Happy Sunday to everyone 🙂
I’ve kept extremely busy since my last post, so I won’t recap everything, but here are some highlights!
Friday I got busy in the kitchen. I saw this no meat dessert, and wanted to test out the waters. I have a good amount of soynut butter that I’m not the hugest fan of the taste on it’s own. So I wanted to try it out with that. I also made a few other modifications.
3 tablespoons water1 egg1 tbsp ground flaxseed meal- 1 1/4 cups
Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All-Purpose Baking Flourwhole wheat flour - 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum- 1/2 cup
organic palm fruit oil shorteningcanola oil (I really had no idea if this would be an acceptable substitution) - 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup sunflower seed butterchocolate soynut butter- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Since I wasn’t concerned about making the recipe gluten free or vegan, I used 1 egg instead of the flaxseed substitution, and regular whole wheat flour.
The cookie dough was extremely oily, I swear I could squeeze out the oil as I was putting the dough on the cookie sheets. I’m not sure if that was due to the fact that I used a different type of nut butter, or oil.
They turned out decent! I wasn’t a huge fan of them, but they went quickly and got great reviews at the BBQ I took them to. Everyone just said they tasted like a very mild peanut butter cookie and just needed a bit more flavor.
I didn’t tell my roommate what I used in them, I just told her I used “a different type of nut butter.” And she loved them. Later when I said I used soynut butter, she squealed out “EWWWW!!!” haha. Oh picky people, why are they so against other forms of food? 😉
I also made a batch of brownies if these didn’t turn out. They were a hit last time so I knew they’d be a success. Again, I used this recipe and used egg starts, whole wheat flour, and omitted the walnut because that’s what I had on hand.
Yes I baked my brownies in a pie pan. Our cake pan and square pan were both at separate locations. And don’t mind the hole in the middle 😉 Because of the different pan, I had to keep checking if they were done yet.
Such good brownies. Highly recommend them! Ironically, these weren’t nearly as popular as the cookies though. Maybe because they were more moist and harder to eat? 😉
My roommates are in complete shock whenever I make anything from scratch. They always use boxed brownie mix or cookie mix from a bag. I admit, I did grow up using boxed brownie and cake mixes (I didn’t make real brownies until here at school!). But my whole life my mom would always make her special cookies from scratch. I would never even think to use a bagged mix! Funny how people are raised differently 😉
Yesterday (Saturday), I was up early to run around on my feet at work from 9-12. It was Old Navy’s grand re-opening and it was crazy!! It was fun to rock out to the DJ though. I wish we had a DJ everytime!
Pre-work fuel:
- Greek yogurt (homemade)
- Kashi Good Friends cereal
- Bottom crumbs of my Life cereal (pretty much the best part of the box)
- Dark Chocolate Dreams PB
- Crofter’s jam
Soooo full, but I couldn’t eat for 4 hours and I’d be on my feet!
Post-work fuel:
Gotta love free pizza 😀
I then hit the road for my 3 1/2 hour drive home. I came home this weekend for the Brooks and Dunn concert!! We picked up dinner on the way, and I absolutely had to get my favorite burrito ever:
- Chicken breast
- Mango vinaigrette (instead of salsa)
- Pico de gallo
- Lettuce
- Brown rice
- WW tortilla
The sauce the cook this chicken breast in is amazing. LOVE this burrito.
Unfortunately we hit incredibly bad traffic on the way to the concert and missed Jason Aldean (the opening performer).
We made it there for Brooks and Dunn, though! They were great live. I had fun with my sisters 😀
And since they have a ridiculous amount of singles and have been around for 20 years, there were a lot of “down” moments where we just hung out on our blanket and goofed around with good music in the background 😉
And it was great people watching. Hilarious to see everyone completely drunk and dancing. These 3 guys were grinding up on girls in front of us the whole time!
This morning started with a yogurt mess that escaped the camera (but you’ve seen it all before 😉 ). But I did capture this delicious looking beauty that my mom had for me.
Cinnamon apple wrap.
But honestly not a big fan. It was too much wrap and not enough apple. And the apples tasted too lemony. I’m not a big fan of lemon zest in my apple pie or apple desserts.
It had great potential though!
I’m off to spend the rest of the day enjoying time with my family. Which probably means a family trip to Costco 😉 Not going to lie – my family enjoys going to Costco together. And celebrating my birthday! Enjoy your Sunday!
Were you a boxed mix or a make-from-scratch kinda family growing up? What about now?
Like I said, I never think to make cookies from a box/mix. But brownies and cake? That’s another story. I’ve recently started making brownies from scratch, and it’s super easy – and delicious!
Taydor Tott 