Semi-Homemade. Entirely Delicious.

Just the other day, as I was rushing to get to Mr. A's wine tasting/fancy dinner, I was on the phone with a friend. I told her I had to go, and she was all "OH, I'll let you go and get back to your fabulous life."

And I was all LADY, YOU CRAZY. Most of my time is in spent in laundry stand-offs. Or tending to my never ending tummy troubles. Or pondering things to buy online, of which I have nowhere to actually wear. In fact, lately, I have been feeling particularly un-fun and un-fabulous due to the never-ending routine in my day to day life: wake up, get ready, go to work, read the internet, go to the gym, go to sleep.

This lack of fabulosity (Yes, I watch Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane. WHAT OF IT?) is actually a big part of why I recently decided to become a morning gym person. Hopefully, a freer evening schedule would allow more time to be social during the evenings.

So I've sort of succeeded. Birthday dinners and fancy steaks and meeting up after work. I'm now available for that! Big change....So it was perfect timing on the part of the folks at BlogHer and M&M’s to contact me about reviewing the new Premium M&M’s. The campaign is all about being fun and fabulous and LO! I AM NEWLY FUN AND FABULOUS PEOPLE! Serendipity at work!

And a few days after giving an enthusiastic yes! to free candy, I received a box containing 60 (!!!) packages of the assorted new flavors in the Premium line. Specifically, Chocolate Almond, Raspberry Almond, Mocha, Triple Chocolate, and Mint. Now I’m sure you’re all saying to yourself “But Slynnro! What of the recent attempts to curb your sweet intake!"

1. Like that would stop me from taking free candy.
2. More on that later.

But what to do with all of these M&M’s?

Even pre-going-off-the-sugar, I would have a hard time downing this many of any candy. After sampling all of the flavors…..uh, many times over, IN THE NAME OF RESEARCH, I formulated a plan. And I made dinner plans.

You see my lovely friend Ariele was making her triumphant return to Dallas the very same week I was contacted by BlogHer. So myself and three other friends got together for dinner to celebrate her homecoming. At a fun and fabulous restaurant, Sambuca. I decided that such a fun and fabulous event required party favors, and a perfect opportunity to share the wealth of chocolate with my pals. In addition, I decided to get to baking.

Well, sort of baking. If you know me at all, you will have already guessed that by baking, I mean that I bought a batch of prepared sugar cookie dough at the grocery store.

Now these Premium M&Ms are considerably larger than your average M&M- similar in size to the regular old peanut variety. So it wasn’t really an option to make my favorite cookie, the M&M sugar cookie. So instead, I decided to whip out the food processor and chop these babies up.

Hmmm... what is missing here?

Oh yes, that choppy thing.

After pulsing the M&Ms, I took the pre-made dough squares and rolled them in the resultant chocolate/nut mixture. I also recommend pressing some extra processed M&Ms on to the dough once they hit the pan, as the cookies spread when baking.

For these cookies, I went with both almond varieties because I thought they would be less likely to melt everywhere, and that the flavors would be most complimentary to the sugar cookie.

I WAS RIGHT. They also added a nice crunch to the cookie. I like my cookies a bit undone, so they tend to be a bit soggy. The M&Ms and almonds perked them right up!

With the rest of the dough, I made larger dough balls, and then pressed two of the Triple Chocolate M&Ms into the center of the dough. The Triple Chocolate flavor is a lot richer (in a good way) than your average plain chocolate M&M. Downright truffley in fact. The M&Ms melted together during the baking process, creating a gooey chocolate center.

Eat your heart out, Sandra Lee.

FABULOUS.

On the night of the dinner, we had originally decided to meet at a wine bar. Unfortunately, when we pulled up, we discovered that it was closed. Ariele, mother to two very young children, was NOT happy.

“But I’m wearing gold shoes!” she cried. “WITH A HEEL. I NEVER WEAR HEELS AND I DON’T HAVE A DIAPER BAG. We must have the fun and have it right now!”

(Seriously. That happened. Our cars were parked next to each other and she actually held up the shoe, because her tale of woe is so much more compelling with a visual.)

And people, when presented with something like that, you find the fun and the fabulous pretty quickly.

So we moved on to Sambuca, and cocktails and conversation was had. Discussing old college friends and boyfriends and playing Remember That One Time When…. It was the very definition of fun and fabulous, and the whole dinner served as a reminder that making more effort to see the people in my life on a regular basis is something that pays dividends.

After dinner, I whipped out the cookies and M&Ms and we all tried the entire collection. I have to say, everyone was impressed. We all agreed that M&Ms really took it up a notch here. I love regular M&Ms, but these are bit more in the vein of Chocolates, and not just candy. Much more like a dessert, and less like a snack. Just really really good. The cookies were a hit too. And the next morning, Ariele called and told me that her kids loved them as well. So they certainly aren’t so fancy that a child can’t appreciate them. Kim, she who throws more wedding/baby showers than anyone I know, said that she would like to use them as favors for showers. The pink and blue of the almond flavors make them perfect for baby showers. When Mr. A and I got married, we had a candy bar for our guests. The Premium M&Ms would also be a perfect addition to something like that.

This week, I also had an evening with my friends Bryan and Matt and we watched the Olympics (by definition fun and fabulous).

Did you know that if someone simply says "Michael Phelps," you are required by law to do a cheer?

I decided to make mini-cheesecakes. Not shockingly, I just used a no-bake cheesecake mix.

If you use an appliance, it is automatically legitimate "cooking."

After pressing the graham cracker crust into the bottom of each dessert cup, I added a layer of chopped up M&Ms (for these, I used Mint and Triple Chocolate). I then added the cheesecake filling, and on top of that, another layer of chopped up M&Ms.

I don’t think I need to tell you how much these were enjoyed. And they took all of ten minutes to make.

Matt and Bryan's kitty collection- Let me show you it.

A brief description of the flavors:

Chocolate Almond- These are pretty close to Peanut M&Ms in taste. But the chocolate is better. More flavorful and the candy shell flavor isn’t particularly intense. I consider that to be a good thing.

Raspberry Almond- I don’t like fruit. I don’t like fruit flavors. Things shaped like fruit. Things that have possibly come into contact with fruit. But I actually kind of like these. The raspberry flavor is really just a hint of raspberry- not strong at all. These were a big hit with all the non-fruit haters.

Mocha- Really, really, really good. The ONLY thing I will drink at Starbucks is a Java Chip Frappucino. These were very reminiscent of that flavor.

Mint- These are my personal favorites. Great for after dinner- perfect mint to chocolate ratio. They would taste delicious chopped up over ice cream as well.

Triple Chocolate- A close second. These are certainly not your average plain M&M. Much deeper chocolate flavor. Especially good when cold. YUM.

And If you would like to hear what other people have to say about this product, click here.

Anyway, like I said earlier, this is sort of conflicting with my whole "trying to eat fewer sweets" thing. It's been a struggle. Fortunately, I love chocolate, but am able to control my consumption. It never ceases to amaze Mr. A that I can keep a candy bar in the refrigerator and take single bites from it. I enjoy a candy bar over a number of days. He is baffled (you probably are too). He is also highly irritated about the constant chocolate crumbs I leave in the fridge from my bites.

M&Ms are actually a perfect solution to this little problem. I like to keep a jar of them in the freezer because I like my chocolate cold. I can grab just a few and they will satisfy a sweet craving with ease. And lack of mess. I actually got this idea from my mother- she has long kept a mayonnaise jar full of Peanut M&Ms in her freezer. When I come home to visit, it is something I actually find kind of comforting to see (and no, M&Ms did not pay her to do that).

And lastly, I leave you with this Scene From a Marriage:

Slynnro: Now that the Olympics party is over, you can have the leftover cheesecakes.

Mr. A: I was waiting for you to bake them.

Slynnro: Um. They’re NO BAKE.

Mr. A: So you don’t have to cook them?