Week in Review: Cookies, Cookies Everywhere

May23

Hello world! If you follow me on instagram you know that I got sick yesterday, but I’m feelin’ a bit better today. Thanks for the well-wishes . I still have a cold, but I literally could not get out of bed yesterday! So today is a huge improvement. So now that I’ve made it out of bed, I decided to link up to Meghan‘s Week in Review:

Besides yesterday, this week has been a blast.

This week I:

-Had two awesome date nights with the boy. We went to the Orchestra and saw Star Trek last weekend:

Which was SO good. I mean, we all know I love Benedict Cumberbatch… and he did not disappoint.

-Started (and finished) a new-to-me show:

called Copper! So freakin’ good. I blitzed the whole season this week… oops… Now I have to wait until July for season 2

-Hosted my linkup

-Made awesome pancakes with the mix I got in my Bestowed box called FlapJacked protein pancakes:

I had the banana hazelnut flavor and, like Benedict in Star Trek, it did NOT disappoint! Holy yum. I put pb2 in between each pancake and topped with a ton of syrup and banana slices.

I made them for the boy and I and we snarfed them up in approximately 2 minutes flat.

-I tried a ton of new recipe, mostly involving avocado. Allie’s avocado bread and Laura’s avocado cookies inspired me to make a recipe of my own:

Secret Ingredient Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

- ½ avocado

- 1 banana

- 1/2 cup almond butter

- 3 tbs cocoa powder (unsweetened or sweetened, doesn’t matter)

- ¼ cup brown sugar

- ¼ tsp baking powder

- ¼ tsp salt

- ¼ tsp vanilla extract

- ¼ tsp almond extract

- 1 egg

- 1 cup oats (you could also replace half the oats with sort of flour to make them more like traditional cookies and less chewy)

- ½ cup chocolate chips

1) Throw everything except the oats and chocolate chips into a food processor** and blend until smooth and creamy.

2) Put in ½ a cup of oats and blend.

3) FOLD in the rest of the oats and chocolate chips (and other mix-ins if you want)

4) Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes.

**You could probably mash everything by hand and mix it together; it would just be a lot more work.

These were melty, gooey, chocolatey and downright delicious, if I do say so myself.

Have any of you guys baked with avocados?

Have a great weekend everyone!

WIAW: Avocado Lovin’

May22

Awwwww yes. I had some amazing eats this week. I’ve been saving them for WIAW!

Hosted by Jenn.

I gave you guys with the sneak preview on Monday, but two awesome recipes I made this week both involve avocados (hence the title).

The first was Laura’s Chocolate Avocado Cookies:

I shared the link with you guys in my Together Tuesday post last week. I am SO glad I went ahead and made them!

These were so f’n tasty. I feel like baking with coconut flour is super tricky, but this recipe handles it PERFECTLY. You literally can’t taste it at all. PLUS they’re pretty low cal, so I split the entire batch with a friend and still stayed in my calorie budget. And just look at those ooey gooey chocolate chips:

unf. I could rant all day about this recipe. Go make it.

Next was Allie’s Avocado Buns:

I didn’t have any oats on hand so I subbed whole wheat flour and almond flour instead. I also doubled the recipe, because I was cooking for myself plus the boy. (So 1/4 cup ww flour and 1/4 cup almond).

These were just as glorious. Definitely can taste the avocado, which I loved. I also love the texture: perfectly moist, but not gooey or crumbly. Perfect bread is perfect.

We made ours into little sandwiches:

Chicken, onion, cheese and hummus.

Plus zucchini and extra chicken on the side.

Fan-freaking-tastic.

I also got the Bestowed box I won from Alex’s giveaway in the mail this week!

Filled with tons of goodies:

I already broke into the chocolate and the Balance bar. The bar rocks my socks off: coconutty chocolate heaven. The chocolate was divine too of course.

I ended up my week of fantastic food with a simple and perfect dinner last night:

Salmon and green beans. (Loaded up with salt, pepper, paprika and garlic and baked at 350 for 16 minutes.)

Together Tuesdayss #8

May21

You guys ready for a ton of tasty recipes? It IS Tuesday after all!

If you want to participate, copy the banner above and paste it into your own blog post sharing either a recipe you created OR some recipes from other blogs that you want to make (or have already tried). Don’t forget to link up at the end!

So… you guys might notice a trend in the bookmarking I’ve done this week.

Kim’s Kabocha Pancake

I need to hunt down some more kabocha, because this looks outrageously good.

Natalie’s Chocolate and Peanut Butter Pancakes

Two weeks in a row. Natalie has been cooking up some crazy pancakes lately!

Notice a wee bit of a theme here? Hey, I guess I was craving pancakes this week..

On to the next theme:

Galina Bella’s Low-Calorie Chocolate Chip Cookies

Healthy cookies, I am IN!

Katherine’s Healthy Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

Don’t you dare tell me you didn’t drool a little over these.

Kailey’s Red Velvet Cheesecake in a Bowl

Never had a smoothie in a bowl before, but this is making me rethink that decision.

Meghan’s White Sangria

This screeeams summer to me!

Kelly’s Cauliflower Risotto with Roasted Mushrooms

Kelly is a genius, but what else is new?

Michelle’s Cocoa Roasted Purple Sweet Potatoes

I fully intend on making these ASAP.

Madison’s Grain-Free Lemon Poppy Seed Bread

It just looks so moist and sweet. Mmmmmmmmm.

Your turn!

MIMM: Fancy Pants

May20

Happy Monday my lovelies! Time for my usual Monday linkup:

Hosted by Katie!

I had a fantastic weekend, so let’s jump right in.

Marvelous is trying a ton of new recipes this weekend:

But I’ll save a full recap on those for Wednesday .

Marvelous is gettin’ fancy with the boy on Saturday night and seeing the Chicago Symphony Orchestra:

I re-wore my party dress. (Side note: I’ve been really happy with how my legs and arms are looking lately, but my tummy has been bugging me. Can’t tell if I gained weight or am just bloated this week. Eh, I’ll work on eating more foods that agree with my tummy.)

We got really cool seats for the orchestra in the balcony right behind them:

Blurry pic, but we both loved being able to see the conductor’s face.

Marvelous is getting a mini sampler pack from Debbie over at Accidently Delish:

I tried each of them and they’re all fantastic. I think I liked the fruity one the best, which is odd, cuz I’m absolutely a chocolate kind o’ gal. My only complaint is that they’re a bit on the small side for their calorie content, but great for after a workout or something.

Marvelous is Miss Bella posting these pictures on FB after finding them on her phone (they’re from last summer) :

Channeling a Joseph Gordon-Levitt/ Madmen vibe if ya ask me! haha. Also, he totally doesn’t smoke… I wouldn’t date a smoker

Marvelous is trying Chobani flips for the first time:

Holyyy cow. These are SO. Tasty. This flavor had little white chocolate chips in it. Soooo tasty.

That’s all I have for now.

Be sure to get your recipe links ready and linkup tomorrow for:

Together Tuesday!!!

All the Organization.

May16

Hello, hello. Linkup time (what else is new?)Hosted by the fantastic Meghan.

I did a LOT this week, but nothing too exciting to blog about. Basically just cleaning, cooking, homework, finishing up midterms, shopping (got a whole new wardrobe AND my eyebrows done alllll for just under $80. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself).

What I’m most excited about though is organizing my little corner of the blogosphere. I organized ALL my recipes from my blog and put them into categorized recipe pages. Check em out!

I had a lot more recipes than I realized, so I’m glad to have them all sorted…. I am such a neat freak, even online.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone. Gotta run!

WIAW: Coconut Butter and Other Shenanigans

May15

Before I start, I just wanted to say happy birthday to my grandpa!!

Love ya so much Gramps, have a fantastic day .

Hello everyone! It’s Wednesday, so time for WIAW

Hosted by Jenn!

This week I made coconut butter for my mom for Mother’s Day:

Update:

A lot of you guys want to try the recipe! Also, I forgot to mention that I got the idea from Michelle. Here’s a more exact version of what I posted earlier today:

Homemade Coconut Butter

-3-4 cups shredded coconut

-1 tbs coconut oil

-a dash of salt (about 1/8 tsp)

-1 tsp vanilla extract

-1 tablespoon cinnamon

-1 tablespoon sugar or sweetener (I used brown sugar)

1) Dump it all in food processor for about 10-15 minutes. You’ll have to scrape the sides every couple minutes.

Coconut is her favorite so she loved it!

I also made stuffed acorn squash:

Inspired by Madison’s version.

Chicken + Asparagus + Zucchini + Feta cheese:

(sorry for the iphone snap, SO hungry)

Cinnamon sugar acorn squash + chicken:

And I also made Kim’s two ingredient cookies, which were AMAZING and so so so simple, but I lost the picture! Not sure where it went..I used apple sauce and raisins and it was glorious. I’ll take a picture next time!

Lastly, I got a package from the wonderful Alex containing all sorts of goodies:

Made my week .

Happy Wednesday!

Together Tuesdays #7

May14

Alright loves, another short n’ sweet post. Get your links ready cuz it’s time for Together Tuesdays!

If you want to participate, copy the banner above and paste it into your own recipe sharing post OR leave a comment below about an awesome recipe you’ve made or want to make. Don’t forget to link up at the end!

Here’s some recipes that looked good to me this week:

Natalie’s Salted Caramel Chocolate Protein Pancakes