Something Sweet, Something Decadent, Something Chocolate!

Okay enough of the vegetables and delicious healthy food for a moment because I have something amazing to share. I think it is okay to indulge every so often because for me I know I can't wait for my next salad or my next bowl of steam vegetables. I work out hard at the gym 5-6 times a week and I deserve something decadent! It all about balance at the end of the day. Something decadent consists of a brownie, chocolate chip cookie dough and fudge ganache. I call them Brookies, but Betty Crocker likes to call them Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies. 


I saw this first on Bakerella. I've had this recipe bookmarked since January of this year! HELLO! My stomach acts bigger then it really is. I can look at food all day and talk about it, but I can't eat it all. So I've really been saving that recipe for an occasion. An occasion of losing a bet sadly. This is my first year participating in Fantasy Football. I love it! Any other females playing? I just don't love losing. LOL. So I made a bet with my best friend, husband, friend from work. Phew, that was a mouth full! He loves sweets and knows I like to bake. So the bet was, if I won I'd win $10 and if he won he'd win a delicious dessert. Well I lost by about 4 points and I knew I'd be making a dessert. No big deal because I knew I had a ton of recipes and it gave me a chance to try something new!

That's when I came out with the recipe for the Brookies. It is easy to put together using brownies from a box and the pre-made cookie dough from the bag. It works for big party settings or a quick dessert in a pinch. If I had more time I would make this homemade with fresh fudge brownies and chocolate chip cookie dough, but I think only super special people get that type of dessert. The ingredients in these boxed desserts is quite scary so it is not something I'd recommend to consume all the time. But for the event, the moment it was fine! I used the chocolate ganache recipe from Bakerella to top my Brookies and it turned out to be like fudge. SO GOOD! This recipe is a keeper!

I was holding the camera and pouring= blurry photo! 
It is still cool regardless. I need a tripod!
 

You can get the recipe HERE or HERE.

Look at that ganache, it is OMG in the mouth. haha
 

The perfect bite for me!

Some quick tips:

• To cut them into tiny pieces I would keep the brownies in the fridge to harden them up. Makes for easier cutting.
• They are best enjoyed at room temperature. They will literally melt in your mouth.

So I have another dessert I'm working on. I'm about done, just need to top it off with chocolate after I make this post. I found it while watching Food Network from last weekend. I had extra heavy cream from the chocolate ganache and I'm not about to just throw out cream, so I used it to make Smoked Almond Turtles.

Bringing them to work tomorrow. I will share the recipe with you soon.

Always,
Fallon

I Love Butternut Squash Fries

I'm squash obsessed. I went to Trader Joe's today and bought 2 spaghetti squash, 2 butternut squash and 2 acorn squash. I couldn't pass up the incredibly cheap prices on their squash. Plus they are huge! I used to make my butternut squash chopped into big pieces with skin, and roast with cinnamon and salt & pepper. Then I started to notice people peeling their squash. Well I never thought of that one! So I used a potato peeler to peel the skin. Wow was it tough. I missed the squash at one point and peeled part of my thumb. It was awful! So since then I was scared to peel squash. So you know what I did? I was having my MOM peel it for me. I'm such a nice daughter. LOL. Well I finally came over that fear and finally did it on my own again, taking my time to peel it very slowly. I'd like to announce no peeled fingers this time around. PHEW! Which I then cut into "fry" shape and baked up. Yes I made butternut squash fries. You have to try these! I can guaranteed no left overs because they are that good!  

Baked Butternut Squash Fries By Fallon  
Ingredients
1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into "fry" shape
Olive oil
Sprinkle of cinnamon, salt and pepper
Organic ketchup

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. With your olive oil, spray a cooking sheet so the fries don't stick. I finally purchased the Misto and I love it! Next take the squash and cut it in half between the round part and the straight part. This will help with peeling. With your peeler, slowly peel the skin off, sometimes going over the same spot twice to remove all the white part. A little left is okay, cooking it will soften it. Hey it's a little extra fiber too. ;)

Cut the pieces in half, for the round part you will want to scoop out the seeds and either discard or save them to toast them up. I saved mine and made toasted cinnamon butternut squash seeds (recipe below, very easy.)! Cut into a "fry" shape. This part takes some time because there is so much squash that needs to be cut. I'd say it took me about 10 minutes to do. Place side-by-side on a greased cooking sheet so they can cook evenly.

Next sprinkle on cinnamon, salt and pepper. Than spray with olive oil again on top to coat. This will help them form a slightly crisp layer, and not be mushy. Let bake for 20 minutes and then toss them again to coat the other sides. Then put back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes. They should look done when they are slightly brown but not overly burnt. Take out of the oven, cool off for a few minutes, plate them, add ketchup and ENJOY! The flavor of the cinnamon makes a great addition to the butternut squash because it brings out the natural sweetness. Which is why there are never any leftovers!

Out of the oven, ready to be devoured
 

 

Toasted Cinnamon Butternut Squash Seeds By Fallon
Ingredients
Butternut squash seeds
Olive oil 
Cinnamon, salt and pepper

While the oven was preheating I sprayed a smaller baking sheet for the seeds. I added the seeds to the oven to toast while I was cutting my butternut squash. After about 10-15 minutes they were done because I was could smell them and hear them sizzling. Once they are out of the oven, sprinkle on the seasonings and drizzle/spray lightly with olive oil so they can adhere. Mix around and let cool for a few minutes. Then ENJOY! I would of loved to save these for a salad but between my father and I we again had no leftovers. :)

Crunchy, sweet and savory!

Fallon

Pumpkin Cornmeal Muffins

Okay so I FINALLY decided to make the Pumpkin Cornmeal Muffins I mentioned a while back when my mom was making her Turkey Taco Chili. My dad requested she make it with ground beef this time around, since he isn't a turkey fan. So I noticed I still had some pureed pumpkin to use up and this was screaming MAKE ME! I only made half a serving, 6 muffins. We each ate one and I put the remaining 3 in the freezer. Thinking about it, I freeze a lot of my baked goods and end up forgetting about them. I should see what I have lurking around. ;)

The recipe for the Pumpkin Cornmeal Muffins comes from the Wholefoods website. I think I printed this recipe out LAST YEAR and never made it till recently. I have so many recipes I want to make and then I never make them. I think it just a foodie thing many folks do because we save so many recipes and it becomes very overwhelming!

I made some changes to the recipe. The scaled down version of 6 muffins is below.

Pumpkin Cornmeal Muffins (Adapted from Wholefoods Market)
Ingredients
1/4 cup cooked, mashed fresh or canned pumpkin
1 tbsp flax meal, 3 tbsp water (Do this first and set to the side, it takes about 2 minutes to set)
2 tbsp plain Greek yogurt
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3 tbsp honey
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly oil or spray 6 muffin tins (I used a silicon muffin pan and sprayed it lightly just to make sure nothing would stick.). In a large bowl, combine, pumpkin, flax/water combo, and yogurt. In a separate bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, honey, baking powder and salt. Add this to the liquid ingredients, stirring to just combine (I added the honey to the dry and mixed it in, you can add to liquid instead, won't make a difference.). Do not over-stir or beat. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin tin and bake 20-25 minutes, until muffins are golden and a toothpick is inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

They baked really nice in the silicon.
Check out the flax specks!

What's a pumpkin cornmeal muffin without
some pumpkin butter?

Chili with extra lean ground beef.
It was good but I liked the Turkey version better.

That's right baby!

They were absolutely awesome. I ask myself why didn't I make these sooner? They weren't overly sweet, perfect cornmeal crumble and the oil and butter couldn't even tell it was missing! To be honest with you, I didn't realize that I didn't add any canola oil or butter to the mixture. I was more focused on swapping out egg for flax that I totally forgot! Oh well because I didn't even notice it was missing, neither did anyone else. LOL

I'm off to roast some cherubs (baby tomatoes) and eggplant. So much work and so much food, I'm just cooking it up and throwing meals together for work. Way better then eating out any day, in my opinion!!

Happy Saturday,
Fallon

Simple dinner and delicious dessert!

Hello everyone! How's it going? I'm good over here. Working, working, working! I still manage to find time to post about something! It makes me happy and that what counts! Dinner a few nights ago was simple. I had some veggies that needed to be cooked up soon and I have a lot of brown rice that needs to be cooked. I'm usually very OCD about the kitchen and what we need and if we need a backup. I ended up with 3 bags of brown rice. OOPS!  

Roasted Veggies (By Fallon)  
Ingredients
Brussel sprouts, green/yellow green beans, and cauliflower (Used what you have on hand.)
3-4 garlic cloves, chopped roughly
Olive oil
Salt, pepper, and sweet paprika

Preheat oven at 425 degrees. Clean and prep all veggies. Throw onto a cooking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Season. Mix till everything is incorporated/married. Put in the oven for 20-30 minutes depending how well roasted you want your veggies. I like to see a little brown on top of my brussel sprouts, this makes them taste super nutty and that is when they are done roasting.

I love roasted vegetables. So much flavor and so good for you!

   
Basmati Brown Rice (By Fallon)  
Ingredients
2 cups of brown rice
4 cups of water

I use a rice cooker. It's easy and I know in 45 minutes I have fresh and fluffy rice. Love simplicity!

Plain is the way to go to get the aroma of the rice. 
 

Yummmy!
 

What is dinner without dessert? A boring dinner! Well sometimes dinner can be super filling and passing on dessert is needed. I'm sure we've all been there and done that. I always look for something sweet after dinner. My mom came home with these HUGE honey crisp apples and said she wanted baked apples. I'm thinking, "Oh yes that sounds good!" I was at Wholefoods a few days before and had picked up a pint of vanilla frozen yogurt. Stonyfield Farms Organic Vanilla nonfat frozen yogurt. I must say it is the best nonfat frozen yogurt from the store I've ever had! I can't wait to try the other flavors.

My mom came home with a recipe from Trader Joe's. They were actually making them at the store, and that when she decided she wanted to make them at home. I checked out the recipe and it's for 6 apples, but uses 1 stick of butter and 2 cups of sugar?? WOW! I definitely did not follow those guidelines. I rather have cake with a butter cream frosting, but not apples with all that butter and sugar. No no! So I tweaked the recipe slightly.

Fallon's Version of Baked Apples  
Ingredients
1 huge honey crisp apple, cored and cut in half
2 tsp of butter
2 tsp of brown sugar
1/4 cup of raw pecans
Dash of cinnamon
Vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. With the apple halves, put them in their own ramekin. Smear a teaspoon of butter on the to of each half. Sprinkle each with 1 teaspoon of butter and divide the pecans between both ramekins. Sprinkle on the cinnamon and place in the oven for 30 minutes. After this check on them. They should be fork tender. Honey crisp tend to bake longer so I went another 10 minutes because they were huge. If you used a softer apple like a golden delicious or McIntosh they will bake up quicker.

I think it is missing something..
 

Now it is complete!
 

Baked apples are light, warm and comforting, and a healthy way to have a dessert! You can tweak this recipe many ways using agave, coconut oil/butter, honey, walnuts, granola, dried fruit, etc etc. Sweet tooth= cured! Before I wrap this post up for the night, I just wanted to say how excited I was today that I won my very first blog cookbook giveaway over on Cookie Madness! I never win anything and I was literally shocked when I saw the email in my inbox that I won! I can't wait to get my new cookbook and test out some recipes. This will be awesome for the holidays and all the yummy baking that goes on!! Good night, Fallon

Chocolate Caramel Cookie Bites

Here is the second cookie I made for my boyfriend's package. I actually had this recipe bookmarked for a very long time! Kate from A Dash of Sass came up with one of the most brilliant cookies yet. A chocolate sugar cookie dough, that is rolled out, cut into circles and then wrapped around a caramel. Baked in the oven and before you know it, you have this soft, gooey, warm delicious filling oozing out! I'm drooling now wishing I still had one of these cookies to have. I did eat 3 of them when I baked them fresh, I couldn't help myself. ;)

Okay so enough of my chatter and here is the wonderful recipe over on A Dash of Sass for Chocolate Caramel Cookie Bites. Check out the rest of her blog while you are there, she has great recipes. Like her turkey burgers that I've made on my blog. 

I love the look of the dough rolled into the turbinado sugar. 
 

They are so pretty, look at them sparkle saying EAT ME! =P
 

Cookie bite #1. I wasn't satisfied with the picture. 
Good excuse right? So.. what did I do?
 

Well I had to eat another one making this cookie bite #2.

I was a bit more satisfied with this shot showing off the gooey-ness. 
 

These are for my boyfriend, letting them cool 
off before they get packaged up.
 

So I was tired of rolling and rolling cookie bites. I ended up just making 
normal chocolate sugar cookies. They were really good.
 

SO GOOD, that I made an extra big one and took an extra big bite! 
I don't know but less then 24hours and this dozen plate 
of cookies was gone. I'll be honest and say it wasn't me!
 

Some notes:

• Yes the dough was dry when rolling it out. What did I do? Well I just pat my hands in some water to smooth the dough out. It helped a little bit, but when I tried to cover the caramel the dough would break. Nothing but a little heat from the hand helped it mend together perfectly.
• I used Kraft caramels. I've never made homemade caramel before, but that actually has been on my baking list for a while. I love fresh homemade caramel. Maybe this holiday I'll feel adventurous because I did buy myself a baking thermometer last year.
• I'm thinking a marshmallow stuffed in the dough would be really good.

It is Friday and it doesn't even feel like Friday! Maybe because I'm working. LOL. I just worked out and had a nice big bowl of oatmeal with flax meal, honey roasted peanut butter, and a banana. It rocked my socks!

Till next time,
Fallon

PS: Are you wondering what happen to cookie bite #3? Well I wanted to see how the cookies were after being completely cooled off, and didn't have the camera near me. They were more solid but still soft enough to enjoy. Which is how my boyfriend will be able to enjoy them unless they go stale (which I HOPE NOT!).

Apricot- Pecan Thumbprint Cookies

Here is the first cookie I baked for my boyfriend. I thought this be a nice change from a snickerdoodle cookie. I felt like they would be sturdy enough in his package. I used the apricot preserves that I had used for the Sacher Torte cake disaster. It definitely has more chunky pieces of apricot then you would find in your regular apricot jam or jelly. Which wasn't a problem because my solution was to just eat it!

I used half of this jar! 
 

You can kind of see half an apricot. They were huge chunks, but oh so delicious!
 

The recipe is a Smucker's recipe and if I didn't have the fresh apricot jelly I had, I would of used their all fruit spread as the middle for these cookies. Surprisingly they have some really good sounding cookie recipes. I had book marked a few for the future! I just decided you can never go wrong with a thumbprint cookie! It reminds me of the holidays. :) Click this link for Classic Thumbprint Cookies. I follow the recipe exactly. It makes 4 dozen cookies but I ended up making mine a bit bigger and had a total of 38 cookies. I also just chopped my pecans by hand, so there was more texture on the cookie by being larger then usual.

Chunky pecans everywhere! I loved it.
 

I think it enhanced the pecan flavor more instead of being finely chopped and I also had toasted them prior. So far my parents liked the cookie and my best friend did as well who said she isn't a big apricot fan! So hopefully my boyfriend will like them too! Gotta make him a happy man. hehe

So I used a little more then a teaspoon of jelly, hehe!
  Check out that pecan piece! That's what I'm talking about.
  Oops! A little bit of a disaster, but no biggie! Gotta love parchment paper!
  This was a good cookie. No jelly overload!
  I had extra dough and no nuts! Can't let nothing go to waste. My father 
was able to enjoy these because they had no pecans! Yay!
  Cookies on a pretty platter. =P Too bad these were wrapped in plastic and 
wax paper,then put into a plastic Ziploc bag for shipment.
  I saved the pretty cookies for my boyfriend. I just hope they still look 
pretty when he gets them, and to taste good too!
 

I must say, my food picture taking has become a lot better this last month. I finally figured out some settings with my canon power shot! So now I'm not stressing out on crappy pictures because they look awesome! Today is my DAY OFF! I'm so happy. I just want to be left alone today. Heading to the gym after I post this blog and then gallivanting around town. I have a ton of shows on my DVD-R as well, so I won't have a problem staying busy and a little bit of relaxing today. I baked my boyfriend another batch of cookies that I will share with you soon! These were AHH-MAZING!

Happy Hump Day!
Fallon

Pumpkin- Sunflower Seed Breakfast Cookie

 

Good morning!! Yes it is Sunday, I actually know what day it is today. I haven't had a day off in over 8 days now, so I'm a bit loopy! Couldn't get to the gym for 3 days in a row, and this morning I woke up extra early to make sure I workout before I do anything else today. I really miss my workouts. I feel amazing right now and my endorphins are running wild! I need this but when I'm working every day and up to 9 hours, who wants to workout? I don't even have a huge appetite because I'm just tired!! At least falling asleep is really easy ;) 

The recipe I share with you today I made last week. I had to make my pumpkin breakfast cookie better then my first attempt. It was good but I thought I added too much pumpkin and spice. It was overkill! I've been enjoying this sunflower seed butter I picked up from Trader Joe's few weeks ago. Honestly it like crack in a jar, you can't have just 1 serving but several!! It good on ANYTHING! I knew the sweetness from the sunflower seed butter, would compensate for the not so sweet pumpkin. It sounded like a good combo and it was a good combo! 

Pumpkin- Sunflower Seed Breakfast Cookie (by Fallon)  

Ingredients  

½ cup or 40g of old fashion oats

1 tbsp of brown rice protein powder

1 tbsp canned or fresh pumpkin

1 tbsp sunflower seed butter

1-2 chopped medjool dates

1/2 packet stevia

Spices to your liking: pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and clove

Unsweetened vanilla almond milk or any liquid

Toppings: dollop of vanilla coconut yogurt, raw sunflower seeds and ground flax

Mixed your oats and protein powder together. I like to add my stevia and spices next. Then I added a tablespoon of pumpkin and the nut butter. Mix it till it kind of sticks to the oats and then I'll add the chopped dates. Mix around and then slowly poor in the almond milk till you get the right consistency you are looking for. I like when it comes together and is moisten, not overly liquidy (made this word up!). Flatten to a plate and set in the fridge over night. In the morning add the toppings and ENJOY! I had a honey vanilla chamomile tea to go with it. I really really enjoyed this breakfast. 

You have to try this. You will be so happy you did.
 

I promised this would be the last of pumpkin recipes for a while. Can you believe I still have pumpkin leftover? lol. I'm not sick of it but I definitely can't have it every day. I rather eat chocolate every day instead ;)

While I wait for my boyfriend to call me today, I'm off to bake some cookies for his Halloween care package. I already baked the other batch the other day and will share that recipe with you soon. As well as the one I'm making today. Might be a double post.. who knows! 

Enjoy your Sunday. How I MISS having this day off. 

Fallon