oreo truffles

My life has been MIA but I haven't stopped making delicious desserts! If you're challenged in the kitchen then this is a recipe for you, it requires no baking and only uses a few ingredients.

I found this recipe for oreo truffles in a Cosmo a few years ago and totally forgot about it till last week. The truffles have an oreo and cream cheese filling, are dipped in milk chocolate, and drizzled with white chocolate.

Ingredients:

16 oreos
8 oz (one small container) cream cheese
milk chocolate chips
white chocolate chips

Directions: 

Crush oreos into crumbs, I break an oreo into fourths and toss about 6 at a time into a blender and puree until they're fine crumbs.

Heat the cream cheese in a microwave so that it is soft and mix the crumbs and cream cheese to form the filling. There shouldn't be any white from the cream cheese left when it is all mixed together, I microwaved the entire bowl of crumbs with the cream cheese in it to make it easier to stir.

Allow mixture to cool in fridge for about 10 minutes, then roll into small round balls and place on a cookie sheet. Once you have all the balls formed, let sit in the freezer for an hour to harden.

After an hour melt about half a bag of chocolate chips in the microwave for about 1.5 minutes then just drip the hardened cream cheese balls into it and replace on cookie sheet. The entire ball should be coated, don't worry if the chocolate sticks out in funny places, it just makes it look like there's a cool texture. Warning it does get a little messy! I'd suggest an apron.

Melt about 1/4 of the bag of white chocolate chips for about 1.5 minutes in the microwave. Dip a fork in the chocolate and shake on top of the chocolate coated balls to create the drizzled look I did above.

Put in the freezer for about 2 hours and enjoy!

Instead of drizzling white chocolate you could add crushed peppermints, sprinkles, oreo crumbs, crushed nuts, the possibilities are endless!

Warning; they're addictive. Happy truffle making!

pumpkin cupcakes

In honor of Halloween and my friend's birthday I decided to make pumpkin cupcakes!

This recipe is super easy if you're not an experienced baker and they taste delicious. If you've ever had the pumpkin bread from Starbucks, this is what they taste like except with cream cheese frosting on top!

Please excuse the grainy camera phone picture, I didn't bring my real camera home with me this weekend.

Recipe:

1 package pound cake mix

1 cup LIBBY'S 100% Pure Pumpkin 

1/3 cup water

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon baking soda 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine ingredients into a large bowl mixer and beat on medium speed for 3 minutes.  Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes. 

So easy!

For the frosting I used the cream cheese recipe from the oreo cupcakes I made in May, see that post for the recipe link! 

Happy Fall!

think pink!

I'm not talking about the Victoria's Secret PINK line, I'm talking about breast cancer awareness. My favorite store, forever 21, has created a line that donates 10% of the purchase to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. 

As you know, I'm all about shopping for a good cause, so I picked up one of the t-shirts from the line this weekend.

$14.95

I got it a size bigger so I could wear it off the shoulder. super cute with leggings or yoga pants!

Cheap prices and helping suport a cure? That's what I call a good deal.

Rugged Wearhouse

Attention bargain hunters! I've rediscovered an amazingly cheap store, Rugged Wearhouse! 


Never been there before? It's like a Ross meets a thrift store and sells clothes marked down to about 70% of their original price. I can't take credit for rediscovering it, I went out with some friends and one of the girls had on a super cute black cold shoulder dress (cut out shoulders) and told me it was from Rugged Wearhouse.

 I totally copied her and went out and got the dress, for $7.99. I also found some killer wedges for $9.99. An entire outfit for under $20? That's pretttty awesome.

You do have to dig a little to find good things, but for prices like that it's definitely worth the time. They also had combat boots for $15.00, tons of heels, purses, even men's clothes. They have brands like Betsey Johnson, Steve Madden, Dickies, Jessica Simpson, and when I was in elementary school I used to get Abercrombie clothes from there too!

I think that every store has different products, but check out their website to find a store close to you!

http://www.ruggedwearhouse.com/main.php

Happy bargin hunting :)

little yellow dress

You know I love a little black dress, but sadly, sky high heels and short hemlines aren't exactly appropriate for day time.

Solution? The little yellow dress!

I got this $44.00 Lush dress at Nordys the other day and have fallen in love with it. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it has a sweetheart neckline, pockets, and is actually yellow and gray stripes. 

I know what you're thinking, how many times can you wear a yellow dress? $44.00 is a lot to spend on a rather memorable colorful dress! Wrong!

I've only worn it once but I've already thought of three different outfits that I can do with this dress by combining it with items I already had in my closet! Check out my grainy attempts to recreate an In Style outfit layout for ideas on how to change up a colorful dress you may already own!

The Casual Outfit

This is the outfit I would go to if I was just running errands or going to the mall. To me it says "I just threw this on but I still cute as anything." My fedora is my favorite summer accessory so of course I had to sneak it in one outfit! Denim is a huge trend for fall, and a jean vest is lighter than a jacket for summer, pair it with old school sneakers and you're comfy and cute.

Fedora - Nordstorm, Belt - Nordstrom, Jean Vest - American Eagle, Converse - Journeys 

The Concert/Class Outfit 

Cowboy boots are my favorite shoes to wear with flirty dresses, and this outfit just screams summer country concert. On campus I do a lot of walking and I've had my cowboy boots since 9th grade so they're super comfy when I go to class. A studded belt and leather accessories like the watch make the look a little more pulled together. Don't mind the million different shades of brown, blame it on my totally unprofessional lighting and camera flash, promise it looks better in real life!

Watch - Picket Fence, Belt - GAP, Satchel - Dooney and Burke, Boots - Rampage

The Housewife Outfit

This is my favoriteee outfit combo. I call it the housewife outfit because it reminds me of old tv shows where the moms would vacuum in pearls and heels. I wore it to work yesterday and murdered my feet but it was worth it! Pops of color make the dress look totally different than the other looks. If I was wearing this to class I would ideally pair it with red flats but sadly I don't own a pair yet :( (hint hint future Christmas present)

Handbag - Kohls, Sunglass - Rayban, Nail polish - CoverGirl, Belt - my mom's, Cardi - Hollister, Shoes - Aldo 

I hope this gave you ideas on how to mix up your favorite sundress! Happy outfit creating! 

feather earrings

I know you've seen them everywhere and I wasn't feeling it at first, but feather earrings are now one of my new favorite accessories for summer. They're a little tribal meets Steven Tyler but I love the natural trendy vibe they give off!

I got short black and white ones from Nordstrom and wear them with either plain t-shirts or sundresses and I loveee the way they look with my fedora!

(Nordstrom $10.00)

If you have longer hair the more dangly, the better! Rock just one so it looks like it's part of your hair, or if you have short hair, just one looks super edgy. If you want a more glam look, go for ones that have rhinestones or metal feathers woven into the actual feather. 

Just be sure you don't accidentally brush them when you're brushing your hair or else you'll damage them :( 

For some reason all the websites I wanted to use were being testy with pictures but stores like Urban Outfitters, Claire's, and Forever 21 all have great selections of feather earrings!

Go channel your inner indian princess! 

vanilla bean cupcakes

I had the day off, so of course that meant cupcake baking :) Nordstrom is currently having its annual Anniversary Sale, where its fall product comes in on sale and then goes back to full price at the end of the month. As you can imagine, it's been pretty busy and everyone's been working super hard so I wanted to bake something for the girls in my department.

I decided on vanilla bean cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting, and did the frosting in the colors of the Anniversary Sale logo.

The recipe called for a real vanilla bean, and they are probably the strangest thing I've ever baked with. When you eat vanilla ice cream vanilla beans are what cause the little black flecks in it. Incase you want to make these yourself, look for something packaged like this in the grocery store:

It took ten minutes of wandering around Giant with a lost look on my face before the store manager eventually came over and helped me find them haha.  This is what's inside:

So weird. Anyways, the cupcakes turned out okay, the batter was super thick and I prefer thicker batters to runny ones but I'm not in love with this cupcake. 

I ate three, of course, and in two of them I could definitely taste the salt, I'm not sure if I didn't mix the batter enough or added too much salt by accident, so if I make these again I'll either skip the salt or add an even smaller amount. 

The colors in the frosting didn't turn out as I wanted them to, but since I had to split the frosting into four different bowls I was hesitant about adding more food coloring because if there's too much you can taste it in the frosting. Below you can see the colors I was attempting to imitate and clearly did not create but I tried :) 

Overall, I wouldn't make this cupcake again because I'm not a huge vanilla fan but here are the recipes incase you want to try them! 

Cupcake: http://annies-eats.net/2010/01/05/vanilla-bean-cupcakes/

Frosting: http://annies-eats.com/2008/03/08/happy-21st-birthday-bro/