Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies

Chewy, soft, chocolate, peanut butter... melt in your mouth.  Need I say more, these are great and my favorite go-to peanut butter cookie recipe.  So, put them on your list of "I'm going to make those." I know you won't be disappointed!

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup butter (softened)
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 whole large eggs
2 Tablespoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1 whole pkg. milk chocolate chips

• Combine all ingredients in the order listed above. 
• Use a cookie scoop to place 1 inch balls of dough onto a greased cookie sheet.
• Bake 10-12 minutes or until cookies are a little golden and just set.  (I usually go by what the cookies look like rather than the time, but 10 minutes is a good estimate... when you know, you just know).
• Remove cookies onto cooling racks, then go ahead and eat one while their hot!

Enjoy!

Homemade Granola

Granola has always been one of my favorite breakfast items and I always try to keep this granola on hand.  This is actually my Aunt Kayla's recipe and I absolutely love it.  What I really love about this recipe is it is healthy.  A lot of times we think granola is healthy when it isn't.  Many granola's are high in fat and use a lot of oil and sugar.  You will definitely see a difference with this one, it has just enough sweetness and is packed good nutrients.  Try it, I think you will love it as much as I do!

With that said, feel free to change the recipe as you like to add more or less of an ingredient.  I wait to add the fruit right before I eat it (dried cranberries, cherries or blueberries), but you can eat it plain too... which I do most of the time.

Granola

1 large container Old Fashioned Oats
1 1/2 cups coconut
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup stone ground oats
2-3 cups nuts roughly chopped (almonds, pecans, walnuts... you can choose!)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
2-3 Tablespoons vanilla
2 cups cold water

 Some of these ingredients can be a little expensive when they all add up, but they last a long time and you can use them again when you want to continue making the granola :) The recipe makes a large amount, a full gallon ziploc bag.  Also, homemade granola is cheaper and healthier than buying it at the store.

Step 1: Combine the first 6 ingredients into a large bowl

Step 2: Mix together water, oil, sugar, and vanilla until it is well combined.

Step 3: Pour the mixture slowly over the granola, stirring as you go. Make sure it is evenly coated!

Step 4: Transfer the granola onto baking sheets, cake pans, casserole dishes or whatever it will fit in, you will at least need 2 large baking sheets.

 

Step 5: Bake at  250 degrees for 80 minutes, stirring every 20 minutes.  Watch at the end to make sure it doesn't burn.

 Step 6: Remove from oven and cool completely. 

 Then enjoy with milk, dried fruit, or yogurt!

Health Notes:

• Flax seed may fight heart disease, diabetes, and breast cancer as well as lower cholesterol!
• Wheat germ is a good source of essential nutrients and vitamins.
• Oats are a good source of fiber and promote cardiovascular health... enough said, go make some granola :)

Lemon Asparagus Soup

Asparagus is one of my favorite foods! We eat a lot of it, especially this time of year when it is in season!  Some way or another, it always involves lemon too... they just go together.  This soup is delicious, it is wonderfully light and so easy to make, it really took only 5 minutes to put together.  Hope you enjoy it and are having a good week!

1 small onion chopped
1 clove garlic minced
2 Tablespoons butter
2 lbs fresh Asparagus
1 14oz can white beans
6 cups vegetable broth
1 teaspoon herbs de provence
1 teaspoon salt
1 whole lemon (juice and zest)
1/4 cup cream
cayenne and black pepper to taste

Chop the onion and garlic. 

Saute in butter for 5 minutes or until the onion becomes transparent. 

Snap off the tough ends of the asparagus.  Chop the asparagus but save the heads for the garnish. 

For the garnish, I broiled the tops of the asparagus for 5 minutes so they would be more tender.

Add the asparagus, Saute for 5 more minutes.

Drain the beans then add.

Add the broth and other seasonings.  Cook for 20 minutes or until the asparagus is tender.

 Use an immersion blender or regular blender to blend the soup until smooth.  Add the lemon juice (about 1-2 Tablespoons), zest and cream.  Garnish with asparagus. Add salt and pepper to taste!

Enjoy! We did! 

Pizza Pockets

Stephen and I have been so so busy the last few weeks... more busy than usual.  The meetings at the church have consumed all our time and we haven't been eating dinner until really late, which makes me pretty grumpy at times.  So, since I had a few hours at home today I wanted to make something that we could eat during the week.  My initial thought was lasagna (I've been wanting to make that for a while) but that didn't seem too car or on the go friendly, so I thought of these pizza pockets.

I used to make these often when I was younger, you can add your favorite pizza toppings or even make them with a breakfast filling.  They do freeze well too, I am usually against freezing anything! But I guess I will make an exception for these.

Hope you enjoy these, I know they will make perfect meals for us this week!

For the dough:

1/2 cup water
4 teaspoons yeast
3/4 cup warm milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
4 1/2 cups flour (I used 2 cups of wheat flour and 2 1/2 of white flour)

Mix and knead dough; let rise for 1 hour.

Then pick your favorite pizza toppings, I used zucchini, bell peppers, mushrooms, spinach, mozzarella cheese, and pizza sauce.

Chop 1 zucchini, 1/2 bell pepper, 1 cup mushrooms

Saute for 5 -10 minutes (until vegetables become slightly tender)

Season it up with some Italian seasonings and parsley. 

  

Pour about 3/4 jar of pizza sauce into a bowl.  Add some burger if you like

(Start our with about 1/2 jar and add more if you need it)

Chop 2 big handfuls of spinach and add to the sauce

Add the sauteed vegetables and 1 cup mozzarella cheese. Mix it all together and you have a wonderful filling, pretty healthy too! One note about the filling, you want it to be pretty thick, it the filling has too much sauce and is too thin, it will run out of the pockets. 

Now, back to your dough... form it into a log.

Divide into 18 pieces

Roll each piece into an oval

Place the filling on the lower half, leave some room around the edge to seal the pocket.

Form a pocket with the dough.

Pinch the edges closed. Make sure there is a tight seal.

Place pockets on a greased baking sheet.  Brush egg whites over the pockets before baking.

Check to make sure the edges are sealed once more, I usually pinch the edges once more before baking.  You will probably still have a little sauce that comes out but it's ok :) 

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes until golden brown. 

Berry Orange Muffins

I made these today when I probably should have been studying... but I decided school would still be there tomorrow and there wasn't anything too pressing... well, maybe not.  Anyway, it was a relaxing Sunday, now I'm back to another week. Hope it is a good one for you too! 

Berry Orange Muffins

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1 t. cinnamon
3/4 cup orange juice
1 orange zest
1 t. vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup chopped berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, cranberries)

Topping:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup whole oats
  1/4 t. cinnamon

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees 
• Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, orange zest).
• Combine wet ingredients in another bowl. (orange juice, vanilla, eggs, oil)
• Fold wet and dry ingredients and berries together, making sure not to over-mix.  
• Spoon batter into muffin tins to make 18 muffins.  

•  Sprinkle the topping on the muffins

• Bake for 20 minutes (375 degrees). 

Lemon Ricotta Cookies

Yesterday was a definite "break and bake" day, I was studying for a test all afternoon and had a long week at school.  These cookies have been on my "to make" list and I have been talking about making them for about two weeks now.  Let me tell you, they did not disappoint! When I tried the first one, I thought "these are some of the best cookies to come from my kitchen!"  How can I describe them to you to make you think "WOW, I'm going to bake these RIGHT NOW!!!"

These cookies are moist, fluffy, cake-like and soft with a perfect balance of lemon zest and sweetness.  They are on my top five favorite list and a great cookie for spring.  Hope you enjoy them as much as I do! 

Lemon Ricotta Cookies:

1 stick butter, softened (unsalted)

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 15 oz carton ricotta cheese

2 lemons (zest and juice)

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Lemon Glaze:

1 lemon (zest and juice)
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Dough:  Cream together butter and sugar (about 3 minutes) Add eggs one at a time and mix well.  Add ricotta, lemon zest, and lemon juice.  Mix these ingredients (about 2 minutes) then stir in the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt).

Bake: Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spoon dough onto greased cookie sheets (about 1 T. or use a cookie scoop).  Bake for about 12 minutes or until the cookies are set. Remove onto cooling racks.  Let cookies cool about 15 minutes.

Glaze: Combine the lemon zest, lemon juice, and powdered sugar in a small bowl and stir until smooth.  Spread the glaze on top of each cookie.  The glaze will take about 2 hours to set, but feel free to try one now :) 

Confession: While the cookies above look beautiful, there were a few (probably 5 out of the whole batch) that spread out a lot and were not like the others... I think as I was baking the temperature of my dough changed and was a little warmer by the time I was finished baking.  Next time I think I will keep the dough in the refrigerator while I am baking... I will let you know how this goes.  (It wasn't so bad that I would not make them again though, they still tasted good, just didn't hold their shape.)  If you have any other ideas of what happened, throw them this way!

I'm back to studying and enjoy the cookies!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

A classic favorite!  This recipe is quite good, especially if you want an original chocolate chip cookie.  I think they would also make great ice cream cookies (reminds me of my Ozark days! :)  They have a "secret" ingredient in them... vanilla pudding.  The pudding really creates a smooth texture in the cookie.  Hope you enjoy!

1 cup butter (softened)
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
3.4 oz package of vanilla pudding mix
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
2 cups chocolate chips

Directions: Combine butter, sugar, brown sugar, and cream together.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Make sure it's smooth!  Combine dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and salt) and add to the wet ingredients.  Add the chocolate chips.

Bake at 350 for 10-11 minutes until the cookies are just set (I know it's a pretty exact time.)  They may seem a little underdone at this time but when the cookies cool they will be really soft and chewy.  Let cool for a couple minutes on the baking sheets then remove to cooling racks.