Chewy Caramel Chocolate Bars

One of the worst part of baking is making sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature. This recipe doesn't have that problem. Also, this bar has to be one of the fastest disappearing desserts I have ever made before. My coworkers went crazy for these bars -- a sure sign that I will be making them again.

The recipe comes from The Columbus Dispatch's annual holiday cookie guide. You can drag the recipe card below to your desktop so you have the instructions on hand whenever you want to make these delicious bars.

Peanut Butter Cookie Cups

December is here once again! Even though my posting schedule on TinyMessyKitchen.com has been inconsistent this year, I wanted to make sure I continue my annual tradition of baking a different cookie recipe every week this month. So I bring you: the first cookie for the 2017 Christmas Spectacular!

This recipe is courtesy of AllRecipes.com. Drag the recipe card below to your desktop so you always have the recipe handy for a quick dessert during the holidays.

Want to see how I made these peanut butter cookies? I've been participating in Vlogmas on YouTube this year, where you upload short videos from your daily life on YouTube during the month of December. I featured these peanut butter cookies in Day 2 of Vlogmas, which you can see below:

Stranger Things Mini-Cupcakes

When you're ready to get transported back to Hawkins, Indiana, on October 27, make a batch of these mini-cupcakes for your "Stranger Things" watch party.

I was so obsessed with the first season of "Stranger Things" last year that I binged the entire season in 24 hours. And if you're a fan, you know that these cupcakes are perfect for when you need to speak with someone in the Upside Down.

This cupcake recipe came from the New York Times, and the buttercream recipe is all my own. Please enjoy these mini-cupcakes!

St. Patrick's Day Green Velvet Cupcakes

Happy St. Patrick's Day! For the holiday, I made these green velvet cupcakes. They taste just like red velvet cupcakes (cream cheese frosting and all), but they're dyed green and have chocolate coins on top of each cupcake so everyone can have their own pot o' gold. 

Watch the quick how-to video above, and follow the recipe card below to make these on your own! This recipe was originally posted by Garnish and Glaze.

Enjoy, and happy St. Paddy's day!

February Cooking Challenge

For the past month, I've been cooking three recipes that I've never tried before each week. The recipes all came from cookbooks I already had in my kitchen. Now that February is over, I'm reflecting on the challenge and my takeaways from the venture.

What was my favorite dish? Hands down, my favorite was the asparagus "risotto" from my "Fun Food Fast!" cookbook. It's the one thing I've made again just a few weeks after trying it, and it was so easy! I couldn't get over how easy the dish was. Just a few ingredients, and you don't need to be an expert in cooking to make this delicious dish.

What was my least favorite dish? I would say the worst dish was the fettuccine with asparagus and lemon from the "College Vegetarian Cooking" cookbook. The concept of the recipe wasn't terrible, but instead of making a cream sauce, you mix milk, eggs, lemon and Parmesan together to create a light sauce. I would prefer a traditional cream or cheese sauce when making pasta instead. If you want to see how I made this dish, I did a Facebook LIVE video at Facebook.com/TinyMessyKitchen. You'll see what ingredients I used, how it all came together, and how it tasted.

Am I happy I did the cooking challenge? Yes! I have found so many delicious dishes that I can make quickly on a weeknight that it was totally worth the challenge. And it gave me a twist on normal dishes I already made, such as polenta. Instead of pairing polenta with black beans or roasted red peppers, I now know I can make it with sautéed mushrooms and it is SO good! In addition, the flautas that I made in week one or two of the challenge were a spin on baked enchiladas or burritos that I've made before, but so much simpler yet just as yummy.

What was the hardest part about the cooking challenge? Although I had the cookbooks to build meals off of, I am not the best meal planner. So if I hadn't planned ahead to get ingredients on my way home from work, it was impossible to look up the recipe and see if I had all I needed. In some cases, the recipes were listed online (on blogs or professional cooks' websites), but for the most part, I was out of luck until I got home to look at the recipe in-person.

What's next? I'll be writing a few travel blog posts in the near future. To find out where I'll be heading, and what restaurants I tried in different cities, stay tuned!

Bohemian Crescent Cookies

Once the holidays hit, even though I tried my hardest to work ahead, I still failed to get my blog posts done! For the last two years, I've tried to make a cookie recipe every week for the month of December. And in my defense, I did actually make a different cookie each week -- I just didn't post it in time. :)

So this week, we're picking up where I left off. I made these Bohemian Crescent Cookies (which have many names) for an early Christmas gathering with family, and they were quickly eaten up. I had never made these cookies until this year, and they were so simple but have such a great flavor that I will definitely make them again. Not to mention, I have a feeling people will be requesting them soon! 

Drag the recipe card below to your desktop so you have this Christmas treat on hand!

Vegan Sloppy Joe's (In a slow cooker!)

It's been more than seven years since I've had Sloppy Joe's. The dinner was a favorite of mine when I was younger, but I didn't have a good recipe for them once I became a vegetarian. For whatever reason, Sloppy Joe's sounded delicious to me lately, so I decided to make this slow cooker meal.

This couldn't be any easier - Toss everything in a slow cooker for 6-8 hours, and you're done! If you want to swap meat for the textured vegetable protein (TVP), I would suggest cooking ground beef in a skillet until it is no longer pink, then add it into the slow cooker.

This recipe is originally from OnceAMonthMeals.com. 

Drag the recipe card below to your desktop so you have whatever you need to make this dinner!

Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies

Happy Christmas Spectacular again! Here is a recipe that I was recently gifted by an extended family member, and I wasn't quite sure how I thought they would taste, but HOLY COW. These cookies are so good! They're sweet, but not overly so. They've got oatmeal, but don't taste like regular oatmeal cookies. They're crispy on the edges, but soft in the middle. I brought in about 2 dozen cookies to my coworkers, and it was easily one of the most requested cookies to bring in again.

Give these cookies a shot yourself! I originally got the recipe from the Valencic family, and in their cookbook, it says the recipe may have been from Nestle.

Drag the recipe card below to your desktop so you can make these oatmeal butterscotch cookies now and all year long!

Buckeye Pretzel Bites

If you follow my Facebook, Twitter or YouTube page, you may have already guessed this would be the latest recipe for my blog. 

I released a new cooking video a little early on Sunday, to coincide with the announcement of OSU playing Clemson on New Years Eve. If you are a Buckeye fan, this is an easy twist on the traditional Buckeye treat that mixes sweet and salty in one amazing dessert!

*ONE NOTE* I did forget to mention that you should freeze the pretzel bites (once they're stuffed with the peanut butter filling) for about 15-30 minutes so they will stay together during the dipping process. 

You can see step-by-step photos below (taken as screenshots from my YouTube video, the one at the top of the page). Give them a shot, and let me know how they turned out for you!

Still want to see the recipe in action? Watch my how-to video in full below:

Secret Shortbread Cookies

Welcome to Christmas Spectacular 2016! If you were around for this celebration last year, you know I'll be debuting a new cookie recipe each week in December so you can bake for your loved ones during the holiday season. If you're new to this tradition, welcome!

This recipe was a new one for me to try, but it is so simple (only a handful of ingredients), and have such a great effect when you give them away. The cookies seem deceptive -- they look like shortbread, they taste like shortbread, but when you get to the middle of the cookie, you find a Hershey's Kiss hidden inside! Such a great reveal, and it is so easy to pull it off.

This recipe was originally posted by CakesCottage.com.

Drag the recipe card below to your desktop so you have it on hand for those days of holiday baking ahead.