Quick Serve Upside Down Cakes

This post brought to you by Private Selection. All opinions are 100% mine.

May 12 was National Nutty Fudge Day and May 15 is Chocolate Chip Day. It is no wonder that I have desserts on the brain. I am really excited that I have the opportunity to tell you about the new Upside Down Cakes from Private Selection.

The Private Selection brand is a premium private label brand carried exclusively at the Kroger Family of Stores and affiliated stores including: Baker’s, City Market, Dillons, Fry’s, Gerbes, Pay Less, QFC, JayC, King Soopers, Owen’s, Ralphs, Smith’s and Fred Meyer.

I have tried many different Private Selection products in the past, and I concur that they are premium quality without the premium price. I have not yet tried the Upside Down Cakes, but I plan on doing so. They have three different flavors, so there is cake for any taste. They taste like homemade, because they use only the best ingredients. 

I do a fair bit of dinner entertaining in the summer months, and I really hate turning on the oven. That means I usually skip dessert, or we go with a store bought or semi-homemade option. The Private Selection cakes can be heated in the microwave which is very appealing to me. 

The Private Selection Upside Down Cakes are easy to prepare. You only need to warm, flip, and serve. The flavor choices include: 

• German Chocolate Fudge – with the classically irresistible combination of gooey caramel, pecans and coconut
• Double Chocolate Molten – prepared with real butter, eggs, milk, and the finest semi-sweet chocolate
• Amber Honey Apple Spice – topped with apple slices drenched in a sweet amber honey glaze.

I think I really want to try the Amber Honey Apple Spice followed by the German Chocolate Fudge. Yum! I have some good news. Private Selection is trying to Spread the Love about their Upside Down Cakes by offering a coupon. You can visit the Private Selection Upside Down Cakes coupon to receive a coupon for $1 off. If you want an even better coupon, you can share the Private Selection Upside Down Cakes on Facebook and receive a $2 off coupon.  You can also visit Private Selection Upside Down Cakes on Pinterest. I highly recommend checking out the Decadent Desserts board. There are some very delicious pins on there. 

You can use the store locator to find the location nearest you that carries the Private Selection Upside Down Cakes. 

What are your quick fix dessert options? I would love to get some inspiration! Please leave me a comment with your best ideas. 

Disclaimer: Coupon ends 6/2/13. Official Rules. In order to load these coupons to your card, you will need to sign into your Kroger account or set up a Kroger account and enter your card number. Limit one use per digital coupon. Digital offers are not eligible on Manager's Specials, cannot be combined with manufacturer paper coupons on the purchase of a single item, and do not double. Not all items are available in all stores. A limit of 150 coupons can be loaded per household at one time.

Caramel German Chocolate Bars

Did you know that May 15th is National Chocolate Chip day? The fact there are so many random food holidays can get a little silly, but it is fun to have a reason to cook with a specific ingredient. I like the inspiration. In honor of the holiday, our Food Blogger Challenge group picked Chocolate as our ingredient for this week.
Today's recipe is heavenly. It is the dessert I request every year for my birthday. I am a real sucker for the combination of caramel, chocolate, and nuts.

Caramel German Chocolate Bars

Ingredients:

• 1 German Chocolate Cake Mix
• 1 can evaporated milk
• 3/4 cup melted butter
• 1 14 oz package of caramels
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 12 oz package of chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease and flour a 9x13" baking dish and set aside. Unwrap the caramels if necessary. 
2. Combine the cake mix 1/3 cup evaporated milk, chopped walnuts, and the 3/4 cup melted butter. Hand stir until the dough holds together. 
3. Add half of the dough mixture to the greased and floured pan and bake for 6 minutes. 
4. Meanwhile, melt the caramels with 1/3 cup evaporated milk over medium heat. Stir continually, so you don't burn the caramel. Note: You can also melt the caramel and evaporated milk in the microwave. Heat for 30 second intervals stirring in between, until completely melted. 
5. After the mix has come out of the oven, pour the caramel over the cooked dough. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top of the caramel and spoon on the remaining dough. 

   

   Here is what the bars look like before they go back into the oven for final cooking. 

6. Bake for 18 minutes at 350° F. Cool completely and store in refrigerator.
7. To serve: The bars slice best when they are chilled. Slice when cold and let sit a few minutes before serving. 

These are so gooey and delicious that it is unbelievable. I also love how it looks. I like that you can see these veins of caramel and chocolate chips running through the dessert. Yum! Is your mouth watering yet?

Note: I varied a little from the written directions. My daughter has nut allergies, so I sprinkled the walnuts on half of the caramel, instead of mixing it into the batter. It is delicious either way!

If you make it, I would love to hear about it! Let me know how you like it in the comments. Be sure and check out the other delicious chocolate recipes that are being shared this week in the linky below.

Give Mom your undivided attention #SocialBlackout

I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for MetLife. I received a promotional item as a thank you for participating. All ideas and opinions are my own.

What does your family have planned for Mother's Day weekend? Our schedule is jam packed with pretty typical  things. Our family will be juggling a soccer game, yard sale, two family birthday parties, work, church, and hopefully some time to relax and spend with our Mothers. I think I'm going to need a second weekend to recuperate from my Mother's Day weekend.

Even though things will be busy, I'm looking forward to spending time with both my Mother and my Mother-in-law. We are extremely fortunate to live close to family and we get to spend time with them often. I do find sometimes, that I take it for granted how often we get to see them. I catch myself sometimes browing Pinterest, checking my Instagram, or updating Facebook when I should really be fully engaged with that's happening with the family. I've been in conversation before where the other person is engrossed in their smart phone and not actively listening. It is no fun. I really need to work on that!

MetLife came up with a pretty brilliant concept called the #SocialBlackout movement. The idea is stay off social media on Mother's Day so you can give Mom the time and attention she deserves! MetLife created a Facebook event that you can join here: http://on.fb.me/ZHDxFu . The Facebook event has a really funny tagline. It says, "The only RSVP you don't have to show up for."

I love the idea of disconnecting for the day to focus on family. Just think, if we can spread awareness of this movement, you won't even be missing anything on your social media sites that day.
I know that not everyone will be able to spend the day with their Mother, but I encourage you to participate anyway. You can spend some time honoring your mother in some way, or spend the day focusing on yourself. It's amazing how much calmer and clear headed I feel when I don't have dings and beeps from my devices going off all the time.

So I have I convinced you yet? Are you going to join me in the #SocialBlackout this Mother's Day? You can even change your profile pictures to that cute Snoopy picture to help get the word out. MetLife has a Facebook page set-up so you can get more information: https://www.facebook.com/metlife.

I hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day weekend, no matter how you spend it!

Oven Roasted Parmesan Asparagus

It's another week, and another ingredient in the Blogger ingredient challenge. After the Goody Brownie Bars last week, it's a good thing that this weeks ingredient is asparagus.

Asparagus is one of my favorite vegetables. I don't remember when I first tried it, but I remember liking it a lot growing up. I will tell you this, please don't buy canned asparagus. Yuck! Fresh is the way to go.

Today I am sharing one of my favorite ways to eat asparagus. It is oven roasted asparagus with Parmesan cheese.

Oven Roasted Parmesan Asparagus

Ingredients:

• 1 lb asparagus
• Olive Oil
• Pepper
• shaved or grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450° F.
2. Prepare your asparagus by washing and snapping the rough ends off. The asparagus will naturally snap at the right spot. These ensures you will have nice tender asparagus.
3. Lightly drizzle olive oil over the asparagus and toss to coat. 
4. Sprinkle with pepper and Parmesan cheese.
5. Heat in the oven 12-15 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the asparagus is tender, but still crisp. 
6. Serve immediately. 

I served this with grilled chicken and some pretzel dinner rolls. The whole dinner was so tasty. I hope you check out what some of the other bloggers made with asparagus this week! Oh and May is National Asparagus month, so why not head out to the grocery store and pick up some asparagus to celebrate?

Mother's Day Keepsake Cards

I am back to share my final result from the Michael's Make Every Moment Count Blogger Challenge. It was so much fun working with paper and scrapbook elements again.

Great Books for Teaching the ABCs

My daughter is in preschool and we have noticed that she is having some trouble with a few of her letters. We have several alphabet books in our collection, but I thought it would be nice to branch out. Finding some variety has helped so much. We practice several times a day, and having different books to look at have kept the task from getting boring. 

After reading so many different books, I thought I would share some of our favorites. Each link will take you to Amazon(referral links) so you can read more about the book, and most of them will let you see a few pages too. 

Make Every Moment Count Blogger Challenge

First, if you are my Mother or Mother-in-law, I must ask you to look away. Seriously, there is nothing to see here. Move along.

Now that's out of the way, I can tell you about the Mother's Day cards I am making this year. May is National Scrapbook month I was asked to participate in the Michael's Make Every Moment Count blogger challenge. I started out scrapbooking when I was about 16, but the last few years I have not done anything. I am so excited to get back at it.

I was given a Michael's giftcard to go shopping and get some supplies. I am super excited about the Martha Stewart punches, it is three punches in one.

I decided that I am going to take a recent photo shoot I did with the kids and turn them into Mother's Day cards/keepsakes for the Grandmothers.  I won't be sharing my final design until Wednesday, but I am excited to get working on it. It will be more keepsake than card, but I know they will both love it.

Are you doing anything handmade for Mother's Day? I would love to hear about it in the comments! I'll be back on Wednesday to reveal my design. See you then!
Oh and if you are looking for ideas to help make every moment count, you can check out the Michael's Lookbook for inspiration.

Disclaimer: I was provided a Michael's gift card to facilitate my scrapbook design. Any opinions are my own.