Ari's Menu

Little changes making a big difference.


Elvis Smoothie

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Okay, I promise I’m not crazy. Elvis did it. He put bacon on his peanut butter sandwich. If Elvis can put bacon on his sandwich, I can put bacon on my smoothie.

Elvis Smoothie

This smoothie is really quite simple. Imagine the components of an Elvis sandwich being blended together to make the perfect breakfast drink. Peanut butter, banana, honey, bacon—what can I say? It just works. The sweet and salty flavors balance out perfectly, and by making it into a smoothie, it’s so easy to grab it, and go on your way out the door. It literally takes 5 minutes, so if you’re one of those people who tries to say you don’t have time for breakfast (I don’t get it…I ALWAYS have time for food!), then I say to you: You have 5 minutes, especially when your breakfast tastes like dessert.

Elvis Smoothie

This smoothie may sound indulgent, but it is actually packed with fiber and protein, and filled with nutrients that provide a balanced breakfast that only tastes like dessert.

Elvis Smoothie Nutrition

 

To help keep the smoothie thick and delicious and the calories low, I used Silk Pure Almond Unsweetened Vanilla. The same smoothie using skim milk would come in at 372 calories—a pretty huge jump! Just the one change of using Silk instead (it is the lowest calorie almondmilk on the market!) saves 50 calories!

 

Elvis Smoothie

Yield 1 huge smoothie

  • 1 medium banana, frozen
  • 1 cup ice
  • 1 cup Silk Pure Almond Unsweetened Vanilla
  • 1 tbs honey peanut butter (regular peanut butter is fine too)
  • 4 oz nonfat honey Greek yogurt
  • 1 slice center cut bacon, cooked and crumbled
  • extra peanut butter and graham cracker crumbs for garnish (optional)

Directions:

  1. Place banana, ice, Silk, peanut butter and yogurt in a blender, and blend until well combined, about 2 minutes.
  2. If desired roll the top of your glass in graham cracker crumbs and drizzle some extra melted peanut butter on the inside.
  3. Top with crumbled bacon.

This post is part of a sponsored campaign with Silk and FitFluential, LLC. All opinions are my own. To learn more about Silk Pure Almond Unsweetened on Facebook and Twitter.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies with Dark Chocolate, Cherries & Coconut

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Friends, these are not the prettiest cookies I’ve ever made.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies with Dark Chocolate, Cherries & Coconut #vegan #glutenfree

 

In fact, when I made them for our first Ragnar team meeting, I almost didn’t serve them because I didn’t love the look, but as I kept reaching over, and over, and over for the pieces of the uglier ones I planned to throw away, I realized they were so delicious, I just had to save them, and post about them, pretty or not.

fPeanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies with Dark Chocolate, Cherries & Coconut #vegan #glutenfree

 

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it yet, but this February I will be running Ragnar Del Sol with 11 other amazing ladies! The line up includes Nicole, Karla, Melissa, Megan, Tara, Stacey, Jaime, Bety, Jennifer, Jenn, and Kelli. I am sosoSO excited! We had our first official meeting a couple of weeks ago, and did a potluck at my house, so of course I called dibs on making dessert. 😉 Tara and Jaime don’t eat gluten or dairy, so I wanted to make something that everyone would be able to enjoy.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies with Dark Chocolate, Cherries & Coconut #vegan #glutenfree

 

So I did end up serving my visually-challenged cookies, and I’m even sharing them with you, because I love them. They are so chewy, and packed with flavor. In true Ari style, there is definitely a lot going on, which leads to my new longest title ever (I think?), but it all comes together perfectly in a way that rather than tasting each component, you taste the combination as a whole.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies with Dark Chocolate, Cherries & Coconut #vegan #glutenfree

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies with Dark Chocolate, Cherries & Coconut

  • 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
  • 3 tbsp apple butter
  • 1 cup natural peanut butter
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • ½ cup unsweetened almond milk
  • 1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 and 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 2 tbsp cornstarch
  • dash salt
  • 1/3 cup reduced fat unsweetened shredded coconut
  • 3 cups raw oats (use gluten-free if you care about that sort of thing)
  • 6 oz good quality dark chocolate, chopped into chunks (I used 2 bars—a coconut dark chocolate and a sea salt dark chocolate)
  • 3/4 cup sweet cherries, pitted and chopped

 

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat.
  2. In a large bowl, beat together coconut oil, apple butter, peanut butter, and sugars until smooth. Add almond milk, vanilla, baking soda, cornstarch, salt, and coconut, and beat until well combined. Fold in oats, followed by chocolate, cherries and coconut.
  3. Use a small cookie scoop to drop batter onto prepared baking sheet about 2 inches apart (these spread quite a bit).
  4. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown around the edges. Cool completely on baking sheet before transferring to serve.

**Notes: These cookies are very sticky. I don’t recommend sealing them for storage. You also don’t want to crowd them. They work best unstacked in a large Tupperware with the lid resting on top, but unsealed.

 

 

Honey Roasted Peanut Butter

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If there’s anything I’ve learned since entering the blog world, it’s that sometimes the simplest recipes are best.

Honey Roasted Peanut Butter

 

I knew ever since I saw this little gem that it was going to be a must try in my house. I’ve almost entirely stopped buying nut butter as the store because, well, there’s just no need to anymore. I’m so in love with the ones I create at home, and this peanut butter is no different.

Honey Roasted Peanut Butter

 

The sweet simplicity of honey roasted peanuts ground up to creamy, slightly crunchy, sweet perfection. You will love the natural, subtle crunch. It’s not like where they chop up more peanuts, fold them in, and call it “crunchy”; it’s like a caramelized, toffee tasting crunch if that even makes a little bit of sense? It makes sense to me. 😉

Honey Roasted Peanut Butter

 

I don’t think I’ve been this obsessed with a peanut butter since I discovered PB&Co. And I’m not the only one. My whole family has resolved to stop buying the store bought stuff, and just eat this forever and ever.

Honey Roasted Peanut Butter

 

And as if the universe was working just for me, all of the sudden honey crisps are back!! Is this just where I am? I thought they were gone for the year, but they’ve come back to all of my stores, and I can’t stop eating them with a huge helping of this peanut butter to dip them in. Best.Snack.Ever.

Honey Roasted Peanut Butter

 

I only wish I could take credit for this brilliance, but that is all this girl. Click over to see her awesome step by step photos and instructions.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

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There is no better combination than peanut butter and chocolate. It’s a proven fact.

I would also like to say that chocolate chunks > chocolate chips. Fact. Just call me the Chocolate Encyclopedia. Or the Chocolate Whisperer. I like the sound of that. You can picture me sitting in my kitchen whispering sweet nothings to my chocolate.

In college, my friends referred to me as the Musical Theatre Lexicon. I guess you could say when something’s important to me, I spend a lot of time with it. Like chocolate. And peanut butter.

I made these for my wonderful friend Emily’s birthday. Then I spent too much time taking pictures of them and was late to her party. Story of my life. The cookies were so good though. Like, really reallllllly good, so I like to think they made up for it 😉

You know what’s REALLY hard??? Not eating all the birthday cookies you baked for your friend. Especially when they are so gooey it’s practically like biting through a slightly crunchy shell into hot cookie dough with rich, bold dark chocolate pouring out from the inside. Not eating all the cookies = true friendship.

I’d had my eye on doing some chocolate chunk cookies for a while now. I recently read a post on making the perfect chocolate chip cookies, and the two things that stood out were that you should use more than one type of chocolate to keep the taste buds interested, and always very lightly salt the dough before it goes into the oven–not for the “salted cookie” effect, but just a tiny bit to contrast the sweetness and bring the most flavor out of the cookie, so that’s what I did. The result? Cookie heaven.

 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

yield 1 dozen (these are BIG cookies)

  • 1 1/4 cups gluten-free baking blend (or white whole wheat flour)
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tbs corn starch
  • 1/2 cup apple butter
  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • 3/4 cup turbinado sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/4 cup water (+ corn starch = egg replacement)
  • 4 oz good quality dark chocolate, chopped into large chunks (I used a chili dark chocolate and an espresso dark chocolate, but any chocolate would be delicious)
  • sea salt for topping

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and corn starch. Set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, beat the apple butter, peanut butter, sugars, and vanilla until smooth. Add water, followed by flour mixture and beat thoroughly. Fold in chocolate chunks. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
  3. Use a large cookie scoop (or your hands) to drop dough onto prepared cookie sheet. Lightly sprinkle the top of dough with sea salt.
  4. Bake for 14-18 minutes until just golden. Do not overbake. Let cookies stand on sheet for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Peanut Butter Filled Oatmeal Muffins

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One of my very favorite breakfasts is loaded oatmeal. I never used to understand the whole oatmeal obsession until I started reading food blogs and seeing and the delicious mix ins other people use in their oatmeal. I mean let’s be honest, if you put peanut butter in anything I will probably eat it.

Especially when it’s all hot and oozey and melts out when you take a bite. Melty + peanut butter = the best of both worlds.

These muffins were inspired by two very special friends. They don’t really eat gluten or dairy, but that doesn’t mean they should have to miss out on post run muffin amazingness!

You guys know I love cooking for special diets. It’s a weird thing  I have. The more rules, the more exciting it is to make something delicious and fitting! I guess I just enjoy a challenge. Must come from my super chill uncompetitive nature.

These muffins just scream fall breakfast to me, and I loved finding a new way to eat oatmeal in the morning because, let’s be honest, no matter how many different ways I mix things in, the concept of stove top oats remains the same, and we all need a little variety once in a while.

 

Plus, muffins for breakfast are the closest thing you get to cupcakes for breakfast, and who doesn’t want to eat cupcakes for breakfast???

 

Peanut Butter Filled Oatmeal Muffins

adapted from Gluten Free Girl

yield 1 dozen

  • 2 cups sweet rice flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • dash salt
  • 1 tbs milled flax seed
  • 1 tbs corn starch
  • 1 tbs coconut oil, melted
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
  • 1/4 cup fig butter
  • 1 cup cooked gluten-free oatmeal, room temperature
  • 1/3 cup dried cranberries
  • approx 1/3 cup peanut butter

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners and lightly coat with nonstick spray.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together baking powder, salt, rice flour, flax seed and corn starch. Beat in coconut oil, almond milk and fig butter. Then fold in cooked oats and cranberries.
  3. Fill each muffin tin about 1/3 with batter. Top with approx 1/2 tbs peanut butter (you can use more or less depending on how peanut buttery you want them), then top with batter leaving the cups 2/3 full.
  4. Bake until golden, about 20 minutes. You can test with a toothpick, but make sure not to stick it right in the peanut butter. Toothpick should come out mostly clean with a few crumbs.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Cups

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Sometimes I think that once my fundraising is over, I will never want to make an other cup for the rest of my life.

Then I take one of these out of the freezer, eat it, and head directly to the store to buy more ingredients, so that I can eat 7 more, then make more.

These were probably the most popular. Everyone loves sweet and salty.There’s also a lot of great textures between the pretzel, the chocolate, and the peanut butter. In fact, they’re almost like those chocolate covered peanut butter pretzels from Trader Joe’s. I never buy those, because I know once I opened them, they would last approximately 6 minutes. I know my weakness, ok.

Hungry yet? If you live in the Phoenix area (chocolate doesn’t ship well when it’s 117 out, and yes, that was the temperature an hour ago), you can order them @ $10 a dozen. As always, 100% of that goes directly to Chances for Children, and your purchases are tax deductable.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Cups

yield 24 cups

  • 20 oz all natural dark chocolate chips
  • approx 1/2 cup all natural peanut butter
  • 1 scant tbs unrefined virgin coconut oil
  • 24 mini pretzels (gluten-free pretzels work great!), whole or lightly chopped*

Directions:

*Option 1 (for whole pretzels)

  1. Line 24 mini muffin tins with paper liners.
  2. In a medium bowl, melt chocolate and coconut oil in the microwave in 20 second intervals, stirring after each, until melted.
  3. Spoon enough chocolate to cover the bottom of each baking cup. Add 1-2 tsp peanut butter. Top with chocolate until peanut butter is completely covered and top is smooth.
  4. Gently, press the bottom of one pretzel about half way into each cup.
  5. Freeze to set. Keep in freezer or fridge.

*Option 2 (for chopped pretzels)

  1. Line 24 mini muffin tins with paper liners.
  2. In a medium bowl, melt chocolate and coconut oil in the microwave in 20 second intervals, stirring after each, until melted.
  3. Spoon enough chocolate to cover the bottom of each baking cup. Add 1-2 tsp peanut butter. Add one lightly chopped pretzel. Top with chocolate until peanut butter and pretzel are completely covered and top is smooth.
  4. Freeze to set. Keep in freezer or fridge.

*I made the cups both ways, but only photographed them with the pretzel sticking out. I love them both, and continue to make them both ways. I think the pretzel on top looks cool, but with a chopped pretzel, you get more pretzel in each bite. I like to savor my desserts and take many bites 🙂

Skinnified Sunday: Homemade Nutter Butter Bites

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Remember those cute little mini Nutter Butters? The Nutter Butter Bites? They’re half the size, so you get to eat twice as many. That’s the way it works, right?

Is there anything better than crunchy peanut butter cookie stuffed with sweet, creamy peanut butter filling?

Maybe if you mixed them into peanut butter fro yo. Will you please mix them into peanut butter fro yo??? I WANT TO EAT THAT!!!!

Before I left, I had an order for a dozen cookies from the bike shop, and they said they didn’t care what kind, so I made them these. The next time Steve went in, apparently they were all talking about it, because I got this awesome voicemail while I was in Ashland telling me how much the bike people loved my cookies. Sometimes I can’t even believe how much my life has changed–people buying my cookies?? What????

These totally brought me back to my childhood. Nutter Butters were always one of my favs, and they are even better homemade!

I got the original recipe from one of my very favorite blogs. Here’s the original recipe:

My swaps:
  • Light whipped butter + apple butter for real butter (-fat, -calories, -saturated fat, -cholesterol)
  • Less sugar (-sugar, -calories)
  • Liquid egg whites for real eggs (-fat, -calories, -cholesterol)
  • White whole wheat flour for regular (+ protein, +fiber)
  • Extra sugar (-sugar, -calories)
  • Milk
  • Less filling (-fat, -sugar, -calories)
Skinnified Homemade Nutter Butter Bites
yield about 6 dozen
For the cookies:
  • 1/2 cup light whipped butter, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup apple butter
  • 1 cup creamy peanut butter (I suggest PB&Co White Chocolate Wonderful)
  • 3/4 cup turbinado sugar
  • 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
  • 6 tbs liquid egg whites
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 2 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
For the filling:
  • 3/4 cup light whipped butter, room temperature
  • 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter (Again, WCW is best)
  • 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Directions:
    1. Begin with the cookies. In a large bowl with mixer beat butter, apple butter, peanut butter, and sugars until light and fluffy. Add liquid egg whites, and vanilla. Continuing beating until well combined. Turn mixer to low and add in flour, baking soda and baking powder. Mix until combined. Refrigerate dough for 1 hour.
    2. Preheat oven to 375°. Using an extra small cookie scoop, transfer dough to a baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Using a fork, press down on cookie creating a criss-cross pattern.
    3. Bake for 6-8 minutes until edges are lightly golden. Cool on baking sheet 2-3 minutes and then transfer to wire rack to continue cooling.
    4. To make the filling, beat butter and peanut butter together in a large mixing bowl until smooth. Slowly add in your powdered sugar and turn mixer speed up to medium and beat until filling is smooth.
    5. Spread an even layer of filling onto the bottom of one of the peanut butter cookies and then top with another cookie to create sandwich. Repeat with all remaining cookies.

 

White Chocolate Peanut Butter S’mores Sandwich Cookies

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So the other day, Steve surprised me by picking me up fro yo. Yes, he’s awesome, but that is beside the point. The point is, he topped my fro yo with peanut butter and marshmallow sauce, and it was freaking delicious. As I was eating it, I couldn’t help, but think of what a perfect combination those flavors were.

I started coming up with all sorts of desserts that I could combine those flavors in.

My incredible friend Stacey has this really important weekend coming up. She has a very special birthday, she is running her first half marathon, and she has some other big life accomplishments going on. It’s pretty amazing, you should head over to her blog and congratulate her! As my congratulations, I made her these cookies, obviously. She loves white chocolate, so that was the final piece in these delicious treats.

Ummm, yeah. Marshmallow, peanut butter and white chocolate is actually the perfect combination. Oh, and graham cracker cookie. Yes.Please.

 

Happy Weekend Of Amazingness, Stace!! I’m proud of you, and I’m sure these cookies will be your perfect pre-race fuel!

White Chocolate Peanut Butter S’more Sandwich Cookies

yield 14 sandwich cookies

For the cookies:

  • 6 tbs fat free cream cheese, softened
  • 6 tbs honey apple butter
  • 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup Splenda
  • 1/4 cup egg substitute
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
  • 1 sleeve whole wheat graham crackers, finely crushed
  • dash salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda

For the filling:

  • 1 cup all natural white chocolate chips
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/3 cup marshmallow fluff
  • 1-2 tbs unsweetened almond milk’
  • approx 1/3 cup peanut butter (I suggest PB & Co White Chocolate Wonderful)

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. Beat cream cheese and apple butter together in a large bowl. Add brown sugar and Splenda, and beat until fluffy.
  3. Beat in vanilla, egg substitute, and baking soda.
  4. Add flour and graham cracker crumbs and beat until just combined.
  5. Use a cookie scoop (or your hands) to drop dough in about tablespoon amounts.  Flatten dough out with a sprayed piece of parchment paper, until approx 1/4″ thick.
  6. Bake 8-10 minutes until just set, then remove and let stand 5-10 minutes to finish baking themselves, before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
  7. While cookies cool, melt white chocolate chips in a medium bowl in the microwave at 30 seconds increments, stirring after each, until melted. Stir in vanilla and marshmallow fluff. Add 1-2 tbs almond milk until slightly thinned and creamy.
  8. Spread white chocolate marshmallow sauce evenly over  the flat side of half of your cookies. Spread the other half with 1 tsp peanut butter. Sandwich together, and serve.

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies

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So the thing is, we are definitely not perfect, but Steve and I have learned a bit about photography (him), food presentation (me), and composition (both of us) since starting this little blog. Whenever I go through my old recipe posts, I cringe and hope the people visiting my blog don’t look at them and run away forever. I keep them because the recipes are good, but I have this grand plan to recreate everything I love and get some good quality pictures so that everything on here looks cohesive. And not like a 5 year old made it. The problem is, I get excited and creative and want to make new recipes! However, these I love. Like a to the depths of my heart kind of love.

They were actually pretty popular around the internet too. I mean seriously, peanut butter, chocolate, and pretzels. It’s kind of a sure thing.

My favorite thing about these cookies is all of the contrasting flavors and textures.

Sweet & salty.

Crunchy & soft.

Perfect balance.

I may not always achieve perfect balance with my personal, professional, and health goals, but the most important thing is that I can accomplish it in a cookie, right?

Okay, good. As long as we’re all on the same page. Since we’re going with balance, I even made these slightly healthier this time around, and you know what? They were equally delicious. So to balance out the healthy, I ate about 7 of them in one day. It was awesome.

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies

yield approx 2 dozen

  • 1 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • dash salt
  • 1/2 cup apple butter
  • 5 tbs packed light brown sugar
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup peanut butter (preferably PB & Co White Chocolate Wonderful)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips
  • 1/3 cup white chocolate chips
  • approx 24 pretzels (one per cookie)

Directions:

  1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, beat apple butter, sugars, and peanut butter until smooth.
  3. Add egg and vanilla. Mix well.
  4. Slowly stir the dry ingredients.
  5. Fold in chips. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
  6. Preheat oven to 350. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.
  7. Roll dough into small 1″ balls, or use a cookie scoop and drop on prepared cookie sheet.
  8. Bake for 7 minutes, then press a pretzel into each cookie. Cook for an additional 7 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack.

Black & White Peanut Butter Chip Brownies

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In case you missed it, which would be super sad for you, Monday was my BBFF Nicole’s birthday! To celebrate, I made her brownies!

Now, I’ll be honest. I don’t usually make brownies from scratch. I usually let TJ’s Reduced Guilt Brownie Mix or No Pudge Brownie Mix do the work for me, because they are both delicious and easy. However, there was no way I was going to use a box mix for Nicole’s birthday. Have you read her blog??? She’s like a real chef. In fact every single time I cook for her, or she eats something I make, I get suuuuuuper nervous.

Luckily, these turned out much better than the gnocchi incident of 2012. In fact, they came out ridiculously good.

And now I have a huge problem on my hands…

All I can think about is brownies!!

Brownies, brownies, brownies, brownies, bbbrrrooowwwwnnniiieeesss!!!

Rich, sweet, gooey and chocolatey with peanut butter chips perfectly complementing the white and dark chocolate.

Or in other words YUM!

Black & White Peanut Butter Chip Brownies

yield 36 brownies

For the white layer:

  • 2/3 cups white whole wheat flour
  • 5.5 ounces Sunspire white chocolate chips
  • 2 tbs light whipped butter
  • 6 tbs nonfat vanilla yogurt
  • 1/3 cup turbinado sugar
  • 1/3 cup Splenda
  • 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup + 2 tbs egg substitute
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup Sunspire peanut butter chips

For the black layer:

  • 2/3 cups white whole wheat flour
  • 5.5 ounces Sunspire grain sweetened chocolate chips
  • 2 tbs light whipped butter
  • 6 tbs nonfat vanilla yogurt
  • 1/2 cup turbinado sugar
  • 1/3 cup Splenda
  • 1/2 cup + 2 tbs egg substitute
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup Sunspire peanut butter chips

For the White Chocolate Glaze:

  • 10 oz bag Sunspire white chocolate chips
  • 1/2 tbs light whipped butter
  • 3 tbs unsweetened almond milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • sprinkles for topping (optional)

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9×13 glass baking pan. Line the pan with parchment paper.
  2. Start with the white layer.
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour and salt together.
  4. Put the white chocolate and butter in a large bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water (or a double broiler), stirring occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water and add sugars, Splenda and yogurt. Whisk until completely combined, then remove the bowl from the pan.
  5. Add eggs substitute and vanilla to the white chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Do not over mix.
  6. Gently fold in flour mixture followed by peanut butter chips. Batter will not be completely smooth. Tiny flour clumps will bake out.
  7. Pour into prepared baking pan.
  8. Repeat steps 3-6 with black layer.
  9. Pour black layer on top of white. Use a butter knife to gently swirl.
  10. Bake for 40-50 minutes, turning once in between to ensure even cooking.
  11. Let stand for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely (this is where the parchment paper comes in handy!)
  12. Make glaze by microwaving white chocolate and butter together in a medium bowl on 20 second intervals, stirring after each, until melted.
  13. Add vanilla and milk and stir until combined.
  14. Spread over completely cooled brownies, top with sprinkles if desired and allow to cool for approx 1 hour.

Skinnified Sunday: Monster Cookies

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I have always been a sucker for monster cookies. There are so many ways to make them, but the basic concept includes peanut butter, chocolate chips, M&Ms, and oats. How could you go wrong with those ingredients?! Seriously. I had some at a friend’s birthday and have been dying to make my own ever since. When I noticed that Sunspire had their own version of M&M’s, I bought them immediately knowing monster cookies were on the horizon!

I found the original recipe from Taste of Home

My swaps:

  • ¼ cup Better’n Peanut Butter for half the peanut butter (-fat, -calories)
  • TJ’s Honey Apple Butter for butter (-fat, -calories, -saturated fat, -cholesterol)
  • Splenda* for some of the sugar (-sugar, -calories)
  • Egg substitute for whole eggs (-fat, -cholesterol, -calories)
  • Rolled oats for quick cooking (just what I buy)
  • Sunspire Sun Drops for M&M’s (-sugar, -calories)
  • Sunspire grain sweetened chocolate & peanut butter chips for butterscotch chips (-sugar, -calories)
  • No peanuts (-fat, -calories, and I don’t like nuts in cookies)
  • White whole wheat flour for all-purpose (+fiber, +protein)
  • Extra cinnamon & vanilla (+yum)

*Some people feel really strongly about Splenda. You can easily use all sugar real sugar, I just prefer to cut some of the calories.

I was a little nervous about swapping in the Better’n Peanut Butter, but I was amazed at how well it worked!! That stuff is okay on its own, but it doesn’t compare to the real stuff. In baking, however, I would have never even known there was anything different!

PS, what is the difference between Better’n Peanut Butter and PB2? Does anyone know? All the popular bloggers use PB2, but I couldn’t find it 🙁 And obviously, if all the cool kids are doing it, I don’t want to be the lame one using the wrong peanut butter substitute. Clearly, I have really grown up and no longer use junior high mentality 😉

Okay, but back to the cookies…ummmm…they were gone in one day. Actually like 6 hours.

Whoops.

I think Jason may have eaten 4 in one sitting. Don’t judge him. They were really that delicious. And they’re “healthy” so that means you can eat the whole batch, right?

Skinnified Monster Cookies

Yield 2 ½-3 dozen cookies

  • 1/4 cup PB & Co White Chocolate Wonderful (you can use regular PB, but this is just my favorite!)
  • ¼ cup Better N Peanut Butter
  • ¼ cup honey apple butter
  • ¼ cup packed brown sugar
  • ¼ cup turbinado sugar
  • ½ cup Splenda
  • ¼ cup + 2 tbs egg substitute
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 cups rolled oats
  • ½ cup Sunspire Sun Drops
  • ¼ cup grain sweetened chocolate chips
  • ¼ cup Sunspire peanut butter chips
  • ½ tsp cinnamon
  • 1 cup white whole wheat flour

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325. Spray a large cookie sheet with nonstick spray.
2. In a large bowl, cream peanut butter, Better N Peanut Butter, apple butter, and sugars. Add egg substitute, then baking soda and vanilla.
3.  Add oats, M&M’s, butterscotch chips and peanuts; let stand for 10 minutes.
4.  Stir in flour.
5. Use a medium cookie scoop  cookie dough onto the baking sheet, then use a sprayed piece of wax paper to flatten slightly.
6. Bake for 15-18 minutes until edges are golden. Let stand for 5 minutes on baking sheet, then transfer to wire rack to cook completely.

I love my cookie scoop. Just saying.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Cookies

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You guys. You don’t even understand. I think this might be my favorite thing I have ever made. Ever. I would rather eat 1 of these than 10 full fat Paradise Bakery cookies. I took one bite and between the perfectly crunchy outside, softy doughy inside, and warm sweet jelly, I was pretty much in cookie heaven. I think this honey apple butter is pretty much the best butter substitute I have ever used. Thanks Carolyn!

I also made these start to finish in about half an hour. They were so easy. It was one of those rare baking times where everything just turns out the way you want it. Happy birthday to me!

Adapted from Pip & Ebby

Peanut Butter & Jelly Cookies

yield approx 16 cookies

  • 1/4 cup apple butter
  • 1/2 cup peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp turbinado sugar
  • 1 1/2 tbs unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • dash salt
  • 3/4 cups white whole wheat flour
  • approx 8 tbsp jelly/jam of choice (I used reduced sugar grape, no sugar added blackberry, and fig butter and I loved all 3)
  • 2-3 tbs whole wheat graham cracker crumbs

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375.
  2. In a medium bowl, beat apple butter, peanut butter, sugars, almond milk and vanilla.
  3. Beat in baking soda and salt. Beat in flour until combined.
  4. Use a cookie scoop or sprayed tablespoon to drop cookies onto a large baking sheet.
  5. Using your thumb, press down into the center of each cookie dough ball. Fill each center with jelly of choice. Sprinkle all cookies with graham cracker crumbs
  6. Bake for 10 minutes. Let stand for 2 minutes, then transfer to wire rack.

 

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