Welcome to My Crib

Thanks so much for being patient with my guys, it has been a whirlwind of events recently and things have been crazy over here. But, that being said, I am finally moved in, and things are started to calm down. Phew! I feel like I have so many things to tell you. I guess we will start at the beginning.

After a delicious dinner with my roommate, our mom's, a friend, and my roommate's sister at Cafeteria in Chelsea, much packing was done. Actually, not much packing was done, which resulted in a crack of dawn wake up call to make sure everything was all set before the movers arrived at 9am.  The movers were a little late, but it wasn't there fault. Can someone please explain to me what NYC's reasoning is for not allowing anyone to take a right turn between 9th Ave and Madison on 34th street?  Ooph.  No big deal, they didn't charge us until they got there- Thank you Ace Movers :) (if anyone is looking to move, these guys are great and pretty appropriately priced)

A day filled with packing, moving, unpacking, decorating, drinks with Mama Nay Nay and D and finally, hitting the pillow for a nice snooze in my new room!  The apartment came together so nicely! Want a little peak?

Fun cute sign in the Kitchen- Words to live by :)

Yay! New kitchen! So much bigger than my last one (yes I know its still small, its NYC people, this is like a mansion's Kitchen to a 20something in the big city)

Woot Spice rack!- When roommate and I first got this spice rack, it was the biggest deal ever, you would have thought someone gave us a horse. I still feel the same way.  This spice rack is the best $7.99 I ever spent

Fun pretty apron!

Bathroom- isn't our new shower curtain adorable?

 We are apparently big into the blue, green and pink idea. I do not hate it.

Well, after much moving in was done. Much food was eaten.  Mama Nay Nay, Faj-city and I went over to Josies in my hood and I dominated these flax seed organic, gluten free, dairy free pancakes.  They tastes like heaven and I am not usually a fan of these semi-sorta-kinda-the real thing- typa dishes.  These held their own.  I was quite impressed.

Dont they look amazing? They were :)

Welp children, that is all for now.  Ill catch up with you later about my Fruit Salad Life inspired Pineapple Raspberry Popsicles.

Pancakes, Cookies and Happy Weekends Galore

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend and that this dreary weather isn't getting anyone down.  I had an action packed weekend!  Before I launch into the deliciousness that was prepared this weekend I just want to remind everyone to head to the CNC Bake Sale today to bid on great treats to help benefit an amazing cause- Team for Kids. I contributed my delish

PB and J Bars!

On to the amazingness that was created this weekend.  First of all, bf is a master when it comes to pancakes so he whipped up these Barefoot Contessa pancakes, which were immediately devoured.

With the bf in town I decided to create something spectacular for him. He is a giant nutella fan so, what better treat than Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies! Yum Yum Yum! These were super easy and came out very well- a couple friends got to try some and lets just say this- Kman was a fan (KMAN SHOUT OUT!)

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

Sprinkled ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

7 tablespoons unsalted butter at room tempurature

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

2/3 cup Nutella

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 egg whites

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Steps:

1) Combine flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium size bowl and set aside

2) With an electric mixer combine butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy.

3) Add Nutella, egg whites and vanilla to the sugar mixture with the electric mixer

4) Add the flour mixture slowly to the sugar mixture

5) Mix in chocolate chips until fully incorporated

6) Place mixture in the fridge for 45min-1hr to let chill

7) Place tablespoon size circles on a pam-ed, tinfoil-ed pan about 2 inches apart and bake at 350 degrees F for 7 to 10 minutes- makes about 32 cookies

8) Remove, let cool and dig in!

Kman and Ames gave these a Star Fabulous rating of 9/10 and not to too my own horn, but I definitely agree.  I think the trick to making the best cookies is chilling the dough! 

Star Fabulous Rating: 9/10

Snickerdoodles

After realizing yesterday that is has been almost a solid WEEK since I last brought treats into the office, I decided cookies were obviously in order. Running low on chocolate chips, and helping out a colleague who isn't the biggest chocolate gal, I decided that my sweet tooth would be adequately satisfied by making my all-time favorite cookies- Snicker-doodles.  When I was younger, before every holiday, Easter, Christmas, Halloween, you name it, my Mom and I would go to Quebrada Baking Company and Mom would get cookies for whatever party we were throwing and/or having and I would get to pick one cookie to eat right then and there and an Orangina. Now a days I'll run the errand for my Mom and try to resist getting a cookie. Being nostalgic as it is almost Mother's Day, and as I said before, being out of chocolate chips, I decided to make my own Snicker-doodles!

These cookies are the perfect size and the sprinkled cinnamon sugar makes them truly hit the spot.

So easy to make, and 30 to a recipe, there really isn't any excuse not to bake these... every night.

Ingredients: (adapted from here) 

3/4 cup granulated sugar 

2/3 cup light brown sugar 

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

1 large egg 

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (about 6 3/4 ounces)

1 teaspoon baking powder 

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt 

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

I didn't really change much as these cookies were already pretty low in calories.  I also feared that reducing the butter in these types of cookies, where such a large component of their deliciousness is that they are nice and gooey, would completely destroy them.  I learned from my Confused Pancake Cookies that sometimes you should just let a classic be a classic.

Steps:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

2) In a large bowl mix together 3/4 cup granulated sugar, brown sugar, and butter with an electric mixer

3) Add in vanilla and egg and mix together with electric mixer

4) In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and salt, and stirring with a spoon

5) Add flour mixture to butter mixture and mix with an electric mixer 

6) Form dough into 30 balls.

7) In a dinner bowl combine 1/3 cup granulated sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon 

8) Roll each ball in sugar mixture, and place 2 inches apart on a tinfoil-ed and pam-ed baking sheets 

9) Bake for 8 minutes or until edges begin to brown

10) Let cool and devour. 

Now I knew that I had promised my team that I would bring in treats so I immediately put these cookies into a tupperware so that I didn't eat them all.  But... they didn't all fit, so of course us girls had to eat some and by some, I mean a lot. This is all that was left after we painfully stuffed ourselves last night.

I was going to give these an 8/10 Star Fabulous Rating but then my boss stood in front of me telling how incredible they were as she ate 4 (I still beat her last night with 6 so shes good to go :)) so they get a Star Fabulous Rating of....

Star Fabulous Rating: 9/10

Confused Pancake Cookies

It is only because I promised to deliver both the good and the bad, the pretty and the ugly, that I am writing this post.

As I am sure many of you thoughtful people already know, this week is Administrative Professionals Week!  Our team of fab people over here decided we wanted to show our favorite person in the office how much we appreciated her so everyone got a job!  One woman grabbed a beautiful card, the team ordered a gorgeous orchid and I was in charge of bringing a tasty treat! Being comforted with the fact that I had back-up PB &J Bars, that I knew people would love considering how well they have been received, I took a simple and stable recipe from the fabulous  Tina.. and fiddled... bad move Jessica.

Now before I tell you what changes I made to this easy, simple and classic recipe, I think it is essential to make this note. 

I have learned from experience (ahem... this recipe) that certain classics can only be tweaked to be made healthy so much before you take the tweaking too far.

 

Tina's treats are both scrumptious, and healthy and should have been left alone. 

With that said, here goes nothing. 

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp unsweetened apple sauce

1/3 cup liquid egg whites

1/2 cup butterscotch chips

Steps:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

2) Mix all ingredients in one bowl

3) Make into 12 portions and place on pam-ed sheet

4) Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes.

5) Remove cookies from baking sheet and allow to cool

Now it should be said that these cookies did not taste bad by any means.  The problem was simply that replacing all oils and butter (fats) with applesauce unfortunately removed the crumbly delicious texture of  cookies that makes them as good as they are.

The results... according to my taste testers, were that the cookies tasted less like cookies... and more like:

(Picture Source)

Needless to say I did not subject the office to these confused pancakecookies and they are currently under tinfoil on my kitchen counter (hoping maybe they are like Peeps and are a little better stale?)  

The team got exactly what they wanted with the rest of these goodies.

The best thing that came out of this exploration however... I feel a delicious pancake recipe brewing in this dome. 

Now, if treated like cookies, these suckers probably deserved something along the lines of 2 maybe 3 stars on the Star Fabulous Rating System (edible, but hey so is gum, doesn't mean you should swallow it).  I believe it is important, however, to recognize these for what they truly are, no matter the original goal. 

Star Fabulous Rating if treated like Confused PancakeCookies: