Crockpot Chocolate Rice Pudding with TruMoo!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of TruMoo for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

When I was in college, I found this really amazing shop. I don’t remember who told me about it or who I first went there with, but it was a rice pudding shop. It was amazing! There were different flavors and different toppings. Unfortunately the shop went out of business or moved, but I couldn’t find another place like it. I was so sad!

Fast forward several years and I really haven’t had rice pudding since. I was given the challenge by TruMoo to make something yummy with their milk. Did you know TruMoo doesn’t use high fructose corn syrup to sweeten their milk? Yup, and no artificial growth hormones are used on the cows they get the milk from! TruMoo comes in chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, and coffee!

Go learn more about TruMoo on Facebook or visit TruMoo for more information!

I thought and thought about what I could make and suddenly rice pudding popped into my head. So I’ve come up with a yummy recipe to fill this void in my life, it’s very yummy and not overly sweet.  Jump to the bottom of the page for a giveaway for you!

Crockpot Chocolate Rice Pudding
4 1/2 cups chocolate milk, such as TruMoo Chocolate Milk
1/2 cup cream (optional, I used it because my local store only had 1% chocolate TruMoo, if you find the whole milk you will not need this)
1 Cup Arborio Rice
1/2 sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
Stir all ingredients together in the crockpot and put on low for 4 hours.

Transfer to bowls and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.
There you go, I hope you enjoy. You could even use some chocolate chips to top it or fruit as a mix in. I drizzled a tiny bit of chocolate syrup on top. Yum!

What TruMoo flavor are you most excited to try?

Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies (made with coconut oil!)

I have been using coconut oil in my cooking for a while now. I use it to stir fry, saute vegetables, and make popcorn (For more ideas, check out my guest post How to Use Coconut Oil in Cooking and Baking). But I hadn’t really used coconut oil in baking much yet. So I found a yummy recipe and gave it a shot.

The cookies turned out amazing and the little hint of cherries with the chocolate was fantastic. I love how things just work out. I had the cherries in my fridge after making the Homemade Cherry Hand Pies and decided to try them in some cookies.

Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies with Coconut Oil (Recipe adapted from Leelalicious)

• 1/2 cup + 1-2 Tbsp virgin coconut oil, softened (I have used and like both Trader Joe's Coconut Oil and Tropical Traditions)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 1/3 cup flour 
• 1 tsp baking soda  
• 2 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup cherries, pitted and chopped 

Soften the coconut oil and cream together with the sugars, egg, and vanilla. Mix for about 3 minutes until fluffy.

Add the remaining ingredients, except the chocolate chips and cherries and mix until combined. At this point my dough was a bit dry so I added another Tablespoon of oil. Fold in the chocolate chips and cherries by hand.

Pre-heat oven to 350 F, spray cooking sheets with spray (Trader Joe’s even has a cooking spray ). Use a cookie scoop and form dough balls, place onto the cookie sheet.

Bake for 9-11 minutes until golden brown.

Allow to cool before devouring every last one! ;)

What are your favorite ways to use coconut oil for cooking and baking?

Homemade Cherry Hand Pies

I’m am totally not a ‘reader.’ I need to be, I should be, but I’m not. I have gotten into a few books series, but generally I don’t finish books. So it might surprise you that I am part of a book club. lol.

I hosted book club last night at my house and of course we have treats! The other ladies are super creative and usually make a treat to match the book in some way. Well I have been totally horrible at this in the past so I put a double effort in for this book.

I chose the book, The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma. It is the third book in the series and we had read the other two at some point over the last couple years so I figured we’d finally finish the series.

I loved these books! They are fun adventures with great kid characters. They are also great for kids to read. Probably why I like them so much

Anyway, one of the characters is a former circus strong man and is also an amazing cook. He is well known for his pies. So I decided to make cherry pie!

I didn’t have a recipe for cherry pie, so what to do? Search Pinterest and my fellow food blogger’s pages, of course! I found the recipe for the filling at Oysters and Pearls.

I don’t have a cherry pitter so I just cut the cherries down the middle and pulled the seeds out.


Then you cook the cherries down with sugar, vanilla, and a tiny bit of salt. Then you add a cornstarch/water mixture and bring to a boil. Turn the heat off and allow to cool, stirring occasionally.



Then you gotta make crust. I got my recipe from Crazy for Crust. I’m not so great at crusts…so they aren’t too pretty. I used a bowl to cut out



Once the circles are cut, you carefully fill with the cherry filling and pinch the sides closed. With the tines of a fork you make the the crimped edge.



See not so pretty…Give each pie a brush with an egg wash and sprinkle with a tiny bit of sugar. Then poke holes to prevent the pies from exploding (haha too late!)



Bake and enjoy, once cooled of course! They turned out fabulous. They don’t taste like canned pie filling, which is great. I don’t like bright red cherry pie. These ones were perfectly tart and sweet.



What’s your favorite kind of pie? Or are you more of a cake person?

Check out Oysters and Pearls for the cherry pie filling and
Crazy for Crusts for the pie crust recipe
 

Better Than Anything Pineapple Poke Cake

Hey there! How’s your summer going? Are you enjoying the sunshine and making great memories?

We’ve been trying to keep busy and entertained in the house. I haven’t been feeling too inspired or productive lately the 100+ degree weather. I have been meaning to make this cake for quite some time and finally got to it. Now this is not my normal healthy recipe I like to make, but it brings back memories of summer when I was younger. My mom didn’t make this often, but it was a really yummy treat when she would make it.

Cake:
1 package plain yellow cake mix
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter
1 cup whole milk
3 large eggs
Topping:
1 can (20oz) crushed pineapple packed in juice
1 cup sugar
1 package (5.1 oz) vanilla instant pudding mix
3 cups whole milk
1 container (8oz) frozen whipped topping, thawed
optional:
1 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1 package (6oz) frozen unsweetened grated coconut, thawed

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350ºF. Coat a 9x13” pan with non-stick spray. Set pan aside

In a large bowl, mix cake mix, melted butter, and eggs. Blend on low for about a minute. Stop and scrape the sides of the bowl down with a rubber spatula. Increase speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more. The batter will be thick and well combined. Pour the batter into the pan and spread evenly.

Put into the oven and bake for 28-32 minutes. Cake should spring back when lightly pressed and begin to pull away from the sides.

While cake is baking, prepare the topping. Place pineapple with juice and the sugar in a saucepan over medium heat and cook until the sugar dissolves and mixture comes just to a boil, 2 minutes. Set aside.
When you remove the cake from the oven, immediately poke holes in the top with a drinking straw or chopstick. Spoon pineapple mixture over the top of the cake.

Put pudding mix and cold milk in a bowl and blend according to directions. Spread pudding over pineapple layer. Place the pan in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.

Place whipped topping, pecans, and coconut in a mixing bowl and stir gently. Spread over pudding layer and return to fridge. Chill for another 30 minutes until topping has a chance to set.

Best Ever Chocolate Banana Bread

 

This chocolate banana bread is the bombdotcom! My wonderful friend and next door neighbor, Katie,  has treated me to this wonderful bread a couple times, most recently as a treat for my birthday and it was the perfect snack on my road trip to SLC. I begged her for the recipe and made it for myself. I looooove it and since it has bananas in it, I can totally have it for breakfast, right?
I hope you love it as much as I do! It is the perfect combination of creamy smooth bananas and a punch of chocolate chips. yum!

Chocolate Banana Bread

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 1/4 cup banana (about 3)

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease loaf pan.
Combine sugar, eggs, oil, banana, and vanilla and mix (I used my hand mixer – this got the banana nice and smooth). Add the rest of the ingredients until and mix together until just combined.
Pour into the loaf pan and bake for 60 – 70 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes then remove from pan and continue to cool on rack.
Enjoy!