Not Your Momma's Oatmeal Scotchies: Peanut Butter Coconut Oatmeal Scotchies

My mother was not much of a baker when we were young. She really only started baking my little brother's last semester of his senior year of high school (we chalked it up to her impending empty nest, so she was making up for lost time). Her mission to bake every single kind of cookie known to man ended after a few months when she realized she was eating more of the batter than she was baking (who hasn't been there).

But I have to give my mom credit where credit's due; she made some mean Oatmeal Scotchies growing up. That may have been the only cookie she baked, but man oh man were they tasty. I believe I bonded with my freshmen year of college roommate's quicker because of those cookies (my mom had barely left campus before those babies were devoured).

So, when I saw this recipe from Lauren's Latest for Peanut Butter Coconut Oatmeal Scotchies, I knew I had to try them. They were like my mom's, but with a twist, a delicious twist that I know my mom is going to have to bake (and kill me for introducing the recipe to her). I also saw this as an opportunity to redeem my dear Lauren for the S'mores Tart fail of a few weeks ago. I'm not even going to wait till after I post the recipe to let you all know that they were AH-Mazing!!! According to my brother they were, "as good as mom's or better." Smooth way to cover your bases with the ladies in your life little bro. I actually would say they are more accurately "Oatmeal Scotchies with Coconut and Peanut Butter Chips", because the peanut butter flavor is not overwhelming. So, anyone out there that was considering not making these because they don't like peanut butter cookies should still give these a shot. They will not disappoint. Here is the recipe:

Mine

Lauren's. Photo from www.laurenslatest.com 

Peanut Butter Coconut Oatmeal Scotchies
yield: 8 large, 12 small

(*Note: I doubled the recipe)

Ingredients:
1/4 cup margarine
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 egg, beaten
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
5 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon oats
2 tablespoons shredded sweetened coconut
2 tablespoons peanut butter chips
2 tablespoons butterscotch chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with silicone mat or parchment paper. Set aside.

Cream butter and sugars together. Stir in egg and vanilla. Stir in baking soda, salt and flour until just incorporated. Pour in remaining ingredients and stir. Scoop onto prepared pan and bake 8-9 minutes, rotating the pan half way through. (*Note: I needed more like 11-13 minutes) Cool 3 minutes on the pan and remove to cooling rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Cream butter and sugars, will stick together a lot!

Don't forget to beat that egg in another bowl

Add egg and vanilla to butter and sugars
(will be a bit watery)

(Add salt, flour, and baking powder)

Add the good stuff

Scoop onto your baking sheet and pop into the oven

Pros: Delicious and easy to make! No mixers needed and they take no time at all to whip up. Another plus for me was that none of the elements were overwhelming. They didn't taste too peanut buttery or too coconut-y (yes I made up that word), they were perfect. They are just the scotchies you had growing up, just chock full of other good stuff. 

Fresh out of the oven

Cons: I found that the timing was off for baking the cookies, but that is to be expected. Everyone's oven is different, it also depends on the altitude you are baking in, so keep that in mind. I generally find when I make recipes from "Lauren's Latest", I need to add a couple of minutes of baking time. 


Revisions: I stuck to the recipe this time, but did double it and they came out excellent. If you wanted to, you could leave out any of the elements and possibly add some. I'm sure chocolate chips would taste delicious in this recipe, it just depends on your taste!

From Hall of Shame to Hall of Fame, Lauren's Latest has done a 180 in desserts for my blog. This lady knows how to make a mean cookie and these are definitely an instant favorite for my family. Easy and delicious, what more can you ask for out of a cookie? 

Getting Hot Hot Hot!: Spiced Chipotle Honey Chicken with Sweet Potatoes

One of my fears with online recipes, and recipes in general, is that everyone has different tastes and different thresh holds of pain when it comes to a spicy dish. I'm always hesitant to try a hotter recipe because, how hot is it? It's sort of like the Goldilocks syndrome; will it be too hot, too cold, or just right?

This recipe, Spiced Chipotle Honey Chicken with Sweet Potatoes, from "Pink Parsley" (a Pinterest finding) ended up being, too hot for me, too cold for my hot sauce junky husband, and just right for my medium heat chicken wing loving brother. It's surprising that it was too hot for me considering I usually eat spicier food than my brother, but at the same token, I think it was the sweet potatoes that packed the most heat, not the chicken, and my brother didn't eat the sweet potatoes (He informed me when we sat down to dinner that he does not eat sweet potatoes, a recent aversion as far as I know-I swear sometimes I think I'm living with a toddler). Here's the recipe:

Mine. 

Hers. www.pink-parsley.com

Spiced Chipotle Honey Chicken Breasts with Sweet Potatoes
adapted from In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite, by Melissa Clark
serves 6

(*Note: I halved the recipe)

• 4 sweet potatoes (10 ounces each), peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 3 Tbs olive oil
• 4 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, minced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 Tbs honey, plus more for drizzling
• 1 Tbs apple cider vinegar
• 1 1/4 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 2 lbs)
• chopped cilantro, for garnish (I used a squeeze bottle of cilantro. I find that when I buy herbs fresh I end up having to throw away half of the bunch because I never get around to using it all before it goes bad)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Place the sweet potatoes in a medium bowl.

In a small bowl, mix together 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, chipotles, garlic, honey, vinegar, salt, cumin, and cinnamon.  Mix the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil with 2 teaspoons of the paste.  Toss with the sweet potatoes. (*Note:  I have no clue what she meant by paste.  I'm not sure if she left something out or it's just unclear, but ignore this part and just throw in the rest of the olive oil at the end and stir).

That's about as paste-like mine got.

Scatter the potatoes on the bottom of a roasting pan, and bake 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, rub the chicken breasts with the remaining paste.  (*Note: By paste I interpreted it as the leftover mixture that I mixed the potatoes in). 

Stir the potatoes.  Carefully place the chicken on top of the sweet potatoes, and continue to roast until the chicken is just cooked through (registers 165 on an instant read thermometer), about 15-20 minutes longer

Divide the potatoes and chicken evenly among serving plates and drizzle with remaining honey and garnish with cilantro.  Serve.

My own personal litmus test for heat from my home (Figure out where you stand!)


My husband: The hotter the better. If it comes with a warning and you have to sign a release so that you don't sue the restaurant for your hospitalization for ingesting their nuclear sauce than he is game.


Me: I can do some heat, but I generally stick to mild salsa (or if it's medium only use a dabble of it) I also like some hot sauce and chipotle sauce (when it's mayo based). 


My brother: He is a wild card. He generally doesn't do a lot of heat (ie: he sticks to medium wings, not hot). This recipe was just fine for him although once again he didn't eat the sweet potatoes, which held most of the heat. 

Pros: If you can handle the heat than this is the dish for you. The flavors were good, the chicken was tender, and it was awesome that you could cook your side dish and main dish in one pan at the same time. Definitely makes for a pretty easy dish. Throw some veggies or a salad on the side, and you have yourself a full and balanced meal.


Cons: What the heck does she mean by "paste"? Where did this paste come from? I think that either she meant the actual mixture that you make for the sweet potatoes and chicken or she left something out. Either way that was unclear, which is no good when you are trying to follow a new recipe. 


Revisions: Like I said earlier, I think the sweet potatoes are what really carried the heat. If you don't like your dishes too spicy, I would go ahead and leave out the potatoes and just make a really small batch of the sauce for the chicken. I barely rubbed any sauce on the chicken so it was spicy enough without burning your esophagus. 


Overall this was a solid dish. Not a "Hall of Famer", but a dish that I would make again, but hold the sweet potatoes, please. 

My First Foodie Wingman Request!: Cookie Dough Dip

For those just tuning in, the point of this blog is two-fold; to serve as a unique quality control for online recipes that overpopulate Pinterest and also to help you avoid grenades, act as your wingman per say. When there is a recipe you think you want to go after, but don't know how to approach it, I do it for you. I break the ice, and find out if it is worth your while. This blog is fairly new, so my wingman services have not been solicited until now. Needless to say despite my attempts to play it cool, I was super excited.

Carolyn, a friend of mine who ironically also writes a fantastic blog in conjunction with her and her husband's wildly popular photography business, "Paul Francis Photography", contacted me about my foodie blog and was interested to hear my thoughts on "Chocolate Covered Katie." I'll be honest, at first it sounded like some sort of NSFW site, but it actually is just a website run by Katie who creates a lot of healthy, vegan dessert recipes, some involving chocolate. Whether she covers herself in chocolate, I do not know, nor do I really care to find out. Anyway Carolyn had seen her "Cookie Dough Dip" and was wondering if I would try something out from her site and report back.

I was on it like white on rice.

So, Carolyn, and anyone else reading this blog, here is the skinny on this healthier dessert dip. But, before I give my thoughts, here is the recipe:

Hers. Photo from "chocolatecoveredkatie.com)

Mine. Note the color is different because of the peanut butter. 

Cookie Dough Dip

§  1 1/2 cups chickpeas (1 can, drained) (250g)

§  1/8 tsp plus 1/16 tsp salt

§  tiny bit over 1/8 tsp baking soda

§  2 tsp pure vanilla extract

§  1/4 cup nut butter (You can get away with using only 3 T. If you use peanut butter, it’ll have a very-slight “pb cookie dough” taste, so if you don’t want this, you can sub oil.) (*I used Peanut Butter-this will change the color of the dip!)

§  up to 1/4 cup milk of choice (Start with 1 T, and add more as needed)

§  Sweetener (see note below, for amount)

§  1/3 cup chocolate chips (or Sugar-Free Chocolate Chips) (*Psh I obviously used the real thing) 

§  2 to 3 T oats (or flaxmeal) (You can omit, but also omit the milk if you do) (*I used oats) 

Add all ingredients (except for chocolate chips) to a food processor, and blend until very smooth. Then mix in the chocolate chips.

Sweetener Notes: I used 2/3 cup brown sugar when I first made this for the party. Liquid sweeteners (agave, maple, etc.) are fine as well, as is evaporated cane juice. You can easily get away with less sugar– some people will be perfectly fine with just 3 T for the whole recipe! And if you don’t want any sugar, be sure to check out the “no-sugar” version linked above. (You can also use stevia, if you like the taste of stevia-sweetened desserts. Try 2-3 packets of NuNaturals stevia, and add more sweetener if needed. I wouldn’t recommend serving an all-stevia version to party guests, though.)

It definitely looks more edible when you make it with the nut butter

So is this recipe worth trying?

I'd say for all the hype on her website (it is literally posted all over the site how this is her big OMG amazing recipe), it's really just ok. I think it's the fact that it's made with chickpeas that makes it super impressive because who would think to put chickpeas in a dessert recipe!? It's madness! But besides the gimmick, it fails to live up to all the hype. Is it good? Yes. Is it to die for, gotta have it? No. Would I make it again? Possibly. To give you a better idea of its pros and cons, here's my normal breakdown of the recipe:

Pros: This recipe is quick and easy to make. I made it while dinner was in the oven and finished it in under 10 minutes. Also, although not out of this world, it is tasty and it was fun playing around with what worked best to dip in it (we found teddy grahams and chocolate graham crackers to be the best dipping tools). 

Teddy bath!

Cons: I think poor advertising is to blame for this one. I really expected it to be outrageously awesome. A 10 if you will. It just fell flat of my expectations. Also, my issue is that unless you eat super freaky healthy all the time, you are going to have to purchase a lot of the ingredients for this recipe, a many that you may never use again. It may be a personal pet peeve, but I hate wasting money on something that I know I'll only use a TBSP of and will end up collecting dust in my pantry for eons. 

Revisions: I wrote these in the recipe, but just to reiterate, I did go the route where I used oats and milk, and I used peanut butter instead of nut butter. (The peanut butter is a LOT stronger in taste than what she implies it will be if you use that substitute). I also used regular chocolate chips and brown sugar, which are one of the options she gives you although certainly not the healthiest option. If I were to make it again I would definitely use less milk because mine was a bit more watery than hers. It firmed up a bit though after some time in the fridge. 

I'll give it this, it tastes better than it looks. 

Here's my issue with healthy dessert recipes like this one; I think it's mostly popular for the fact that it is made with chickpeas and somewhat tasty, but what makes it tasty is the addition of the brown sugar and real chocolate chips. I'm not sure if it would really taste all that good without what makes it unhealthy. I'm all about trying to eat healthy and cook good, well-balanced meals for my family, but when it comes to dessert, that's the time where you can be bad. That's when you can use a stick of butter and feel ok about it. Dessert is a luxury and I feel like when you have it, you might as well have the real thing, not some watered down healthier version. Because quite honestly, after using peanut butter instead of nut butter and real chocolate chips instead of sugar free and brown sugar instead of the other liquid alternatives, how good is it for you really? I would have rather had a "S'mores Brownie" from last week any day over this. 

So Carolyn, after trying out this recipe, I'd say approach at your own risk. It might be worth it to try it out for yourself, but keep your expectations low. It is not nearly as "amazing" as it sounds. Definitely take out the "S'Mores Brownie" recipe instead ;) 

Mexican Done Differently: Cheesy Taco Pasta

We are big Mexican fans in my home and I am always looking for creative, easy ways to get that south of the boarder flavor. I decided to try an all in one meal and give "Lauren's Latest" another shot after my recent disaster with her "S'mores Tart" last week. Luckily this Cheesy Taco Pasta was not a repeat of last week. This recipe was a hit and no one left the table with anything left on their plate. Here's the recipe:

Her's. Photo from Laurenslatest.com

Mine. Ready for its close up!

Cheesy Taco Pasta
yield: 4 large servings

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef {I used 80/20]
1 taco seasoning packet (*Use Low Sodium!)
1 1/2 cups southwest salsa (*I used regular salsa. It made no difference)
1/2 cup water
1/2 lb. pasta {I used rotini}
2 cups grated cheddar cheese (*I used a little over a cup of Mexican Cheese-all I had in the house)
1/4 cup cream
salt & pepper, to taste

Directions:

Make sure you have two strainers ready to go! You'll need them both!

Bring water to boil to cook the pasta. Salt it and cook pasta until al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, in a large skillet, cook ground beef, breaking apart as you go. Once thoroughly cooked, drain meat and run under hot water to remove any fat. Wipe out pan with paper towel and place back on heat. Pour cooked beef into hot pan with taco seasoning, salsa and water. Simmer until pasta is finished cooking.

Once pasta is cooked, drain well and pour into skillet. Top with cheese, cream, salt and pepper. Stir until cheese melts and noodles are coated in sauce. Serve immediately.

Pros: The recipe is super simple! If you time it right, you can cook the pasta while putting together the meat and other ingredients and have a meal in no time. Also it is just a solid super yummy recipe. I've never had Hamburger Helper before, but according to my husband it is very similar. Only better of course :)

Cons: Honestly I have nothing. The recipe is really thought out and well written and tastes delicious.

Revisions: Lauren even states in her revisions that low sodium taco seasoning is the way to go, so I also used low sodium seasoning and didn't add any extra salt and found the flavor balance to be perfect. I also used Mexican cheese instead of cheddar and about half the amount and thought there was enough cheese, but if you want it super cheesy, definitely use the allotted amount. I used Mexican because while at the grocery store I was agonizing over if we had Cheddar in the house already (we didn't) when my husband turned to me and said, "Why does it matter? We have Mexican in the house. Just use that up." Sometimes even he is right :) But, it just reminded me what I can't stress enough and that is use what you have! Don't be afraid of substitutions! It makes perfect sense to use Mexican cheese in a Mexican recipe, go for it! I know it can be scary if you're a new cook to veer off the path, but use your instincts and use what you have in house. Your wallet will thank you. 

Overall this is a hearty and tasty recipe that is easy enough to throw together during the week and heats up nicely for lunches the next day! Great meal for families and singletons alike! 

I Finally Found the S'mores Answer: S'mores Brownies

If you feel like you've been seeing a lot of posts dealing with the delicious campfire treat, it's because you have. Let me tell you, you get enough S'mores makings for one dessert, you end up with enough for multiple desserts of the like. And with a move coming up (about a month to go!) I have to start cleaning out the pantry. And what better way to clean out the pantry than by baking yummy goodies!?

My journey with S'mores has taken me from an "ok" dessert, "Campfire Cookies", to a complete fail, "S'mores Tart", and finally, I have found the golden ticket: S'mores Brownies. I discovered this twist on the S'mores treat on Pinterest and it comes from "Lovin' The Oven",a blog primarily made up of dessert recipes. I decided to go the S'mores route tonight because: 1. I had all the ingredients in stock (or so I thought, see below) and 2. It was probably the easiest baking recipes I have ever seen involving brownies not from a box. Without any delay, here is the recipe:

Mine. Seriously check that out!

Bloggers. Photo from www.lovintheoven.blogspot.com

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter (*I used 1 stick (1/2 cup) and a Tablespoon of cream cheese 
• 2 cups sugar (white)
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• ½ cup cocoa
• ½ teaspoon salt
• about 1 cup graham crackers pieces, broken by hand(I used 4 sheets of graham crackers)
• half a bag of large marshmallows (*I used half a bag of mini- marshmallows) 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 9 x 13 pan.
2. Melt butter in saucepan over low heat. Once melted remove from heat and add sugar, vanilla, and eggs. Blend together.
3. In separate bowl, mix together flour, cocoa, and salt. Add dry mixture to the wet and mix well. Add broken graham crackers and mix.
4. Pour into greased pan. Place marshmallows over the poured batter, I used about 15 large marshmallows, but you can do more or less depending on your taste. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Seriously can you not taste them from here?

Pros: Sorry I can't type right now, my hands are full of marshmallow, chocolate goodness. Seriously these defy words. They are spectacular. From start to finish the recipe was easy to follow, required little in terms of tools (no hand mixers, stand mixers, whatever involved!), and obviously you know by now it came out to perfection. The brownie was chocolaty without being too rich and the slightly burnt marshmallows on top and the graham crackers baked in really made it taste like a S'more fresh off the campfire. Only better.

Cons: Beware this is an eat with your fork kind of brownie! It is very messy and hard to extract from the pan. I think next time I would grease it with butter instead of just spray because it was surprisingly sticky considering how messy it was. This also might have been on account of the baking time. My husband loves undercooked brownies, so I took them out a couple of minutes early. Just something to keep in mind.

Revisions: As I stated above, I thought I had all the ingredients until half way through stirring everything together I realized I had only used a stick of butter (1/2 cup) and didn't have any more. Oops! Instead of scratching the entire project, I decided to add a Tablespoon of cream cheese to add some more dairy to the recipe. It seemed to work out just fine. Also, I used half a bag of mini marshmallows, not the big ones, and although I may have used too many, I really don't think there is such a thing and the thick layer of marshmallows on top just made it even tastier.

This is most definitely a "Hall of Fame" recipe! Finally a S'mores recipe I would try again in a heartbeat! So next time you feel a little more daring than your standard boxed brownies and are craving something sweet, give these S'mores Brownies a try. You will not be disappointed. 

Had to take a picture of them in front of these gorgeous
flowers that my sister-in-law put together for a
friend's wedding. How pretty are they!?

Pillsbury Does it Again: Easy Buffalo Chicken Stromboli

After last blog's super sandwich fail, I was feeling a bit burned by online recipes. Luckily, all it took was this recipe from Pillsbury to rekindle the fire and remind me why I love trying new dishes; it is the pursuit of the fantastic dish that keeps me going.

This is my second dish from Pillsbury, the first one being "Taco Melts", which was also delicious. The recipe is called "Easy Buffalo Chicken Stromboli" and while I usually don't like Buffalo Chicken and especially not blue cheese, I decided to give it a try. (I also ended up making edits to create something more to my liking, so make sure to read below the recipe for those). This dish was scrumptious. It was a plate licker of a dish. It was one of those dishes that even though it hadn't cooled completely, my husband and I gobbled up in panting bites in a vain attempt to cool it down while inhaling it simultaneously. It was well worth it. Here's the recipe:

Mine

Pillsbury's take. Photo from www.pillsbury.com

INGREDIENTS

2 cans (8 oz each) Pillsbury® refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

(*I used the store brand, it was a 2 for 1 deal)

1 package (9 oz) frozen cooked chicken strips (about 2 cups), thawed, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

(*I used chicken breasts, cut them up, and then cooked them)

¼ cup buffalo wing sauce

¾ cup shredded mozzarella cheese (3 oz)

¼ cup crumbled blue cheese (1 oz)

1 medium green or red bell pepper, cut into thin bite-size strips (or use strips of both colors)

¼ cup finely chopped red onion

 Blue cheese dressing, if desired

DIRECTIONS

1 Heat oven to 350°F. Spray large cookie sheet with cooking spray. Unroll both cans of dough into 2 large rectangles on cookie sheet. Place rectangles with long sides together, forming 15x10-inch rectangle; press edges and perforations to seal.

2 In medium bowl, mix chicken and buffalo wing sauce. Spoon chicken mixture lengthwise in 4-inch-wide strip down center of dough to within 1 inch of short sides. Top with mozzarella and blue cheeses, bell pepper and onion.

3 Bring long sides of dough up over filling, overlapping 1 inch; firmly press center seam and with fork, press ends to seal.

4 Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until deep golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet. Cut crosswise into slices; serve warm with salad dressing.

Pros: I don't usually make stromboli, so it was a nice diversion from our normal menu and it was super easy to make. It is also a great recipe for picky eaters because there is a lot of potential for variations. Don't like hot sauce? Don't use it. Use chicken instead of beef. Make it vegetarian. Lose the blue cheese. The possibilities are endless.Cons: I think if we had followed the recipe in to a T terms of assembling it (we didn't have a large enough cookie sheet to begin with) that it would have been really hard to construct. Revisions: Starting from the beginning. We didn't have frozen chicken so we used 3 chicken breasts that we had in the fridge, cut them up, and cooked them on the stove top. Then we put them in the fridge for a couple of minutes to cool them off. The important change: Since we did not have a big enough cookie sheet we used a can each to make two separate stromboli's. The first one we made with all the ingredients and folded the pastry up as noted. It was not an easy task and the pastry barely covered the mixture. For the second one we halved the pastry and put one half down as the bottom, then put on the ingredients sans blue cheese (I don't like blue cheese, I added more mozzarella instead), and then placed the other half of the pastry shell on top and folded it up. It was a lot easier to make and created the same final product.This is without a doubt a hall of fame recipe. It may not be the most amazing thing you'll ever eat, but it's pretty darn tasty and it is easy to make, which with a new full-time job, is something I value right up there with the quality of the dish. So, give it a try and let me know what twists you put on the dish!  *Serve with blue cheese dressing or ranch dressing (I'm sure you know which one I used!)