Hawaiian Dream Cookies

As promised, here is a photo of me from prom this past weekend!

Senior Prom 2013

I did not ask permission to post a picture of my date, but he’s not that important anyways right? ;) In all seriousness, he is actually a really great guy and was super fun to spend the day with.  Can’t believe I have no more high school dances left EVER!

Senior Prom 2013

I really don’t have a ton to share about prom, there wasn’t any major drama worth sharing so let’s move onto these ahhh-mazing cookies I baked up!

Coconut Macadamia Nut Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

I’m sure many of you have tasted or heard of white chocolate macadamia nut cookies.

Coconut Macadamia Nut Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

I’m a huge fan. I particularly love macadamia nuts, which are sort of a special treat for me because they are super duper expen$ive here in the non-tropical Midwest. I decided to treat myself and bake up some cookies made with a match made in heaven-coconut and macadamia nuts.

Coconut Macadamia Nut Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

All I have to say is, you MUST try this recipe. These cookies are everything you need and more.

Coconut Macadamia Nut Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

Coconut Macadamia Nut Cookies (Hawaiian Dream Cookies)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1/2 cup white  sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 egg

pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups coconut

3/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts

  1. Preheat oven to 350˚F.
  2. Cream together butter and sugars using a mixer. Mix in egg and vanilla extract. Add in salt, baking soda, and flours. Stir in coconut with mixer. Fold in nuts by hand or slowly using the mixer
  3. Drop dough onto an ungreased baking sheet by the teaspoonful and bake in preheated oven for 7-9 minutes or until edges are golden. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes, then let finish cooling on wire rack for about 5 minutes. Enjoy! Store leftovers in sealed container.

Random Fact of the Day: A sneeze can travel as fast as 100 miles per hour.

Hawaiian Dream Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

Monster Cookies

I have been thinking.. I really, really want to get a scooter. Ever since my mom and I rented them in Key West, I have been considering it even more. I should probably start growing my money tree first, but like in all seriousness, I think they are a smart investment especially for when I get out of college. So fuel efficient and hellooooo parking is like a bajillion times easier.

Monster Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

I have my eyes on this beauty. Normally I wouldn’t want my car a real “out there” color, but I am in love with that aquamarine color! (Dear Santa…This would be great in about 4 years when I graduate from college. Thanks! love, Casey) A girl can dream right??

Monster Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

Anyways while I’m waiting for that dream to come true, I have some monster cookies to share with you all! There are loads of variations of the famous “monster cookie” floating around everywhere, but this one is the version I came up with that is loaded with a bunch of stuff.

Monster Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

I wanted to put crushed pretzels and peanut butter chips in there too, but I didn’t want to overload the cookie with add-ins. Feel free to mix up the add-ins what whatever you have in the house! This recipe is great for using up post-holiday candy that is laying around that you can cut into small pieces and throw in the dough.

Monster Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

Monster Cookies

(Makes about 2 dozen large cookies)

1/2 cup (1 stick)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup peanut butter

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup oats

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup butterscotch chips

1/3 cup M&Ms

  1. Preheat oven to 350˚ F.
  2. Using a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugars. Mix in peanut butter. Add in egg and vanilla extract. Stir in baking soda, flours, and oats. Finally, mix in chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and M&Ms until thoroughly combined.
  3. Drop dough by Tablespoonful onto an ungreased cookie sheet, flatten cookies slightly (they don’t spread in the oven), and bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes or until edges are set and golden. Let cool on cookie sheet for about 2 minutes then transfer onto wire rack to finish cooling. Enjoy!

Monster Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

Monster Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

Random Fact of the Day: The most popular sport as a topic for a film is boxing.

Double Chocolate M&M Cookies and a BIG BIG DAY!

WOoooo!!! Today is my 2 year blogoversary!

Double Chocolate M&M Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

I can not even believe that two years ago, I was just posting my first post on Beautiful Disasters. I still have fun looking back on some of my first posts and looking at the photos

Double Chocolate M&M Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

The other day I had to go through a lot of old posts and get rid of all the pictures and just keep one for every post because I was running low on memory on the blog and needed to clear up some space..YIKES some of those pictures had reaaaaallly extended their stay on the blog a wee bit too long.

Double Chocolate M&M Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

Those were the days before I snagged my mom’s fancy, nice Nikon D80 camera (thanks mom!). Slowly, I have become more used to the camera and have picked up on what works and what doesn’t work. The most important thing I have picked up on for good pictures is to take picture with NATURAL lighting when possible. For me, this has meant that I bring my food outside and set up my photo shoot out there. There certainly are days that I get lazy or it is too dark or there is just some down-right icky weather out where I just say screw it, I’m gonna take pitiful pictures in my cozy house.

Double Chocolate M&M Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

I have researched ways to take high-quality photos inside, but I have found it requires a bit of set-up and more supplies than good ‘ol Mr. Sun. So whenever I can, I try to take pictures outside.

Double Chocolate M&M Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

But I digress from all this photography talk…on to these cookies!

Double Chocolate M&M Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

I was having a little trouble deciding what to make for my 2 year blogoversary (granted, I realized my blogoversary was happening 3 days before today). So I turned to my mom for some suggestions. I was thinking something along the lines of a cake or cupcake, maybe something with funfetti to bring out the whole “blogoversary-birthday” theme. But, my mom came up with an idea that I liked even better. Soft chocolate M&M cookies!

Double Chocolate M&M Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

One of the keys to making these cookies fabulous is to make them fairly generous sized cookies. I’m talking 2 Tablespoons to 1/4 cup size of dough here. Be sure that you flatten them slightly, so they bake up nicely. And then, of course, you can’t forget the M&Ms! These cookies sure are a winner and I’m glad that I can share them with you all for my 2 year anniversary of Beautiful Disasters.

Double Chocolate M&M Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

Double Chocolate M&M Cookies

(Makes 1 dozen large cookies)

1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, room temp

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder (I used dark cocoa powder)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

about 1/4 cup M&Ms

  1. Preheat oven to 350˚F.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk together flours, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
  3. Using a mixer, cream together butter and sugars. Mix in egg and vanilla extract. Slowly add in the dry ingredients and mix until thoroughly combined, be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
  4. Drop the cookie dough by large spoonfuls (between 2 Tablespoons and 1/4 cup of dough) onto the ungreased cookie sheet and bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes or until edges of cookies are set and slightly firm to touch. Let cool and sit on cookie sheet for 2 minutes and then transfer cookies to wire rack to finish cooling for 5-10 minutes. Store in sealed container.

Double Chocolate M&M Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

Random Fact of the Day: The opposite sides of a dice cube always add up to seven!

Choco-Mint [Cake Mix] Bars

Weeeirdest thing ever has been happening to me quite frequently lately…

Choco-Mint Bars | Beautiful Disasters

Ever since I have stopped eating meat (about 3 months ago), I have been having the craziest dreams(/nightmares).

Choco-Mint Bars | Beautiful Disasters

It’s usually pretty short, but basically the way it goes is this: I eat meat without thinking about it or remembering that I gave up meat, I FREAK out, start crying, ask about surgery to remove the meat, cry some more and just freak out in general.

Choco-Mint Bars | Beautiful Disasters

Then I wake up, and it always feels like the dream was so real. I’ll be like “Did that really just happen? Did I really do that? WHY would I freak out about eating a little meat?” especially because I really don’t care that much if I eat a little meat, especially when I don’t want to be an inconvenience to others during meals that are outside of my control.

Choco-Mint Bars | Beautiful Disasters

At a pasta dinner for soccer, the sauce was of course a meat sauce, so I pretty much tried to make the best of it and just avoid the sauce as much as I could but those little things certainly aren’t worth creating a fuss over. Thankfully all my little meat-eating tantrums have been dreams.

Choco-Mint Bars | Beautiful Disasters

On a totally unrelated note..You may have noticed these pictures of these delicious bars. Oh yeashhh they are delish. One of my favorite flavor combos (chocolate and mint) and then the cake mix I used already have marshmallow bits in it, so I was just like SCOREEE. This recipe is super versatile, so feel free to use whatever cake mix you want and what add-ins you like!

Choco-Mint [Cake Mix] Bars

1 (13.75 oz.) Chocolate* Cake Mix (This size is usually labeled as “Cupcake Mix”)**See note at bottom!***

2 eggs

5 Tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 cup Mint Andes baking bits (Or chopped up Andes candies)

  1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Spray a 8″x8″ or 9″x9″ baking pan with cooking spray.
  2. In a large bowl, mix dry cake mix, eggs, and melted butter together until combined.  Add in the mint Andes bits until evenly distributed. Pour batter into prepared baking pan.
  3. Bake in preheated oven for 16-18 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Let cool in pan for about 5-10 minutes, then slice and enjoy! Cover bars with plastic wrap or store in sealed container when not eating.

*You may notice the white little specks in my bars, the cake mix I used had marshmallow bits already included in it, so that is what those are!

***Note: If you can only find a regular sized 18.25 oz. cake mix, that is fine, just prepare the batter the same. You may need to add a few more Tablespoons of water or milk to make the batter a spreadable consistency. Pour the batter into a 13″ x 9″ baking pan and bake at 350˚F for 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Choco-Mint Bars | Beautiful Disasters

Random Fact of the Day: 40% of women have hurled footwear at a man. Any readers out there guilty of this??

Chocolate Andes Mint Cookies

I’m pretty mad at myself right now..

I failed to get a picture of these cookies, so you’re all just going to have to take my word on this one. They basically look like a regular chocolate cookie with bits of Andes Mint candy throughout. I’m sure you all have great imaginations and can come up with a nice illustration in your head, probably even better than what I could capture with a picture!

Here’s my drawn replication. No, I am not related to Picasso, despite popular belief.

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oooh mouth-watering!

Eeek I’ve probably scared you away from these cookies already, but I swear they’re good. Especially if you’re a mint-chocolate freak like me. If you can’t tell, I’m suffering a major case of the Monday’s. Hope you all have a great Monday filled with cookies and nonforgetfulness!

Chocolate Andes Mint Cookies

(Makes about 3 1/2 dozen small cookies)

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1¼ cup white sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup dark cocoa powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour (or all-purpose)
pinch of salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup Andes creme de menthe baking chips

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
  2. Cream together butter and sugar until fully combined. Mix in both eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla extract. Add cocoa powder until completely mixed in. Slowly add flours, salt, and baking powder. By hand, stir in Andes creme de menthe baking chips.
  3. Drop dough by the teaspoonful onto cookie sheets and bake in preheated oven for 9-11 minutes. Let cool for about 2 minutes on cookie sheet, then transfer cookies to wire rack to finish cooling. Enjoy!

In absence of the cookies, please enjoy this picture of my model dog, Harry

He's doing the signature Tyra look behind the shoulder pose

He’s doing the signature Tyra look behind the shoulder pose

Random Fact of the Day: The sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog.” uses every letter of the alphabet!