Recipe: Carrot Cake Cookie Bars with Butterscotch Cream Cheese Frosting

I am always taking recipes I find online and in books and adapting them to what I have on hand. One recipe I find simple, easy and yummy is the one for cake mix cookies. Below is a twist on that using a boxed carrot cake.

Carrot Cake Cookie Bars

1 carrot cake mix

1/3 cup oil+apple sauce mixture, you pick the ratios!

(I did a little less than 1/4 c. oil and the rest apple sauce)

2 eggs

1 c. coconut

1 c. walnuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix ingredients together in a bowl. Spray a 13x9 pan with cooking spray (I use the butter one for baking.) Spread dough in the pan and bake for about 12 minutes. Let cool.

Frosting

8 oz. Neufchatel (reduced fat cream cheese)

1 cup butterscotch chips

I'm sure there is a better way to do this as the butterscotch chips did not melt nicely, but the result was still great (luckily).

In a glass bowl, soften cream cheese in microwave (30 seconds on defrost). Measure out your butterscotch chips in a glass measuring cup and microwave for 1 minute. Stir chips and then add them to the softened cream cheese and stir until you have a smooth butterscotch frosting. Spread on cooled Carrot Cake Cookie Bars.

Note: The butterscotch chips did not come out all creamy and melted, but looked rather crumbly, but when I added it to the cream cheese it blended right in and became creamy goodness.

These are yummy and super easy. If you like carrot cake but are open to try it in a slightly different and denser form, try these!

Do you have a favorite variation on the cake mix cookie??

What happened after we got the keys...

We got excited and started painting. Literally the day we closed on the house we went to lunch and then went to Lowes and then picked up our keys from the sales office. Sophie had a sitter for the day and Andre had work off, so it we figured it was our best chance before filling the house with furniture. 2 weeks later we finally finished. Its definitely not perfect, and could use a little (a lot) of touching up, but we'll live with it for a while.a We just really wanted to get the living room the way we wanted it. Some of you know we were going for a light, neutral gray for the walls, but we got light blue walls instead. That's okay though, it still works. We were a little over zealous I guess. We completely did not estimate time for taping off all those base boards or the annoying rounded corners. They look nice and are a little safer for kids I guess, but they are not fun to paint. That's where most of the mistakes are, but we are happy to have it semi-finished for now. Here are some pics of the completed project. I finally got to put a few things up on the walls and in the book shelves. There is still a lot I'd like to do, but patience will be required.

Will this be the week?????????

A few more pictures

actual dining room

nook on left dining room wall.

We will be putting in a shelf at desk height and a few more above for a little kitchen work space.

another picture of the finished living room.

Still trying to figure out whether the couch should go on the west (back) wall or the south (left) wall.

Dining Room Design

I've been thinking about the dining room lately. I didn't have many plans for it, but the other day I had the strange idea to paint the west wall yellow. Yeah, yellow. Not really my thing, but it leads out to the side yard and yellow just seemed to make sense as the entrance to the outdoors.

My mom has also been asking me about my colors. Mom, you can see my design board for the living room by clicking here. And below is a rough idea for the look of the dining room. Its really just an idea at this point. Not sure if I will have the guts/desire to paint it yellow, but its fun to think I can if I want.

The image below kind of mirrors the inspiration for this dining room scheme.

This is a Garbett home. Andre and I love this builder and their interior designers do a lot of work that is right up our ally.

Finished!

It's done! Our first official walkthrough before closing is tomorrow and then if we get really lucky all of our paperwork will suffice and we will close on Friday. I can't wait to have all of our things in and arrange and decorate! Here are the pictures I took today of the final product. You can see the appliances (minus fridge-we have to buy one), the carpet and just some minor finishes. I still can't believe its actually done. There is nothing to go check out anymore.

Above, the closet doors in our bedroom. Not sure why I put in this picture, but we have closet doors!

My beloved tile around the fireplace. Not in love with an oak mantel but i think it actually looks pretty good. I am really tempted to paint it white though.

And they painted our garage and the front door and put on all the new hardware.

Next up will be pics of after we move in, stay tuned!