Merry Berry Cheese Bars

Happy noon-time on this lovely Tuesday! It’s certainly a sunny one here, and I’m quite thankful that I work in an office with AC. This summer has been a scorcher! While I love summertime and all it brings, I am counting down the minutes until I can wear cardigans, hoodies, long jeans, and scarves. Only a few short months J

I hope you have a sweet tooth today because I have the recipe for a treat: Merry Berry Cheese Bars.

This recipe (including its cutsie name) is not my own; Lauren actually introduced me to it. We made these bars together and I have decided to add this one to my recipe box.

Merry Berry Cheese Bars

Ingredients:

2 cups white flour

1 ½ cups oats

¾ cup brown sugar

1 cup butter softened

8 oz cream cheese (softened)

1 can sweetened condensed milk

¼ cup lemon juice

1 can raspberry pie filling (or cherry, blueberry, strawberry, apple, etc.)

1.       Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.       Mix flour, oats, sugar, and butter together until crumbly

3.       Set aside 1 ½ cups of this mixture

4.       Press remaining mixture into the bottom of a 13x9 pan

5.       Bake this crust for 10 minutes or until golden brown

6.       Beat cream cheese with a mixer until fluffy

7.       Gradually beat in condensed milk and lemon juice

8.       Spread this mixture over the baked crust

9.       Spread the raspberry filling over the cream cheese layer

10.   Finally, top with remaining oat mixture from steps 1 & 2

11.   Bake 45 minutes or until golden brown

12.   Let cool and cut into bars

Roses, these bars delish! Yum, yum. Make them with a friend or two. As always, thank you for reading! It is a pleasure being a part of your busy days. If you want to follow and don’t know how, just ask J

XO.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chunk Chippers

Good morning, sweet peas! How's Tuesday for you? For some odd but oh so great reason, I have splendid feelings about today. I would venture to say that I'm experiencing overflow from how well my Monday ended, but who knows. Who cares!
As I hinted, last night was perfect. I daresay it was a little piece of heaven. After a long day at work (and just a long day in general), I felt like spending a little time in solitude. After running to the grocery store and renting a redbox movie, I decided to do a little baking. Because I will be moving out of my apartment in the near future (tear.) to move back into the oven-and-stove-less dorms for the fall semester, I have been trying to use up my stock of baking ingredients. I had almost an entire bag of whole wheat flour, so I used this as the pivotal feature to work around. After some minutes in thought and internet research, I decided on making whole wheat chocolate chunk chippers. Mmmm. I hope you find this recipe as delightful and delicious as I found it to be. Keep in mind, too, that I substituted several ingredients for healthier alternatives. Delicious meets cookies meets wellness. Hello, perfection!

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chunk Chippers

Ingredients:

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 cup applesauce (sub. for butter)

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 1/3 cups whole wheat flour

1 dark chocolate bar shaved and/or chopped into chunks (this is way cheaper than buying a bag of chocolate chips)

two handfuls chopped almonds (or pecans, macademias, etc., or omit entirely if you so desire)



Directions

First things first! For a little company:

Oh, Frank.



1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. On a cutting board, chop almonds and chocolate

3. Mix brown sugar, white sugar, and applesauce together in a bowl

4. Beat in eggs, one at a time

5. Stir in vanilla, salt, and baking soda until well blended

6. Fold in chocolate chunks and almonds

7. Spoon out small globs of cookie dough onto a greased cookie sheet

8. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown

9. Enjoy with tea and a good movie :)

I ended up enjoying these little delights while lounging on the couch and watching the Adjustment Bureau. It was a fine evening, indeed.

Chickadees, a hope you find time for some 'you time.' We all need a little break once in a while. Love from me to you.

XO.