Summer is about to come to an end but, eating our favorite summertime treat doesn’t have too! If you are as obsessed about s’mores as we are, check out all of our yummy non campfire s’mores treats you can make. Continuing s’mores week on the blog, we have another recipe to share. These s’mores stuffed peanut blondies are layered with peanut butter blondie dough, graham crackers, Hershey chocolate bars, marshmallow creme, and topped with more peanut butter blondie dough all baked to perfection!
When you bite into this blondie it’s soft and chewy and a bit messy but, so worth eating! If you happen to not finish the whole pan (very unlikely–haha!) you can store them in the fridge. Enjoying them straight out of the fridge is just as good and is a less messier version. You can always pop them into the microwave for 5-10 seconds to get the marshmallow cream a little ooey gooey and the chocolate a bit melty! And those of you out there that aren’t obsessed with s’mores or may not even like s’mores shouldn’t count this dessert out! I gave some of these to my friend not knowing she didn’t really like s’mores and when I asked her how she liked them she said that she loved them even though she doesn’t really like s’mores normally. Have we turned you into a s’mores lover with all of our s’mores desserts?
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line an 8×8-inch pan with foil, leaving an overhang on all sides, then spray with nonstick baking spray.
In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and brown sugar, stirring constantly until smooth. Remove from the heat, and stir in the peanut butter and allow to cool.
Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl.
Add the eggs to the cooled peanut butter mixture, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and stir to combine. Pour the mixture into the prepared dry ingredients, and stir to create a thick, smooth batter.
Divide the dough in half and press half into the prepared pan, spreading evenly to the edges of the pan. Place the graham crackers on top of the dough then the chocolate bars over the graham crackers. Spread the marshmallow creme evenly over the chocolate.
Dollop scoops of the remaining dough on top of the marshmallow creme and flatten completely to cover.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until the top is golden and the edges are slightly browned. Allow to cool in the pan. Cut into 1-2 inch squares and serve. TIP: placing them in the fridge will make it easier to cut.
Summer has been awesome. Campfires, sunscreen and treats everyday. I mean, right? You’re eating treats everyday too, no? I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I love s’mores. And this summer has got me hooked—like addicted. I need s’mores like a pregnant lady needs pickles and ice cream. My new found love affair poses a few logistical concerns as you can imagine. I want s’mores way more often than is feasible to build a campfire. However, late one night when the campfire cravings came a knocking, in a stroke of genius I decided to fire up the gas stove in the kitchen to toast my mallow. And IT. Was. Perfect. It’s now become a nightly routine. All you need is a fork to roast the marshmallows gently over that smokin’ blue flame. Once golden and sizzling grab your graham crackers topped with chocolate and squish that s’more into a melty, delicious summer treat. And the best part is you don’t have to wash your hair six times to get the campfire smell out!
As my love (read: addiction) for s’mores continued to blossom I needed to find a way to share it with the masses (aka my family). I needed a way to get a lot of bang for my s’mores buck if you know what I mean. And I remembered having an out-of-this-world s’more pizza in NYC. If I could have flown one in that night, I would have. I think Google is working on an algorithm for telepathic pizza delivery, but apparently there are still a few kinks to work out. So I was forced to go old-school and search “s’mores pizza recipe” on the interwebs. After skimming options, I stumbled upon this great recipe with a homemade graham cracker crust and gooey mallow middle. Insert heart eye emoji. If you’re looking to feed a crowd a campfire classic or just want a flame-less alternative to feed your summer s’mores addiction look no further! This pizza is great hot and gooey, but is also tasty at room temperature. And if you eat it the morning after, go ahead and call it a “breakfast pizza.” That’s a thing, right? It is in my house.
For the crust, crush up graham crackers by hand using a ziploc gallon bag and a rolling pin or with a food processor. Melt butter and mix with sugar.
Mix in egg and vanilla.
In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients--flour, salt, and baking soda then combine and mix with the butter and sugar. Mixture will be slightly crumbly.
Press the mixture evenly into a greased 12 inch pizza pan.
Break up 6 Hershey's bars and spread even on top of graham cracker crust.
Scoop out marshmallow cream and dollop on top of chocolate using 2 spoons, then gently spread making sure not to get too close to the edge. Otherwise it will melt over the sides when baking.
Bake for 18 minutes.
While the crust is baking, break up 2 remaining chocolate bars into small pieces, 2 graham crackers into small pieces, and crush remaining 1-2 graham crackers into crumbs.
After 18 minutes remove from oven and turn on the broiler.
Top pizza with mini marshmallows, chocolate, graham cracker pieces and crumbs.
Place back into oven and broil for about 1 minute to toast.
The recipe for these s’mores cookie call for marshmallow bits, you know those mini marshmallows that you only got in hot chocolate packets. Did you know they sell a whole container of them? Where were these when I was a child?!? My parents would have loved to have been able to buy these for me because I would always open up a second packet just to steal the marshmallows out of it and make some other unlucky person, usually my Dad drink the other packet without marshmallows.
When you can’t have a campfire s’more you can always make these soft and chewy s’mores cookies that have everything you love about a s’more with it’s combination of sweet graham crackers, creamy melted chocolate, and toasted marshmallows. Like a touch of cinnamon flavor, use the cinnamon flavored graham crackers or if you want the taste of a traditional s’more use the original graham crackers. These darn cookies are so good! It’s like having two desserts in one—a cookie and a s’more!
3/4 cup regular or cinnamon graham cracker crumbs (about 7 full graham cracker sheets)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup mini or regular chocolate chips
1 cup Jet Puffed Mallow Bits
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat for an additional 2 minutes.
Meanwhile, use a food processor or blender to crush 7 graham cracker sheets into 3/4 cup fine crumbs.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the graham cracker crumbs, flour, baking powder, and salt.
Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and mix on low speed until the dough just comes together. Add the chocolate chips and marshmallow bits and stir to combine. Scoop dough using a mini cookie dough scoop and place onto the prepared cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes or until edges are a light golden brown.
Starbucks Peach Green Tea Lemonade: Every time I go to Starbucks I order the same boring thing, a vanilla late or Chai Latte. It wasn’t until my BFF Chad introduced me to the most delicious drink on the menu…Peach Green Tea Lemonade. I can’t begin to tell you how refreshing this is on a hot summer day. Needless to say, this has become my go-to drink for the summer. What are you waiting for? Try it for yourself and let me know what you think!
Cooling Sport Towel: The first time I ever saw a version of one of these cooling towels was at a fair and I thought they seemed a little weird to have a wet towel around your neck. I’ve always hated when my clothes get wet so I never even gave it a try or a chance and the ones they were selling were expensive. It wasn’t until last year that I was perusing the Target Dollar Spot section that I saw a cooling towel for $1 and decided to grab one since there had been so much hype around them. I thought why not for $1 I was willing to give it a try and if I ended up not liking it, I was only out $1! And until now, it has been sitting in my drawer unused until recently when I packed it along with me on my vacation to Vegas where I knew it was going to be more than 100 degrees there (it’s July after all). I figured it was the perfect time to bring it along and test it out. After getting there and enduring the 108 degree weather I broke it open! All you do is soak it with cold water, ring it out, and then snap it in the air to activate the cooling properties of the towel. I never knew how nice a cooling towel would feel around my neck. It’s so simple! Greatest little invention! It instantly cools you down and your clothes stay dry because the towel somehow keeps the water in! And this one that I have is a smaller version and has a convenient case to put it in and it’s small enough to throw in your bag. This cooling towel has definitely become one of my favorite summertime essentials!
Swan Float: Who knew a large, ridiculous, inflatable long-necked waterbird would become the trendiest accessory of the summer. My friend bought one as a joke for a friend-cation to Mexico and it turned out to be a crowd favorite. I’ve since seen it all over Instagram and even on The Bachelorette. The swan is in, boring pool floaties are out. There’s something so perfect about nestling up on this large and in charge bird. AND I feel like I my tans are better when I layout on the swan. Image Source: Target
Sunbum Cool Down: This stuff is a sunburn miracle worker! We all have good intentions when it comes to sun protection–SPF all the way! But sometimes our best intentions are toasted (literally, ha) and despite our best attempts we still get burned. I’ve had a couple unlucky encounters with spray-on sunscreen this summer and as a result have had a few days where my skin seemed to be a dull candy apple red color and sizzled to the touch. That’s when my, wise and beautiful roommate, Emily, introduced me to “Cool Down.” This magical lotion is meant to be used as an after sun moisturizer on skin that is burnt, chaffed (inner thigh rub anyone?), or dry, and is infused with aloe, vitamin E, and cocoa butter. This triple threat combo takes the sting out (like gone) and moisturizes so well it prevents peeling. It’s awesome!! I now pack it with me on every vacation that involves the beach, a pool, or more than 10 minutes in the sun. It has saved me! I tell everyone about it and have many a friend who’s sunburn was nursed back to health with this lotion. So naturally I wanted to share it with you guys! I found mine at Target (surprising, I know), but you can also get it at Ulta or Amazon as well. Happy sunbum-ing! Image Source: Sun Bum
If you’re like me (and everyone else I know) you sometimes get in a rut when it comes to making dinner. At my house, we have our five go-to meals: spaghetti, tacos, pizza, pot roast and eating out! I finally reached a breaking point when not eating started sounding better than actually making the same boring dinner over and over again. That’s when my husband and I decided it was time to give Blue Apron a try. We’ve been cooking with Blue Apron now for about two months and we absolutely love it. Not only do we get to try a variety of new meals, we have fun learning about new techniques and ingredients. With a toddler running around the kitchen during meal prep it might not be a relaxing experience, but we are enjoying our time together in the kitchen.
Below are a few of my thoughts on our Blue Apron experience so far.
Flexibility My friend told me about Blue Apron and sent me three free meals to check it out and see if I like it. I went online to redeem my freebies and noticed I had to put in a credit card number along with my personal information. I’m always hesitant to sign up for a service like this because I don’t want to commit to something long-term, especially if it costs a good amount of money. I almost didn’t move forward because I didn’t want to get stuck paying $60 per week if I didn’t end up liking it. However, I noticed there was no long-term commitment required and you can cancel at any time. The best part about it is you can even cancel from week to week. So when I’m going to go on vacation or have plans during the week, I can cancel my meals for that week and resume when it’s more convenient. You can also personalize your meals each week to your preference of beef, poultry, pork, fish or vegetarian.
(Unfortunately, all the meals are assembled in the same facility so you won’t want to order Blue Apron if you have a food allergy.)
Blue Apron posts the following week’s menu on the website or in the app a week in advance so you have the opportunity to choose your meals. With my plan of three meals per week, I can choose between six options.
Pricing We were a little unsure about the price tag, seeing as how the plan we chose equals about $20 per meal. In theory, that’s just as much as going out to dinner, but then you add-on tax, tip and possibly desert, so we figured it was still cheaper. The other thing we’ve noticed since using Blue Apron, is we only go to the grocery store once per week and have reduced the amount of money we spend on groceries. Since we’ve signed up we haven’t noticed a negative effect on our pocket-book and it’s forced us to eat at home instead of spending money at a restaurant.
Blue Apron has a couple meal plansto choose from depending on your family size and the number of meals you want to receive each week. Delivery is free so you don’t have to worry about any additional cost.
3 meals per week – 2 servings = $59.94
2 meals per week – 4 servings = $69.92
4 meals per week – 4 servings = $139.84
Freshness When researching Blue Apron, one of the benefits that really stood out was the food quality. Blue Apron has a direct relationship with farmers and suppliers so food is boxed and shipped at peak freshness with minimal time in transit. Another huge benefit (especially to my family) is all animals are raised without any added hormones or antibiotics.
You might be wondering how the food tastes, since it comes in a box…in the mail. (I know, it sounds a little crazy.) All food comes in a refrigerated box with ice packs to keep everything cold and fresh. So you don’t need to worry about being home when your box is delivered.
Prep Each box includes a recipe card with step-by-step instructions and color photos, which makes cooking the meal super easy. So far, every meal has been very easy to follow. One of the things I like most about Blue Apron is that all the ingredients are included. If you need a little splash of vinegar, it’s included. If you need one egg, it’s included. The only ingredients you have to provide yourself are olive oil, salt and pepper. What makes this so great is if I wanted to cook these meals on my own, it would cost me a lot more money to buy a whole jar of a certain spice I would never use again. This way, I get to try a unique recipe without committing to a bunch of ingredients that will end up sitting on the shelf.
I’m honestly not a fan of having to cut and prep all of the produce, mostly because it takes a lot of time and I always end up managing to cut myself! However, I will say that preparing everything has shown us new techniques and ways of preparing simple foods in a way I would have never thought before. I don’t know how many times I’ve said to my husband, “I never knew how easy it was to make a sauce” and “I would have never thought of using those ingredients together”. We’ve also learned about fancy techniques like “blanching”! Following these recipes has really opened our eyes to the way we prepare food and combine ingredients.
Blue Apron has an app that is pretty awesome. You can browse entire recipe collection, how-to videos and cooking tips. You can also use the app to customize your menu and manage your deliveries.
Bottom Line All of the meals (except for two) have been incredibly delicious. When I look at the menu for the following week, I’ll be honest that I’m not always excited about what is coming. But then the moment we sit down to eat, I’m always satisfied with what we’ve made. This experience has really opened our eyes on the types of meals we can make at home. Another benefit, is the meals are super healthy and are perfectly portioned so you don’t overeat. It’s been a great experience and we will continue to use Blue Apron moving forward.
The only complaint I have about Blue Apron is the amount of time it takes to cook each meal. As a working mom of a toddler, I look for fast and easy options when cooking. This whole process has opened my eyes to the variety of food I can cook for dinner, however, we don’t end up actually eating until 8 o’clock! The cooking process is really fun and provides a fun activity for my husband and I to do together. However, most of the time one of us is rushing around after our daughter while the other one is trying to prep all the ingredients. It would be nice if everything already came chopped and prepared, but then I guess you would lose in the freshness of your food and the experience of making the meal beginning to end.
If you would like to give Blue Apron a try, I have three free meals to give to five people. Comment below and I’ll send an email your way! If you already use Blue Apron, let us know about your experience.
