February Challenge

I made it through January for my 30 Day Challenge.  I didn't eat chocolate & I completed a craft each week.  Well, I ate chocolate once but it was an accident.  I ordered an oatmeal raisin cookie at a restaurant & they gave me a cranberry chocolate cookie.  I didn't pay much attention when I took a bite & quickly realized it had chocolate.  But I didn't finish the cookie - pretty impressive if I do say so myself!

February snuck up on me a little & when the 1st hit, I hadn't decided what my challenge would be for the month.  Actually, I'd already decided on my health challenge but not my personal challenge.  I was feeling a little blah about the personal challenge.  I just wasn't feeling it.  But come Monday I had made a decision & was back on track!

My health challenge this month is no fried food.  I wouldn't say I eat a lot of it anyway, but I'm going to miss the occasional order of fries! 

My personal challenge this month is to try one new recipe a week.  I've been in a little bit of a cooking rut lately & want to get motivated to try some new things.  What helped me decide on this for February was I already made a new recipe on Sunday, so my first week was covered.   J
 
Rather than do a separate post for my first new recipe, I'll share it now.  I made The Pioneer Woman's Knock You Naked Brownies for a Super Bowl party.

Wowza.  These were GOOD.  As soon as I started thinking about what I wanted to take to the party, I knew it needed to be chocolate to celebrate making it through my January challenge.  I saw these on her website - they looked pretty easy & I'm a sucker for caramel.  They were a hit.  The next time I make them, I think I'm going to use a little less caramel.  I used almost two bags of the square caramels.  I think I'll try using one & a half bags.  Don't get me wrong, I love caramel & loved these with the thick layer in the middle.  But they might be a little less messy if I back off the caramel a little.  Even after refrigerating for several hours, it was hard to get a slice out cleanly.  But man, it tasted good.  Or I might try making it in a 9x13 pan to spread it all out more.  I don't have any good reasons to make these again soon but surely I can think of something.  A random Wednesday is a good time to make brownies, right??

If you have any good recipes you've tried lately, send them my way!