mini oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies.

Isn't everything better in the mini version? Think about it: sliders, donut holes, miniature dachshunds, mini skirts, mini m&m's..... you get the idea.

Well, these cookies are the perfect little cookie to gobble up in one bite. I, however, still like to bite mine in half... just to see the cute little oreo inside.

And isn't the idea of a cookie inside a cookie just mouth-watering? It's like a..... a cannibal cookie. Is that politically correct? But that's what it is. It's like a chocolate chip cookie ate a mini oreo.

My friend Melissa (hi Melissa!), has been wanting to bake with me for a while. Well, last night we were finally able to! It worked out perfectly. I would scoop the cookie dough onto each side of the oreo and she would smoosh it all together so that it would surround the oreo! We made a great team, and the boys enjoyed eating the results!

I got a little frisky and added a Hershey's Nugget with Toffee to one of them :X

Not only were these cookies fun to make, but they are super yummy! I can't wait to stuff cookies with lots of different things... like brownies, mini candy bars, other kinds of cookies, and more! Jenny over at Picky Palate provides plenty of inspiration. She is the master of cookie-stuffing!

Mini Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe from Picky Palate

2 sticks butter (softened)

3/4 cup light brown sugar (packed)

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 tbs vanilla

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

10 oz bag chocolate chips (I used mini, and I only used about half of a 12 oz bag)

Mini oreo's... I bought two snack-sized bags. It was plenty!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter and sugars with an electric mixer until well combined. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until well combined. In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt, and baking soda. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing after each addition, until all the ingredients are combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

Using either a teaspoon or a melon baller, put one scoop of dough on the top and one scoop of dough on the bottom of each oreo. Like this:

Seal the edges together by pressing the cookie dough together on the sides. You may need to add a little more dough to enclose the entire cookie. Place onto the baking sheet and bake cookies 8-10 minutes.

Trust me, you'll need that extra-tall glass of milk for these babies.

pork chop.

As you know, we have an adorable little chunky guinea pig named Bacon. Well, as you may not know, guinea pigs are very social animals. Bacon is very social with us! When he hears us talking, he squeaks and squeals and runs around happily. He will even stand up to the edge of his cage when we go near it so that we can pet him.

But this weekend.......

We got him a new friend!

His name is Pork Chop and we love him. He is so so sooo little (compared to Bacon!) and adorable! (Yes, we now have two guinea pigs named after pork products. Get it, they're guinea PIGS? We're clever.)

Right now, he is living in Bacon's old cage for a few weeks so we can be sure he didn't bring any sicknesses home with him from the pet store. But after that, we are going to start slowly introducing them! I hope Bacon loves his new "little brother" and shows him the ropes of life in the big cage. ;)

Don't you just want to hold him and squeeze him and love him? Eeeeeeeee he's so adorable! I wonder if while we're gone they squeak to each other from across the apartment. 

My mom says he looks like a ZhuZhu pet. I think that's a fair assessment. :)

We love our two boys! :)

crock-pot lemon garlic chicken.

I really thought this was an original recipe! My sister made it for us one time when I was little.. and then my parents got the recipe from her, and then it was in our menu rotation! I thought nobody else made this chicken. Sure, maybe something like it, but certainly this specific recipe was original.

A quick google search put a kibosh on that line of thinking. Evidently, everyone has this recipe. As in the exact.same.ingredients. Sad :(

But guess what? I'm going to show you anyways. Why? Because it fills the whole house with this delicious chickeny-lemony-garlicy aroma and then when it's done, the chicken falls apart. Literally.

And do you know what makes ours different? We aren't shy with the juice. Most recipes (and even the original one that my sister used) call for only 1/4 cup of water and one measly chicken bouillon cube. But you know what? The juice ROCKS. The more juice, the better.

My mom noticed that my brother and I would take (heaping) spoonfuls of the juice from the crockpot and pour it over the rice that it has to be served with/over. So she slowly upped the amount of juice that the chicken is cooked in. And upped it. And upped it. And now.... well lets just say that the original amount of water is multiplied by 8. Yupper. 4 whole cups of love. Get into it.

Oh and if you want to break the chicken breasts into little shreds and put it onto your rice with the delicious juice and eat it like one big rice casserole from heaven? You go right ahead. (I'm right there with you)

Lemon Garlic Chicken (with extra juice!) in the Crock-pot

(From my sister... but apparently also every other recipe website known to man)

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

3 tsp oregano (1 for each breast)

1 1/2 tsp salt (1/2 tsp for each breast)

3/4 tsp pepper (1/4 tsp for each breast)

3 cups water

3 tbs lemon juice

1/8 tsp garlic

3 chicken bouillons

2-3 tbs butter + a little olive oil

1 tbs parsley

Rinse/dry chicken. Place 1 tsp oregano, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper into a pile on either a cutting board or a paper plate and mix together. Repeat this 3 times so that you have 3 piles. (Or divide each pile by 2 to make six piles, like I did- because I wanted to cut each chicken breast in half to have 6 pieces of chicken- but this isn't necessary) 

Pat each piece of chicken in a pile to coat completely with the mixture.

In a pan, melt butter and a little olive oil. Brown the chicken breasts on the outside (Do not cook long! Just get the outside to have some color. They will finish cooking in the crock pot) Place chicken in crock pot. 

In the frying pan used to brown the chicken, add 1 cup water. Once pan is deglazed, add other 2 cups of water. Add in the chicken bouillon cubes, lemon juice, and garlic. Bring to a boil. Pour mixture over chicken in the crock-pot.

Cook on low for 5-6 hours of high for 3-4 hours. 1/2 an hour before cooking is complete, add parsley.

Serve over/with white rice! (I also always always have it with green beans (maybe because that juice tastes so good poured over them?)) And yes, that was parentheses inside of parentheses.

D's plate- no green beans for him :(

I am so glad there are leftovers.

toffee chocolate chip snickerdoodles.

Sometimes items at the store just kind of... speak to me. Like I'll see donuts and decide I want fish for dinner. You know, normal things. Well, I was walking through Walmart yesterday and I saw these:

And I remembered seeing a recipe that Jessica from How Sweet It Is posted last week that used them. So into the cart they went, along with the 47 cans of spaghettios (okay, 4) for D. He can (and does) eat them every day. I've seen him get up at 9am and eat a can of spaghettios. We need to invest in stock.

Aaannnyyywaayysss.. these cookies turned out super delicious!  D says they are his second favorite that I have made. (Right behind Double Fudge Oreo Crunch Cookies!) So that's a big deal. They're that good.

Plus it was so exciting to use toffee chips! I get excited over silly things. Like looking at produce. And when Criminal Minds/Grey's Anatomy/Modern Family/The Middle/Big Bang Theory are new on the DVR. You know, the important stuff.

I also brought these cookies with me to work. I'm not sure if the people at my work like me because I keep bringing them cookies or hate me because... I keep bringing them cookies. Hey, a cookie a day keeps the doctor away, right? Right.

And just to round out this already random post, let me just tell you that I got two fillings today. Half of my mouth was numb for like 5 hours. THAT was fun. I had all of these snickerdoodles teeming with toffee pieces and mini chocolate chips just sitting on my counter begging me to eat them.... and I couldn't. Well, I COULD.. but I wouldn't have been able to taste it with half of my mouth. And where's the fun in that?

Toffee Chocolate Chip Snickerdoodles

Recipe from How Sweet It Is

makes 16-20 cookies

1/2 cup butter (at room temperature)

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 tablespoons milk (I only needed 1 tbs)

1/3 cup chocolate chips (I used mini!)

1/2 cup toffee chips/pieces/bits

for dipping:

1/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, mix well to combine. Mix in flour, baking powder, salt, and 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Mix until the dough comes together. Add milk. If the dough is still crumbly, add more milk 1 tbs at a time until the dough comes together. Fold in the chocolate chips and toffee chips. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon to roll the cookies in. Remove dough from fridge. Roll into 1 to 1.5 inch balls. Roll in cinnamon sugar mixture and place on ungreased baking sheet 1-2" apart. Bake 8-10 minutes.

oats in a jar.

I like oats. This is no secret. Well, lately I've seen pictures of "OIAJ" or "Oats in a Jar" on instagram/various blogs. It basically consists of cooked oats in a jar with whatever you want added. Since I always put natural peanut butter on my oats, I thought the perfect jar to use would be the empty Skippy jar. 

And so, I have been waiting for the jar to be empty. And waiting. And waiting. Any yesterday, I finally used up the last of it! All I have been able to think about since then is pouring hot oats into the jar (with layers of brown sugar), and watching as it melted the peanut butter that was stuck to the sides.

After all this waiting, I have not been disappointed. If anything, I'm disappointed that I have to wait until another jar is empty to experience this again. I mean, unless you guys want to send me your empty peanut butter jars or something. Wait, that's weird. Nevermind. 

These pictures don't do it justice. It's hard to get a good picture of something crammed into a jar. But it was delicious! Just the right amount of ooey gooey melted peanut butter, melted brown sugar, and yummy filling oats. (Sidenote: I am now also out of oats. Dangit.)

As I was layering the oats and brown sugar, I thought about how good a cut-up banana would be added to the layers. I'll have to try that next time! Another plus to the jar: my oats stayed hot the whole time! Usually they are cold by the time I take the last bite, but the jar kept them compact enough that they were nice and hot :)

Happy Wednesday, all!

baking AND biking.

Why yes, I AM aware that this blog is called baking AND biking. But see, I kind of meant that more as a metaphor for "I'm going to talk about mostly baking, some cooking, randomly throw in some biking pictures that I take, and whatever else I feel like talking about." What, you didn't get that from the title? Well, I guess it isn't that clear.

Let me clear it up for you. I love baking. I love biking (I probably won't say this when I'm going up a steep-to-me hill as D is chatting along next to me like it's just another walk in the park). I also do 189289 other things in my life. Ok, maybe that's an exaggeration. So I just decide what I feel is interesting enough/good enough to put on here. 

But another metaphor behind the title is that it represents the two biggest hobbies in my life and D's life, respectively. 

I know I have only posted ONE blog post abut biking, but do you want me to lie? That was the last time I went on a bike ride. If I went on another one between then and now, I would have for sure shared it with you. Hmm.. maybe I will have to have D  start taking pictures when he goes on bike rides and I can share those with you! (PS: I promise to take a bike ride while the leaves are all so pretty... I can't pass up on that!)

ANYWAYS... a little update on life:

1. I made apple crisp on Monday and forgot the cinnamon. Fail.

2. I also made homemade applesauce on Monday and did not forget the cinnamon. Win.

3. I roasted my first whole chicken on Monday. (Apparently Monday was a very productive day for me in the kitchen!) It was scarrrrry. But turned out delicious. 

4. I made nothing yesterday (Tuesday). We were busy. We ordered Pizza for dinner.

5. I just finished putting all the ingredients for beef stew in the crock pot. You better believe I can't wait to smell that when I walk in the door tonight. (Recipe coming soon!)

Hope you're having a great hump day!

chocolate covered cherry cookies.

Let me tell you a story. One time when I was little (around 9 or 10), I remember going to the drug store with my parents and my little brother. It was after we had went out to dinner. A lot of times, we would go to the drug store and we would all get our favorite candy bar. (I always got either a Carmello or Mallow Cups. Um, yum.)

But this particular time, I specifically remember that we bought chocolate covered cherries. When we got home, my mom and dad sat in the dining room watching TV and my brother and I went into the living room to watch the VHS we had just rented. (VHS? Rented? Throwback.)


What did we rent, you ask? I remember it was You're Invited to Mary Kate & Ashley's Sleepover. Don't judge me, I liked them all and had them all on VHS back in the day. (Read: I may or may not have still watched Holiday in the Sun and Passport to Paris and When in Rome and all of the others well into my high school years. Okay, honestly I would totally watch one now. As in tonight. I'll have to check Netflix.)

ANYWAYS. That night, my brother and I opened the box of chocolate covered cherries and put them on the counter between the kitchen and the living room. For the rest of the night, we watched Mary Kate & Ashley (he may deny this part), played Chutes and Ladders (he may deny this part as well), and ate most of the box of chocolate covered cherries. Ok, I don't even know if he LIKED chocolate covered cherries. I just remember that I ate them that night.


Why is it that something as trivial as a drug store dessert can bring back a night that happened so long ago so vividly? So weird. I will never be able to eat a chocolate covered cherry without thinking of Mary Kate & Ashley or Chutes and Ladders. Whodathunkit.

Really, none of that has to do with these cookies (except that they have both chocolate and a cherry in them). Which are fantastic, by the way. D's mom made them around Christmas time last year and I fell in love with them.

With one bite, they immediately jumped into my top 5 favorite Christmas cookies of all time. Since my family always makes quite a lengthy list of cookies every year, that is quite a big deal. 

Make them. I implore you. They will complete you.


Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies

recipe from Allrecipes.com

 1/2 cup butter (at room temperature)

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 (10 oz) jar maraschino cherries (strained, reserve cherry juice)

4 tsp cherry juice (from above)

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

With an electric mixer (bowl or hand-held), beat together the butter and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla and beat well. Add the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, and baking powder and mix until smooth. Roll into 1-inch balls and place onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Using the end of a kitchen utensil (I used the end of a whisk) or your thumb, make an indent into each cookie large enough to place a cherry. Place a cherry in each indentation. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes.

While the cookies are baking, combine the sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, and cherry juice in a sauce pan. Heat over low to medium heat stirring constantly until smooth. When the cookies come out of the oven, spoon about a tablespoon of the melted chocolate onto the top of each cookie (so that the cherry is completely covered). If you felt like being fancy, you could drizzle the chocolate over the cookies instead of spooning it over them... but who doesn't love more chocolate? That's what I thought.