Week Eight

What is your favorite part of a meal? The meat? The sides? The random piece of garnish you added to make yourself feel better for not eating a vegetable? NO! It is the yummy, sweet treat you get to have after you eat the spriggy garnish. Per Merriam-Webster a dessert is “a usually sweet course or dish (as of pastry or ice cream) usually served at the end of a meal.” However, when it is sweet treat o’clock, a dessert can be eaten when your clock strikes. This week, we are going to dive into yummy desserts that will end any meal you have with a showstopper. From desserts that'll serve a party to single serving delights, we got what you need.

Group Desserts

Cooking for a large group can be stressful, so you probably do not want to make 50 individual cookies. Think about your birthday party when you were a kid…you had a big cake to feed all them kids. So, you should feed adults the same way.

Whenever I am in charge of making a dessert for a group of people, a cookie cake or pizookie is always my go to. It is easy enough you can either buy a premade one or make your own. And by make your own I mean with a premade cookie dough or a cookie dough mix by Betty Crocker. With a cookie cake, you can make it any flavor, add any toppings, and pair it with a yummy ice cream. Want to explore cookie cake ideas, check out my cookie cake Pinterest Board. 

Another good dessert idea when having to feed a group is anything you can put in the crock pot. From cobblers to pull apart breads to dump and go cakes, a crock pot dessert can cook while you're doing another task and feed a big group. If you are interested in these ideas, check out Pinterest for more ideas. I found a couple that I think are worth sharing. 

This Homemade Crock Pot Peach Cobbler has just 5 ingredients and cooks for just under four hours. All you need are peaches, cake mix, brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon. Dump and mix the peaches, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Then, pour the cake mix on top and place pieces of butter on top. Cook for three and a half hours on high until golden brown and cook until golden brown. 

This Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread basically makes itself. All you need are cinnamon rolls, butter, sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon. You cut up the cinnamon rolls, add them to the crock pot, toss in the sugars, and cook for two hours. 

Single Serving Desserts

When sweet treat o’clock hits when you are in your room watching Sex and The City, you want something quick and just enough for you. Nothing is more overwhelming than having to eat on a box of brownies for the week or watching your package of cookies spoil because you can only eat so many cookies in one sitting.

Something I grew up on were mug cakes. You can buy these at the store or make them homemade. For store bought mixes, you usually only have to add a liquid to form the cake. Betty Crocker has a variety of cake mixes that you can choose from like chocolate, caramel, and rainbow chip. However, if you are looking into making your own, Pinterest has a lot of recipes to choose from. A lot of these recipes only require ingredients you already have like flour, sugar, oil, and cocoa powder. Check out my Pinterest search for more ideas!

Are you in a chocolate chip cookie mood after talking about cookie cake? I know I only like baking a small batch of cookies, but with the way cookie dough goes bad quickly, it is not worth buying a pack of cookie dough. Similar to the mug cakes, it just requires stuff in your kitchen that you already have. This single serving cookie recipe only requires flour, butter, vanilla, sugar, baking soda, corn starch, and chocolate chips. 

So long, farewell! 

Well, that wraps up Easy Meals With Meg. I hope that you gained some knowledge on cooking in general and cooking for yourself. Cooking should not be hard, it should be rewarding. If I did anything, at least I made you hungry. 

I wanted to say thank you for reading, it means a lot to me that even one person would want to hear what I have to say. Please do not stop cooking and finding different recipes that make you happy! Keep cooking. 

Thank you,

Megan