Recipes

That’s not a spaceship …it’s a sugar cookie?

Pardon the play on a Star Wars quote in the title… what can I say? I just love me some Star Wars. I generally keep this deep infatuation with the series a private love affair. Apparently though, others have figured out this fact about me because the other day my friend gave me a set of Star Wars cookie cutters! How could I not use them in my next baking adventure! This gift motivated me to find a recipe for sugar cookies that would keep their shape because the cookie cutters were extremely intricate and detailed. My mother always makes sugar cookies in the shape of Christmas trees for the holidays, but I wanted to find my own unique recipe for my endeavor!

After looking around Pinterest for a little while I finally stumbled upon a recipe that claimed to be able to do exactly what I needed. I liked this recipe a lot because it included almond extract which really bumped up the flavor of these cookies significantly. These cookies involve a lot of prep work. I’ve learned through my extensive sugar cookie research that chilling the dough for a few hours is essential in helping them keep their shape during the baking process. I also learned that when you don’t have a rolling pin, your roommates bottle of wine sitting on the counter is a perfectly acceptable substitution.

The cookies definitely retained their shape, and they were delicious! They didn’t dry out or taste too bland which were my initial concerns. The only changes I would make to the recipe in the future would be to add more sugar. However, I did not frost my cookies. I think if I had frosted them then they would have been more than sweet enough, but without frosting they were lacking in the sweet department.

Don’t believe me about these cookies? Well… I find your lack of faith disturbing…
…Sorry I had to!

SUGAR COOKIES

The Ingredients:
-3/4 cup softened butter
-3/4 sugar
-1 egg
-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
-1/4 teaspoon almond extract
-2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
-1/2 teaspoon baking powder

The Method:
1. Beat the butter until creamed and smooth
2. Add the sugar and beat until combined
3. Add the egg, vanilla, and almond extract and beat
4. Combine the flour and baking powder together in a medium bowl
5. Add the flour mixture to the dough until thoroughly combined
6. Chill the dough for at least one hour, more if possible – SO IMPORTANT
7. Once chilled, preheat oven to 350F degrees
8. Roll out the cookie dough and cut into your desired shapes
9. Bake in batches in the oven for 8/9 minutes
10. Ice the cookies if desired
11. ENJOY!

Sometimes I just don’t have the time to bake…

My oh my, where has the time gone!? I cannot believe that it is already November! I apologize for abandoning this blog for so long. I had such high hopes for all of my baking adventures in college but unfortunately they have just not come to fruition the way I expected them to! Of course, I do bake occasionally, but I often forget to take pictures and only remember after I’m already halfway done the last one…

these were so incredible the entire batch literally only lasted 30 minutes

I could give you all my excuses for why I’ve been gone, but instead I’m going to post something a little bit different today. Today I will be listing a few of the cheap, easy, and delicious meals I make for myself here at school! I hope that others find inspirations in the meals that I have come to develop as my own throughout the past few years!

As many of my loyal readers may know, my breakfast is the same every single day. However, what I make for lunch and dinner changes between a few different meals. Here are three of my favorites!

Sweet Potato Quesadilla (This isn’t really a quesadilla, but you’ll see why I call it that in a minute)

INGREDIENTS:
-Sweet potato
-Shredded cheese (I prefer cheddar)
-Guac/salsa

DIRECTIONS:
1. Rinse off a medium/large sized sweet potato and pierce it with a fork several times
2. Microwave for 4 minutes, flip it and microwave for another 4 minutes
3. Cut open the sweet potato and slice up the insides
4. Sprinkle shredded cheese all over the inside of the sweet potato, make sure you get it into every nook and cranny!
5. Place back in the microwave for one minute or until all of the cheese is melted
6. Top with salsa and guacamole
7. Enjoy!

Lo Mein Shrimp Bowl

INGREDIENTS:
-Frozen shrimp
-Lo mein noodles
-Frozen (or fresh!) veggies of choice
-Stir fry sauce
-Sriracha

DIRECTIONS:
1. Thaw out a portion of frozen shrimp (frozen food is a life saver)
2. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil
3. Place lo mein noodles into the boiling water
4. Wait a minute then add shrimp and frozen vegetables (or, if using fresh veggies don’t add them)
5. Once shrimp and noodles are almost cooked through all the way strain the pot and put the food into a pan (this is where fresh veggies would be added)
6. Stir fry with stir fry sauce of choice
7. Serve in noodle bowl with chopsticks (and sriracha!) And enjoy!

Pumpkin Avocado Rice Bowl

INGREDIENTS:
-1 cup brown rice
-1 cup water
-1/2 cup pumpkin puree
-salt n pepper
-1/2 avocado
-parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS:
1. Start boiling the water
2. Once it comes to a boil add the rice AND pumpkin and stir together.
3. Reduce heat to low, cover the pot and let the rice cook normally.
4. After it is cooked, stir it all up. The pumpkin should have cooked into the rice but you won’t be able to really see that until you stir it a bit.
5. Transfer to a bowl
6. Top with 1/2 a diced avocado and parmesan cheese
7. mix it up and YUM!

I hope y’all enjoyed this different kind of post! I promise to bring more baked goods to this blog as the holiday season approaches!

Fall Into The Season – White Chocolate Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

Ahhh Fall. The crisp air, the changing foliage, the emerging of sweaters and boots from the back of the closet, the warm apple cider, and the integration of pumpkin spice into every consumable good possible. At least that’s how my autumns were growing up in New England. In New Orleans, fall comes on a little differently. The weather stays hot and humid, the trees stay lush and green, people continue to wear shorts and crop tops, all drinks are chilled to cool you down, but at least pumpkin spice is still everywhere you look! That’s what I love about food trends, they are the great equalizer of all the very different regions of the country!

Yes, fall is here, and no matter what that may look like for you, I’m betting money that you have seen at least one pumpkin flavored item marketed at your face. So, who am I to buck a trend? That’s why today I have for you all my DELICIOUS White chocolate pumpkin oatmeal cookies!

I am particularly proud of these cookies because this is my first recipe that I have developed completely on my own. I did not follow someone else’s recipe nor did I tweak a previously written recipe. I took the knowledge that I’ve accumulated thus far in baking and I designed my very own cookie! The best part? They were a total success! Everyone really seemed to enjoy them and I must humbly say, they were very delicious. Well how could they not be? They were a beautiful combination of white chocolate and pumpkin in an oatmeal cookie base.

The only notes I have on the recipe is that the dough is a little bit oily because of the pumpkin, so make sure that when you’re forming them to put on the pan you construct them extra carefully into balls. Otherwise they melt out a little bit before they hit the oven and bake oddly. This happened to about 5 of my cookies before I figured out that I needed to take more care in shaping them. Also, take the time to let them cool and firm up a little bit. I was too anxious to wait and ate 3 straight out of the oven, but the ones I had the next day were much better. So try your best to be patient!!

White Chocolate Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

The Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
pinch of salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp vanilla
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup white chocolate chips

The Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. In a mixing bowl combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and salt and set aside
3. In a separate bowl cream together the butter and the 2 sugars
4. Add the egg, vanilla, and pumpkin to the egg mixture and mix thoroughly
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet until they are all incorporated
5. Mix in the oatmeal and white chocolate chips
6. On a greased cookie sheet form balls of dough and bake for 14 minutes
7. This recipe should yield 3 dozen cookies
8. ENJOY!

Sweet Potato Sunday!

Growing up I was always that kid that absolutely REFUSED to eat my vegetables. I remember sitting at the kitchen table for hours while my mom forced me to have at least one bite of spinach. My parents tried everything! They covered the veggies with sauce or cheese, they tried to spruce them up to make them more interesting to me, but I was a very stubborn child. I was set in my ways and refused to learn to like vegetables. It’s ironic that now as an adult (or a larger child, as I often consider myself) I absolutely LOVE veggies! I try and have a vegetable component in almost every meal, and one of my favorites is the sweet potato!

Sweet potatoes are actually one of my absolute favorite foods of all time. They are second in line behind my ever beloved oatmeal. They include many essential vitamins, including B6, C, D, and A! You basically cover all the important alphabetical vitamins in one serving of this fun vegetable! That’s another thing – they’re a vegetable that tastes like a dessert! What a serious win win.

I buy tons of sweet potatoes every time I go to the store because they can store for a long time. Whenever I don’t feel like cooking a big meal I simply wash a sweet potato, poke a few holes in if with a fork and microwave it for 8 minutes – rotating once at the 4 minute mark. Then I can just cut it open straight from the microwave and load it up with whatever delicious fillings I want! (Chickpeas, cheese, yogurt, honey, cinnamon sugar, nutella, or simply salt/pepper and butter!) However, when I have more time I like to get a little fancier with my sweet potatoes and make myself some sweet oven baked fries! The recipe is easy and the outcome is SO DELICIOUS OH MY GOSH! You’ll just have to try it yourself to believe me! (And this is also a great way to get some vital nutrients into picky kids!)

SWEET SWEET POTATO FRIES

The Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato (or 2 small ones)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon

The Method:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Place sweet potato in microwave for 1-2 minutes so that it’s softer and easier to cut
3. Cut sweet potato into long fry-like strips and place into a bowl (I keep the skins on because I love them, but you can peel your potato if desired)
4. Add the rest of the ingredients of top of the cut potatoes and mix with your hands until each slice is fully covered and the ingredients have all mixed together
5. Spread out the strips onto a sprayed baking sheet
6. Place in oven for 30 minutes
7. Let cool for 5 minutes and then enjoy!

More fun with Oreos – Chocolate Chip Oreo Cookie Bars

Do you have a favorite type of Oreo? Personally I like the ones that come out around Halloween time with the orange frosting. They don’t taste any different from the regular ones I don’t think, but for some reason the orange makes it easier to consume an entire package of them… I also like the double stuffed ones because there is nothing wrong with putting more of that mysterious frosting stuff in my mouth. I’m not really into the golden ones, or the uh oh oreos. I know there’s a myriad of other flavors such as mint, peanut butter, birthday cake, and cookie dough!? but I’ve never actually tried those ones. Let me know if any of them are worthwhile in the comments!

For these cookie bars I used double stuffed oreos. Like I’ve said countless times, you can never go wrong with double stuffed! From this endeavor I learned a few things about my new kitchen Including the fact that I have a pretty weak oven. These had to cook for nearly 40 minutes when the recipe I based them on only had them in for 25!

Also, because I don’t have an electric mixer I creamed the butter and sugar myself (cue your impressed faces at my powerful muscles) Either way they came out AMAZING and my sorority sisters devoured them at our chapter meeting!

CHOCOLATE CHIP OREO COOKIE BARS

The Ingredients:

BARS-
2 cups brown sugar
2/3 cup salted butter
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cup flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
12 crushed oreos
1 cup chocolate chips

TOPPING-
2 crushed oreos
1/4 cup chocolate chips

The Recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees
2. Soften the butter in the microwave then add to the brown sugar in a large bowl. Cream them together
3. Mix in eggs and vanilla
4. In a separate bowl mix together 1 cup of flour with the baking powder and salt
5. Pour the dry into the wet and mix together
6. Add in the rest of the flour
7. Fold in the oreos and chocolate chips
8. After baking for 15 minutes add the toppings and continue baking for another 10 to 20 minutes (depending on how useful your oven is)
9. ENJOY!

All for myself – Single Serve Microwave Oatmeal Cookie

Hello again everybody! Let me tell you something, I have been busy busy busy since I returned to school. I forgot how easily my life can become so hectic! Between the hours of classes, homework, extracurriculars, work, and attempts at socializing I have found that baking has really been placed on the back burner.

pictured: me prioritizing my social life #SINS

A secondary challenge is that I am surrounded by a bunch of sorority girls who have too much self control and won’t eat my baked goods quickly enough! I ended up eating about 1/2 of the Oreo bars I made and struggled to find other people willing to eat them. People are way too body conscious here and it’s kind of bumming me out. I’m far less motivated to bake when I know that nobody will eat my creations! However, after I got home from work and dinner last night I decided enough was enough! If nobody wanted to eat batches and batches of amazing cookies than I would simply focus on myself. Thus, my single serving oatmeal cookie was produced!

This cookie takes about five minutes total to assemble and bake. You can’t really tell from the pictures but after cooling for about three minutes, the cookie just popped right out of the bowl and I could hold it like a real cookie!! It was so cute and awesome. Actually, just baking it was really cute. I’m used to using cups and cups of flour and sugar for my large scale baking endeavors but this simply required small teaspoons of ingredients! It was adorable and really fun. The end result was surprisingly good. The cookie was a little but chewy, but it still reminded me very much of an Oatmeal cookie. Given that it was cooked in the microwave I was fairly impressed with the outcome. I ended up making two of them for myself (darn my oatmeal cookie addiction!) but they were the perfect night snack and a good way to practice portion control (if you’re into that kind of thing). Another thing I thought of after the fact is that these would be SO much better if some chocolate chips were thrown in them! Next time! (AKA every night ever)

ONE SERVING MICROWAVE OATMEAL COOKIE

The Ingredients:

1/4 cup oats
1 egg white
2 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp baking powder
Cinnamon (as desired)
Chocolate Chips (technically optional but let’s be realistic… they’re never optional)

The Method:

1. Combine all of the ingredients in one (microwave safe) bowl and mix together well until a consistent dough forms
2. Scrape the dough from the sides of the bowl and form into a flat cookie shape on the bottom
3. Microwave on high for 45 seconds
4. Allow to cool for a few minutes
5. Pop the cookie out of the bowl and enjoy!

First week back in the Big Easy – Oreo Marshmallow Bars

Hello friends! Sorry that it has been almost a whole week since I have posted on here but I had to take a several day hiatus from any baking activity in order to move in to my apartment down here in New Orleans. Things have been a little hectic and I lacked the means to bake anything for the first few days down here.

I have since settled in though and I finally found the time to focus on mind on having some fun in the kitchen! I really enjoyed this first baking adventure in my new apartment for several reasons:
1. I didn’t’ have to use the oven, which is nice when the temperature outside never drops below 90 degrees
2. I had to be a little creative when deciding what to make because the ingredients I have available to me were limited to the small convenience store we have on campus

I was walking around the aforementioned convenience store trying to think of what I could make when my eyes landed on the marshmallows, “RICE KRISPY TREATS!” was my first thought and I grabbed the bag of mallows and some butter. Then I went to go get some Rice Krispy cereal and realized that they didn’t have any. I woefully stared at my other cereal options deciding which ones would be a good replacement for RK when my eyes landed on the Oreos next to the cereal on the shelf. I’m a big fan of Oreos. They’re crunchy, sweet, chocolatey, and vegan (who knew?). I picked up a box for myself and as I was standing there with the marshmallows and Oreos in my hand I knew at once that I was going to try a little experiment and combine the two for the ultimate treat. Thus, this magical indulgence was born!

I call them Oreo marshmallow bars because that’s what they are! I can’t think of a name more perfect for them. They’re incredibly easy to make and they take almost no time at all. You get to crush Oreos in a bag too, so they’re a great stress reliever for if you really feel like punching something. I mean, if you’re gonna punch something it might as well be a big bag of Oreos that you get to shove your mouth with later!

A few things to note from my experiment: After they set (and after I ate 3 straight from the pan… woops) I found that they were extremely difficult to remove smoothly from the pan, so maybe I would spray the pan before I put the mixture in. Also, depending on your crunch preference level you could mash the Oreos up a little bit more than I did. Or not, I liked em my way to be perfectly honest.

OREO MARSHMALLOW BARS

The Ingredients:
1 package of Double Stuffed Oreos (it’s like 30 Oreos I think)
1 bag of mini marshmallows (somewhere around 6 cups to be more accurate)
1/2 stick of butter

The Method:
1. Place all of the Oreos in a bag and smash with a rolling pin or other heavy object until they are smushed to tiny bits
2. In a large pot heat the butter and marshmallows and stir until the two have melted together and have reached a smooth consistency
3. Remove the marshmallows from heat and add the crushed oreos
4. Mix and mix and mix!
5. Pour into an 8×8 baking dish and let sit in the fridge for ~15 minutes
6. Cut into 12 sections and enjoy!

One final hurrah – Chocolate Sugar Cookies

I’m pretty much an expert on saying goodbye. At least three times a year I bid adieu to my home, my family, my boyfriend, and of course, my cat. Now it is once again time for me to pack up and head down to school in New Orleans. Once again, I must say goodbye. Missing my loved ones is not something I have an easy time with, and now I have added one more beloved item to my long list of things I will miss irrevocably. My mother’s beautiful Kitchenaid electric mixer! They all but had to drag me kicking and screaming away from that magical machine. Baking will never be simple again without it in my kitchen.

However, before I left it all behind in New Hampshire I made sure to get in one last chance to use it. I decided that whatever my last baked good in my mom’s kitchen was going to be needed to be my best yet. This way, no matter what disasters await me in my ill-equipped and dangerously tiny kitchen at school, I would have one final delicious memory.

For this special treat I decided to put a fun spin on an old classic. Plain sugar cookies are some of the most wonderful tasting morsels that we can experience on this earth, add chocolate to them? Well, forget about it! People were swooning for these cookies (myself included) and it will not be the final time that I make them. I made mine pretty big, because I was not settling for any bite sized cookies. You could probably get more cookies out of this recipe by rolling smaller balls of dough and shortening the baking time by a minute or so. I recommend making them jumbo though, you’re gonna want to eat a lot at once anyways! Besides the fact that these cookies simply tasted amazing, they also had that chewy and soft texture that just makes cookies perfect. Seriously, I can’t brag about myself enough with these cookies. You’ll just have to try them for yourself and see what I’m talking about!

CHOCOLATE SUGAR COOKIES:

The Ingredients:
2 cups + 2 tbsp flour
¾ cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
¾ tsp salt
2 ½ sticks unsalted butter
2 cups sugar, plus 1/2 cup
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

The Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together
3. Using a standing mixer (#BAE), cream the butter and 2 cups sugar together
4. Add the eggs and vanilla to butter and sugar
5. Add the flour mixture in slowly until it is all combined
6. Roll dough into balls and roll balls in sugar
7. Bake for ~12 minutes
8. Enjoy!

Gluten free goodies – Maple peanut butter cookies

I have to be honest with you all about something, I have absolutely no idea what gluten is. Nada. None. Zilch. I know that people with Celiacs can’t eat it, I know that it’s in pizza & beer, and i know that to get products without it costs you almost double your money. Beyond that, what exactly gluten is is a complete mystery to me. Once I found out it was in flour and that basically everything delicious in the world is made of it, I counted my lucky stars that I’m not intolerant of this mysterious compound. (Is compound the right word? Is it an element? who knows!?) However, two of my very good friends are. Intolerant, that is. In honor of them I decided to incorporate some flour-less baked goods into my repertoire. After doing a bit of searching around on the interwebs, I discovered that for flour-less baking to successful (and delicious), peanut butter needs to get involved. Okay you guys, I’m about to drop another bomb on you – I hate peanut butter. Fortunately, these cookies weren’t for me so I decided to go ahead and make them anyways regardless of my interests. I’m not the gluten-free one here, this project was not about my own desires!

Here’s the thing, I don’t own regular peanut butter. The only peanut butter that I have is Mighty Maple peanut butter from Peanut Butter & Co. While I hate regular PB, this company’s flavored stuff is much more tolerable and I can actually be found eating it from time to time. That’s the secret ingredient to this cookie – it’s what gives them the subtle (and wonderful) maple-y aftertaste.

The results of this gluten free adventure were wildly successful. The cookies didn’t last long at work, and people who didn’t even care about gluten free baking were munching down on these things like they were the best cookies in the world. (Actually, I was told that they might be!) Honestly, I think because I decided to go flour-less instead of using a replacement flour, these cookies are accessible to a number of crowds beyond just the gluten free folk. My only recommendation would be to double the recipe, otherwise the cookies won’t last long!

GF Maple Peanut Butter Cookies

The Ingredients:
1 cup maple peanut butter
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup sugar
1 egg

The Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Beat the maple peanut butter & sugar in a bowl, then mix in the baking powder and add the egg. Mix well until well combined
3. Roll the dough into small balls and place balls on a baking sheet (this is where I chose to make a pretty design on top of the cookies with a fork!)
4. Bake for 10 minutes
5. Enjoy!

Elevated simplicity – Bite Sized Oatmeal “Cookies”

Sometimes in the morning, my standard bowl of oatmeal just doesn’t seem creative enough. When I first heard of the magical 2-ingredient cookies I knew that it would be a fabulous base to transform my morning bowl of oatmeal into something even more spectacular.

The idea is simply mixing oatmeal and a banana together and baking them into “cookies”. (Fair warning: these are not really cookies, so I try not to think of them like that – no cookie should lack it’s necessary butter and sugar, that’s my golden rule) I don’t stop with the oatmeal and banana in this fun recipe, to make my little oatmeal bites I add in what I would to my usual bowl of oats! For this example I added cinnamon and raspberry. You could also add cocoa powder, chocolate chips, raisins (yuck), coconut, nuts, seeds – the combinations are endless! The greatest part about this breakfast is that it feels like you’re eating a plate of cookies for breakfast, but you’re getting all of the amazing nutrients of a regular bowl of oatmeal! I like to eat them accompanied with a glass of almond milk for added nutritional value to round out this cute, simple, and fun breakfast!

OATMEAL BREAKFAST COOKIES

The Ingredients:
1 banana
1/2 cup oats
Optional:
Desired mix-ins! (cinnamon berries, nuts, chocolate chips, coconut, nut butters, etc.)

The Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Mush a banana into a bowl and mix in oats until thoroughly combined
3. Fold in any desired mix ins
4. Drop 6 circles of the “dough” onto a greased baking sheet
5. Bake for 14 minutes
6. Enjoy!

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: