happy friday!

Thick Oatmeal Muesli Raisin/Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I used a heaping 1/2 tsp)
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt (I used 1/2)
1 cup rolled oats (not quick oats!)
1/2 cup muesli (can use another 1/2 cup rolled oats)
3/4 cup raisins or chocolate chips
1/4 tsp instant espresso* (optional)

*The espresso was meant to enhance flavor. You don't taste it in the recipe.

Cream together the butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth. Add and blend in the espresso if using. In a separate bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together. Stir into the butter/sugar/egg mixture. Stir in the oats and raisins/choc. chips.

I put my dough in the fridge for an hour. If you don't chill your dough, they won't be as thick. Up to you. When you're ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

The cookies should be two inches apart and baked for 10 to 13 minutes (take the cookies out when brown at the edges but still a little undercooked-looking on top.) Either bake on parchment paper or a lightly greased pan. Allow cookies to sit on baking sheet for a few minutes after removing from oven, then transfer onto a rack to cool.

They taste better the next day! The rolled oats (NOT quick oats) make them chewier. I made half of the recipe with raisins and the other half with chocolate chips. I'm not sure which I like better, but I think it may be the raisin ones.

** This is a half-recipe. It made 18 cookies. You can double the recipe if you want more.

happy friday!!!!!

This week went by so fast! It's already Friday!? woo!

update: I LOVE lara bars, but they are freaking expensive. The recipe below tastes so much like a Lara bar... I think I'll add the dates (and maybe some unsweetened coconut) and I'll have the perfect recipe for a chocolate lara bar.

I'm excited! I want to try and make various flavors similar to lara bars (lemon, cherry pie, peanut butter and jelly...YUM)

Raw Vegan Chocolate "Donut Holes"

I have a bag of flax seeds that I have hardly put a dent into, so this recipe interested me immediately. I also like things like date balls a lot, and these seemed up that alley.

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Recipe adapted from LoveVeggiesandYoga.com

1 cup flax seeds, grinded well
3 tbsp agave (or maple syrup--which is not raw)
1 tbsp coconut oil (or 2 if the batter is too dry)
dash vanilla extract
4 tbsp cocoa powder

Mix and roll into balls!
--

Mine are not raw- I used the maple syrup and dusted them with powdered sugar. The vegan aspect of these went away immediately when I paired them with a glass of milk :D



I like these. They aren't amazing, but still good. I'd make them again.

Pecan Biscuits with Orange-Honey Glaze

In the search for a sweet biscuit, I found this recipe. Seemed interesting since there's plain yogurt, ginger, and orange peel in the batter. I doubled the glaze recipe because I knew I would want more than the recipe called for. The photo above is the first batch. The second batch got even more glaze- after I put the pecans on top, I brushed on the remaining glaze (a lot!).

I didn't have ground ginger, so I used finely grated fresh ginger. I also didn't have oranges, so I grated clementine peels.

These are yummy. You'll still want something to spread in the middle though. I would suggest honey butter, which I couldn't do because this recipe made me run out of honey! I used peach preserves and the biscuit was very good. Finished product:

happy friday.

going out for sushi tonight with some friends from work. :)

breakfasts, part II.

Here's the recipe I followed for my everything bagels:
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4 cups bread flour
1 tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 tsp instant yeast
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups of warm water
--
(Recipe adapted from John D. Lee's on hubpages.com)

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. The dough should feel stiff. Add extra water if the dough is too stiff.

Place the dough down onto the counter, and knead for about ten minutes, or until the dough is uniform and smooth.

Next, cut the dough into 8 equal sized balls, and let rest for 10-20 minutes.

Pre heat your oven to 425.

Roll the dough balls into long skinny rods until each is several inches long. Wrap one end around to the other, forming an "O". One end should overlap onto the other, and you'll want to smooth/roll this out to fuse it together. This didn't work too well for me, but I'm sure it gets easier with practice.



Let the bagels rest on the counter for about 20 minutes. While they are resting, bring a pot of water to boil, and lightly grease a large baking tray.

After the 20 minute wait, your bagels will start to look puffy. Mine didn't look so puffy, but I continued on anyway. Put the bagels into the boiling water, but don't overcrowd them. Boil for about a minute, turn them over, and boil for another minute. Take them out a let dry for a minute. If you want seeds on top, press them into a plate of seeds after they set to dry for a minute. I pressed the bottoms and tops of mine into a plate of sea salt, sesame seeds, and poppy seeds.





Add the tray to the oven and bake for 10 minutes, and then flip them and bake for another 10 minutes!

These were really good. I'm really glad I put the sea salt on top..yum. I'll definitely make homemade bagels again.

garlic cheddar biscuits!

Eric and I fried some mahi-mahi and made these to go along with the fish. OMG.

We used this recipe, but we put 1.5 cups of sharp cheddar cheese in (instead of 1/2-1 cup of cheddar).

I don't think anything could go wrong when there's that much cheese involved, but god these are good and so easy to make.

happy friday!

Eric is in town and I decided to make homemade bagels for his visit!

I had one this morning along with one of Amy's cookies. Both were delicious.

I'll post details about the bagel making soon.

Here's one of the goofy looking bagels:



and my breakfast, yum: