No-Bake Peanut Butter Energy Bites

This is a recipe I’ve seen floating around Pinterest for some time and I finally got around to trying out when I realized I had a plethora of peanut butter (always a good thing). These little bites may not look like much, but boy do they pack a punch – not to mention they are crazy addictive.

I found this recipe on Gimme Some Oven and is one of the most popular recipes on their blog. They are similar to a granola bar, but in a miniature and convenient form. They’re filled with oats, peanut butter, honey, coconut flakes and chocolate chips and are wonderfully chewy and full of flavor. The original recipe called for flax seeds and chia seeds, which I left out, but they would add extra protein and crunch if you choose to use them. I played around with the ingredients a bit to suit my tastes, but feel free to stick to the original recipe if you prefer.

These bites are the perfect size to bring with you on the go or if you need a quick snack. I like to pop in one or two before the gym for a little pick-me-up. It’s recommend that you keep them refrigerated (which is how I like my granola bars anyway) but if you choose to keep them at room temperature, just keep in mind that they’ll need to be eaten within a few days or a week.

No-Bake Peanut Butter Energy Bites
adapted from No Bake Energy Bites on Gimme Some Oven, originally seen on Smashed Peas and Carrots

Ingredients:
makes about 20 bites

• 1 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup coconut flakes
• 1/2 cup peanut butter (I recommend salted)
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup honey or maple syrup (1/3 cup if your peanut butter and/or coconut is unsweetened)
• 1-2 Tbsp coconut oil, melted (optional, but helps keep them together)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

In a medium mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and stir well until combined. Using your hands, roll the mixture into balls that are about 1 Tbsp or 1 inch big. My recipe made about 18 balls. Place on a large plate and refrigerate for 1 hour or more until firm. Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl

Stir until combined

Roll into balls that are roughly 1-inch big

And enjoy!

Red Velvet Cookies for Mother’s Day!

This post is dedicated to my wonderful mother, Debbie. My mom loves all things red velvet – especially the cake – and I thought these cookies were a fun spin-off of one of her favorite desserts.

I’ve always known how fortunate I am to have such an amazing mother. She’s the most caring, generous, and loving person I’ve ever known and I was lucky to realize this at a young age. While others were embarrassed to be seen with their moms in their preteen or teenage years, I always loved to spend time with her and would gladly accompany her to the grocery store or other errands. During my college years and now that I’ve moved away from home, I don’t get to see her as much as I’d like, but I make sure to visit home every few weeks to hang out with her.

Isn’t she so cute?!

My mother has given me and taught me so much. She has always been 100% supportive of my hobbies and interests and has always encouraged me to pursue my dreams. She’s been especially supportive of my interest in cooking and blogging and even came up with the name for this blog! She is my best friend in many ways and I can only hope that someday I’ll be half the mother she is. I am so thankful to have the relationship that we do and I couldn’t ask for a better mom. Love you mom!

Anyway, onto the cookies. This recipe were inspired by these Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookies on Cooking Classy. I found this recipe through foodgawker last year and saved it because it looked like something my mom would like. In fact, I have a whole folder of recipes to make for her someday. I decided to stick with my go-to cookie recipe, because I like that it uses just one stick of butter and the large proportion of brown sugar makes them extra chewy. These cookies are incredibly rich with a nice vanilla flavor, a hint of cocoa, and sweet white chocolate chips. They would also be perfect for Valentine’s Day or Christmas!

I read that you can adapt any cookie recipe to make red velvet cookies, so long as you remember to take away as much flour as cocoa powder that you add. For example, if you’re adding 3 Tbsp of cocoa powder, subtract 3 Tbsp of flour from the recipe. It’s also a good idea to cut back on the amount of sugar a bit because these cookies are very decadent.

Red Velvet Cookies
makes 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg, whisked
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 tsp red food coloring
• 1 3/4 cup minus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour (also equivalent to 1 1/2 cups + 1 Tbsp)
• 3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• optional: 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 2/3 cup white chocolate chips

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and brown sugar together. Stir in egg, vanilla extract, and red food coloring until uniform.
2. In a separate medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and optional cinnamon. Whisk together and combine with butter/sugar mixture. Stir just until incorporated and fold in white chocolate chips.
3. Refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours or up to 24.* Once your dough is cool, preheat your oven to 300ºF.
4. Roll the dough into roughly 1 inch balls (or a heaping tablespoon) and place on a very lightly greased or nonstick cookie sheet. Bake for 11-13 minutes, or until center looks firm. I found that mine were perfect after 12 minutes. Serve with a glass of milk and enjoy

*Refrigerating the dough isn’t necessary to the recipe, but I like to do this because baking dough that’s been firmed in the fridge yields thicker, chewier cookies.

♥

Caramel Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies

So I know I was just saying a couple of posts ago that I wanted to shift the focus of this blog back towards healthy eating BUT since today is Valentine’s Day, I figured an innocent cookie recipe wouldn’t hurt… Whether you’re single or in a relationship, I think everybody deserves something sweet on Valentine’s Day, right?!

For these cookies, I used my favorite cookie recipe, but changed a few things. First, I added 2 tsp of cornstarch to the flour. I’ve been reading about this a lot on various food blogs, and decided to try it out. Cornstarch is a thickening agent and helps to make cookie dough extra thick and fluffy. I also added caramel chips and toffee bits for some extra sweetness – so delicious!

The other thing I tried out was instead of using a whole stick of butter, I used half butter and half coconut oil. I am fairly obsessed with anything coconut and recently used coconut oil for the first time. It behaves like butter, as it’s solid at room temperature, but does have a mellow, coconut-y flavor. Coconut oil does contain saturated fat, but it also is a great source of lauric acid. Lauric acid is a monoglyceride that has antifungal, antiviral, and antimicrobial properties and can actually help to prevent you from getting illnesses or infections. Read more about it here!

Caramel Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
makes about 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

• 4 Tbsp butter + 4 Tbsp coconut oil, melted*
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 3 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 large egg, whisked
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup Caramel Bits (can be found at Target in the baking aisle)
• 1/3 cup toffee bits

*If you don’t have coconut oil or dislike the taste of coconut, feel free to use regular butter instead.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300ºF (unless chilling the dough first – see # 4). In a large mixing bowl, combine melted butter and coconut oil with brown sugar and white sugar. Whisk in egg and vanilla extract and stir until combined.
2. In a separate medium mixing bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk until well-incorporated, about 30 seconds.
3. Stir dry ingredients into wet, just until uniform. Fold in chocolate chips, caramel bits, and toffee bits.
4. Optional: refrigerate dough for 2 or up to 24 hours. Chilling the dough helps to intensify the flavors and also prevents the cookies from spreading out in the oven and becoming too thin. Once you’re finished chilling the dough, preheat your oven.
5. Roll the cookie dough into one-inch balls and place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Normally I wouldn’t grease a cookie sheet for cookie dough with butter already in it, but the caramel bits can get pretty sticky otherwise. Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until edges of cookies begin to turn a light golden color.
6. Enjoy with a cold glass of milk

Happy Valentine’s Day! ♥

Chewy Biscoff Granola Bars

The other day Dan and I were hungry and decided to check out a local deli down the street. While we were waiting for our sandwiches, I was browsing the store’s homemade baked goods and came across their granola bars. They smelled so good and made me want to immediately make my own.

After browsing foodgawker and other food sites, I found a few recipes that sparked my interest. Unfortunately I didn’t have any oats, but I spent the next 24 hours thinking about granola bars and trekked out this morning, snow and all, to get my oats. I decided on these No-Bake Biscoff Granola Bars from Two Peas and Their Pod and omg, I could not have chosen a better recipe. These granola bars are everything I wanted and more. I’m not usually a big granola bar person, but these are something special.

Biscoff, for anyone who hasn’t tried it, is a thick spread made from Biscoff cookies. It tastes very much like ground up cinnamon graham crackers, but has the consistency of peanut butter. Not exactly healthy, but oh so delicious. Trader Joe’s sells their own version called Cookie Butter, which I’m sure is just as tasty. Biscoff spread lends the perfect flavor to these granola bars and gives them a wonderfully chewy texture.

To the original recipe, I added shredded coconut to half the granola bars, left out the biscoff cookie crumbles,  and added a little cinnamon. I also let the chocolate chips melt a bit, making the bars slightly fudgy. So good! The recipe called for quick-cook oats, but I only had old fashioned and they turned out just fine.

Chewy No-Bake Biscoff Granola Bars (adapted slightly from Two Peas and Their Pod)
makes 10-12 bars

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup Biscoff spread or Cookie Butter
• 2 Tbsp honey
• 2 Tbsp maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup crispy rice cereal
• 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
• optional: 1/3 cup sweetened coconut flakes

Directions:

1. Line an 8 x 8″ baking pan with parchment paper or wax paper (wax paper isn’t safe in the oven, but since we aren’t baking these, it will be fine)
2. In a medium saucepan, heat butter, brown sugar, Biscoff, honey, and maple syrup over low heat. Stir gently to combine and cook for 1-2 minutes until a dark caramel-like sauce is formed. Add in vanilla extract and cinnamon and turn off heat.
3. Stir in oats and then crispy rice cereal until well-incorporated. If you want a slightly fudgy texture, stir in chocolate chips while mixture is still hot. (If using coconut, mix in at this time as well.)
4. Once chocolate is melted (about 1 minute), scoop the granola into the parchment paper-lined baking pan. Press down on the granola with a spatula or wooden spoon to create an even, flat layer. Sprinkle with a handful of extra chocolate chips if desired.
5. Refrigerate the granola bars for at least 30 minutes before cutting. These bars are best stored in the fridge or an air-tight container.

Peppermint Chocolate Truffles

If you’re a follower of foodgawker or other food-blog related websites, then you’ve likely seen these delectable Oreo truffle recipes that have been floating around the internet. They are super easy and are made with only 3 ingredients – crushed Oreos, cream cheese, and dipped in melted chocolate. When I saw the addition of peppermint to this recipe, I knew I had to try it. To me, nothing says the holidays or wintertime quite like the combination of chocolate and mint.

If you have a food processor or a blender, you can easily make these delicious desserts. You can choose to melt the chocolate over a stove or in a microwave, as long as you keep an eye on it. These little morsels are truly delicious and would be the perfect treat to serve at a New Year’s party or just a get-together with friends. They are rich, moist, and have the perfect balance of chocolate and peppermint flavors. Best of all, you can make them ahead of time and keep them in the refrigerator or freezer until you’re ready to serve them.

Peppermint Chocolate Truffles
adapted from Candy Cane Peppermint Truffles on Liv Life

Ingredients:
makes about 30 truffles

• 1 15.5 package Oreos (I used generic kind and they still tasted just as good!)
• 1 8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened
• 4-5 round peppermint candies, plus more for decorating (crushed)
• 1 tsp peppermint extract, divided in half
• 1  1/2 to 1 3/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (or about 10 oz. dark chocolate)

Directions:

1. In a food processor or blender, add Oreos and 4-5 peppermint candies and pulse until they break down into a fine powder. If your food processor is small like mine (only 3 cups), you may need to do this in batches.
2. Pour the crushed Oreos into a medium-sized mixing bowl and add softened cream cheese and 1/2 tsp peppermint extract. Stir until well-incorporated and mixture forms a thick paste.
3. Using your hands, roll Oreo mixture into balls (about the size of a heaping tablespoon). Place on a platter or cookie sheet and stick in the freezer for 30-40 minutes.
4. Melt chocolate using a double boiler over low heat, or in the microwave in 30-second increments, stirring between each one until chocolate is melted. Stir in remaining 1/2 tsp peppermint extract.
5. Using a fork or spoon, gently dip the truffles into the melted chocolate and roll around until completely covered. Remove from from melted chocolate with your fork or spoon and place on a wax-lined cookie sheet. If desired, sprinkle crushed peppermint candies on top to decorate.
6. Once all truffles have been dipped in chocolate, place them in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve them.