Can you all believe its Friday already and the last day in January?  This month has flown by. I am not sure I like how fast time is whizzing by, but it has a great month so I really can't complain. I am teaming up with Lauren again to bring you my top five highlights of the week.

1. Monday I started feeling like I was getting something and then by Tuesday morning I was hit head-on with a head cold (no pun intended). I pumped myself up with lots of Vitamin C along with my favorite green juice and by Thursday I was finally feeling back to normal.


2. I ordered some new cookies cutters a couple of weeks ago and finally had time to test some of them out this week. I am officially in love with this cookie cutter shape.


4. My department went out for fro-yo today.  It was sweet way to end the work week.

So I have this thing where I love to buy big bunches of bananas at the grocery store with the intention of eating every last one. Then a week goes by and a few of those perfect yellow bananas have now turned spotted and brown. Bummer right? Wrong! They have now turned into the perfect excuse to make some yummy banana bread. This recipe is so good on its own, but the addition of sweet coconut it takes it to the next level.

Happy Friday!  It's been a good week and didn't hurt that is was only a 4-day work week at that!  Now a look back at my five favorite moments from this week.

Super Bowl Sunday is just around the corner and the most exciting part isn't about the game or commercials...its the food!  Watch parties always have lots of yummy munchies to snack on and if you are looking for the perfect salty and sweet treat to serve your guest during the big game, then you have come to the right place.  Chocolate chips, peanuts, chocolate covered pretzels and crunchy potato chips make up this delicious and simple to make cookie.

Sweet & Salty Chocolate Chip Cookies

{yield: 30 cookies}

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
2 large eggs
12 oz. of chocolate chips
2 cups coarsely chopped rippled potato chips
1 cup coarsely chopped chocolate covered pretzel twists
1/2 unsalted peanuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.



Beat the butter, sugars, and vanilla bean paste until creamy.   Then add one egg at a time and making sure to combine fully after each addition.

What up!  It has sure been a while, but with it being a new year and a clean slate I thought it was the perfect time to start blogging again.  Today I turn 26 and I feel really good about it!  I am in such a happy place with my career and life right now and cant wait to see what this year has in store for me!   Today I am linking up with one of my favorite bloggers Lauren and sharing my top five moments of the week.

Yay!  It is finally Friday...I am not sure why I am so excited because I have to work tonight, but I guess ending the week is still something to be excited about.  Here are five of my favorite things from my week!

 With St. Patrick's Day  just around the corner, I thought that this would be the perfect time to try out my new cake pop pan that I recently bought.  I am not a huge fan of the cakes pops that are made by mixing cake with frosting and then rolled into balls...its just something about the texture inside that is not really my thing.  These cake pops that I made, however are baked and very yummy!

To start, pre-heat your oven to 325 degrees, then spray your cake pop pan with non-stick cooking spray.  Once that is done you can set the pan aside and start focusing on the batter. 
I used my vanilla cupcake recepie for this batch, but really any cupcake batter would work out great in this pan.  Since I was also making these for St. Patrick's Day, I thought it would be really cute to add some shamrock sprinkles and white jimmies to the batter and make sort of a fun-fettie cake.

Once the batter is all mixed, take a scoop or spoon and fill the bottom half of the pan with cake batter to the top.  Then take the top half of the cake pan, attach it to the bottom pan, and incert the two little clips to hold the two pans together. 

Place the cake pop pan in the oven on the center rack and bake for 20-25 minutes or just until a toothpick comes out clean from the center.  Remove from oven and let cool in the pan for 5 minutes.  Open the cake pop pan and remove your warm pieces of cake and let cool on a rack for about 30 minutes.

After the cake balls are cooled you will need a bag of chocolate melts in whatever color going to use.  I used green chocolate melts for these cake pops to go along with the St. Patrick's Day theme.  Place your chocolate microwave proof bowl and heat for 30 seconds and then stir.  Continue until chocolate is melted (mine took about a minute total to fully melt). 

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and make sure you have your melted chocolate, candy sicks, and cake balls ready.  To help the cake balls stay on the sticks I dipped a little part of the stick into the melted chocolate and and then stuck the stick into the cake ball.  Once all the sticks are in, let them set for about 5-10 minutes or stick them in the refridgerator to speed up the process. 

When the sticks are firm in the cake balls, hold the stick and dip the cake ball into the melted chocolate.  Cover the whole ball and tap off any excess chocolate, place down onto the parchment sheet, and then cover the tops with sprinkles like I did or you could drizzle melted chocolate in a different color, chopped nuts, etc to the tops of them.  Now the hard part is letting them sit until chocolate has completely set, but once its hardend, remove from parchment paper and they are ready to eat!

When you bite into one they are perfeclty moist and the coating of white chocolate is just the perfect amout of "frosting" or sweetness to them...its like biting into a little piece of heaven.  These little cake pops are great and can be made for any holiday, special ocasion, or just as a mid-week treat!