Christmas Truffle Recipe Round-Up

Can you believe Christmas is NEXT week?! That's right - just one week away!

If you're anything like me, you need gifts for your neighbors... or your kids' teachers... or random family members who show up at holiday parties... or you just need something deliciously sweet to take your mind off of spending so much time with family over the holidays. ;-)

Whatever the case, these four truffle recipes are sure to hit the sweet-tooth spot AND be a big hit at all holiday gatherings.

Last year, I made all four of these truffles, packaged them up all nice and neat in these adorable Christmas tins (from Dollar Tree - holla!), used mini muffin wrappers to individually hold them... and I took them across the country for my family to eat devour after Christmas dinner. The four different truffle flavors are: Chocolate Peanut Butter, Gingerbread, Egg Nog, and Peppermint Chocolate. YUM.

This year? Yeah, that hasn't happened yet. Don't get me wrong: I want them. But I just got over a terrible sinus infection ordeal that involved a middle of the night trip to the ER on base... and taking care of Annabelle and making gobs of Etsy orders to ship out in time for Christmas has left me feeling less than motivated to do anything else before we head out on our road trip next week. Who knows? Maybe the feeling will strike, and I'll whip one or two of these up... but I promise you won't regret it if you make all four. They're worth it. 

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER TRUFFLES

Prep Time: 15 minutes                                                                             

Cooking Time: 1 hour (chill time)

Yield: 2 dozen truffles

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 tbsp butter, melted

• 1/2 cup peanut butter

• 1+ cup powdered sugar

• 2 tbsp marshmallow fluff (optional)

• 8 oz chocolate candy coating

Directions

1. Melt butter in the microwave.

2. In a medium bowl, combine peanut butter, butter, and marshmallow fluff, and stir well to combine.

3. Using a spatula to mix, gradually add 1 cup of powdered sugar, adding more until dough is no longer sticky.

4. Whip peanut butter mixture until no longer clumpy looking.

5. Roll dough into a large ball, and chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

6. Roll one inch balls from dough, and place on a cookie sheet.

7. Return the dough balls to the refrigerator.

8. Melt chocolate candy coating according to package directions.

9. Line another baking sheet with wax paper.

10. Dip dough balls into chocolate, and place on the wax paper to dry.

11. Refrigerate truffles when finished. 

GINGERBREAD TRUFFLES

Prep Time: 15 minutes                                                                             

Cooking Time: 1 hour (chill time)

Yield: 2 dozen truffles

Ingredients

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened

• 8 oz ginger snap cookies

• 12 oz white chocolate chips

• decorations (optional)

Directions

1. Line cookie sheet with wax paper.

2. Finely crush ginger snaps in a food processer.

3. Add cream cheese, and pulse until combined.

4. Refrigerate for a half hour.

5. Form into one inch balls, and place on cookie sheet.

6. Insert a toothpick in each one, and freeze for 30 minutes.

7. Melt chocolate chips, stirring often to avoid burning.

8. Use toothpick to dip each ball into melted chocolate, and then remove toothpicks.

9. Use decorations to cover the toothpick holes if you want!

EGG NOG TRUFFLES

Prep Time: 15 minutes                                                                             

Cooking Time: 1 hour (chill time)

Yield: 2 dozen truffles

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar

• ¾ cup eggnog

• ½ cup butter

• 1 tsp rum flavoring

• 1 tsp nutmeg

• 1 cup marshmallow cream

• 3 cups white chocolate chips

• 1 bar white vanilla/almond bark

• 1 tbsp nutmeg, for garnish

Directions

1. In a large pot, bring sugar, eggnog, and butter to a rolling boil for two minutes.

2. Remove from heat, and mix in rum flavoring and 1 tsp nutmeg.

3. Pour mixture into a mixing bowl, and stir in marshmallow cream and white chocolate chips. Mix until completely melted and incorporated.

4. Refrigerate for one hour.

5. Roll mixture into one inch balls, and freeze for one hour.

6. Melt vanilla/almond bark, and dip each ball until coated.

7. Immediately sprinkle a small amount of nutmeg on each one (as you go so they don’t dry).

8. Allow to set in refrigerator for another 30 minutes. 

PEPPERMINT CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES

Prep Time: 15 minutes                                                                             

Cooking Time: 1 hour (chill time)

Yield: 2 dozen truffles

Ingredients

• 4 oz cream cheese, softened

• 1 cup powdered sugar

• 1 cup chocolate chips, melted

• ½ tsp peppermint extract

• 1/3 cup crushed candy canes

Directions

1. Beat cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth.

2. Melt chocolate chips in the microwave, stirring often so they don’t burn.

3. Add melted chocolate and peppermint extract to cream cheese mixture, and beat until smooth and well combined.

4. Cover and refrigerate for one hour.

5. Roll into one inch balls.

6. Roll balls in crushed candy canes.

*Note: don’t roll in candy canes until the day you’re serving.

Do you like truffles?

What is your favorite kind?

Do you LOVE all the Christmas desserts like me?

    

Top Thanksgiving Side Dishes

Can you believe Thanksgiving is NEXT week? I'm pretty sure I missed that whole summer transitioning into fall thing, and before we know it, we'll be moving into winter... which I hope brings lots of snow with it.

But I digress...

Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite food day of the year. Sure, it's a lot of work, but seriously - all that food! And without all the stresses of Christmas? I'll take it!

Last year, I made almost this exact spread... but I made creamy garlic mashed potatoes instead of the twice baked potato casserole. I wanted to change things up a bit this year... but not too much. Can you tell this is way too much food, even with my family visiting? This year, we will have an additional three guests and maybe not so many leftovers.

These 17 recipes are simple and please crowds... there are appetizers, side dishes, desserts, and even a special drink - caramel apple sangria! Yum! These cards are standard 4x6 inch recipe cards, and if you print them on cardstock, you can add them right to your recipe box. To get your FREE set of the 4x6 inch recipe cards, DOWNLOAD THEM HERE (PDF file). 

The recipes include:

• Baked Brie
• Candied Yams
• Caramel Apple Sangria
• Cinnamon Apples
• Cornbread Casserole
• Cranberry Sauce
• Creamed Peas
• Deviled Eggs
• Dressing
• Glazed Carrots
• Green Bean Casserole
• Macaroni and Cheese
• Pecan Pie Bars
• Pumpkin Pie
• Twice Baked Potato Casserole
• Waldorf Salad
• Warm Onion Dip

To get your FREE set of the 4x6 inch recipe cards, DOWNLOAD THEM HERE. It's a 9 page PDF file... simply print them onto cardstock, cut them out, and use them to prepare your delicious Thanksgiving dinner! 

• What are your favorite side dishes?
• Do you have any family favorites?

    

Easy Pasta Salad: Recipe

Let me start this post by saying that no, I have NOT been cooking since our sweet baby arrived last week! However, the weekend before we had her, we attended a pot luck dinner for the Boy Scout troop Dan volunteers with.

It was an award ceremony / rank promotion, and it was really cool to talk more to the people he works with each week and meet the high school student he has spent so much time with helping him achieve the special God and Life award!

Everyone was supposed to bring something, and not knowing when I would go into labor, I opted for this SUPER easy pasta salad that my mom (and many others, I'm sure) has been making for as long as I can remember.

The only thing you have to remember is that the noodles will have to cool after being boiled before you can add the other ingredients. 

I doubled this recipe for the event, but in hindsight, I wish I hadn't. There was SO MUCH food there. 

And now for the good part... the recipe!

Do you like pasta salad?

What is your go-to dish for a pot luck?

    

2 Ingredient Pumpkin Muffins: Recipe

It's Friday again, and since it's finally September, I am sharing this super awesome pumpkin muffin recipe with you all!

Recipe is subjective, though. I feel pretty silly even sharing this one. It's all over Pinterest, though, so I had to give it a try... and what kind of blogger would I be if I didn't share my results with you? ;-)

I'll admit it. I thought they were going to be dry and dense... and not very good. Luckily, that was not the case! The canned pumpkin turned these bad boys out just right!

This recipe made 12 muffins for us. We ate them ALL within a few days. I totally meant to freeze some for easy snacks for after Baby Cookie gets here... but that went out the door when we tasted how good these are. Plus, they're so easy, I'm sure I can whip up another batch soon!

2 Ingredient Pumpkin Muffins

INGREDIENTS

• 1 package cake mix (any kind - I used butter pecan here, but I've heard spice, carrot, and yellow all work really well!)

• 1 15 oz. can pure pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling)

• OPTIONAL: chocolate chips / cream cheese frosting

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350º.

2. In a large bowl, combine the cake mix and the pumpkin.

3. Use a beater to mix until batter is consistent.

4. Add chocolate chips if you are using. (I used the mini ones in mine!)

5. Scoop the mixture into muffin liners.

6. Bake for 20-25 minutes (mine needed 22 minutes exactly).

7. Try to let them cool before digging in... but we couldn't wait that long!

Are you a 'pumpkin' person?

What's your favorite kind of muffin?

    

A Month of Freezer Meals

In order to prepare for our baby girl's arrival, Dan and I decided to make a bunch of food and freeze it. We have no idea what our days will be like once Baby Cookie is here, and we want to be prepared so we don't grab fast food every night.

To do so, I compiled a list of recipes that we already enjoy (and a couple new ones for fun), typed them all out, made a giant shopping list, and we got started! *You can find a free PDF download at the end of this post, which includes the meal plan, all of the recipes, and a shopping list!

We ended up making 15 recipes, and we doubled each one so that we will get a full month out of them! It's just the two of us eating, though, so if you are feeding more people, you'll only get half a month out of these recipes unless you make more of each one!

In total, we went to three grocery stores (Sam's Club, Aldi's, and Kroger) and spent a total of $110. Not bad for a whole month's worth of dinner, right? Keep in mind that we already had most of the basics, like spices and most sauces.

Some of these recipes were SUPER easy to prep - literally just gathering the ingredients and dumping them in a gallon sized Ziploc bag. Those are the recipes that will simply be thawed and placed in a crock pot to cook. The ones we put in foil baking dishes we had to cook ahead of time, which definitely took more time (but will be well worth it later!). If you only have a little time, you could make the freezer bag meals one day and the foil pan meals another time.

Here's a list of what we made -

HELPFUL TIPS

• For bagged / crock pot meals: I highly recommend writing the meal name and cooking instructions on the bag in Sharpie BEFORE putting the ingredients inside. Also, lay the bags flat in the freezer so they will take up less space when frozen and be easier to grab later.

• For foil dish meals: Use a Sharpie to label each meal on top, AND write the cooking instructions so you remember what to set the oven to and how long to cook it for. On some of mine, I even wrote suggestions (like serve with garlic toast, etc.) We let ours partially cool before stacking them in our chest freezer.

• To make these meals vegetarian, simply replace the meat with other veggies or your favorite brand of mock meat products, and of course replace the broth with vegetable broth!

To download the free meal plan, recipes, and shopping list, CLICK HERE to get it from my Dropbox!

Do you make freezer meals?
What are your go-to easy recipes?
Did you stockpile dinners before your baby was born?