Bananaoatchoco Cookies for All

G'morning lovies (I guess its afternoon now, I have beent trying to post this since 9am - ooph!) The treats that I made last night are still top of mind so I had to share them ASAP.  These babies are unreal. A combo of a recipe from Tina and Gina's (O hey rhyming), they really hit the spot!


D came over last night for Pretty Little Liars and left over Proscuitto Pineapple Pizza.  Is anyone else traumatized by PLL? I had to watch an episode of Sex and the City after because I was to scared and it was too close to bed time. Apparently I am 4. No shame. ABC Family decided to really fighten the crap out of its 11-14 year old girls audience with this one. I do not hate it.


Either way, another amazing dinner out on the balcony (one of these days its going to rain and I am going to be devastated) and two dozen cookies later, here is the amazing Bananaoatchoco Cookie recipe!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup of quick oats
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 ripe banana
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter (These would be equally good and healthier with 1/2 cup of apple sauce instead but I didn't have any in the apartment)
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
1 egg


Steps:
1) With an electric mixer mix sugar and butter until light and fluffy
2) Add all remaining ingredients and mix, on low, with electric mixer.  If you go to high its going to look like you had a flour fight... all over your kitchen
3) Scoop onto a pam-ed tin-foiled pan in tablespoon sized portions.
4) Bake for 7 to 9 minutes on 350 Degrees F
5) Enjoy!


These cookies are pretty bomb.com.  Only suggestion that I would have is to make sure to add a pinch of cinnamon as well. I forgot them and they were still delicious but 1/2 tsp of cinnamon would have really brought them over the edge.

How ooey gooey do these look?

Assuming cinnamon is included, I would starfabulusly rate them an 8/10. Gooey, sweet- but not too sweet- and anything involving chocolate and oatmeal in cookie form is a given.

Star Fabulous Rating: 8/10

I Am a Tinted Window- and I Bake Always

I am so excited to tell you all about my amazing weekend in Rehoboth.  Before I dive into that however, I wanted to tell you guys to go check out my guest post on The Spiffy Cookie! Woot Woot! First guest post.  Let me know what you guys think!

Well now, on to the good stuff.  This weekend in Delaware was amazing.  Great to see the BF. Great to meet his friends. Great to go go to the beach. Great to hang in the water. 

I am proud to say I am slightly less of a window! I am probably a tinted window now.  No not one of the badass tinted windows you see on trucks with rims.  More of the slightly tinted window that you see on your Grampa's old Buick.  I am not upset. Steps in the right direction either way.  

I am going to play a fun game I am calling the Top 5 Fabulous (or not so fabulous) Things That Happened in Rehoboth:

1) One pair of amazing sunglasses was lost- never to be found again.

RIP Sunglasses- you will be missed

2) Two boys swam out to a Drifting away boat- yup we anchored the boat, but obviously poorly because it drifted away. Far, far away. 

3) Three days were spent with the BF- not long enough but I loved every second.

4) Four amazing in a bag-blondies were eaten.  I accidentally opened this bag:

thinking that they were already made cookies and then had to make cause I didn't want flour bugs, or for them to go to waste.  Yes, I HAD to make them :) I told you, if I could I would bake my way through any day- baking occurred.

5) Five hot dogs were eaten in two days.Yup, two days, five hot dogs. No shame. You do not need a picture of that. That is not a pretty situation. 

All in all the weekend was wonderful. I cannot wait for another weekend out at the beach and to soak up some rays!

I am also super sad to say that I do not believe any baking with occur this week.  I am moving apartments (FINALLY) so everything is getting boxed up.  That is alright though, my new apartment is even closer to a grocery store- uh oh! 

How were your weekends?

My Mom Wears Pink Converse

Hi Guys! So sorry it has taken me forever to post today I have been running around like a chicken with its head cut off all morning trying to get things situated for the move, handling some personal stuff, and get ready for my fabulous weekend with the boyfriend in Delaware on the beach.  This girls needs some color like WOW. Legit, see through.  Not kidding, look:

That's me in the white shorts and yellow top (super unflattering picture!). See. Through. O well, moving on. Hopefully this weekend I can come back and show you guys a tan pic! Fingers crossed!

Well, beside that, a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders because Mama Nay Nay has decide to come to NYC to help me move. She always keeps me nice and calm and it definitely means a nice dinner and some girl time so, woot woot! Look at her adorableness:

Hot shoes Nay Nay- you so cute!

So last night I decided to make some treats for the lovely woman of AWNY for our 8:15 morning meeting.  I joined AWNY (The Advertising Women of New York) about 2 months ago and love it. I am on the Young Executives Committee so I the second Wednesday of every month we have a committee meeting to discuss events, networking, etc.  The girls are great and the community is wonderful.  I thought they deserved a little pick-me-up so Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins were made. One of the girls is Gluten Free and couldnt eat any of the cupcakes (I felt so bad!) Maybe next month I'll try and whip up a gluten free batch for her.  I believe I am up to the challenge :)

These muffins are so good.  Sorry for all of you who hate this word but they were moist (my bad but I think you're ok), light, and chocolatey to the extreme! I took some tips from both Gina and Amy and mixed and matched their recipes to make this lovely creation.   

Ingredients:

6 ripe medium bananas, mashed

1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce

1/4 cup fat free vanilla yogurt 

1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

2 cups whole wheat flour 

1-1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

4 tbsp butter, softened

1 cup sugar

4 large egg whites

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup chocolate chips

Steps:

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees F

2) In a medium bowl combine both flours, baking soda and salt and set aside 

3) In a large bowl cream together butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy

4) Add egg whites, bananas, applesauce, vanilla yogurt and vanilla to the sugar mixture and combine with the electric mixer.
5) Add flour mixture and chocolate chips to the wet mixture and blend with the electric mixer at low speed until combined (if you go to fast the flour will go everyone and make a mess!)

6) Pour batter into muffin pans (with paper cupcake liners- whatever those are called!) and bake for 30 to 45 minutes. 

7) Let the cool and enjoy!

* Makes 24 cupcakes

I enjoyed one last night with a little bit of butter. Amazing.  Had one this AM for breakfast as well... AND I couldn't resist devouring one at around 3 for a snack. SO yup, made 24, 3 were eaten by me, in less than 24 hours. Well worth it.

These deserve a solid Star Fabulous Rating of 9/10! The only thing that would make em better is if they were a little better!  Make sure to allow the batch to make 24 cupcakes and not be thrown off by size. Less cupcakes=larger portion. Larger portions changes the nutritional information.  (But then again, if I was going to eat three is just one day, maybe I should have just make giant cupcakes)

Star Fabulous Rating: 9/10

Choco Peanut Butta Cookies For Guardian Angel George

Peanut Butter is the best. Hands down. Best. Chocolate is equally the best. Hands down. Best. TIE! Therefore when I was making celebratory cookies to give to my broker at my lease signing today, Peanut Butter and Chocolate were involved.  Yes-I made cookies for my broker, George, to thank him.  If any of you have ever lived in Manhattan, you know that searching for an apartment is like sticking a fork in your eye repeatedly while running barefoot on fire. That actually may be an understatement. Therefore, when George came along, he was my guardian angel and really bent over backwards to make sure we were comfortable and that we got what we were looking for. George obviously deserved a treat! Choco Peanut Butta Cookies, here we come.

I am not even going to make you wait until the end to learn how these were starfabulously rated. These deserve a Star Fabulous Rating of 10/10. No questions asked.  Do you have your spoon out? Got the bowl ready?  Here we go!

Ingredients:

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup unsalted peanut butter (I went with Trader Joes- bargain hunters’ best friend)

14 cup unsalted butter

2 Eggs

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon salt (if you use salted peanut butter cut this a smidge)

½ teaspoon of baking soda

1 cup whole wheat flour (or ¾ cup whole wheat flour and ¼ cup all purpose flour)

½ cup chocolate chips

Steps:

1)  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

2) Place sugar, butter and peanut butter in a large bowl and with an electric mixer, beat until light and fluffy.

3) Add eggs and vanilla to sugar mixture and blend well with mixer until combined.

4) Add salt, baking soda and flour to sugar mixture and beat until completely combined with the electric mixer

5) Add chocolate chips and mix with the electric mixer until evenly distributed through the batter.

6)  Put tablespoon size blobs of the batter on a pam-ed cookie sheet. Note: Make sure to leave about 2 

inches between each cookie, they expand!

7) Bake cookies for about 7 to 8 minutes. When removing they will look slightly undercooked.  Cookies continue to cookie once removed from the oven so it is essential that you remove this early enough to allow them to be ooey gooey.

8) Makes about 30 cookies! 

Now you have two choices...

a) You can be the smart responsible person who individually packages them up for friends before they devour the whole batch

OR

b) You can be the girl like me, who ate four before she remembered that she was supposed to give them to her guardian angel broker friend. The choices is yours :)

Star Fabulous Rating: 10/10

Oatmeal Granola Bars

Last night after work I had the most fabulous evening.  Met a friend in Bryant park for a little to soak up some rays.  Met Jvo for a great Sushi feast in Murray Hill.  Slowly walked my way home and got my life situated. I am trying to organize my life a little bit seeing as we are moving in just 2 short weeks... assuming we ever find an apartment (another post... another time).  Welp, organizing my life consisted of the usual.  You know how it goes, vacuuming, bills to pay.. and of course for this girl- BAKING!

I haven't baked in a while so I was very excited to do so! It is my college reunion this weekend and you know what that means- roadtrip!  So of course, snacks needed to be made.  Yesterday I reached out to the twitter community, specifically some lovely ladies over to help me think of a fun recipe for on the go granola bars to take with me in the car.

Well Anne never fails me and helped me out with these amazing Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Granola Bars.  I made some slight tweaks and they really hit the spot.  As you guys know, I really love my raisins.  More than that, the chocolate and dried fruit combo really hits the spot for me. Well, I guess I kind of failed at the whole Only Eat What You Have Challenge because 2) I didn't have chocolate chips and those were purchased and b) I don't know if going out to dinner with friends counts as following the challenge but I have a sneaking suspicion that it does NOT.  O well, if chocolate and dried fruit does the same for you as it does for me, check out the below!

Ingredients:
2 cups instant oats
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped walnut
1/8 cup chocolate chips
1/8 cup raisins (I went with white raisins to mix things up)
1/8 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 and 1/2 cup skim milk
2 tablespoons egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla 

Steps:
1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
2) Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl
3) Combine all wet ingredients in a separate bowl
4) Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix until combined
5) Pour batter into a pam-ed pan (11×7).
6) To make it look pretty- sprinkle raw oats on top
7) Bake for 30 to 40 minutes (depending on how crunchy you want them to be)
8) Remove, let cool and cut into 15 squares.
9) Enjoy!

These are soooo good :)

Not sure how well they will travel but I will find out soon enough, I brought one to work for dessert after my lunch!

I would definitely give them a Star Fabulous Rating of at least 8/10! They are chocolatey and fruity and nice and gooey.

Star Fabulous Rating: 8/10 

My first granola bars with a success- Thanks Anne for sharing your recipe!

Pretzel Lovers and Birthday Shout Outs

 Last night Maj and Faj made their way into the city because today it is Faj's birthday!! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FAJ!

Tonight we are going to Crispo down town. I have been before and it is sooo good! I am sure pictures will follow tomorrow.

Of course, cupcakes were made, but those will be posted tomorrow after they are adequately devoured. 

While Faj and Maj and sibling were getting drinks last night and scurried home to make the frosting for the cupcakes. I last minute decided to also make a delicious, no-bake-quick-treat to bring into the office tomorrow. During lunch when I ran over to the grocery store to buy powdered sugar for the frosting for Faj's cupcakes, my colleague joined and went off about his love for pretzels.  All I could think of the entire rest of the day was how amazing pretzels and chocolate are together.  During my exploration I stumbled upon this amazing recipe at Blog is New Black which absolutely HAD to be made- I.M.M.E.D.I.A.T.E.L.Y. 

Also, any recipe that only involves 5 ingredients is right up my alley. Made a few small tweaks and they still came out great!

Here we go!

Ingredients: 

1/2 cup creamy reduced fat peanut butter (could use Better n Butter or Almond Butter if you wanted, I just needed to get rid of this regular peanut butter)

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon room temperature unsalted butter

1 cup crushed, whole wheat, pretzel minis

1/2 bar of milk chocolate and 1/2 cup bittersweet m and ms

Steps:

1) In a medium bowl stir together peanut butter, powdered sugar, unsalted butter and crushed pretzels.

2) Once combine roll into 1" balls (will make about 10) 

3) Freeze for 30 minutes, or until firm. 

4) Melt chocolate in a microwave safe bowl - (I melted the bar and rolled half the balls in the bar melted chocolate, then I melted the chips and rolled the remaining in the chips- hence why mine are two different colors)- I am sure that you could mix them together and it would be just as delish

5) Roll peanut pretzel bars in the melted chocolate until completely covered 

6) Place in refrigerator to let chocolate set in until ready to eat

These are quite scrumptious, I am hoping the office loves em but I haven't brought em out of the office fridge yet! 

I ate one at home and definitely give these a Star Fabulous rating of 9/10. Chocolate. Pretzels. Peanut Butter- where could it go wrong!

Star Fabulous Rating: 9/10

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

Chocolate Chip Morning Bread

Last night one of my roommates told me how she was craving chocolate so... Jessica to the rescue!


Realizing that I was down a lot of key ingredients I decided that I would see what I could come up with AND to my surprise this came out quite well if I do say so myself... ACTUALLY I guess I dont have to say it for myself because my roommate texted me today "I like the bread!!! Alot"... thats 3 exclimation points!


MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.


This creation is what I woud like to call Chocolate Chip Morning Bread because they have a similar consistency to scones and a nice slice (maybe paired with an orange) is a great breakfast on the go!


Ingredients:
1/4 cup apple sauce
3 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup chocolate chips
cut nuts
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 egg whites
salt
12 almonds finely chopped (slices almonds work as well)


Steps: (EASIEST STEPS EVER!)
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2) Combine all ingredients in one bowl (except almonds) and stir well
3) Put batter into a pam-ed 9x5 (banana bread) pan
4) Sprinkle with chipped almonds
5) Put in the oven for 15 to 30 minutes
6) Cut and enjoy

I am so happy that my roommate got her treat and this little experiment worked so well. 

Star Fabulous Rating: 7/10