Chocolate Chip & Peanut Butter Muffins

Chocolate Chip & Peanut Butter Muffins



3 1/2 cups White Whole Wheat Flour
1 tsp salt
2.5 Tbsp baking powder
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup honey (or agave nectar)
2 Tbs flax seed, ground (optional)
3 cups water or rice milk or milk
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (use a vegan brand of chocolate to make these vegan muffins)

mix dry ingredients, then blend in peanut butter until the mixture is a grainy texture

Mix honey and water and add, mix to blend, then stir in chocolate chips.

Pour into a nonstick-lined 9x13 pan

Bake 25-30 minutes at 400 degrees

Cut into 24 square muffins

you can also bake in muffin tins, reduce time to 18-25 minutes

Cucumber Salsa

I had cucumber salsa at a restaurant long ago. Couldn't find a recipe so I make it up, different, every time. If you don't have something, subsitute. I'll work. Trust your taste and intuition.



3 large cucumbers, peeled, seeded & diced
some red onion
a lot of garlic, minced
some cute little hot red peppers from Poppie's garden, minced - only I used some hot light green somethings this time ...
a large splash of lemon juice
ground cumin
some fresh cilantro if you like it, or dried if you don't have fresh (I know, I know, sorry food snobs)
a sprinkle of salt

serve with chips, lime chips are good. and pictured here.

or serve over corn

or serve with Linda's Rice Dish which I'll post some other day.

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Chocolate Chip Pancakes for breakfast today.



I used to make loserly pancakes. Now I make pretty and tasty ones.

The two things I learned are:

1.) don't try to make them healthy

2.) use the following recipe:

Perfect Pancakes

I tried to re-find where I found it online and I can not. So if anyone knows here this is from, let me know. I am not trying to steal someone's recipe, I'd love to give credit where credit is due.

It's the perfect recipe, and one that has treated me well for decades so I can't even be bothered to try to change it. I will give you a few secrets I've learned over the years to make these work better.

➢ You really will need two different bowls. One big one for the dry ingredients, and a smaller one for the wet ingredients. Once the wet ingredients are mixed together, you'll pour them into the dry. It's like pancake alchemy, and it's worth having to wash one more bowl.
➢ Whisk the sugar into the wet ingredients. This adds some air bubbles into the mix and makes them lighter and fluffier.
➢ Don't use a fork to stir the dry ingredients. It seems to make the baking powder and salt sink to the bottom. Use a wooden spoon.
➢ Once the wet and dry are mixed together, you've got about a half hour to get all the pancakes cooked. As the mix sits, the gases created by the baking powder will start to evaporate. The longer the batter sits, the denser and flatter the pancakes.
➢ Cook the pancakes in butter. It makes them brown better (the first batch in the skillet just won't be as brown as the next batches). To keep from over-greasing the skillet, wipe the wrapping from a stick of butter across the hot skillet.

Original recipe
1 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

2 tablespoons of granulated sugar

1 egg

1 cup of milk
 (I sometimes use rice milk)
1 tablespoon of cooking oil

Slug Family Proportions (x3)
3 ¾ cups of all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons of baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons of salt
6 Tablespoons of granulated sugar
3 eggs
3 cups milk (rice milk)
3 Tablespoons of cooking oil
**optional ~ 1 scant cup mini chocolate chips (as seen here)

Cream Cheese & Chocolate Chip Cookies

Made These for the Smack. Seems like so long ago, now ...



INGREDIENTS

* 1 cup butter, softened
* 4 oz cream cheese, softened
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1 egg
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 cup mini chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Lightly grease cookie sheets or use parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter, cream cheese, and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Stir in flour until well blended. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls. Cookies do not melt down round, so roll and flatten if desired.
3. Bake for ~15 minutes in preheated oven. Cookies should be pale.

These are a very light textured cookie. You could also make them with a cookie press or make thumbprint jam filled cookies with this recipe.

Modified slightly from this recipe

Albino Brownies

A similar-but-different decadent treat

Albino Caramel Brownies*

1 package white cake mix
1/3 c. sweetened condensed milk
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
----
1 - 14 oz. package Kraft caramels
1/3 c. sweetened condensed milk
----
1 generous c. white chocolate chips

mix together cake mix, sweetened condensed milk, and melted butter
divide dough in half. Press first half in the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan
bake the base for 6 minutes at 350 degrees
meanwhile melt together unwrapped caramels with 1/3 c. sweetened evaporated milk, stir until smooth. Use a glass container and microwave or a double boiler.
pour melted caramel mixture over baked brownie base. If necessary, carefully spread caramel.
sprinkle white chocolate chips evenly over surface.
crumble remaining brownie dough evenly over surface
bake 18-22 minutes in 350 degree oven.

When cooled, gently loosen edges and place a large cutting board over the pan. Invert pan on to cutting board and press lightly, brownies should fall onto cutting board. Cut into 24 pieces.
----
* Adapted from Grandma's Monona UMC cookbook. No albinos are harmed in the making of this treat.

Banana Chocolate Chip Bars

Modified from a banana bread recipe.



Wet Ingredients:
3 bananas, well smashed
1/4 cup applesauce (less healthy substitution - butter or oil)
1/4 cup honey
2 T flax, ground + 1/2 cup water (or 1 egg, beaten. or Ener-G egg substitute)
1 tsp. vanilla

Dry Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour (less healthy sub - AP flour)
1 cup oat bran, dry/uncooked (or sub oatmeal, uncooked)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 scant cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Blend wet ingredients together
Mix in dry ingredients, mix well. Batter will be thick.
spread in a greased or lined 9x13 pan
bake ~20 minutes
cut into squares or bars, makes 24.