Birthday Cake Puppy Chow Recipe || A Guest Post

Hello, everyone! Today's theme is a guest post, and I am thrilled to have the lovely Megan from Pen and Ink  here to share a yummy recipe with us today!  Megan has a beautiful blog, so make sure you check it out before you go! 

Hello, everyone! I am super stoked to be able to post on this lovely blog today! Many thanks to these amazing girls for asking me!!

Today, I am going to be sharing my favorite recipe for puppy chow!! You know, that extremely messy but insanely delicious snack mix with peanut butter and chocolate and allll the powdered sugar? This recipe is a variation of that, and it just happens to taste like BIRTHDAY CAKE. Yup, you heard that right. It is AMAZING. Also: it has sprinkles, so that is absolutely a reason to make it, because SPRINKLES. SPRINKLES ARE HAPPY THINGS.

If you want a last-minute snack, or if you just want to be happy because of sprinkles, this is the perfect thing to make! So...GO MAKE IT YO. You won't regret this!! (unless you eat it all at once, of course. ;p) 

                                                    Birthday Cake Puppy Chow

5 cups corn Chex cereal

10 oz. vanilla flavored almond bark coating

1 tsp. vegetable shortening

1 1/2 cups yellow cake mix

1/2 cup powdered sugar

sprinkles (as many or as few as you want)

Measure out the cereal in a medium sized bowl, and set it aside. 

In a large bowl with a lid, combine the yellow cake mix and the powdered sugar. Set this aside also while you melt the almond bark. 

Cut the almond bark into smaller pieces. In a double boiler over medium heat, melt the almond bark with the shortening. Be very careful! White chocolate is extremely easy to burn, and it will be RUINED if you aren't careful. Stir it constantly, and remove it from the heat while it still has a few small chunks in it. Keep stirring until it is completely melted.  

Carefully pour the almond bark over the cereal, then stir it gently to evenly coat it. Make sure you are careful not to break the cereal. Stir in the sprinkles, making sure they are distributed evenly.

Now add the Chex to the powdered sugar and cake mix. Put the lid on the container and toss the cereal to make sure it gets evenly coated. There should be no more wet cereal or stickiness! Once you have finished, let it cool, then you are free to eat it! (Remember: Not all at once!! :D)

GAH This stuff is SO GOOD. It has allll the delicious flavors and sugar and SPRINKLES and YES. Make it. Now. Ok?

(Eep, doesn't that look amazing!?!) 

I want to give a HUGE thank you to these lovely girls for inviting me to flail around in their blog space for a day! Their blog is awesome, and they are super awesome too!! Thanks, girlies!! It's been heaps of fun! ♥ 

Thank you, Megan, for the delicious recipe! We are so happy to have you on A Friend Loves At All Times, and I can't wait to try out your yummy recipe! :) 

Thanks for reading, and have a lovely day!

Healthy Peanut Butter Banana Shake Recipe

Hey guys! Glad to be back! As you probably know, Valentines Day is coming up, and you'll soon find out that today's post has nothing to do with it. (maybe next week) I'm sharing a recipe for a delicious peanut butter banana shake!

You'll need:
1-2 cups of milk of your choice
2 tablespoons of peanut butter
1 banana
1 scoop of protein powder (completely optional)
a blender

Put everything into your blender and blend until smooth.

                                                      Pour into a glass and drink up!


I really hope that you try this recipe. Have a nice day everyone!

~Katie

Days of Christmas : Easy Hot Cocoa recipe

Hello everyone! Today I am due for a recipe post. What better than hot cocoa?! Alright, I'll not keep you waiting any longer...



Ingredients:
1 cup of any milk (I used almond)
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
3-5 tablespoons of sugar, depending on personal preference (or sugar-like substitute. I used xylitol)
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
pinch of salt (optional)
sprinkle of cinnamon (optional)

Instructions:
Combine all of the ingredients in a small saucepan on medium high heat, and heat (while stirring) until you've reached your desired temperature:

Pour into a mug, garnish with your desired toppings, and you're done!

 Yup, that's it! It's not called an easy recipe for nothing!

Tell me in the comments what your favorite Christmas treat is!

 

Recipe-Chocolate Pecan Cookies!

Hey guys! Today I have a recipe for you-my very own recipe- chocolate pecan cookies! Let's jump right in!

The first step for this recipe is to combine all your dry ingredients together- cocoa, flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, and your pecans (I forgot about my pecans while making my cookies and added them in later-you can either add them in now or add them into the dough later)

Slowly add in your eggs, butter, melted chocolate chips, and olive oil. I know your cookies so far look disgusting.. They will taste amazing later! Chocolate....

Mix all your ingredients in the mixing bowl together, and that should form into a nice, doughy mixture. Also add your pecans if you haven't already.

Next step- take a bag of flour, and sprinkle some on an ungreased baking sheet. Have your dough mixture close by. Then set your oven at 350 degrees fahrenheit. 

Next melt some extra chocolate chips! This is optional.

Take a small spoonful/scoopful of your dough, and drop it over your flour on the baking sheet. 

Top with the chocolate chips you just melted (optional), and pecans.

Next get out another baking sheet, grease/spray it with cooking spray, and drop your little cookie onto it. (You may need more than one pan for all the cookies. This recipe makes about 24.) Continue dropping batter on your flour pan, adding on your pecans and chocolate chips, and finally putting cookies on a different pan to bake until you have a full pan or two full of cookies. 

My first pan is finished!

I used two pans for all my cookies

Yum.. Okay back to the subject!

Once you are finished forming your cookies and your oven is at 350', slide your cookie pans into the oven. Set your oven timer for 7 minutes.

My cookies baking 

After 7 minutes, take your cookies out of the oven and let them cool! Be sure to turn off your oven :D Then, dig into your cookies!

Mmm!! Don't they look delicious? 

Here's the ingredient list again

Thank you so much for looking! Even if you don't make the cookies, it's still fun to look at them, right? See you next Saturday!

P.S. Here's a random photo I took yesterday