friday, friday, FRIDAY!

I love Fridays. But I especially love THIS Friday. Why?
1. I got the day off of work and now have a three day weekend 2. Jason and I got to go to Dunkin' Donuts this morning 3. College basketball is going to be on ALL night (Wisconsin & ISU)
GREAT DAY.
This morning, the plan was to sleep in since Jason and I have both been kind of tired (me especially). Well, as always, I was wide awake at 7:45am. So I browsed Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. until Jason woke up. And while on Facebook, I saw that the new Dunkin' Donuts in Moline was opening today at 7am!

Jason woke at up 8:15am and we were out the door by 8:30. Headed to Moline to get some coffee (and donuts of course)!
While on the way there we were listening to WLLR (the country station here that won a CMA award last year - fun fact) and they said that they had a lady AT Dunkin' who was giving away a gift card. All you had to do was be the first person to go to Dunkin', go inside, tell her the keyword, and boom - you'd win. 
We still had about 10 minutes until we were there so I figured someone else would definitely get it first. But I was at least going to try! So we got there and there was a huge line of cars. I was driving, but I got out of the car and went inside. Jason went around the car, got in, and went to park the car. I found the lady and said "Did anyone claim the gift card yet?" and she said "Hmmm........ I don't know............. What's the keyword?" She was sketch. I told her the word. And she handed me the giftcard and said "Congrats, we have a winner!"
$20 in my pocket. Good start to the day. :)

I hope you have a great Friday, too! 

recipe 101: edible cookie dough

We always hear that you can get sick from eating cookie dough because of the raw egg. Although I don't know how true this really is because I've never gotten sick and I don't know anyone who has ever gotten sick, there still could be that one instance. So this is for good measure.
SIDE NOTE: Jason and I went to the store on Thursday because I was craving cookies so we bought enough pre-made dough make 24 cookies. We ate the first 18 in 24 hours (and ate 2 cookies worth of dough before baking) Whoops! 
I also have a friend (Hi Ellen if you're reading this!) who loves cookie dough probably definitely more than me. It's her go-to stress reliever, and I love that! Please see her tweet below and you will see exactly what I mean. :)

So back to the point. On Shark Tank Friday night, there was two girls that started up The Cookie Dough Cafe and they specifically made cookie dough. Not cookie dough that you bake to make cookies, but cookie dough that is made specifically for eating and indulging in. GENIUS. I'd love to work there. And be the taste tester.
So I browsed the website, got sad that I couldn't buy it online and then realized it's not sold near me. So I did what all cookie dough lovers would do. I made my own.

Without further ado, the best EDIBLE cookie dough. No egg.
Here it goes!

The most basic ingredients! And not to mention, you don't need many things!

COOKIE DOUGH IN PICTURES!

COOKIE DOUGH WITH MEASUREMENTS!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 stick butter, softened
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla 
• Some salt (approx. 1/4 tsp)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour 
• 2 tablespoons milk 
• 1 cup chocolate chips

WHAT TO DO

• Using a mixer, cream together butter and brown sugar. It should be fluffy and creamy - NOT crumbly. If it's crumbly, your butter was too hard. 
• Add vanilla and salt. Mix.
• Add flour. Now the dough will be crumbly, that's normal.
• Add chocolate chips.
• ENJOY!

FUN FACTS/BREAKDOWN

• When I say 2 teaspoons of vanilla, it is completely up to your discretion. I love a vanilla flavor, and I know some people don't. So you could use less if you'd like.
• Some salt.... I say 1/4 teaspoon because that seems about right. I never measure my salt, I just use a couple dashes.
• I used whole wheat flour but you can use regular flour, too. We just had whole wheat in the cupboard!
• I say 1 cup of chocolate chips but I actually use way more. I love the chocolate-y yumminess. But for health reasons, most would probably want to stick to 1 cup. I'm a bad ass.

 Store leftovers in the refrigerator or put in the freezer if it won't be used in the next couple of days.

**It's been shown that there is a slight risk of getting sick from eating raw flour. Consume at your own risk.**

 

PS - I made my second batch last night. The first batch may or may not have been all gone in a matter of four days.

food, food, food

Food. Gotta have it. And you all know I love it.
If you know me, you know I don't particularly enjoy cooking. It's not that I can't do it, it's just that I don't have the patience. It looks great on TV when chefs freshly chop all of their vegetables, get the fresh meat and chop it all dandy, etc. but in reality - who has time for that?!
Nope. 

Typical easy-to-make suppers - buy hey, gotta start somewhere! And disregard the 3 tacos on my plate. When it comes to tacos, portion control goes out the window. They're my weakness.

I'm learning more and more to make crockpot meals a normal supper. Hoping to have at least one a week as I get use to it all. The thought of tossing in frozen chicken and some other easy ingredients just makes me happy.
Jason and I have also started meal planning (we are on our second week). Got the idea from my bestie, Tonya, of course. She's my go-to for foodie advice (and the source for all of my crockpot deliciousness). It helps a lot more than I thought it would. Not only does it take out the guesswork of what's for dinner every night when I get home from work, but it makes buying groceries a BREEZE. We typically plan on Thursday nights for the following week and then we head to the store on Sundays.
I feel refreshed in the fact that we bought one whole week's worth of groceries for about $60. And it's all real food. No more nights of eating Oreos for a meal. In case your wondering, this week consists of:
Monday - BBQ Chicken Strips & Salad Tuesday - Cheeseburgers & Corn Wednesday - Crockpot Salsa Chicken & Salad Thursday - Fish & Macaroni and Cheese Friday - Pizza (Fun Fact: EVERY Friday is pizza) [Okay, so we may still need to work on the healthy part, but having actual food for supper is step one!]
The weekends we don't plan as much. It's most likely just going to be leftovers from the week and whatever else we scrounge up. So for this weekend, we are headed to the market on Saturday morning so we hope to find something there. 
Here's what I use to plan. It has space for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'm most excited for pancakes, bacon and eggs this weekend!

If anybody has ideas for meals that we can add to our meal planning, let me know. I'd love to hear them and I'd love to have more ideas to spice up the kitchen! Weeee!