Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies

I. Love. Cookies.

Eating cookies and being on a diet typically do not go very well together so when I found this recipe for flourless peanut butter chocolate chip cookies I had to try them. These were extremely easy to make and were a huge hit with the kids and hubby (I ate a few myself). I froze half of the batch and they came out of the freezer just as good as when they went in it. I got the recipe from http://www.ireallylikefood.com/764528172/flourless-peanut-butter-and-chocolate-chip-cookies/. I just added 1 tablespoon less of each sugar and used only 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips and they turned out great! The adapted recipe is listed below.





Oven-ready!



Yumm-o!

Flourless Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes: 16 cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup minus 1 Tbsp of white sugar
• 1/2 cup minus 1 Tbsp of loosely packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips, divided

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the peanut butter, sugars, egg, baking soda, and vanilla together in a bowl; mix until well combined. Add most of the chocolate chips then mix. Place in the refrigerator for 15 minutes so the dough is easier to handle.

Place spoonfuls of the dough onto the baking sheet then top each cookie with the additional chocolate chips. (I like to use a small ice cream scoop-no mess, no fuss.)

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes then carefully place them onto a cooling rack to cool. Cool completely before eating. If you want to freeze the cookies wait until completely cool then seal in a plastic freezer bag.

Printable recipe here

Cauliflower Crusted Cheese Pizza :)

I was absolutely starving today after I put the kids down for their naps (I usually eat lunch during their nap time, it's just easier.) So, instead of pillaging my cupboards like a crazy lunatic I decided to look for inspiration on my Pinterest page. I had found this cauliflower crust pizza a while ago but was intimidated by it for some reason. (Maybe I just didn't want to drag the food processor out of my basement.) Anyways, this was very easy and quick to make (I didn't even have to have a snack to hold me over until it was finished). I may even make it again for dinner tonight...yes, it was that good. On these hot summer days I don't even like to think about turning on my oven so I made mine in my toaster oven and it turned out great. I did learn one very valuable lesson though through this process. ALWAYS spray your foil before you put your crust on it. I just hope that I didn't eat any foil as I peeled the pizza off and ate it with a fork. :)





The yummy cauliflower crust before it went into the toaster oven.



All done! (I left mine in a little too long.)

Recipe for crust:

1 cup of riced cauliflower (see instructions below)
1 cup of reduced fat mozzarella cheese
3 Tbs liquid egg whites (or 1 large egg)
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/8 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
Extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven (or toaster oven) to 425 degrees F. Cover baking sheet with foil or parchment paper (if desired) and SPRAY with oil.

Mix cauliflower, cheese, and egg together in your bowl. The cheese will get all melty and yummy. Then add oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper and combine thoroughly. Your mixture will come together to resemble a traditional dough. If you find that you have excess moisture like I did, simply squeeze it out with your hands.

Press cauliflower mixture onto foil/parchment paper until it is about 1/2 inch thick then spray/brush with extra virgin olive oil to promote browning. Bake for 15 minutes or until crust is lightly browned.

Add pizza sauce, cheese, and precooked toppings of your choice and broil for 3-4 minutes until cheese is bubbly and brown.

Enjoy!

How to rice the cauliflower:
*Grate enough cauliflower to measure one cup with hand grater (or you can chop the cauliflower into chunks-not too much stem-and pulse it in your food processor until it looks like rice-do not puree it)
*Put cauliflower in microwave safe dish and cook on high for 2 1/2 - 4 minutes depending on your microwave (I did 2 1/2 minutes with my 1100 W microwave). Do not add water or you'll just have to drain it out later (personal experience again).


This is a recipe that you really must try, you will not regret it! Happy/healthy eating :)


Here's a printable version if you'd like it.



**Updated:**
The recipe above makes enough pizza for about an individual portion size. I recently made the pizza for a larger group and made 2 round pizza pans and a large rectangle pizza and it was a hit!
Below is the adjusted recipe that I used for 1 large round pizza pan.

* 3 cups of riced cauliflower-microwave for approximately 8 minutes or until soft
* 2 whole eggs or 4 egg whites
* 2 cups shredded reduced fat mozzarella
* 1 1/4 tsp dried oregano
* 1/8 + 1/4 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
Extra virgin olive oil to coat dough 

(I didn't have onion powder, but if I had I would have added 1/4 tsp)

Fireworks and Play-doh!

For years my favorite holiday has been the 4th of July. I know most people probably would choose Thanksgiving or Chrismas, but for me there's nothing like hanging out by the pool, grilling a yummy meal, and watching fireworks.  Most areas have fireworks several days before the actual holiday, so we actually went to see fireworks a few days ago (and hoping we can again today!). About 3 minutes into the fireworks Hulk was over it and wanted to go home. He's not much for loud noises anyways, but I'm sure the people around us loved hearing "all done now, go home" between the booms of the fireworks :)

Sponge seemed to enjoy herself and even snuggled up on my lap for awhile :D (In my head I was thinking "remember this moment").

My husband was playing with the fireworks mode on our new camera and he didn't do too bad!

Time to check 34- watch fireworks off of our list!

The fun weekend didn't stop there!

The next day we had our Pirate birthday party to attend and we made Pirate Play-Doh for the birthday boy. Play-doh is always a big hit in our house so of course we had to make some for ourselves too.

Number 2- make play-doh- check!

Sponge was able to make most of this on her own with the exception of dealing with the hot water and oil.

Time to play!

She made a birthday cake :)

Thinking of making white and blue play-doh today as well....oooo, and adding glitter!

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Pirate Party Gift

When it comes to giving kids' gifts I try to give something that is both fun and educational or beneficial to development in some way...I guess it's just the teacher in me. Friends of ours were having a Jake and the Neverland Pirates birthday party for their soon-to-be 4 year old son and I wanted to find something that would fit in that criteria and be pirate themed in some way. So, what I decided on was to make red (that's a pirate color, right?) Pirate Play-Doh using the kool-aid recipe from Come Together Kids, a set of plastic cookie cutters that can be used with the play-doh, and something piraty (now I'm making up my own words!) to wrap it in. The Sponge always wants to make cards for people now so I save myself the $3.99 and let her have at it!

While I was at Wal-Mart picking up the cookie cutters I found a beach towel with a pirate ship and sharks wearing pirate hats. Perfect!

So, with all of my goodies purchased I got set to make the kool-aid (pirate) play-doh. Instead of making up the goody bag with the directions to make-your-own play-doh like on Come Together Kids, I just followed the recipe to make the recipe in completion (get straight to the "play" part). Here's what I did.

Bring 1 cup of water and 1 1/2 Tbsp oil to a boil



Meanwhile put the following ingredients into a bowl:
*1 1/3 cups flour
*2 packets of unsweetened Koolaid powder for a bright color, but 1 packet works too
*1/4 cup salt
*1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Once the water/oil comes to a boil, add to dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until well blended (I must of had lumps in my flour-it looks like raw hamburger meat!)

When the dough is cool enough to handle, knead it until it's fully combined. Keep in a sealed plastic bag.

Once the play-doh was cool I labeled the ziploc bag as Pirate Play-Doh and wrapped it and the cookie cutters in the beach towel. The beach towel was a little small so I taped the smaller ends to the cookie cutter box and then was able to easily tie up the long ends with braided yarn, tuck in the home-made birthday card, and voila! A gift fit for a pirate.

Everything's ready to wrap!

Completed pirate birthday gift :)