag caramels & 1 TBS water)

1/4 bag White Chocolate Chips

5 Fun Size Butterfingers

I altered a recipe I found on Pinterest a little bit since I was making it for a smaller group and didn't need as large a serving. To start with I cut up my apples and placed them in my disposable foil pan. You can use a platter or plate or whatever you wish. I placed them so they would all be covered with the toppings. I then put the marshmallows and butter into my glass measuring cup and melted them in the microwave. I started with 30 seconds and then did 10 second increments until they were done. I then drizzled my melted marshmallow over the apples. I think I may use more next time. I then warmed up my caramel sauce in the microwave and drizzled it on. You can use the individually wrapped caramels. You would melt them in the same fashion as the marshmallows but using water instead of butter. I then sprinkled on the white chocolate chips. Then I cut up the butterfingers into pieces and sprinkled them on top.

I think they came out great and for it being the first time I made them they were a hit. Even Alaina's roommates who got back from Colorado while I was there tried them and said they were amazing. I am excited to try them again in the fall when all of my friends are back in town. They were so yummy!! I could have ate the whole pan by myself! I hope you enjoy the recipe! Tweak it to fit you and your needs. Let me know what you think!

God Bless!

This Weekend // Memorial Day

It's been a good weekend, but it has definitely felt like an extremely long one even in the midst of a lot of good. There were a lot of things that happened, although only a few were actually related to my internship.

 

 I had the day off Saturday, so I went to the Kankakee Farmer's Market with Bev and enjoyed wandering around the market, eating some great homemade pastries, and listening to some live music. On our way home we stopped by a very large and extremely busy greenhouse to get some flowers. I then enjoyed some time just reading and watching a movie. Then we went out to dinner at Lone Star Steakhouse and then Bev and I went to the movies. We saw Mom's Night Out and it was awesome!! Such a great movie! The cast was wonderful and I absolutely enjoyed it.

We then had an early morning of set up for church, although we didn't get there until about 7am. We did set up and ended up having a bit of a bare bones service due to a number of people being gone. It was still a good morning of worship. That evening I helped with JourneyKids and it was quite an interesting end to the year. It always amazes me the variations of Bible stories that the children come up with!

This morning Andy and I spent time doing some work in town and then came back home with everyone for a Memorial Day cookout/lunch. We had a great lunch of grilled salmon and grilled pork, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, croissants, and fruit salad. Then a really good apple tart dessert. It was a good day just hanging out and relaxing. This afternoon I took the time to make the dessert for small group tomorrow night and used some of Caitlyn's help.

I made Raspberry Fudge Zebra Brownies, although the topping recipe I followed wasn't the greatest, but we made it work. Caitlyn was pleased with herself for cracking an egg without getting any shell in the bowl! 

 

The brownies turned out pretty good! It was fun to be able to do a little baking and to have Caitlyn's help. It definitely made things go a little faster. We were listening to and singing along with the Disney station on Pandora and the boys were complaining that it distracted them from watching baseball two rooms away! :) Silly boys! 

A quick and easy dinner was in order after such a long day and then a movie and some more relaxing. It was a good weekend and a nice day to kind of get a little bit of rest before the week starts and the rest of the interns officially start. It was a good kick off to the summer!

 

Happy Memorial Day! 

Thank you to all of the service men and women in all the 

different branches of the Armed Forces. I am truly grateful for 

all that you do to allow us to have the liberties that we do!

I'm Back & Strawberry Hand Pies

Hey everyone!! It's been a little while since i've been on this blog here. School got a bit crazy for a while and I was barely having time to eat and sleep, so my blog got a little neglected. I really wanted to post but just didn't have the time unfortunately. I'll throw in a few random pictures of what my life has been in the last month or so.

Coconut Poke Cake I made about a month ago for small group

Finally! A picture of Malik & I actually exists!

During this little unintentional hiatus, I have been doing a lot of thinking and have dealing with some things that I hope to share with you all at some point. It has kind of been a bit of a crazy month and a half! So many things have happened.

Lots of group meetings for projects the last couple weeks

Beginning of break...homemade pancakes, turkey bacon, & coffee with Anna

Well I obviously had Spring Break. I was here for the weekends, but was in St. Louis for the week days. The weekend at the end of break I helped with Children's Ministry Day. It was a long day but it was also a ton of fun. So glad to have been able to help with this event that helps provide children with a way to serve the community. The next day I got a little bit off my route on the way to Midway to pick my roommate up when she got in from Boston. Then the last couple weeks have been full and I feel like I have been running non-stop.

Enjoying 80 degree weather :)

My cousin Keziah thought my ankles made a great seat! :)

Also, in the last month my grades for the fall semester for officially entered and guess what?!? I made the Dean's List!!!! :) I was so excited since this is the first semester that I have made it. I have worked my butt off to get to this point and am proud of my accomplishments. Even if I come up short the rest of my semesters here, I will be proud that I made it just this once!

Volleyball every Saturday which means time with Noah :)

FOCUS Child Care Conference....It was a good but long day!

Oh and I got my cartilage pierced finally!! It was supposed to be my 18th birthday present, but clearly that didn't happen. It was just kind of a spur of the moment decision and i'm happy with it.

About 20 minutes after getting it done

Since Sunday I have been prepping the dessert I am making for Journey Group (small group) tonight. With our dinner for the night being hot dogs, baked bean, and chips, I didn't want to do anything fancy despite my craving Orange Brownies. So I finally decided to do a recipe that my mom and I have done many of times before for bake sales and just because. I made Mini Pies or Hand Pies. I used Strawberries for the ones pictured and am baking Triple Berry ones while we speak.

I made up a double batch of the pie crust on Sunday night. All that is in it is flour, salt, cinnamon/nutmeg, butter, and water. Fairly easy with the exception of cutting the butter in. That should be considered an arm workout in and of itself!!

Yesterday afternoon I rolled out the dough and made the cutouts, which I did with a flower cookie cutter that was about 3 1/2in. in diameter. I made about 22 pies with all of the flowers I cut out of the pie crust dough.

Last night after my Chemistry Lab, I came home and made the strawberry filling. I used one container of fresh strawberries that I rinsed and sliced thin. I then added a few tablespoons of sugar and a tablespoon of flour. I mixed it all up and there was more than enough for all of the pies. I had no hesitation in finishing off the leftovers!

This is what they looked like after I filled them and pressed them together with a fork. I put a few holes in the tops with a fork so that they could breathe and wouldn't explode in the oven. I then beat an egg in a bowl real quick and used a pastry brush to rub it on the tops of the pies. Then I put some of my homemade colored sugar on top. It happens to be purple sugar. I then put them in the oven and let them cook until they were perfect!

Don't they just look delicious?? I had to try one out to make sure they were good to share tonight and of course they were! A couple friends tried them as well and said they were really good! I also think I will have to write up an official recipe at some point... My mom and I just eyeball it. They looked, smelled, and tasted delicious! So I will take that as a success.

I'm sorry this is such a long post. If you made it this far then bless you. Hopefully you got to see the yummy food!! :)

Have a great week!! :)