Afternoon Baking

My sister is traveling to Philadelphia this weekend for a Memorial Day party with her in-laws and volunteered to bring a dessert to add to the party spread. However, somewhere between her volunteering and Wednesday night, I guess she decided that she really wasn’t in the mood for baking because I received this text message from her:

Lucky for her, she knows that I am always up for baking and gladly agreed to help her out.

The only problem came this morning when I realized I didn’t have any idea of what I wanted to make and I wasn’t sure what ingredients I had in the kitchen to even use. After some surveying of the situation, she will now be stocked with three separate desserts when she gets to PA tonight!

First up was some no-bake Reese’s Dessert Bars that I had the mix for in the pantry, just waiting to be put together.

They were a piece of cake to make since everything needed except butter and water was in the box and ready to go.

Next up I grabbed the lone box of cake mix in the pantry and made some pretty awesome cookies which are the main attraction in this afternoon’s post.

And last but not least, some of Chocolate Covered Katie’s peanut butter sandwich bread. I made this bread in Korea and Brian and I both instantly fell in love with it – Especially served warm with vanilla ice cream or frozen with vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two half pieces. A-ma-zing!

The only differences that I made this go-round is that I added chocolate chips to the bread and a sprinkle of halved peanuts on top for a decorative touch.

Someone isn’t going to her party empty-handed!

Strawberry Oatmeal White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 box strawberry cake mix
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 1 cup raw original oats

Directions:

Combine cake mix with oil and eggs and mix well. Fold in chocolate chips and oats. Bake at 350°F for 12-14 minutes – until slightly browned on top. Cool and serve!

I may have gotten a little carried away in the kitchen this afternoon but hopefully everyone at the party enjoys the outcome of it! 🙂

Question:

Are you going to a Memorial Day party this weekend? What are you taking to share with the crowd?

Camping Out in the Kitchen

I drug my feet a little longer this morning before getting my workout in but with completely good reason – time in the kitchen! And from that time in the kitchen, we now have three more treats on our counter to snack on.

I’m not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing though…

First thing to get put together was peanut butter bread that I caught my attention over at Chocolate Covered Katie.

I mean, peanut. butter. bread. Of course I was going to want to make it and luckily I had all of the ingredients on hand.

I followed Katie’s recipe using the following options:

• 1/3 cup of peanut butter over the 1/2 cup
• 2 Tbsp. of additional peanut butter for the applesauce or mashed banana (had neither on hand)
• 1/4 cup regular sugar with 1/4 cup brown sugar for the sweetener
• 2 Tbsp. of additional regular sugar and brown sugar instead of the stevia extract (again, didn’t have that on hand)
• 1 tsp. of vanilla powder in place of the 2 tsp. of vanilla extract

Brian and I both sampled a piece after lunch and loved it.

It would definitely be good with jelly or heated with sliced bananas and a hot cup of coffee. Or even with some vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce as dessert?! 🙂

The second thing I put together was trail mix for Brian. This is one of his favorite snacks and yesterday at Costco we picked up raisins, peanuts and a bag of mini Hershey bars to break up in place of his usual M&M’s (we couldn’t find any chocolate chips or a big bag of M&M’s).

Improvising wasn’t hard though. I unwrapped a mix of special dark and milk chocolate mini bars and got to smashing them in a plastic baggie.

Chocolate bits in no time!

Finally the last treat to come out of the kitchen was another batch of granola. Blueberry Vanilla Granola.

Recipe coming soon!

Workout

By time I was done with mixing, chopping, stirring and baking in the kitchen, Brian was already home from practice so I figured it was time to finally get to my workout.

Body Revolution, Phase 3, Cardio 3. Week 10 starts tomorrow which means only one more week with Workouts 9 & 10 and only 3 weeks total left in the program!

Lunch

After my workout (and before sampling the peanut butter bread!) I had a lunch that was super simple to throw together.

Salad greens topped with the leftover Avocado Chicken Salad from yesterday.

It looked so good again today that Brian had me back another batch with chicken he was boiling to shred so he could have some in a wrap for his lunch. I love when he jumps on board with healthy meals! 🙂

Question:

Do you ever get into the kitchen and just want to keep cooking or baking up a storm?

Prunes?!

It’s no secret to those of you who have been following the blog for a while now that I have had my fair share of stomach issues over the past few months. I’ve made some small changes to my diet and daily habits in regards to eating, drinking and fitness. For the most part, the changes have been very subtle, as I don’t want to make drastic changes and throw my body off even more, but are making a difference.

One of the things that I added to my diet is prunes. Even just saying the word “prune” used to make me want to gag. My grandmother used to eat them and would regularly have them in her refrigerator and I can remember being so grossed out by the look of them and even more so the texture and taste. Oh how times have changed. I now make sure that I have a small handful of prunes at some point throughout the day and actually (gasp!)…like them.

(click image for source)

So today when I came across Chocolate Covered Katie’s recipe for mini chocolate-chip breakfast cookies and didn’t have all of the ingredients on hand (specifically the freeze-dried fruit) but really wanted to make a version of the cookies, I had the idea to substitute something I did have on hand, my new BFF, prunes.

I followed Katie’s recipe but, like with the prunes for raspberries, had to make a couple changes to work with what I had on hand in the kitchen here in Korea.

I used:

• mashed banana instead of the applesauce (as recommended by Katie)
• a handful of prunes, chopped into pieces, instead of the freeze-dried raspberries
• peanut butter instead of cashew butter
• vanilla powder instead of vanilla extract*

Overall, I loved the way these cookies turned out and I also love that I have another way to get my prune consumption for the day while mixing them into nothing other than chocolate chip cookies…that aren’t all that bad for you!

*I haven’t been able to find vanilla extract over here but spotted vanilla powder at Emart yesterday. I had never used it before (or even heard of it!) but did some research online and learned that you can use it in replace of the extract simply by cutting the called for measurement of it in half. I’m excited to use it in future recipes and experiment more with it!

Other than my time spent in the kitchen baking with new ingredients today, my nose has been in my NASM textbook and I have been diligently studying away for my CPT exam.

I’m learning so many new things and can’t wait to be able to put all of the new information to use! Reading about working out and the effects it has on your body makes me want to get up and jump into a workout of my own. If only I could read my text-book while working out…

Dinner

After a few hours of studying, I took a break from the books to put together a quick dinner. Leftovers really are great for speedy meals.

I topped some mixed greens with black beans, corn and green beans leftover from last night’s burrito bowls, the second half of the chicken breast from lunch, sliced pineapple and sliced avocado.

I used a balsamic vinegar dressing to top off the mix.

I loved the mix of different flavors from the fruit, avocado, veggies and dressing!

It’s time to turn my attention to baseball and watch the rest of the game as the Eagles take on the Twins in Cheongju!

Question:

Have you ever baked with (or heard of) vanilla powder?

Baking Bug

I caught the bug to bake something last night once I started feeling a little more like myself and found myself rummaging through the kitchen to see what we had that I could work with.

Eggs. Banana. Flour. Yogurt. Hmmm…

Then I remember the honey that Brian and I stashed in our pockets at the breakfast buffet at one of the hotels.

Perfect.

Coconut Banana Bread

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup wheat flour
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup coconut yogurt
• 1 banana, mashed

Directions:

1.  Pre-heat oven to 375° F (or about 175° C for me in Korea!)

2. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl and add combine with wet ingredients.  Mix thoroughly and transfer to small, greased baking dish.

3. Bake for 30 minutes or until edges and top are slightly browned.

This makes a slightly more dense and chewy banana bread.

But for the slim ingredients I had on hand, I was delighted with the outcome.

And the best part is it’s not all that bad for you either! 🙂

You could technically eat half of the loaf and not even feel guilty about it. Now that is my kind of baked good! 🙂