Coconut Agave Bars

This year I vow to stock my pantry with Agave syrup. I am going to eat healthier (again). I have done it before and I know I can do it again. But I am not willing to give up treats. The older I get the less desire I have to deprive myself of dessert. However, there are alternatives to straight up sugar.

I have discovered that I really like agave syrup as a sweetener. Agave is still a simple sugar but it is much sweeter and so can be used in lesser quantities in a recipe. And so on my next grocery store visit, I promise that I am buying a couple bottles. I don't ever want to run out again like I did when I was trying this recipe for Coconut Crack that I found on the Chocolate Covered Katie's healthy dessert blog. I am not going to rewrite her recipe. Go check her out. I did however have to double her recipe and add a little chocolate on the top. Because I crave chocolate. Just use semi sweet or dark chocolate to keep this treat from gaining too many calories.

I just melted a handful of chocolate chips by 10 second intervals in the microwave and drizzled on top of the chilled coconut bars. So yummy. I will be using this delicious recipe which kind of deserves it's name of coconut crack. I love that it uses coconut oil, agave syrup and no flour. Low carb, low sugar, low calorie.

Perfect for my new year's resolution of eat healthier but don't give up dessert.

Forgotten Choco Chip Cookies

Pantry Recipe:

don't forget to always have nuts and chocolate chips on hand

The title of this recipe was screaming my name. Baking cookies is not exactly my forte. I always forget something, the eggs, the oil, the actual cookies baking in the oven.

Last time I made cookies I thought for sure I had it made. I took out prefrozen cookie from the freezer and put them in the oven. 30 minutes later my daughter said "Hey Mom, the house smells like cinnamon." Well that is weird I thought to myself. Until I realized that it smelled like burnt cinnamon. I had completely forgotten the cookies and due to the fact that my husband's band was belting out 80s music in the basement that was literally shaking the house, I had not heard the buzzer. 

Sooo, the whole concept of the Forgotten Cookie recipe completely appealed to me. I could do this. I could make cookies put them in the oven, turn off the oven immediately and completely forget about them for hours.

In the end these 5 ingredient meringue like cookies were delicious and easy to make. And I totally would have forgotten about them if my kids had not been nagging me. "When are they done, When are they done?"

Forgotten Cookie Recipe
 2 egg whites
2/3 Cup sugar
pinch of salt
3/4 Cup chopped pecans or macadamia nuts (I used macadamia)
3/4 Cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. 
Adding sugar gradually, beat until very stiff.
Add salt, nuts and choco chips.
Drop by teaspoons onto greased foil covered baking sheet. 
Put cookies in the oven and turn oven off immediately. 
Leave overnight or until oven is completely cooled.

Triple Chocolate and Strawberry Cupcakes

There are days I could eat nothing but chocolate. Today was one of those days. Good thing I had already planned on making these cupcakes. As a member of Foodbuzz I get opportunities to test drive food products as part of a Tastemakers program. Since I often stock up on cake mixes I was pretty giddy about trying the Duncan Hines mixes and Comstock Wilderness Fruit Fillings.

Generally, I am not a huge fan of chocolate cake. It has to be extremely moist -- almost brownie stage to get my vote. But I really wanted to try The Triple Chocolate Duncan Hines Cake. I think it may have been the word Triple next to the word Chocolate.

I decided to combine the Wilderness Strawberry Filling, the cake mix and the Duncan Hines chocolate glaze into a wickedly delicious gooey cupcake. (I usually make my own fruit fillings, I like them way better. But this went really nicely with this recipe.)

MMMMM!! It may be messy. You may need a fork. It is really moist and a little fruity. And I think I am in chocolate love.

And just for fun. The first four comments get a coupon for one free Duncan Hines product.  Anything you want, including their Apple Caramel cake mix which just looked incredible. Just tell me your fave flavor of cake.

Triple Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes.

1 box Duncan Hines Triple Chocolate Cake Mix
1/2 can of Wilderness Strawberry Pie Filling
3 Eggs
1 Cup plus 1/3 Cup of water
1/3 Cup of  oil
Chocolate Glaze
2 TB of flour (for my high altitude friends only).

Empty contents of small packet into a bowl and combine with 1/3 cup of water.
In a separate bowl combine Cake mix, eggs oil and 1 Cup of water. If you are above 4000 ft altitude add 2 TB of flour. Mix until thoroughly combined.
Fill lined cupcake pan with cake mixture about 2/3 full for each cup.

Add a dollop of first chocolate mixture and a dollop of strawberry filling to top of each cupcake.
Bake at 350 for 21-24 minutes or until top is firm.

Allow to cool and top with glaze and a small dollop of strawberry filling.

Chocolate Raspberry Muffins & Nutella Smore Cookies -- Weekend Treats

Weekends are a cooking conundrum. We are busy or we are resting and yet, we are hungry. I don't want to cook or spend too much time in the kitchen and yet I want to treat my family to some good eats. I especially feel this way on Suday.  So here are two of our easy favorites. Chocolate Raspberry Muffins and Nutella Smore Cookies. They are so simple that they are more like tips than recipes. But they are fast - chocolate and everybody loves them.

If you are frequent reader of my blog you already understand my love affair with the Jiffy Mix. So many uses in such a convenient inexpensive box. The Chocolate Muffin Mix is my new favorite and this is why. I tried this recipe off the back of the box and two days later I made it again for Sunday breakfast. You can certainly make these muffins with from scratch chocolate muffins. Just add the chocolate chips and raspberry jam according to the directions.

Rasberry and chocolate is one of those love food matches made in heaven.

1 Pkg of Jiffy chocolate muffin mix (or your homemade chocolate muffins)
1 egg
2 Tbsp oil
1/4 Cup milk
1/2 Cup Chocolate chips
1/3 C chopped nuts (optional)
1/4 Cup raspberry jam. ( I used my canned raspberry preserves)

Makes about 6 muffins if using one box of Jiffy.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine mix, egg, milk, and oil. fold in chocolate chips and nuts. Spoon batter into paper lined muffin tin. Place one tsp of raspberry jam in the center and top with nuts (optional)
Bake 13-15 minutes.

So heavenly warm.

Nutella Smore Cookie Sandwiches.

This is a ridiculously easy idea made from a need to provide a Sunday dessert and a need to not bake anymore that day. And of course a need for a little Nutella therapy.

I use these wafers I found in the Spanish section of the grocery store, called Marias. They are 50 cents a package and taste a lot like a grown up animal cracker. They are the perfect base for these cookies.

The Smores

Nutella
Maria cookies or a hard cookie wafer.
marshmallow creme

Smear Nutella on one cookie and marshmallow creme on another cooke and smash together.

Now frankly I would totally stick with just the Nutella. I am a Nutella purist and I am not a huge fan of marshmallow creme. But oh my family loves these because they are a fan of both.

3 Easy Chocolate Treats

The other day, my dear friend emailed me her personal wish for my happiness. "May blessings be poured down upon you in chocolate." She so knows me. Now because I forgot I was posting every day this week, I am cheating and sending you to the recent article on chocolate I wrote for my Taste section of my Alive! mag. It has 3 delicious recipes involving chocolate that are perfect treats for your loved ones this February ( chocolate cures the stuck in a snowdrift winter blues and makes perfect I love you gifts). There are two newbies and one oldie. My puffy chocolate pizza is on this blog already.

But hey check out the Valentine's oreo fudge and opposites attract popcorn. Go see the article and recipes here: Chocolate -- A Love Offering

Magic Cookies

Featured Food Storage/Pantry Item: Sweetened condensed milk I just recently discovered that sweetened condensed milk is a vital pantry storage item. It is now on my list of pantry staples.

I am usually skeptical when things are titled "magical." But these cookies truly do have magical powers. Not the deliciously tasty but diet friendly kind of magical or even the low in sugar but still yummy kind of magical but they do have a magical quality. They are neither lowfat or low sugar. Let's just say you are slammed with stuff to do when you suddenly remember you have to come up with treats for 13 hungry 8 to 10-year-old girls and you have no time to cook or run to the store. In such a quandary, this is a magical recipe. It literally takes 5 minutes to prep and 30 minutes to bake. There is no mixing at all. It requires the complicated skill to layer ingredients in a pan. Magically done and magically yummy.

1/4 cup of butter, melted

1 cup of crushed graham crackers, vanilla wafers or in my case those chocolate filled wafers

1 cup of coconut

1 cup of milk chocolate or semi sweet chocolate chips

1 cup of peanut butter or butterscotch chips

1 can of sweetened condensed milk

I suggest spraying the sides of a 9x13 pan with cooking spray or you will have sticking problems.

Heat oven to 350 degrees

Layer ingredients in pan in order listed. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool and cut into squares.

Puffy Chocolate Peanut Butter Pizza and My New Online Magazine

I have every intention of doing a little self promo because I have a really exciting new project. But first I am going to give you another dessert recipe. I know you must be thinking that I am secretly trying to sabotage your New Year's resolution to lose weight. I am not. I just keep making desserts. I am, however, managing to sabotage my own efforts to lose weight but I can't resist chocolate. I try but when I saw a recipe for a chocolate pizza in my Giada Laurentiis cookbook, I knew I had to make my own version.

Chocolate + Pizza = yum. Add a puff pastry crust and some marshmallows and toasted coconut and it is so easy to be naughty. Of course, you can omit the marshmallows and coconut and add anything you like. You can also use a regular pizza crust. I changed the crust to a puff pastry sheet because it sounded decadent and it was.

The way too easy recipe adapted from Giada di Laurentiis.

1 puff pastry sheet, defrosted. (Don't forget it takes about 40 minutes to defrost)

Nutella

4 Tb peanut butter chips

1/2 cup milk chocolate pizza

mini marshmallows

1/4 Cup shredded coconut (optional)

1 egg

1 Tb water

Mix water and egg.

Place unfolded pastry sheet on a cookie sheet, and brush with egg glaze. Bake according to box directions or until golden and puffy.

Spread a thin layer of nutella on puff pastry while still warm.

Sprinkle with peanut butter or chocolate chips. Top with marshmallows and coconut if desired.

Place pizza back in the oven and cook an additional 2-5 minutes or until chips begin to melt and marshmallows begin to look golden.

Remove from oven and enjoy warm or chill and eat cold. It tastes like a candy bar cold but it has that melt in your mouth warm joy.

A LITTLE SELF-PROMOTION

I have recently launched my new online lifestyle magazine and community for Southern Utah, Aliveutah.com. Why am I telling you this? First many of my fellow foodies are from Utah. Second I have a great Taste section you should check out. This maiden issue actually features a fellow foodie blogger, Cookin Canuck, and some of her pine nut recipes. I am also looking for a Utah foodie blogger for February. So let me know if you want to be considered for the Featured Utah food blogger.

Go check out the Taste section. TASTE

Homemade Pomegranate Fudge Sauce

I have all this yummy Pom juice sitting in my refrigerator and I needed one more addition to my gift baskets of homemade gourmet preserves. Voila! Pomegranate fudge sauce. So decadent and delicious and so easy to make. Although I used Pom juice to add a hint of rich fruitiness to my fudge sauce, this recipe could easily be adapted to cherry, orange or other flavors. The flavoring is subtle and the chocolate is well, thick and rich and perfect for ice cream sundaes or maybe even pancakes. Once you make your own fudge sauce you may never go back to store bought again.

This recipe does need to be refrigerated, but it will last for a long time, at least long enough for you to use it all up. One recipe made approximately 30 oz of sauce.

4 squares of unsweetened chocolate

1/2 Cup butter

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 Cups of evaporated milk

1/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon 100 percent pomegranate juice

3 Cups granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Fill a saucepan halfway with water. Place a glass or heat resistant bowl on top of saucepan (double boiler). Heat on medium heat. Add butter, salt and chocolate to bowl. Heat until melted, stirring occasionally.

Add milk and pomegranate juice. Mix well. Your chocolate will be kind of grainy and mottled looking at this point. The sugar will provide smoothness. Whisk and add 1/2 cup sugar at a time. Whisk constantly until sauce begins to thicken. You don't need it too thick just syrupy.

Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla. Spoon into containers. Sauce will continue to thicken as it cools.

Store in refrigerator. Reheat for 15 to 30 seconds at a time in microwave for hot fudge sauce.

Now don't you think that looks like a yummy holiday gift? Don't worry I saved a lot for myself.

Lunchbox Tip/ Peanut Butter Chocolate sandwiches

Pantry Storage Suggestion: Nutella. Every pantry needs at least one bottle of this stuff.

Are your kids already suffering from lunch box burnout. I make my kids lunch everyday almost and frankly it was time to make an easy meal that would bring a couple lunch time smiles to my kids' faces. So, I did it. I unveiled my, until now, secret jar of that heavenly chocolate/hazelnut spread, Nutella. Yep. I have been hoarding this little treasure in the pantry all to myself until now. So, this is not a recipe it is just a reminder how delicious Nutella and peanut butter sandwiches can be and that you are guaranteed to be Mom of the Day if you share your secret stash. Homemade bread makes this sandwich even tastier. Of course, now I really have to hide the stuff because they were instant addicts. And that stuff is not cheap. I wish we could buy this stuff in bulk somewhere. Now that I have to share it is going to disappear much faster. I am definitely not sharing my stash of Hershey's dark chocolate with pomegranate bits.

And just so you know that I am now wasting your time with an easy tip you probably could have figured out yourself here are a couple other Nutella goodies.

Just in case you are a die hard make it yourself cook here is a recipe for homemade nutella

And for a grown up Nutella sandwich try Velveeta Ain't Food's Wabanini

Fudgy Scratch Brownies

FEATURED PANTRY ITEMS: Cocoa powder, flour, sugar



I know that everyone has their own brownie recipe but I just recently started avoiding the boxed mixes. I have always had a weakness for brownies but I like the kind that melt and ooze chocolate in your mouth. I do not enjoy the cake style brownies and so I set out on a quest to find the perfect brownie recipe from scratch. I stumbled across this one in, of all places, one of my food storage cookbooks. I added some peanut butter chips and chocolate chips at the request of my 11 year-old son. They turned out beautifully and even more important, they were everything I love in a brownie. I will be making these all the time now.

1 C butter, melted

2 C Sugar

2 t. Vanilla

4 eggs

3/4 C Cocoa

1 C flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 t salt

3/4 Cup chocolate or peanut butter chips (optional)

Beat melted butter and sugar until well mixed. Add vanilla and eggs one at a time. Beat Well after each addition.

Mix cocoa, flour, baking powder and salt together. Add to butter mixture and mix well. Add chocolate or peanut butter chips if desired.

Line a 9x13 pan with parchment paper (Allow parchment paper to come up over the ends of pan. This way you can easily lift the brownies out of the pan when they are finished cooking. Lightly grease and flour parchment paper. Pour in brownie mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes or until a cracked outer layer forms on brownies.

Remove from pan using parchment paper as handles and cool before cutting.

Monday Snack -- Pantry Chocolate Whimsy

Oh such darling little edible chocolate bugs. My daughter borrowed the kid's cook book by Usborne, Chocolates and Candies to Make.I am definitely buying this at the next Usborne party that I will certainly be invited to. Now I have a reason to go. This cookbook is really great for kids and their parents. These darling chocolate bugs were actually very easy to make and everyone from the 10 year old to the three year old got in on the bug making action. I am sorry I didn't take step by step photos, since they were really handy in the cookbook. But have fun and who cares if some of the bugs end up looking like this.


Makes 10 Bugs
1/2 C semi sweet or milk chocolate chips
1/2 C white chocolate chips or Almond Bark (I used the almond bark)
3 TB corn syrup

1. Melt milk chocolate. I microwave melt my chocolate by setting the timer in 15 second intervals and stirring in between until the chips melt or you can melt on the stove by filling a pan with about 1" of water. Heat pan until the water bubbles then remove pan from the heat. Put chocolate chips in heat proof bown and place into the pan. Stir until melted. Frankly, I think the microwave method is much easier and safer for children.
2. Let chocolate cool for 2 minutes.
3. Stir in 1 1/2 Tb corn syrup until the mixture forms a thick paste which doesn't stick to the sides of the bowl.
4. Wrap paste in plastic food wrap.
5. Repeat Steps 1-4 for white chocolate and chill both pieces of chocolate paste in refrigerator for 1 hour.
6. Remove chocolate from refrigerator and let rest for 10 minutes
7. Cut each piece into six pieces. Set one white and one milk chocolate piece aside.
8. Shape the other 10 pieces into oval shapes.
9. Make Head. Using a butter knife, gently press an indentation a third of the way down on each oval to make head. Make a similar mark for the wings.
10. Roll small balls to make eyes and spots from the remaining two chocolate pieces. We actually bought mini chocolate chips on accident and they made cute spots on the white bugs.

I realize this is a lot of steps and it seems somewhat complicated but if a seven-year old can do this, it is a basic simple process. I think it would be cute to add a touch of food coloring to the white chocolate to make some pastel bugs just in time for Easter baskets.