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This year I have the opportunity to co-advise an amazing group of students at K-State and I get to see them once a month. This means that once a month I have a fantastic reason to bake for a group of people who are likely to love whatever I put in front of them (did I mention I LOVE working with college students? Because I do. AND I love the excuse to bake).

This month I took the cookie dough part of the cookie dough topped brownie recipe I posted earlier in January and turned them into truffles. Pretty simple, actually (which I was thankful for after a long day, dinner with friends and run to the gym!) If you’d like to try them yourself, take a peak at the directions below. Caution: If you make these for friends, family or co-workers  make sure you save one for yourself because they will be gone in a jiff!

Cookie Dough Truffles

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

3 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

Pinch of salt

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 package of chocolate almond bark

Directions:

In a small bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. beat in milk and vanilla. Gradually add flower and salt. Stir in chocolate chips. Chill in the refrigerator for two hours. Remove the cookie dough from the refrigerator, form the dough into balls. Once all the dough is rolled, melt several squares of almond bark in a small bowl. Dip each ball into the chocolate and place them on a lined cookie sheet. Garnish the top of each truffle with mini chocolate chips and put back inside the refrigerator. After two hours of cooling, the truffles are ready to enjoy! (Be sure to keep them refrigerated when you’re not serving/eating them)

Yum. YUM!

in Him,

Laura

Although I really love working on a college campus, now that J is a student again i’m finding that our eating habits are quickly slipping into our old college ways. Meals are rushed and sometimes later than we’d like, pre-packaged snacks are a must throughout our day and the pizza shuttle coupons clipped to our fridge tempt us on a weekly basis (and sometimes we give in….). It might sound silly, but Pinterest has been a great tool in helping us combat these ‘old college habits’. It’s been fun to write our weekly grocery list around the ingredients needed for the recipes we carefully select each week. This week’s big successes include a fun snack mix (recipe passed along by J’s momma) and a healthy and simple Tilapia dinner.  If you’ve got an inner college kid who only wants to eat pizza, chips and brownies…. I hope these recipes help keep their cravings at bay:-D

Seasoned Goldfish-Pretzel-Peanut Mix

Ingredients

• 3 packs of goldfish (I use less goldfish and supplement with pretzels and peanuts)
• 1 envelope ranch dressing mix
• 3 tsp. dill weed
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. lemon pepper
• 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil ( I only use about 1/3)

5.  Let cool and enjoy! If you keep this snack mix in an air-tight container it will hold for over a week

Baked Tilapia

This was my favorite Pinterest recipe try of the week. If you’d like to follow my boards, please click here!

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup soft bread crumbs
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 4 Tilapia fillets

Directions

• In a shallow bowl, combine the bread crumbs, cheese, garlic salt and oregano. Coat fillets in crumb mixture. Place on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray.
• Bake at 425° for 8-12 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.

Nutritional Facts: 1 fillet equals 143 calories, 2 g fat (1 g saturated fat), 72 mg cholesterol, 356 mg sodium, 2 g carbohydrate, trace fiber, 28 g protein.

J and I paired french cut green beans, sliced cuties and a surprisingly yummy olive oil and garlic couscous (a $1 special at Aldi last week!) with this light and healthy fish. J would’ve liked the fish to have a bit more flavor (I told him sauces and seasonings= calories and were a no). We got some Wham seasoning for Christmas and it’s great on all meats and even eggs. One sprinkle of Wham and his ‘inner college craver’ was doing a lot betterI, however, liked the light taste of the meal and appreciated the low calories without any additional seasoning. This will definitely be a meal we make again!

I’ll leave you with a couple of my favorite new images. These were taken at Tuttle Creek State Park in Manhattan, Kansas last weekend when Jordan and I were showing a couple of new international students around town. I don’t make it out to this spot often enough but when I do it never ceases to take my breath away.

Have a great weekend and happy cooking if you decide to give either of these recipes a try!

in His love,

Laura