After cleaning out my pantry at school, I realized that I had 6 separate jars of peanut butter. SIX.
Not that this is a bad thing, but it is a bit excessive. Since I kept my PB in the back of my cupboard, I guess I just didn’t realize I had any and kept on buying more each time I went to the grocery store.
…
I think the world would be a better place if we just sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on everything. I swear, that stuff is what dreams are made of. I want to roll in it. Bathe in it. I want my first child to be a sugar cube. That, my friends, is commitment.
Also, what did I just say?
I know I’m not making much sense right now. I blame it on the food coma I’m in from the long Labor Day weekend. One thing you should know about my family is that we looooveeeee to eat. Love love love to eat. We’re the kinda people who will be sitting at an all-you-can-eat buffet, stuffing our mouths with crab legs and pasta salad, and be talking about what our next meal will be. Some call us glutinous. We prefer insatiable flavor and texture investigators.
So anyways, this last long weekend was full of food. We had some German friends stay over for the week, and to celebrate before they left, we decided to hold an early party on Sunday and invited all of our extended family. We deemed it our “Axis Powers Party” since we had apple streusel and three types of German sausage, Japanese sashimi and octopus salad, and Italian appetizers. Pretty original party theme, huh?
Annnnnd today, I went over to Kyle’s family’s house and feasted on enormous tacos, apple pie, and chocolate cake.
I am so full I could pass out. I am never eating again… until tomorrow.
But back to this bread. Let me tell ya a bit about THIS bread.
First off, the amount of deliciousness in this bread is out of control. Perfectly moist, a thick double layer of swirled cinnamon and sugar, and drippy vanilla glaze. This is BY FAR the best cinnamon swirl bread I’ve ever had in my life.
Second off, I can’t even remember what else I was going to say. I keep looking at my screen at these photos and wanting to stuff 7 pieces in my mouth pronto.
TELL ME YOU’RE AS EXCITED AS I AM.
This is the kind of bread that makes you excited to get up in the morning. I’m typing this up at 10 o’clock at night and honestly can’t wait for it to be morning so I can dive into a slice with a cup of coffee in hand. *Swoon*. That’s a perfect morning, if you ask me!
Recipe adapted from Taste of Home
So melt-in-your-mouth peanut butter goodness like whhaaaaaat.
There are a couple of things I want to say about this. First off, EASY. Almost stupidly easy. One bowl, no flour, no baking powder. Just throw your ingredients into a mixer or hand-mix and all of a sudden you have a delicious bowl of cookie dough that tastes like the filling of a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup. And no, I’m not kidding. Secondly, gluten free. I’m not claiming to know much about baking/eating without gluten, but holy heck, you won’t miss it at all. I know a lot of GF treats sometimes leave a little to be desired, but these are incredibly soft and bursting with peanut butter and chocolate flavor that go perfectly with a glass of milk.
This summer has been the summer of cookies. Which also lends itself to being the summer of buckets of sugar and five tons of butter. Which also also should lend to me spending a good amount of time running or hitting up the gym, but my exercise lately has been reduced to beating together my butter and sugar. Also I’m lying because I have a Kitchenaid. Chewing counts as working out, right?
What was I saying again?
OH YEA. It’s the summer of cookies! From my No-Bake Cookie Dough Energy Bites to my Chunky Cookies and Cream Cookies (<—I die. SO good), it’s been a good season for sweets and these peanut butter bites are no exception. They are little pillows of fluffy goodness and are chock full of melty chocolate chips and crunchy pieces of crushed peanuts. I actually had to make two seperate batches of these before I was able to snap some photos of them since they magically dissapeared overnight. Apart from me being a little irritated at having to have to heat up the house a little with the oven, it meant that I could make some more of the best peanut butter cookie dough ever and enjoy it with a triple shot latte that Kyle brought me. The BEST. Is anyone like that as well? I usually make myself so sick off of stuffing my face with cookie dough that when the final product comes out, I’m left lying on the ground in a (magnificent) sugar coma.
And I’m okay with that.
This recipe is adapted from the lovely people at Cooking Light!
I actually can’t stop eating this right now.
So good. So so so good.
I was skeptical at first, but I have been turned into a healthy fudge believer. Like, do those words even belong together? It’s seems like some sort of food miracle. Hallelujah!
I’ve actually never worked with coconut oil before. The last time I was at my parent’s house, I noticed an unopened jar hiding in the back of the cupboard. It was just taking up space, so I stole it my mom let me take it back to school with me. SCORE. I opened it up yesterday and took a small taste. I was totally thinking it would be, well, coconut-y tasting, but it’s actually super mild and neutral tasting. And guess what? It helps make the most amazing (healthier) fudge ever!
This is one of those recipes where you keep finding yourself taking leeeetle “taste tests” throughout the cooking process. I think I ate a solid 1/3 of the batter before it even made it into the pan to solidify and I walked around the house for 30 minutes before realizing that I had brown fudge smeared all over my forehead. And not like a little dab, either. Full blown poop-face was happening. But it’s okay, don’t stress. It’s a delicious sacrifice that I am willing to make.
This is a one-bowl recipe that I slightly adapted from The Nourishing Gourmet to include honey as the sweetener. The one catch is that it needs to be stored in the fridge or else you’ll be dealing with a (tasty) healthy chocolate mousse instead of fudge.
Enjoy!
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.
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.
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.
Ahhhhh 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.
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