Using Up Holiday Candy

I am known far and wide by my sisters to have the best stash of candy on my kitchen counter.

Now, I rarely EAT that candy...I just like having the option to go out and grab a handful of M&Ms if I want them.

This time of year the candy is especially abundant with the after Christmas sales on Hershey Kisses, Reeses Cups and, of course, M&Ms. It's almost as bad as my wax paper/aluminum foil stash.

I had good luck with the Rolo cookies I found on Pinterest from Six Sisters' Stuff blog so I decided to try another one of their cake mix cookie recipes.

I had a handful of Andes mints and a box of Devils Food cake mix so I went with their Andes Mint Cookies. They turned out very yummy!

The recipe is super simple, just 4 ingredients.

1 box of Devils Food cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
Andes mints

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix the first three ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. The batter will be thick. Roll dough into 1-1.5 inch balls (or whatever size you want them to be) and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 6-9 minutes (mine took 9 minutes but mine may have been a bit big). Pull out of oven and immediately place unwrapped Andes mint on top of each. I didn't have enough mints so I broke them in half. Let them sit for about 5 minutes (I put mine in the warm oven with the heat off and door open for a couple of minutes) so the mint melts. Swirl the mint around the top of the cookie with the back of a spoon.

Since I didn't have enough mints for another pan of cookies and had enough dough left for at least a dozen more cookies, I improvised.

I wrapped the cookie dough around a miniature Reese's Cup (about the same amount of dough as I used for the Andes cookies) and placed them in a greased miniature cupcake pan.I baked them for 9 minutes (might leave them in for another minute if I make them again). I had enough to make 12 of these.

And just because I could, I melted some leftover Godiva Gems chocolate on the top of about half of these cookies...just made them that much better!

Do you do anything creative with your leftover Christmas candy?

I still have two bags of Hershey Kisses on my counter...

Holiday Treats Thanks to Pinterest

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas. I enjoyed the time with my family and am still coming down from all the food consumed over the weekend.

I was such a slacker when it has come to this blog over the last couple of months.

I was an even bigger slacker when it came to my holiday baking.

I only made a few treats and helped my mom and sister make a few more. On top of that, I didn't even take photos of the goodies I DID make!

However, most of the treats I made came from Pinterest so I thought I would feature them on here in case you are looking for a quick, sweet treat for any upcoming holiday gatherings.

Here we go...

These Rolo cookies are super easy (4 ingredients) and are quite yummy. I'm wondering what they would taste like with Reese's Cups instead of Rolos...I do have a cake mix in the pantry!

Source: sixsistersstuff.blogspot.com via Megan on Pinterest

I even used Pinterest to find my OWN recipes, like these Sweet and Saltines candies! My sister and I made two trays of these treats - one with saltines and one with graham crackers. The saltine variety is the perfect combo of sweet and salty!

Source: galinthemiddle.blogspot.com via Megan on Pinterest

This white chocolate-coated candy mix is my FAVORITE holiday treat EVER. It is super simple and delicious.

Source: galinthemiddle.blogspot.com via Megan on Pinterest

I blame a co-worker for this next treat. We were sitting at our office holiday pitch-in lunch enjoying some of my white chocolate-coated candy mix when she mentioned that while she enjoyed the treat, puppy chow was her favorite snack mix.

So for days after that conversation, I had puppy chow on my mind. I also had a box of Rice Chex in my pantry so I poked around on Pinterest for different variations on the classic treat. I found this...

Source: redbuddynotes.blogspot.com via Rebekah on Pinterest

It looks like an ordinary bowl of puppy chow, right?

Wrong! It is made with Nutella...the world's best spread!

Better than that? It only had 6 ingredients and can be done in the microwave. There were other recipes on Pinterest for this mix but they were much more complicated and had ingredients that I didn't have on hand.

I took the batch into work and shared. I took what was left to my family Christmas celebrations. I had to get it out of the house!

Unfortunately, I had Rice Chex cereal leftover and just enough Nutella to make a half batch today.

I may or may not be typing this post with powdered sugar on my fingers and a container of the stuff beside me on the couch. I'll never tell!