Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

My personal favorites are cookie dough and cupcakes. Some genius put a recipe online that we found to combine these two treats! I can't take the credit for this idea and there are several different variations of how to make them but the recipe that I used is from All Recipes.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
• 
  
• 1 (18.25 ounce) box yellow cake mix
• 1 1/3 cups water
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 3 eggs

First, make the cookie dough. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and sea salt; set aside. Beat the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth. Add 1 egg and the vanilla extract and beat until smooth. Mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips; mixing just enough to evenly combine. Form the dough into tablespoon-sized balls; place onto a baking sheet, and freeze until solid, about 2 hours.

Next, make the cupcake batter.

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners. Beat 3 eggs in a large bowl with an electric mixer to break up. Add the cake mix, water, and canola oil; continue beating for 2 minutes on medium speed. Spoon into the prepared cupcake liners, filling each 2/3 full. Place a frozen cookie dough ball on the top center of each cupcake.

Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the cake portion of the cupcake (not the cookie dough ball) comes clean, about 20 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack. Once cooled ice the cupcakes. We used dark chocolate icing and it was amazing!!!

ENJOY :)

Everybody Loves Cabo!

CABO! Where we went on our honeymoon and now the name of our new puppy!!

So Nathan and I have been wanting a dog for quite some time now but we were just waiting for the right time. Then we decided that time hit when Jeff, a guy that Nathan works with, got his family a new puppy for free. The puppies are half golden doodle and half labrador which equals precious! We gave the family that had them a call and they had 3 boys left. It was hard picking out which puppy to take home but I know that the other 2 will have great families. So we got the smallest one that also looked the most like the momma.

We knew that we wanted to name our puppy something that represented both of us. After thinking of our favorite musicians, lost characters, climbing gear, celebrities, and so on, we thought of Cabo! We both obviously enjoyed our honeymoon and always talk about wanting to go back so why not name our new puppy after the place we love so much!

On our way home we stopped by PetsMart to get Cabo some food, a crate, toys, and his lovey (his big bunny, Easter appropriate of course!).

Cabo pretty much slept all afternoon and night. Only being 5 weeks old I think he was a little in shock to be away from his brothers and mom.

We got home and introduced him to his crate then tried to play a little bit but...

He enjoyed sleeping :) He also loves his lovey! Nathan and I took turns letting him out about every 3 hours during the night and each time he was asleep on his lovey. Surprisingly he didn't cry at all throughout the night, it might have been because he was so tired so who knows what tonight will bring!

Isn't he just precious, oh yes the puppy is cute too!!!! Today he has been a lot more alert and playful and this afternoon I am taking him to the vet so let's hope for a good report! Love you Cabo!

Florida, Lake, & Some Mountain Biking!

FLORIDA

Well fellow bloggers life has been busy around the Chance home lately so I apologize for the lack of blogging! BUT it has all been a good busy and I finally am taking the time to share some pictures. About two weeks ago I went to Florida with my mom, Ashley, her friend Lacy, Mrs. Robin, Katie, and Laura. It was a great girls trip and I can't wait to go back this summer with Nathan and my family!

We arrived at the beach right before sunset and went on a walk. The beach that evening was covered in jelly fish! Thankfully by the end of the week they were gone but they were pretty cool looking while they were there.

Laura and I on our walk down the beach :)

Laura and Katie getting ready to ride the sea-doo while the rest of us hopped on the boat. We all rode out to this place in the ocean that is known for having a lot of dolphins and we got to swim with them! It was so exciting and a little intimidating swimming with those big fish!!!

One of the afternoons there was a man kite surfing so I snapped a quick picture!

It would not be a trip to Florida if we didn't eat at McQuire's Irish Pub, I have never been disappointed and I am always sickly full when we leave this place!

LAKE

Sweet Rex swimming!

I found a little turtle in the water!!

I caught 6 fish! Clay caught who knows how many and Nathan caught 16!

BIKING

This past Sunday after the lake Nathan and I went to Lock 4 in Gallatin, TN to mountain bike. It was my favorite trail I have done so far (I've only done 3, haha)

Ready to go! Nathan got some other pictures during the ride but they are on his phone.

Some other great news that I found out while I was in Florida is that I am going to be an AUNT!! My brother, Clay, and his wife, Amy, are expecting a baby! Congratulations guys!

MeMpHiS

Last week Nathan and I made a trip to Memphis to visit with the Goodwins. We enjoyed a relaxing weekend to just hang out with Brittany and TJ plus playing with the kiddos. Sadly enough I didn't even get a picture with Brittany but we got plenty of pictures of her sweet babies!

Fortunately for Nathan, Addison seems to take a liking to boys more so than girls :)

Brittany and Austin

Nathan and Lawson playing with some legos!

Addison and Austin!

Thank you Brittany and TJ for letting us come hang out and stay with ya'll. We had a blast and cannot wait to see your family in May!

Marvelous Martes!

Took this as the sun was about to expire for the day on a recent climbing excursion to Foster Falls on Monteagle Mountain. We seem to really like sunsets.

Chancehold out.

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Quick and Easy Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe, or:

[How to Feed The Neighborhood]

I was feeling a little sickly today and we thought some homemade chicken noodle soup sounded good. My mom makes the best chicken noodle soup ever so we called her and got the recipe for it. Next time you need to feed the U.S. Olympic Team just do like we did and head to Sam's Club and buy waaaaay too much of each ingredient and voila! You'll have about 1,200 servings!

What you Need:

50 oz of Canned Chicken Breast in Water

12 oz of Spiral Noodles

12 oz of Dumpling Noodles

100 oz of Chicken Broth

26 oz of Cream of Chicken Soup

About 4-5 Stocks of Celery

2-3 cups Baby Carrots

Will make about 20 servings or more, maybe 50.

How to Concoct:

Fairly thinly slice up your carrots and celery and boil them until tender. Boil your noodles, drain the water off them and throw them back into the largest pot you own. Drain the chicken breast and break the big chunks up with a spoon. Stir in your broth, chicken, vegetables and cream of chicken soup. Add some pepper and any other spices you so desire and you are done!

The olympic team is lined up and ready to feast.

The finished product. Mmm Mmm Good.

Gatlinburg and The Biltmore

So as you all can see from our previous post, Nathan & I took a quick trip to Gatlinburg last week. We are very fortunate that my mom's side of the family shares a cabin in the mountains so we had a place to stay! We got to Gatlinburg late Sunday night (technically early Monday morning) then we woke up on Monday and hiked up Mt. LeConte. It was a perfect day and the hike was surrounded with beautiful scenery.

As you can see there was quite a bit of snow at the top of the mountain, actually a lot of snow! It was a difficult hike but well worth it. Once we got to the top we walked around the lodge a little bit & had a snack, then we raced down the mountain because we were ready for some dinner. That night we went to Apple Barn (one of my all time favorite restaurants) and then played some Putt Putt.

Tuesday morning we woke up & headed towards Asheville for our first ever visit to North Carolina as a married couple. We went to the Biltmore! It was absolutely beautiful & filled with so much history. The entire house was filled with details. I personally loved the Mrs.' bedroom, which was just meant for her to get ready in & rest in. Her & Mr. Vanderbilt did have their own bedroom for the two of them. Anyways her bedroom was purple & yellow & super feminine.Below is a picture that Nathan snapped in front of The Conservatory. Not all of the flowers were in full bloom but there was still so much to see.

In front of the Biltmore! Can you believe it is over 100 years old?