Peanut Butter Cookie Bars

I remember growing up, having peanut butter cookie bars. My favorite combination is peanut butter and chocolate, so you can see why I would love these. They're so soft, chewy, and sweet. Here at the local grocery store, Macey's, they sell these bars. Every time I go to the store, I can't help but want to buy them as my mouth waters while passing them in the bakery section. I decided to make an end to my craving that I've been having constantly for the last week and a half, and made them.

I love them so much, I'd eat them myself. So, I had to take them to work to make sure I didn't do so. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do.

Peanut Butter Cookie Bars

1/2 cup melted butter  $1.75

1/2 cup light brown sugar  $.24
1/2 cup sugar  $.13
1 cup of creamy peanut butter  $2.00
1 egg, room temperature  $.12
1 teaspoon vanilla extract  $.03
1 1/3 cup flour  $.11 
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder  $.01
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup of dark or milk chocolate chips  $1.00

cream butter, brown sugar, sugar, peanut butter, egg, and vanilla together.

In a separate bowl, sift the flour, powder, soda, and salt together.  Add dry ingredients to creamed ingredients. Mix until dough is just combined.  The dough will be crumbly. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Grease and flour an a 8×8 or 9×9 pan. Dump cookie dough into pan and press firmly to spread out dough until you have leveled out the dough. 

Bake for 18 minutes at 350⁰F, or until dough is firm to the touch and light brown color. Remove pan from oven. Pour chocolate chips evenly over the top. Place back in the oven and bake for another 2-4 minutes.  Remove and spread the chocolate evenly with a knife. Let the cookie cool. Cut and serve. 

Total Estimated Cost: $5.39

Servings: 16 squares

Cost Per Serving: $.34

This is such a good recipe to take as a snack for parties, holidays, gatherings, weekends, weekdays, mornings, afternoons, evenings. .... basically for any time. Enjoy!

Oreo Truffles

I'm a chocoholic. That's a fact. Anyone that knows me can testify of that. So, when it comes to desserts and chocolate, I can't keep my hands off. I love Oreo Truffles. They're super easy to make, and addicting beyond all get out. Because of this fact, I'm placing a warning out along with this recipe.

Warning: Do NOT make this recipe if you are alone or have the munchies. You WILL eat them all in one sitting. Does also cause a side of happiness and sweet tooth satisfaction. :)

Oreo Truffles

1 pkg. (or 36) Oreos  $ 3.00
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese  $2.00
1 bag (12-16 oz.) chocolate chips  $2.50

Soften cream cheese. Crush cookies into a fine powder. Mix together cream cheese and crushed cookies until it is a smooth dough. Form dough into 1 inch balls and place onto wax paper. Put balls into freezer for about 10 minutes. Remove from freezer. Melt chocolate chips in microwave or in a double boiler. Dip balls into chocolate, place back on wax paper. Refrigerate for about an hour.

Total Estimated Cost: $7.50
Servings: 36 truffles (approximately)
Total Cost Per Serving: $.21

Tips: If you have a food processor, just crush your cookies in there. Once it's a fine powder, add your cream cheese and mix it. The food processor will do most of the work for you! To help form balls, try using a cookie dough scoop.

Ideas: For mint truffles, try mint Oreos and mint chocolate chips or white chocolate chips. Try out a summer flavor of truffles by doing the lemonade or sherbet flavored Oreos with white chocolate. Eat these while they're cold, and you'll be in heaven!

Mama's Oatmeal Cookies

Side Note: If I don't put a price of an ingredient next to it, that means that the given amount is less than $.01, so it doesn't really cost anything.

I've always considered myself the cookie queen. I'm going to lie to you, I take great pride in my baking abilities. I'm confident that I know how to make super delicious desserts. But, there's one cookie I have never been able to perfect: Oatmeal cookies. They always turned out weird. They would burn, be super hard, deformed, and super flat. No matter which recipe I tried, I could never get them right. So, I stopped attempting to make them and never really ate them either.

Cue super cute husband: Then, Treyton magically appeared in my life, along with an amazing oatmeal cookie recipe that I can make! Treyton isn't much of a sweets eater (sadly), but he will scarf down a half dozen of these in one sitting, easily. Thanks to his mama, Karen, he introduced me to this recipe. It is awesome. It's the perfect, most delicious oatmeal cookie recipe I have ever used. At first, Treyton didn't let me make these cookies, because he was pro at making them himself. But today I have evidence of how good his mama's secret recipe for oatmeal cookies is and how well they turned out.

Brace yourselves. Here we go!

Mama's Oatmeal Cookies
1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) butter  $2.00
3/4 cup brown sugar  $.30
1/2 cup sugar  $.13
1 egg  $.12
1 tsp. vanilla  $.17
1 1/2 cups flour  $.12
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon  $.11
1/4 tsp. nutmeg  $.05
3 cups oats  $1.82

Soften butter. Beat butter, brown sugar, and sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix well. Stir in oats.
Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375°F for 8-9 minutes. 

Tips: don't bake on the silicone baking sheets, they don't bake properly. You can buy a cookie scoop (almost like an ice cream scoop), that will revolutionize your cookie making. It makes all the balls of dough the perfect size. 
Ideas: Try adding raisins or chocolate chips. Use cream cheese icing or buttercream for a filling and create your own homemade oatmeal cream pies. Or make oatmeal cream pie ice cream sandwiches. 

Total Estimated Cost: $4.82
Servings: about 32 cookies
Total Cost Per Serving: $.15

If you don't change out your oatmeal cookie recipe for this one after you're done making them, then you've gone crazy. You won't be disappointed! 

Breakfast Burritos

One thing that Treyton and I love to eat are breakfast burritos, even for dinner. They're so good! I love sausage, cheese, eggs, and all that yummy goodness. Eating breakfast burritos (or any kind of burrito) is kind of our thing, especially when we don't know what else to make for dinner. So, the other night Treyton wanted breakfast burritos for dinner, but we didn't have flour tortillas. That's when I whipped out a super easy recipe I found and made homemade tortillas and breakfast burrito filling. They were both easy, fast, and I already had everything I needed in my fridge.

Breakfast Burrito Filling
1 lb. breakfast sausage  $2.99
1/2 medium onion  $.25
1/2 green pepper  $.40
5 eggs  $.80
1/2 cup milk  $.10
salt
pepper

Dice the onion and pepper, then cook them with the sausage on medium. Brown the sausage until fully cooked. In a separate bowl, beat eggs, add milk, add salt and pepper to eggs (a couple of shakes is all you need). Pour scrambled eggs mixture into the frying pan that has the sausage. Stir occasional and cook the scrambled eggs until they are to your liking. Add cheese on top. Serve right up into your breakfast burrito!

Ideas: Try different kinds of cheese: cheddar, pepper jack, mozzarella. Treyton and I also use turkey sausage, which is cheaper and healthier. You can also add country fried potatoes or hash browns to your burritos.
Top With: cheese, sour cream, salsa, hot sauce

Total Estimated Cost: $4.54
Servings: 4
Total Cost Per Serving: $1.14

Hearty Beef Stew

Another Side Note: My "serving sizes" are based upon what Treyton and I eat. His "serving size" is at least 2 bowls of stew or more than one typically eats. I measure it on how many meals we get out of it. If I write 4, it's because he and I can eat the meal twice (me + him for dinner, me + him for lunch).

Beef Stew. So good. So filling. I remember Sundays, coming home from church, and having beef stew. My mother was always good about getting into the crock pot. The smell of roast, potatoes, carrots, and spices would fill the air. It was the best smell to come home to when you're hungry. You may think this is just a meal for cold weather, but it's great for the summer when you're busy working and want to get outside afterwards. It doesn't take much time to prepare, and once it's in the crock pot, it cooks itself! So, you come home to a delicious meal. To me, it's awesome during the summer, because you can get those fresh produce again.
This recipe is for a 7 or 8 quart crock pot.

Beef Stew

1 lb. Stewing Beef (or chuck roast)  $3.47
2.5 lbs potatoes (6-9 medium potatoes)  $1.25
4 stalks celery  $.50
1 medium onion  $.50
1 lb. baby carrots (3-4 carrots)  $.79
4 cups water 
1 packet beef stew seasoning  $.79
salt 
pepper

clean and dice potatoes into 1 inch cubes, thaw meat (if you don't, you need to cook the stew for an hour or two longer), chop celery, dice onion, cut baby carrots in half (this makes it more bite-size). Put all the vegetables and meat in the crock pot. Add beef stew seasoning and water (I made an estimate of how much water you need. It is to at least fill the crock pot up until the half way point of the vegetables). Stir the contents around to mix the seasoning. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, or until meat and vegetables are all the way cooked. Add salt and pepper to your taste.

Ideas: Try adding a green pepper or red pepper or diced tomatoes
Top with: Cheese or sour cream
Total Estimated Cost: $7.30
Total Servings: 5
Cost Per Serving: $1.46