Gingerbread Oreo Fudge

Requiring just 4 simple ingredients & your microwave to make, this Gingerbread Oreo Fudge is the perfect last minute holiday treat...

Gingerbread happens to be one of my favorite flavors of the holiday season. And surprisingly up until last week, I didn't have a single gingerbread recipe on the blog. But I am working quick to catch up by sharing my second gingerbread recipe with you all in less than a week- this easy-to-make and festive Gingerbread Oreo Fudge.

The inspiration for this fudge started in the holiday aisle of my local Target. Isn't that where all food bloggers find recipe inspiration? ;) I first spied the Gingerbread Oreos on an end cap, and I knew I had to grab a pack to take home. Then I saw a pack of the cutest gingerbread men icing decorations from Wilton, and the wheels began to turn very quickly. 

Why not make a fudge chock full of my favorite Christmas flavor & decorate it with these tiny gingerbread men? 

Requiring just 4 simple ingredients & your microwave to make, this Gingerbread Oreo Fudge is the perfect last-minute holiday treat...

Chai Spiced Gingerbread Stars

With warm chai spices and a touch of molasses, these Chai Spiced Gingerbread Stars are sure to quickly become a new classic cookie for your holiday baking...

Last week I shared with you all a recipe for a DIY Chai Spice Mix. And now I am giving you a holiday perfect recipe to use that spice mix in- these simple Chai Spiced Gingerbread Stars. :) 

I actually baked up these gingerbread cookies a couple of weeks ago to pack up & send off to the three fellow food bloggers I was matched up with for The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. This was my second year participating in the swap, but the swap itself is in its fifth year now. 

Basically, it is a fun way to have a holiday cookie exchange with other food bloggers from around the country and to raise donations and awareness for Cookies for Kids' Cancer. You get 3 different dozen homemade cookies delivered right to your door, and you get to support a worthy cause at the same time- that is a win-win in my book. :)

I adapted this Chai Spiced Gingerbread Stars recipe from Allie's (Baking A Moment) recipe for Gingerbread Cookies That Don't Spread in the Oven. As soon as I came across her recipe, I knew I had to base my gingerbread recipe from hers. 

Most of you are probably all too familiar with gingerbread men who become puffy, inflated, & spread out of shape as they are baking. I made a few tiny tweaks to Allie's recipe, but these cookies held their shape as you can see from the photos. 

With warm chai spices and a touch of molasses, these Chai Spiced Gingerbread Stars are sure to quickly become a new classic cookie for your holiday baking...

Cookies and Crafts for Sandy Hook- Gingerbread Angels

Today I am joining bloggers and small shop owners across the country for Cookies and Crafts for Sandy Hook.  The idea originated as a way for those of us in the blogging community to show our support to the grieving families of Newtown and to honor the innocent lives lost just one week ago today.  

At the bottom of this post, you will find links to other bloggers' posts who are sharing a cookie or craft in memory of the 26 lives lost at Sandy Hook Elementary.  You will also find links to small shop owners' sites who are donating proceeds from their sales today and/or this coming weekend to the Newtown Youth & Family Services.  I encourage each of you to visit the Newtown Youth & Family Services Donation Page to make a contribution today no matter how small.  Every little bit helps.  

If your pockets are not as deep as you wish, please see my post from yesterday, Just One Thing for Sandy Hook projects/movements that only require a little effort, love, and perhaps a quick trip to the post office from you.

Gingerbread cookies are one of my favorite cookies of the season.  I love my gingerbread men thick, soft, and just slightly chewy.  Last Christmas, I discovered The Brown Eyed Baker's Gingerbread Men Cookies recipe.  It is the perfect gingerbread cookie recipe.

In honor of the innocent lives lost at Sandy Hook, I wanted to make gingerbread angels instead of gingerbread men.  I didn't have an angel cookie cutter so I improvised my using a gingerbread man cookie cutter and a butterfly sandwich cutter I had bought last spring.  

To make the angel wings, I cut the butterfly shape in half and then pressed the wings onto the back of the gingerbread man.  Just make sure to press the unfloured side of the wing into the unfloured side of the gingerbread man.  The floured side will not stick.  I only had to increase the bake time by a couple of minutes since the cookies were a tad bit larger than a normal sized gingerbread man.

I decorated each gingerbread angel with a green heart outlined in white for the Sandy Hook Elementary School colors.  I also made a few stars to represent the teachers who lost their lives and also frosted them with a green and white heart.  

I wish that I could have made 20 gingerbread angels and 6 stars to represent all the lives lost that December morning, but the angels were pretty large.  

I shared the angels and stars with friends and family.

This event is brought to you by: Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks, The Red Headed Baker, Real Housemoms, Crazy for Crust, Something Swanky, Life After Laundry, Two Kids Cooking, Frugal Foodie Mama, The Doctorate Housewife, Heather's French Press, Operation Dinnertime, Lovely Pantry, What's Cooking Love?, Cupcakes and Kale Chips, Occasionally Crafty, Pint Sized Baker, Pineapple and Coconut, Wine & Glue, Lemonsforlulu, A Sweet Baker, Mom On Timeout, The Freshman Cook, Sweet Twist of Blogging, A Family Feast, Julie's Eats & Treats, Eat at Allie's, Here Comes the Sun, The Kitchen is My Playground, Just My Crazy Kitchen, The Sweet Chick, The Tasty Fork, Wholly Delicious Dishes, Chocolate, Chocolate and more , Yours and Mine ARE Ours, Kitchen Meets Girl, Daily Dish Recipes, Sweet Bella Roos, Mom's Test Kitchen

Cranberry Gingerbread Mug Cake

Soft gingerbread and tart cranberries come together in this low calories dessert for one... 

This shop has been compensated by #CollectiveBias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.

I am picturing it all now... The busy holiday season is quickly approaching on the not so distant horizon.

I see lots of holiday cookie baking, and gift wrapping, and online shopping in my near future.

I see lots of wonderful memories about to be made. Cozy evenings snuggled up on the couch with my family and a warm mug of cocoa watching the twinkling of the lights of the Christmas tree.

But I am also seeing lots of extra calories and fat grams and not enough time for a good workout (ahem... time to #drinkTEN ). And a some stressful, frazzled evenings. And moments when all I want to do is hide in a distant room of the house and catch my breath for a moment... alone. 

Ahhhhhh... 'tis the season, folks! ;)

Before the hustle and bustle and wonderful craziness of the season are upon us, I decided to come up with a perfect little dessert for one that can be made in minutes, is low calorie and low fat (less guilt!), and has some of my favorite flavors of the season. 

And believe it or not, the recipe inspiration for my newest mug cake came from a little trip to my local Kroger to pick up some of my favorite TEN beverages...

Gingerbread Pecan Granola

Lately I have been a little obsessed with making my own granola.  Since I have discovered how super simple it is to make (and to tailor to my tastes exactly), I am making a new batch just about every week now.  

One of my favorite holiday flavors is gingerbread.  Gingerbread men.  Thick, soft gingerbread cake.  So why not gingerbread granola?  I added buttery pecans for a little extra crunch.

What you will need:

2 cups of rolled oats

2/3 cup of chopped pecans

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp salt

4 tbsp coconut oil

1/4 cup molasses

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In large bowl, mix together the oats, pecans, sugar, and all the spices.  Set aside.

In a small saucepan, heat the coconut oil over medium heat.  (Often times coconut oil is solid during the colder months & needs to be melted to use.)  Once the oil is melted, add the molasses and mix.  Heat for 1 minute.  Remove from the heat and add the vanilla.  

Pour the liquid mixture over the oats mixture and mix well to combine.  Spread the granola mixture evenly over the parchment paper.  

Bake at 300 degrees for about 30 minutes, taking the granola out and stirring it about every 10 minutes.

Once baked, let it cool completely on the baking sheet.  Break it up into smaller pieces, and then store in an airtight container for up to 1 month.

A bowl of this Gingerbread Pecan Granola is perfect any winter morning! 

Granola also makes a fabulous foodie gift for the holidays.  Just pour it into pretty jars and tie a ribbon around the lid!  :)

Have you made homemade granola before?  What is your favorite flavor combination to make?

12 Festive Holiday Morning Breakfast Recipes

From simple & easy to impressive & well worth the extra effort, you are sure to find the perfect Christmas morning breakfast idea for your family in this collection of 12 Festive Holiday Morning Breakfast Recipes...

In case you all didn't get the memo yet, Christmas is less than one week away! And surprisingly, I am not in panic mode right now. For once, I was on top of it all this month. 








The gift shopping & cookie baking are all squared away. The Christmas cards were sent out over a week ago (pssssttt... usually I don't get around to getting cards sent out at all, so this is truly a Christmas miracle!). I have even met all of my holiday deadlines for the blog. 








In fact, this *might* be my last blog post of 2018. But I may end up churning out at least one more post for you all before we say hello to 2019. ;) Stay tuned, folks...








Today's post is about a little something that I hold dear & near to my heart every holiday season- Christmas morning breakfast. 

Once the chaos & excitement of the gift unwrapping is done & over with and we are on our second viewing of A Christmas Story on TNT, I like to whip up a special breakfast for the family. Like these 12 Festive Holiday Morning Breakfast Recipes I am sharing with you all today.







From pancakes to french toast casseroles to cinnamon rolls, you are sure to find the perfect holiday morning breakfast idea for your family in this collection of festive recipes...

Pumpkin Pecan French Toast for One

Transform a couple of pieces of leftover bread or rolls into this quick and easy Pumpkin Pecan French Toast for One...

Before we jump head first into the land of all things peppermint, gingerbread, and eggnog flavored, I have one last pumpkin recipe to share with you all for the fall season. (I swear, this is the last one!) 

And this one is perfect if you happen to have a couple of leftover rolls or some bread from that Thanksgiving dinner. ;) It is a super quick and easy to make Pumpkin Pecan French Toast for One! 

Maybe you had a lot of guests over for that big dinner. Maybe you need a little quiet time to yourself after the hustle & bustle of those Black Friday sales. Maybe you need to get up just a bit earlier than everyone else this holiday weekend to carve out a little time for yourself because that is the only me time that you are going to get until Monday. 

But regardless of why you are looking to get a little alone time one morning this weekend, this french toast in a mug should definitely join you. In less than 8 minutes, you can be enjoying this moist pumpkin french toast with crunchy pecans. Drizzle a little maple syrup over top, and it's heaven, my friends...

25 of The Best Holiday Cookies

Get a jump start on those holiday baking plans now with this collection of 25 of the Best Holiday Cookies...

I know that Halloween was just one week ago and we are all focused on making those Thanksgiving dinner plans right now, but you all- Christmas is next month! I mean, I know, I know. 

Christmas happens in December every single year (nothing new, right?), but if you are anything like me it always seems to sneak up on me even though I am very well aware of when December 25th is each year. ;)

While I am sure I will be super late on getting my Christmas cards out as usual and I will probably still be scrambling those few days right before Christmas to snag those last minute gifts, I can definitely get a jump on my holiday baking plans now. 

A couple of weeks before Christmas each year, Little Miss & I invite my sister and my mother over and we all get together to bake a whole slew of Christmas cookies and sweet treats. We crank up the Christmas carols, pour the eggnog, and get baking. It has definitely become one of my daughter and I's new favorite holiday family traditions. 

Fall Favorites Foodie Swap

Earlier this month I signed up to do the Fall Favorites Swap from Mia at The Chronicles of Chaos and Kim from The K.O. Jewelry.  We were each matched up with a swap partner based on what our favorite thing about fall is.  Yes, shockingly one of my favorite things about the fall season is the food.  ;)  I was matched with Kristen from This Radiant Life.  Kristen and I corresponded quite a bit back and forth before putting together and sending out our packages.  Kristen sent me some fabulous fall foodie goodies.  In addition to two huge bags of candy corn and autumn mix candies, she also sent me this yummy Gingerbread Cookie coffee from Dunkin Donuts...

I even broke my steadfast rule of not opening a new bag coffee until I had finished the one I already have open just to try this.  ;) I couldn't help myself.

Kristen sent me 4 (well, 3- one broke in transit) fall colored ramekins and some cute apple tea towels.  I am thinking maybe some pumpkin brulee for the ramekins? :)

She also sent me an assortment of four different fall inspired sprinkles. I used one of them to decorate the carrot pumpkin bundt cake I took to my parents' Halloween costume party.  (Oh, that recipe is coming to the blog VERY soon friends. ;) )

Want to see what I sent Kristen's way? ;)  Here is a sneak peek ^^^ of the box that I sent her.  Hope on over to Kristen's blog and check out her swap post to find out! 

Summer Blog Challenge, Day 62- Handmade Gifts

Okay, so I know that it is officially August today.  Christmas in July is over, but today's Summer Blog Challenge is to share with you all some handmade gifts.  So I am sharing the foodie gifts I made for my husband's brothers and sisters last Christmas.  Last Christmas was our first Christmas on a major budget.  Coming up with Christmas gifts for six siblings while on a very tight budget forced me to become a bit creative with our gift giving.  (Yes, you read that right.  I have six brother and sister-in-laws. ;) )

I decided to make each of the six families jarred mixes for the holidays...

This is the Cinnamon Hot Chocolate mix I made & funneled into Mason jars.  I included little instructions on how to mix up a mug and gingerbread man marshmallows in resealable bags.  I tied cinnamon sticks to each jar with ribbon. :)  

CLICK HERE to get the recipe I used.

I also whipped up some cookies mixes in jars for each family.  I printed out and attached instructions for what to add to the mix and how to bake them.  I also tied little metal Christmas cookie cutters to each jar with ribbon.

CLICK HERE to get the recipe I used.

To decorate each of the jars, I bought wide holiday ribbon at the craft store.  I cut pieces of the ribbon to fit each jar and attached them with hot glue.


Do you make handmade gifts for the holidays?  What is one of your favorite gifts to make?

Candied Pomegranate-Mandarin Orange Peel

Combining the sweetness of fresh citrus with just a hint of tart pomegranate, this Candied Pomegranate-Mandarin Orange Peel is a must-make for the holiday season...

I know that the holiday season is usually all about the peppermint and gingerbread and eggnog (and trust me- I love all of those flavors too!), but for me there is nothing more festive than the combination of sweet orange with tart pomegranate or cranberries. 

Maybe it is the color combo of the bright orange and the jeweled red. Maybe it's because I need a pop of sweet & tart flavor to give me a break from all of the warm spices and zippy mint that we are bombarded with this time of the year. But this citrusy, sweet & tart combo is a treat not only for my taste buds, but for my eyes as well. :)

Candied orange peel is one of those recipes I have been wanting to try for myself for a while now. I have made candied lemon slices before, but never orange peel. 

I used mandarin oranges (aka, Halos or Cuties) for this recipe mostly because my youngest is obsessed with them, but it seems like we can never get through an entire bag of them before they go bad. So this candied orange peel recipe is a great way to use up a few of them. And since mandarins are much smaller then regular navel oranges, their peels are already the perfect size for candying. 

Marvelous Mondays Link Party #76

Good evening everyone!  I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend! We are so happy to have you all here for another edition of Marvelous Mondays!   Each week you impress us all with your culinary creations, your craftiness, and your clever DIY projects.  Seriously.  You all rock! :)

Please feel free to spread the word about the party to your blogging buddies- the more, the merrier in my book!

Be sure that you are following Frugal Foodie Mama on Facebook, Twitter, & Pinterest to catch the posts I will be featuring throughout the week from Marvelous Mondays! 

This week I am featuring this hearty & comforting Slow Cooker Burgundy Beef Stew from my Marvelous Mondays co-host, Deb from Cooking on the Front Burner.  I am always a sucker for a good crock pot recipe... :)

6 Holiday Treats for Easy Christmas Gift Giving

Make gifts from the heart (and straight to the tummy) with these 6 Holiday Treats for Easy Christmas Gift Giving...

Go ahead and get started on your holiday gift list with these 6 Holiday Treats perfect for easy Christmas gift giving! :) And after you have checked out all 6 of these easy and tasty DIY gift ideas, be sure to scroll down and get entered to win the HUGE Bake Your Holidays Gifts Giveaway below... :)

Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix from The Bitter Side of Sweet

Toasted Pecan Pie Crust Mix from Frugal Foodie Mama

Gingerbread Yogurt Waffles with Powdered Sugar Glaze from Melanie Makes

Easy Cherry Pie Cookies from Pint Sized Baker

Candy Cane Swirl Cookies from Clark's Condensed

How to Throw a Cookie and Cocoa Party from Juggling Act Mama