Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Dream Cookies

We are a family that loves peanut butter, sunflower butter, cashew butter, Nutella and most recently, on a splurge I bought this Dark Chocolate Dream peanut butter you see in the picture below last summer (for the next few months the ages of the girls won't make sense because I took a lot of these pictures months ago!).

It was addictive!  Luckily I decided to use up a large portion of it on these cookies!

I got everything together, very simple as you can see, only 3 ingredients!

Measuring out the sugar.

Adding an egg.

And finally the Dark Chocolate Dream!

Mix by hand.

Taste if you need to (unless you're paranoid about raw eggs).

Roll the dough into balls and place on parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

Flatten each ball with a fork in a criss cross pattern.

Pop them in the oven.

And they are done!

Ready for an after dinner treat!

My tester approved.  They were very moist/mess but very good!

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Dream Cookies


Adapted from this recipe from allrecipes.com

What you need:

1 cup of Peanut Butter + Co. Dark Chocolate Dreams
1 cup of sugar
1 egg

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Line baking sheet with parchement paper.
Mix ingredients by hand until smooth.
Roll dough into balls about 1 inch in diameter.
Place balls on parchement paper and flatten with fork in criss cross pattern.
Bake 7 minutes.
Let cool completely as cookies with continue to bake after they are removed from oven.

Chocolate Banana Muffins

On the weekends I like to make batches of muffins so that the girls can have them for breakfast in the mornings while I'm at work.  I freeze the batches in our deep freezer, the night before I pack them a little breakfast/lunch in a container and keep it in the fridge.  Overnight the muffins thaw so that they're perfect and ready to eat in the morning.

This is one of their favorite muffins, which is easy to see because of the chocolate chips in them.  Who wouldn't want to have chocolate chips for breakfast?

Everything we used to make the muffins.

Butter and brown sugar.

Wet, dry and bananas.

All mixed together.

Ready for the oven.

All done!

Chocolate Banana Muffins



What you'll need:

1/2 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups of white whole wheat flour
1/4 cup of cocoa powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of dark or semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners or spray with non-stick spray.
In a large bowl using a mixture cream together butter and brown sugar until fluffy.
Add applesauce and mix until combined.
Add each egg one at a time making sure it's fully mixed.
Add vanilla and mashed bananas.
In a medium bowl mix together with a spoon the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mix until combined.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Bake for 22 minutes.  Make sure muffins are fully baked by putting a toothpick into the center of the largest muffin in your pan.  Once it comes out clean the muffins are baked.
Cool for 10 minutes in the pan and then remove to fully cool on counter.
Once fully cool you can either serve or put muffins into a freezer safe bag and keep in freezer for up to 3 months.

The Most Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie Ever

In our opinon, and some other people who have tried it, this is the most perfect chocolate chip cookier ever!

I adapted this recipe from a recipe I found on Pinterest.  It was called the Copycat Panera Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from The Pinning Mama.

I made a few changes and these cookies turned out great.  Plus I had a helper to make these cookies with (these are OLD pictures, I made this cookies sometime last summer).

My helper.

Everything you'll need.

Mixing the batter.

1/4 cup scoop of a cookie.

Ready to go into the freezer!

Love having a deep freezer.  Makes making cookies easier!

Fresh out of the oven.

 What you need:

1 cup of butter, melted
1/2 cup of coconut butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups of dark brown sugar
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
2 large eggs
4 teaspoons of vanilla
2 1/3 cup of all purpose flour
2 cups of white whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons of cornstarch
2 teaspoons of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
1 bag of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl beat on low with a mixer butter, coconut oil and sugars.
3. Add eggs and vanilla and continue to beat on low.
4. Next add cornstarch, baking soda and salt and mix.
5. Add in 1 1/3 cup of all purpose flour until combined.
6. Follow with 1 more cup of all purpose flour.
7. Next add in just 1 cup of white whole wheat flour until completely incorporated.
8. Last add 1 more cup of white whole wheat flour.  Dough will be thick but keep mixer on low speed.
9. Stir in the bag of mini chocolate chips.
10. Using 1/4 cup measure scoop out dough onto baking sheet, set each cookie about 1-1 1/2 inches apart.
11. Place dough on the baking sheets in freezer for 2 hours (dough can also be stored in freezer bag for up to 3 months).
12. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and make cookies for 15 minutes straight out of the freezer.
13. Let cool at least 10 minutes before enjoying as cookies continue to firm up and bake after being removed from oven.

These turn out to be huge cookies!

Since last summer we've started using a 2 tablespoon measuring spoon to measure out our cookies.  Use a 2 tablespoons of dough to make smaller cookies if you don't want your cookies to be so big.

Unsweet Sweet Potatoes

I have always hated sweet potatoes.

I don't like them with brown sugar and especially don't like them with marshmellows, yuck!

I know that sweet potatoes are healthy so I wanted to try to figure out some way of eating them without the extra sweetness of brown sugar or marshmellows.

This is seriously the only way I can eat sweet potatoes and now I love them!  I actually like to eat them with a side of cottage cheese.

Everything I used to make this recipe.

Chopping potatoes.

Coated with olive oil and spices.

Single layer on cookie sheet.

Unsweet Sweet Potatoes


Ingredients:
5 sweet potatoes, peeled
2 tablespooons of freeze dried chives
2 tablespoons of dill weed
3 tablespoons of olive oil
olive oil spray Jane's Krazy Mixed Up Seasonings: Original Mixed Up Salt

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Chop potatoes in cubes about 1/2 inch in size.
3. Put potatoes into bowl and toss with olive oil until potatoes are evenly coated.
4. Add dill and chives and toss until potatoes are covered.
5. Spray olive oil on cookie sheet and place potatoes in a single layer.
6. Roast in oven for 20 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and flip potatoes over. Bake for an additional 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
8. Remove from oven and serve warm. Use "mixed up salt" for additional flavor.

Lemon Pepper Fish Nuggets

I got really tired a while ago of feeding the girls chicken nuggets.  We pre-make chicken nuggets and always keep some in the freezer but I could tell that they were getting bored with them.

Both of the girls LOVE fish.  I'm so glad that they do.  I decided to combine two of their favorite foods, fish and nuggets, into one!

First I gathered up what we would need to even attempt my idea!

I love olive oil spray and foil!  I hate cleaning pans.

My set up, from right to left; fish cut into nuggets, flour, egg and panko bread crumbs seasoned with lemon pepper, yum!

First dip the nuggets into the flour and coat evenly.

Next dunk into the egg.

After coating in bread crumbs place on the foil lined pan.

All done!

What you need:

2 fillets of cod, cut into nugget size pieces
2 teaspoons of lemon pepper seasoning
2/3 cup of panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup of white whole wheat flour
2 eggs
non-stick cooking spray

Directions:

Heat oven to 400 degrees.
Spray pan lined with foil (optional, it just makes for an easier clean up) with non-stick cooking spray.
Line 3 bowls on counter, one with flour, one with eggs (beaten) and one with bread crumbs mixed together with lemon pepper seasoning.
Start by putting each nugget piece in flour lightly coating.
Next dip fish into egg.
Then put fish into bread crumb mixture.
Put nuggets on baking sheet.

Once all the nuggets are coated in bread crumbs bake in the oven for 13 minutes.


This was the girls' dinner that night.  Fish nuggets with a side of leftover spaghetti along with some watermelon (Annabel's favorite) and a Cutie (little orange).  They both ended up requesting a side of ketchup for their fish nuggets.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

Happy New Year!!  Welcome to my first recipe on this blog!

Please note, my disclaimer:

Our pictures are not perfect, we are totally working on the quality of pictures taken.  It seems when we built our house that we didn't realize that the 2 story house next to us would block so much natural lighting in our kitchen!  

As a New Year's Resolution we have decided to try at least 2 new recipes each week.  This will help us and our girls try new foods!  Thanks for stopping by and checking out our recipes!


Peanut Butter Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies, whoa, what a long name for a cookie!



Our oldest daughter, Annika, grabbed up a packaged of peanut butter chips at the store a few weeks ago and I wanted to come up with some sort of cookie to add it too.

I didn't want to do just plain chocolate cookies so I added peanut butter and cocoa powder to the batter and these turned out perfectly!

Some things we use that might not be around your kitchen.

Cornstarch, these make the cookies thicker.

Our favorite cocoa powder.

We always use natural peanut butter so I'm not sure how these cookies would come out with any other kind of peanut butter.

Also our favorite white whole wheat flour, I'm not sure what it is but this mixed with all purpose flour has always given us the best texture and flavor.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup of butter, melted

1/2 cup of natural peanut butter

1 1/2 cups of dark brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 cup of cocoa powder

2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour

1 cup of white whole wheat flour

2 tbs. of cornstarch

2 tsp. of baking soda

1 tsp. of salt

1 bag of Reeses peanut butter chips

Directions:

Mix melted butter, peanut butter, dark brown sugar and granulated sugar with electric mixer.

Add eggs one at a time beating throughly before adding the next egg.

Add vanilla, baking soda, cornstarch, cocoa powder and salt and mix well.

Slowly add flour in 1/2 cup increments throughly mixing before adding the next 1/2 cup.

Dough will appear slightly flaky but will form a dough that sticks together still.

Mix in chips by hand.

Scoop dough using 2 tablespoon measuring spoon (if you don't have use a 1 tablespoon measuring spoon and combine the two tablespoons together to form a cookie).

Place cookies on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

Place cookie sheet in freezer for at least 2 hours (very important step!).  After the 2 hours you can either bake the cookies or place them in a freezer safe plastic bag to bake up to 3 months later!

Bake cookies at 350 degrees for 12 minutes.  Let cool for 10 minutes as cookies continue to bake even when they are out of the oven.

Enjoy!