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I saw this recipe on Heather Eats Almond Butter and I knew immediately I had to make it! The recipe looked fast and easy. Two things I love in a recipe! The peanut butter cups turned out amazing! I personally think that they taste better than Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, but that is just me. The dark chocolate totally makes the recipe. If you love peanut butter and chocolate, then get in the kitchen now!
Ever since I bought dried cherries, I have had the strong urge to bake with them again. The chocolate-cherry scones were so good and I had a cherry craving, so I decided to make some cookies with them. OMG is all I have to say. These cookies were possibly the best cookies I have ever made! My husband told me he thinks these are his favorite I have ever made. (I think he just says that so I keep making him more) 
The cookies were chewy on the inside and just a little firm on the outside. They were the right amount of chocolate and the right mix of cherries. If you want a great cookie that will wow a crowd, check these out!
Oh wow! Doesn’t that picture just make your mouth water?!?!
Recipe adapted from Cooking Light
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 large egg
1 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk. Place sugar and butter in a large bowl and beat with a mixer on high speed until well blended. Add vanilla and egg and beat well. Mix mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture. Beat until combined. Add cherries and chocolate chips.
Drop by tablespoons 2 inches apart on baking sheets coated with cooking spray or parchment paper. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes or until set. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes on pans.
I seriously have not blogged for way too long. I don’t know if it’s been a lack of motivation or time for that matter, but I really enjoy blogging, so I need to really get back to it. I don’t even know if anyone reads my blog, but I am promising to get back to it. No more excuses i.e. too tired or busy.
I have wanted to bake with dried cherries for a while now. I’ve seen so many good looking recipes that call for cherries, but I never had them in my kitchen. So I decided I was going to buy some cherries and make these scones because they just sounded too good to pass up. I love scones and I love chocolate, so I figured these could not be bad and I was right!
Some people find scones to be too dry, but I have never felt that. I’d much rather have a scone over a muffin or a bagel. There is just something about them. Maybe its because they are not too sweet or maybe its because they taste awesome. Who knows?!?! Enough of my ramblings, here is the recipe. Enjoy!
Cherry Chocolate Scones
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 cup vanilla Greek yogurt (Oikos makes a great Greek yogurt)
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup chopped cherries
1/3 cup chocolate chunks
Directions:
1- Preheat over to 400 degrees.
2- In a large bowl, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs.
3- In a medium bowl, stir together buttermilk, yogurt, egg and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture. Stir to combine. Mix in cherries and chocolate.
4- Use a ice cream scoop to make the scones. Flatten each one with your hand. Place the scones on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 15 minutes or until the top is lightly browned. Allow to cool.
Yesterday my wonderful husband made us dinner. Unfortunately, he misread the directions and added way too much curry powder to the rice. It made the dish soooo spicy! The rice was so spicy that I felt like my sinuses were cleared up instantly! It was a little too much for me to handle, but my husband still liked it. With the right amount of spice, the rice curry turns out really good.
Shrimp Rice Curry
Ingredients:
2 tbsp butter
1 red onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 cup long grain rice
2 tsp. curry powder
1/8 tsp. cayenne powder
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 lb. shrimp
3 tsp. parsley
Directions:
In a large frying pan, melt butter, add onion and celery. Cook for about 8 minutes. Add the rice, curry powder and cayenne powder. Cook for about 2 minutes. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low and simmer until the rice is done, about 20 minutes. Gently stir in shrimp and parsley and cook until shrimp is warm.
Serves 4
Wow, it has been over a month since I last wrote a blog post! I have been busy and my blog was the first thing to go. I know that sounds bad, but choices were made. So hopefully I will be able to get back to some regular blogging!
Not only did my blogging go on the way side, but so did my cooking! I can’t really remember anything fun or exciting that I cooked or baked in the last month or so. So last night I finally tried a new recipe that I have wanted to make.
Asian lettuce wraps were on the menu for last night and I am so glad I decided to make them. They were super easy to make, took hardly any time to prepare and were really good. I felt like they were a nice light meal that is perfect as the weather gets warmer.
I doubled the ingredients for the sauce because I like things a little spicier and I am glad I did. The flavor was really good. Make sure you don’t omit the apples from the recipe because the contrast with the sweet and spices really turns out quite delicious.
Asian Lettuce Wraps
Sauce Ingredients:
Note: Try doubling the ingredients for a little extra spice.
1 1/2 tsp. hoisin sauce
1 tsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. rice wine vinegar
1 tsp. Sriracha hot sauce
Ground black pepper
Filling:
2 tsp. canola oil
1 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 tsp. ginger
2 green onions, chopped
1 lb. ground turkey
2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
1/2 green apple, finely chopped
Butter lettuce leaves, washed
Directions:
Combine all the ingredients for the sauce in a small bowl and mix to blend. Set aside.
Heat a skillet with cooking oil and add the garlic, ginger and green onions to the pan when it is hot. stir fry for a few seconds, until the ingredients are fragrant. Add the ground turkey and cook. Drain the excess fat. Add the vegetables to the plan and cook for 1-2 minutes or until warm. Mix in the sauce and cook for another minute. Add the apples to the pan and toss to coat. Remove from the heat. Serve the meat with the lettuce and enjoy!
This week-end was perfect. There is no other way to describe it. The weather was 80 and sunny and warm. (Finally!)
I opened up the doors in the house to get some much needed fresh air flowing. We also did some much needed yard work and turned on the sprinklers for the first time. It truly feels like Spring to me when you can turn on the sprinkles without fear of the pipes freezing! But sometimes in Reno, you never know! The only thing bad about thing about the weather is that next week they are predicting snow and a drop in temperature by 20 degrees! Why?!?!? I want to wear flip flops now! No more wool socks!!!
At least we got to enjoy the weather today with a little BBQ. Me and the hubby decided on a classic for dinner. Hamburgers on the grill! You can’t get much more classic than that.
We sat outside with our new patio table and enjoyed the fresh air. When the weather has been cold for so long, a nice day feels like a true gift. It’s hard to get stuff done because all you want to do is be outside and bask in the sunshine.
I hope that we don’t get any snow this week and that the weatherman is wrong!
Yesterday we made a barbecued a chicken on the grill that turned out delicious. We had so much leftover and sometimes we don’t want to eat just the chicken. So I told my husband, I would find a way to eat the leftovers in different ways. So tonight we had a homemade pesto chicken pizza. It was so awesome! I love pesto. So when you combine pesto with bread, you are in for a real treat.
Check out how amazing the pizza looked:
I have never been a big fan of leftovers. Maybe it’s because I was used to just reheating it and serving it the same that you ate it the night before. It must have been food boredom. So I am trying to realize the importance of leftovers. Most of the time I put the leftovers safely in a Tupperware and then to the refrigerator. Then I make my husband take the plain leftovers to work for lunch the next day.
I think it kind of hit me when I realized how much money we could save by reusing leftover food. We are trying to budget out grocery bill more and this is a perfect opportunity. Sometimes we run out to the grocery store on work nights and end up dropping $30! So many times I wonder, how did we just spend that?!?! So hopefully by enjoying leftovers more often, I can help us save some money!
So stayed tuned tomorrow for leftovers in the form of chicken Panini sandwiches!
Yesterday I took Moose for a nice, long walk. The weather was so nice and we were both enjoying the outdoors, so we went a little longer. He was running and sniffing everything all around on the trails. When he is really happy from a walk he will look back at you and smile and jump around. It’s the cutest thing. It’s almost like he is saying “thanks for the awesome walk!”
When we got home, he found his favorite spot in the house and then he slept…
And slept and slept so more…
Look at how cute he is! I think I must have wore him out because this is all he did for the rest of the day. What a lazy day for Moose!
Lately the signs of Spring have been everywhere. The trees are starting to bud, grass is getting greener and plants are coming back to life. It makes me so happy. At lunch today, I couldn’t help but capture a picture of the beautiful flowers.
Now if only the weather would start to catch up! I am in need of a nice 80 degree day! No more cold weather. I want to put my winter clothes away already. We had snow last week-end and it’s supposed to rain again this week-end. I really wish that we could have a nice day on the week-end and not on week-days when you are stuck inside at work.
The only downside of Spring is the allergies I get. My sinuses have been killing me the last couple of days. And talk about itchy eyes! I guess a few weeks of suffering is worth it though for nice warm days. Oh I am seriously longing for some warm weather. Almost a year ago, we got married and were enjoying the beaches in Maui. I think back to that and wish I was going there again. Winter is just too long sometimes….
I had the urge to make some banana bread the other day and I waited for the urge to subside but it never did. So I let some bananas get super ripe and nice and soft so I could fulfill my urge for banana bread. I found a recipe that said it was a low fat banana bread but I added chocolate chips to it so I’m pretty sure I defeated the purpose. Oh well. It turned out much better with a few chocolate chips in it anyways. Plus I think the chocolate helped keep the bread a little more moist. I took pictures of this wonderful bread, but of course my camera is being a punk and will not let me upload them tonight. So here is the recipe and sorry there is no picture of the bread. But take my word for it, the banana bread was awesome.
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 tsp canola oil
1 large egg, beaten
2 medium egg whites, beaten
3 large bananas, ripe
1 cup uncooked old fashioned oats
1 cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease pan and set aside. In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients, including oats and cinnamon.
In a smaller bowl, mash the bananas. Add the oil and whole egg and mix thoroughly. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well. Fold in egg whites last.
Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until the top of the loaf is firm to the touch.
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