Confections + Coffee: September 2012

It is fall! Unfortunately this blog post is not about pumpkin. Wahwah.
But, it's for those early risers who need breakfast and don't have time to cook it!

These are delicious, light, fluffy, and goes great on a lightly toasted English muffin. I found the recipe here and was super excited to try it!

Don't they look scrumptious? It's because they are. And great on the go! Super simple, super healthy, and super good. I can't get over how easy they were to make!

INGREDIENTS
Egg Beaters
10 pieces turkey bacon, cooked and chopped
1/2 C grape tomatoes, cut into quarters
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red onion, diced
Salt & pepper
Cooking spray

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cook your bacon. Chop your veggies and bacon. Mix your veggies and bacon and scoop into greased cupcake pans.

3. Pour the egg whites into each cupcake tin, top with salt and pepper. Bake 20-30 minutes. Let cool completely before storing.

Monday, September 17, 2012

S'mores Campfire Cookies

So I was about to post this recipe on my Facebook page when I realized that I hadn't made the recipe on my blog! Silly me! This recipe is super quick, super easy, and super delicious. It's just super!

You're going to enjoy making this recipe rain or shine, because the awesomeness of the flavors of a s'mores in a cookie are undeniably delectable. Yum! They also make a ton of cookies, so more to share! Or you can also make GIGANTIC cookies! Even better!

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Guilt-free Banana S'mores!

You guys. I have never been able to make an actual dessert that my paleo-ridden boyfriend can eat. (Just kidding about ridden, he has chosen to partake in the diet himself) But it was our two-year anniversary and I really wanted to enjoy something dessert-like for our nice quiet evening together. I kind of concocted this myself and put it together via other recipes.

Look at that gooey deliciousness! And completely guilt-free!

Now this recipe is not like a typical s'more. It's made with banana instead of graham crackers, but I will tell you how you can add a little crunch of some other varieties to make this one-of-a-kind delectable dessert.

Let me break this down, because it's hard to understand where all of these recipes came from.
3 Ingredient Chocolate Bars (recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie)
Honey Homemade Marshmallows (recipe from The Nourishing Gourmet)
Banana S'mores Recipe (recipe from Quick Dish)

But it gets a little more in depth! I added and removed my own ingredients (which is why my blog exists for the most part) and made it completely sugar-free!

There are going to be three recipes on this blog (eek!)

Banana S'mores

Ingredients:
2 Bananas
3-ingredient Chocolate, cut into small cubes
Honey Homemade Marshmallows, cut into chunks

Other toppings:
Organic peanut butter (for the guilt-free) or just regular peanut butter (I used reduced-fat)
Cinnamon Toast Crunch (for the indulging types)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Take a piece of aluminum foil and place under each banana you are baking.

3. Take your banana, and slice down the center hotdog style. Split it to give some room to place your s'mores pieces in. Place your chocolate, marshmallows, and whichever other toppings you want into/on top of your banana.

4. Put directly on the oven rack and bake for 5 minutes. Using tongs, or an oven mit, and take out of the oven. Unwrap and enjoy!

3-Ingredient Chocolate Bars

Ingredients:
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
4 tablespoons unrefined coconut oil (melted)
1/4 cup agave nectar

Directions:
Mix ingredients together until smooth. Place into a container with wax paper. Place into freezer for about 30 minutes. Take out, cut into squares, enjoy!

Honey Homemade Marshmallows

Ingredients:
1 1/2 tbsp. unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup honey
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:
(Note: I copied and pasted these directions because she did such a good job of describing how to make the marshmallows with and without a candy thermometer!)

1. Lightly grease a loaf pan. Then cover with parchment paper (with enough to hang over the sides of the pan one way), then grease the parchment paper.

2. Put ¼ cup of water in a medium bowl (or in the bowl of a mixer with attached whisk) , and sprinkle the gelatin over the water. Set aside to soften.

3. In a small pot, place the honey, salt, and the other ¼ cup of water. Heat on medium heat. Using a candy thermometer, bring the mixture to 240 degrees. (Because this is such a small amount of liquid, I had a hard time getting an accurate temperature. You can also test it by dribbling a little of the liquid into a bowl of ice cold water. It should be in the candy stage of forming little soft balls when cooled in the water and taken out. It takes about 7-8 minutes to reach this temperature. ). Remove from the heat as soon as it’s at the right temperature.

4. Using a hand mixer on low, very carefully mix in the hot syrup into the gelatin mixture by pouring the hot syrup in a drizzle down the side of the bowl. Once it’s all combined, add the vanilla and increase speed to high. Beat for 12- 15 minutes, or until the mixture is thick and fluffy (it will look like marshmallow fluff). Scrap into the prepared pan and leave, uncovered, for 4-12 hours to dry. It’s just about perfect in my climate when left overnight. Cut into squares, serve as is.

Tomato/Kale/White Bean Soup!

It's getting cooler in Norman, OK, FINALLY! I really wanted to enjoy some soup while the weather is cool, and I have been under the weather for the last week and a half. I love Kale, but I wasn't sure if Kale soup would be any good. Boy, was I wrong! This is delicious!

I found the recipe online, not remembering where exactly, but it's nice to find vegetarian and hearty soups/chilis for me and the boy. He can't eat much (I think it's horrible, but he enjoys his diet, and it's for his future success and career), so this was a winner!

Monday, September 10, 2012

Roasted Carrots

Well I just found my new snack! Carrots!

Taken with my iPhone because I wasn't expecting it to be as good as they were. Also I was starving and didn't want to waste time documenting it. Hah!

This recipe is super simple and is ready in 25 minutes. You just need four ingredients, and you'll probably just have to buy one!

Sunday, September 9, 2012

3 Bean Chicken Chili

It's FALL! (Well, kind of) and I couldn't resist cooking up something for these upcoming cool nights. Last year I made turkey chili and couldn't find a recipe. So I just looked this recipe up and changed it up a bit. I wanted to use shredded chicken instead of ground turkey, but I bet it's just as good!

INGREDIENTS
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 small onion, chopped
1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 (16 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (4.5 oz) can chopped chilies, drained
1 (15 oz) can chickpeas, undrained
1 (15.5 oz) can black beans, undrained
1 (15.5 oz) can small red beans, undrained
2 tbsp chili powder

DIRECTIONS
1. Cook chicken and onions in a sauce pan until brown. To shred the chicken you'll want it to cook about 1/2 way and start piecing it apart with forks, then finish cooking it and sautéing the onions.

2. Place all of the other ingredients in a large pot along with the chicken and onion and let simmer for about 45 minutes on medium-high.

3. Top with cheese, onion, or whatever you like on your chili.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Banana Bread

Look at me! I'm blogging again! I was taking a break from a design project and went into the kitchen to find two bananas that had about seen their day. So I quickly found a banana bread recipe and whipped it up while eating lunch!

In my rendition of this recipe, I decided to spice things up with some cinnamon and semi-sweet chocolate chips. You can't go wrong with either, and it's so nice outside, I was feeling domestic and bakerly (yes, that's an adjective!) and wanted to be fancy with my ingredients!

INGREDIENTS
2 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 C butter
3/4 C brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/3 C mashed overripe bananas
1 tsp cinnamon (optional)
Semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture until just combined. You can add the cinnamon and/or chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Blueberry Monkey Bread

Good Morning! I usually don't have time to eat breakfast, regardless, I still enjoy it! Maybe not at 8 when I wake up, sometimes I eat it on the weekend, like as we speak. I'm sitting at my desk with the windows open (it's cool outside!), a cup of coffee, and eating the monkey bread I'm posting on here. It's quite relaxing.

Look at these beautiful photos! Doesn't it look amazing? It's such a nice breakfast treat. It's not super sweet, it's not super heavy, which is how I like my breakfast. I have a tendency to get sick in the morning if I eat something too rich or heavy, my stomach can't handle it. But these are definitely a good trade off, I could eat these often! Oh, and this is called monkey bread, and I found the recipe here.

INGREDIENTS
2 - 11 oz. packages Pillsbury Thin Crust Pizza Dough
1/2 C strawberries
1/2 C blueberries
1 tbsp sugar
1 - 8 oz. package of cream cheese, room temperature
2 tablespoons sugar

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Spray an 11-inch spring-form pan with cooking spray and set aside.

2. Place all berries, cream cheese, and 1 tablespoon of sugar into the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth (about 1 - 2minutes).

3. Lightly flour a surface, and roll out a crust and spread evenly with the berry mixture leaving a 1" border around the edges.

4. Roll the dough up like a jelly log or cinnamon roll and cut them into 1 inch pieces.

5. Place each piece of dough into the spring-form pan, placing them close together. Sprinkle dough with remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar and bake for 35 minutes or until bread is lightly golden. Serve warm.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Cinnamon Strawberry Quinoa

Good morning my adventurers! Do you know what month it is? It's national breakfast month! Woohoo! I love breakfast! I wish I had more time to eat breakfast in the mornings, but I usually get up too late for class to fix anything.

I woke up this morning feeling like major meh. I just don't feel well at ALL! But I wanted breakfast because I was hungry, but nothing too sweet or too heavy so I wouldn't regret it later. I've had this recipe pinned forever, but just never had strawberries and quinoa at the same time. That's right! Quinoa for breakfast!

Quinoa is pronounced "Keen-Wah."

So here is the cool thing abut Quinoa. It's just plain delicious. I love it. It also goes with everything. Literally everything. And this morning I mixed it with strawberries!

INGREDIENTS
1 C water
1/2 C quinoa
1/3 C almond milk
1 C fresh strawberries
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Drizzle of honey (as a topping)

DIRECTIONS
1. In a pot over high heat place your 1 cup water and bring to a boil. Once water is boiling add in your dry quinoa. Return to a boil then reduce heat and let simmer for about 15 minutes.

2. At the 15 minutes pour in your 1/3 cup milk of choice and add in your remaining ingredients and flavorings and stir together for about another 5 minutes.

3. Remove from heat and pour into your bowl, drizzle some honey on top.

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Sunday, September 23, 2012