Chunky Cookies and Cream Cookies

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Chunky Cookies and Cream Cookies!

So this is me right now. I’m sitting at our dining table in our gorgeously open and light living room. The glass door is open. You can hear the sound of waves crashing softly in the background. Palm trees blowing in the wind. All I can see is a huge expanse of ocean. Well, that and our neighbors playing beer pong in their backyard.

Brb. I’ll show you.

View from Apartment

To say the least, it can all get a little distracting 😯 .

I’m blaming my lack of ability to concentrate on living in such a gorgeous place. I have miles more free time now that it’s summer, but I find myself not being all that productive. Back when I was sleeping 3-5 hours a night for weeks at a time and living in the library, I had grand plans of spending all my free-time blogging, working on my freelance work, exploring new places in Santa Barbara, etc. Instead all I want to do is sit outside and watch the waves roll back and forth with a cup of coffee and a cookie (or 12).

Specifically these cookies.

Chunky Cookies and Cream Cookies

You see, the deliciousness of a cookie directly correlates to the amount of goodies and add-ins you can stuff into it. It’s proven by a complex math derivative that involved copious amounts of physics, or something.

Here, let me try to explain it in this helpful diagram.

Complicated Graph CookiesAhhhhh yes… I see. Intriguing.

*twiddles mustache thoughtfully*.

If you carefully study the diagram, you can easily see the relationship to the piles of added cookies and cream chunks and white chocolate chips in these Chunky Cookies and Cream Cookies to their deliciousness. I mean, if the name has the word “cookies” in it twice, it must be twice as good, right?!

Like their name suggests, these babies are loaded fully loaded with yumminess and have a great chewy crust but soft middle. They’re fantastically sweet and go better with a cup of coffee than any other cookie I’ve ever had, and that, my friends, is saying something.

Chunky Cookies and Cream Cookies!!

So grab yourself a mug of liquid energy, a cookie straight out of the oven, and an oceanside view like me and you’re ready to start your morning off right.

Life is good.

Cookie base adapted from The Kitchen Magpie

 

Strawberries and Cream Oatmeal

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Have I mentioned that I love summer?

Strawberry and Cream Oatmeal. Everyone says this tastes like dessert, but it's healthy!

After the most stressful year I’ve ever had, I’m living in a beachside house with a great group of girls and even though I’m taking summer classes, my earliest lecture doesn’t start till 11 in the morning and I have three day weekends. Every week, you guys 😯  .

So now that I have an entire morning to catch up on blog reading over a filling and tasty breakfast, you better bet that I’m taking full advantage of it!

Strawberry and Cream Oatmeal. Everyone says this tastes like dessert, but it's healthy!

One of the perks of living with so many friends is that there’s always someone who is willing to be a taste tester. After finishing up shooting pictures of my newest creation, two of the girls wandered into our kitchen and snuck a bite. Their verdict?

“THIS TASTES LIKE DESSERT!!”

And yup yup yup, it’s that good my friends. Tangy, fresh, sweet, creamy, and healthy. What more could you want? My game plan is to double the recipe and store some of the easy strawberry compote in the fridge to quickly top my oats in the morning and save time and gain yummyness.

Strawberry and Cream Oatmeal. Everyone says this tastes like dessert, but it's healthy!

Also, can we all give a big hurrah over all the summer fruit that’s in season? My mindset right now is eat all the berries and I’ve been devouring cartons on cartons of blueberries and strawberries like nobody’s business. Berries beware. I’m on the loose.

Strawberries and Cream Oatmeal 4

I’m linking up today with the lovely Jenn from WIAW to share these delicious oats! 


Looking for more tasty oatmeal recipes? Here are some of my favorites!    

Blueberry Pie Oats

Blueberry Pie Oats

Baked Honey Berry Oatmeal

Baked Berry Oatmeal

 

Best-Ever Sticky Asian Ribs

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You know those foods you could just eat forever?

Like THESE.

Best-Ever Sticky Asian Ribs! This recipe has been in my family for over 30 years and is an all-time favorite!

 

Ever since I was little, barbeques meant two things around my house: lots of family and lots of good food. I grew up living just five minutes away from both my obachan and ojiichan (Japanese grandparents) and a handful of my cousins, so family get-togethers were a weekly event. It was only for special holidays, though, that my mom or obachan would make these Best-Ever Sticky Asian Ribs. Have I mentioned we’ve had this recipe in the family for over 30 years? I hardly ever make a recipe more than once or twice since I like to explore new flavor combinations, but these always keep me coming back for more. If you haven’t caught my drift yet, these ribs are one of my all-time favorite foods <3.  Sweet and salty combinations make my world go round and the BEST pairing in my opinion is sugar and soy sauce. Go ahead and forget alllll about salted caramel or dark chocolate sea salt truffles, because this, my friends, is where it’s at.

Best-Ever Sticky Asian Ribs! This recipe has been in my family for over 30 years and is an all-time favorite!

Now let’s get one thing straight. These ribs aren’t tea party food or food you want to eat on your first date with Ryan Gosling. They’re gooey and deliciously messy and you end up with half your face covered in sauce and oops… how did that chunk of meat get in my hair? It’s beautiful, really. This is a recipe meant to be shared with family and people you’re comfortable with fighting for the last piece because trust me, it’ll happen. Family Collage So go on and grab a rib (or ten), some family, and a year’s worth of napkins and get ready for your tastebuds to go straight up to the golden gates!

   


Easy Caramel Apple Turnovers

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Easy Caramel Apple Turnovers

Is it weird that cooking and baking with some ingredients intimidate me? Yeast for bread baking used to give me the heeby jeebies and, fun fact, I even went as far as to use it as one of the topics for my college essays. What?! You never used a fungus to help sway your way into higher education? #lonewolf

Well, apparently it worked because I’m in college (woo!) and eventually overcame that weird phobia and now can make delicious baked goods like focaccia and Norsk boller and cinnamon rolls.

Easy Caramel Apple Turnovers

Annnnddd guess what! Today I crossed off another food-related fear and used puff pastry. There’s something so intimidating about it. Like, for reals, there must be some catch behind all those flaky layers. I had this idea in my head that the dough would be all temperamental and cranky to work with or that I would need to let it rise a million times, but nope. The exact opposite is true. EASIEST thing ever.

Okay, okay. Maybe using pre-made puff pastry is cheating slightly, but ain’t nobody got time to make their own. I’m all about convenience, and if using store-bought dough means I can have Salted Caramel Apple Turnovers in my mouth that much faster, sign me up! No food snobbery here.

Easy Caramel Apple Turnovers

The hardest part of this recipe is probably cutting the apples. Especially if you’re like me and have to stop every 30 seconds to eat the peeled apple skins. My Obachan (Japanese grandma) always laughs at me and calls me rabbit for nibbling on the scraps, while my mom scolds me for my “dangerous” apple cutting technique. Ahhhh family love at its finest.

Easy Caramel Apple Turnovers

Once the hard part is over, you get all your apple bits and caramel ingredients going in a pot. Add a little heat, and presssttooo!

Easy Caramel Apple Turnovers

Then, you take out that scary looking puff pastry, unroll it, and cut it into squares. Add a dollop of apple filling into the middle (don’t get too excited and overfill them like me, though), fold the square into a triangle, crimp the edges, and throw em in the oven.

Easy Caramel Apple Turnovers Easy Caramel Apple Turnovers

And that’s it. You pull these gorgeous and bakery-worthy treats out of the oven and impress everybody. I’ve been staying over at Kyle’s apartment with his roommates, and shocked them by serving these babies up in 30 minutes. One of his roommates exclaimed that he JUST saw me stewing up some apples a few minutes ago, then all of a sudden I had these gorgeously flaky pastries on a plate in front of them. They probably think I’m some sort of magical goddess of turnovers now. Throw in an intense World Cup match (ahhhh the PK shootout!) and you’ve got yourself a house full of happy boys.

Easy Caramel Apple Turnovers

These are perfectly sweet and the flake-factor of the puff pastry itself is insane. Oh! And a pretty drizzle of powdered sugar glaze is completely mandatory.

 

5-Ingredient Lemon Panko Shrimp

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Friday night dinners were a weekly tradition when I was growing up. I’m lucky to live just 5 minutes away from my Japanese grandparents and cousins, so every Friday I would wait eagerly by the door to go to Obachan’s house and eat some authentic asian food  and then run to the backyard with my cousins to play with dirt and climb trees. My Obachan makes a delicious shrimp tempura and I would load up as many as I could on my plate, squirt a bit of this tasty brown sauce on the side, then dig in.

5-Ingredient Lemon Panko Shrimp. Baked, not fried, and only 250 calories a serving!

Youuu GUYS. SO GOOD.

Everything you could want. The crunch. The juicy inside. Mhmm her tempura is comfort food at its finest.

5-Ingredient Lemon Panko Shrimp. Baked, not fried, and only 250 calories a serving!

So what do you do when you a) don’t trust yourself with hot oil and b) are looking for a healthier alternative? You come up with a dish that has all the flavor and taste but is healthier and made in the safety of the oven! Even better? Only 5 ingredients and the recipe comes together in a flash. PARTY. You bring the drinks and I’ll bring a few of my tasty crustacean friends. OMG decapods.

What am I even saying?

I don’t know. It’s hard to concentrate when you have this picture all up in yo’ face.

5-Ingredient Lemon Panko Shrimp. Baked, not fried, and only 250 calories a serving!

The thing that makes this taste as good as the fried version is the crispiness of the panko. Also the perfect lemon flavor. Oh, and the parsley adds a great accent as well. Basically I like all of it, okay?

5-Ingredient Lemon Panko Shrimp. Baked, not fried, and only 250 calories a serving!

If you’ve never worked with panko before, you’re in for a treat. Normal breadcrumbs just can’t compare to the crunch factor you get from panko after it’s been all nice and toasted in the oven! I was out grocery shopping with my sister before making my 5-Ingredient Lemon Panko Shrimp and she insisted that we had a big stash of panko in our family’s pantry. Guess what?

SHE’S A BIG FAT LIAR.

Apparently we have 3 containers of the Italian version, but there was not a single panko crumb to be seen. I threw a short hissy fit at having to go back and make a second trip, but it just so happens that there’s a Starbucks at the entrance of the grocery store and I was able to cool down the fiery temper within me with a caramel frappuccino (it took me 7 tries to spell that right) and everything was okay in the world.

The moral of this story is never trust your sister with important things, like your supply of panko breadcrumbs. Got it?

5-Ingredient Lemon Panko Shrimp. Baked, not fried, and only 250 calories a serving!
One last word before we part to stuff shrimp in our mouths. This is best eaten straight out of the oven when the crispiness is at it’s maximum. They’re delicious either way, but if you’re looking for the AHHHH YUM experience, eat em’ when they’re hot and fresh.