Cookie pizza

Why god whyyyyy did I think of making this cookie pizza? This is sometimes the result of me trying not to keep any dessert in the house. Instead, my brain thinks of the most ridiculous thing to make, makes it, eats it (usually Tobey or Katie go down with me), and then feels sick. This instance was no different. Anyway, here it is...my recipe for cookie pizza, a very, very guilty treat.

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup + 2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp baking powder1/2 cup semi-sweet Baker's chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup butterscotch chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F. In a large mixing bowl cream together the butter and sugar. Add in the vanilla and egg and mix well. In a second bowl stir together the flour and baking soda. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients 1/3 at a time. Stir well after each addition. Add in the chocolate chips. Once the cookie dough is mixed set aside the amount you would like to eat (that's how this whole thing started) and form the rest into a ball. If you have a stoneware cooking sheet that will work best otherwise use a metal cookie tray. Place the ball of cookie dough in the middle and press it down until you form a cookie about the size of a dinner plate. Bake for 10-12 mins or until the cookie looks golden. Remove from the oven and allow it to continue cooking on the hot cookie sheet. I left mine on the stone sheet for about an hour. The cookie won't be cooked all the way through and will be gooey and amazing, just like pizza! I sliced my cookie pizza into 8 pieces (this sounds like very few cookies from a whole recipe but this is after Katie and I ate about 1/4 of the original dough mixture). By the next morning the cookie pizza was cooled and the pieces no longer fell apart. Just in time for Saturday breakfast (again whyyyy did I do this?!).

Cupcakes for the Birthday Girl

Cookie Dough. Cupcakes. Frosting. Why not put all these things together? One of my closest friends celebrated her birthday today and in an attempt to satisfy her sweet tooth I decided to combine my love of cupcakes and cookie dough (thanks to a pic I saw somewhere on either Pinterest, Foodgawker...who knows) and guess what! The cupcakes were a success (surprise, surprise).


Vanilla Cake

Ingredients
1 Betty Crocker Cake Mix
3 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water

Make the cake batter according to the package directions

Cookie Dough (Joy of Baking Cookbook's recipe)

Ingredients

1/2 cup margarine or butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup + 2 tbsp flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips

In a bowl stir together the flour, salt and baking soda and set aside. In a larger bowl mix together the sugar and butter until creamy. Stir in the egg and vanilla. Add half of the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir well. Add the rest of the flour mixture and stir again. Finally, add the chocolate chips and stir until combined.

After preparing the cake mix and cookie dough you should be ready to get to work! Line a muffin try with paper cupcake wrappers and preheat the oven to 350F. Spoon in the cake mix until the cups are about half full. Roll some cooking dough into a ball and place it into the cupcake cup. Press the cookie down down with your finger and then add a spoonful of cake mix on top, making sure that the cookie dough is covered. Repeat until you run out of cake batter or dough. When I made them the recipe made 16 cupcakes, with a little cookie dough to spare. Bake the cupcakes for 20-22 mins and allow them to cool before frosting them.

Buttercream Frosting (Mama Evans' recipe)

Ingredients

2 cups confectioners' sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 tablespoons milk

Stir the ingredients together until the frosting is thick and smooth. If the frosting seems a little too liquid add a few more tbsp of confectioner's sugar. It should have quite a thick consistency. Using an frosting bag (or just a plain old knife if that's all you have) frost the cupcakes with a generous amount of frosting. I like to use my pampered chef decorator set. 


Sprinkle the cupcakes with sprinkles, or whatever else your heart desires (M&Ms, Reese's BP cups, the options are limitless!)

Finished product (finishing touch thanks to Instagram)

Happy Birthday TT!

Cupcake sandwich

Cookie dough makes everything better

Thai Seafood Curry

I convinced Tobey that we should do our grocery shopping at PA's on Fort yesterday afternoon, and I got so excited in the seafood section that I pretty much bought everything. When we got home and realized that our groceries were barely going to fit in the fridge so, I decided to come up with a recipe that would use a lot of the ingredients we bought. Now, what to do with shrimp, mussels and squid? I used some inspiration from some of the Thai and Vietnamese dishes I tasted on my travels over the summer and came up with a Thai curry stew. So here it is (lightened up of course)!

Thai Seafood Curry

Ingredients
20 live mussels, cleaned (make sure you throw out any damaged mussels)
20 shrimp, peeled
8 oz squid, sliced into rings
2 cups bok choy, washed and sliced
1 medium sliced onion cut into large chunks
1 large orange bell pepper, cut into large chunks
1 cup broccoli florets and stems, chopped
1 cup small mushrooms, halved
1 can light coconut milk
2 cups low-fat soy milk
2 tbsp Thai red curry paste (look for Thai Kitchen brand at most grocery stores)
1-2 tbsp fish sauce to taste
1 tbsp brown sugar


Directions
In a wok, heat the coconut milk, soy milk and red curry paste until bubbling then redice the heat. Add the peppers, onions and squid and simmer for about 10 minutes, until the vegetables have become almost cooked. After 10 minutes add the brocoli and mushrooms and simmer for 2-3 more minutes. Stir occasionally. Finally, add in the shrimp, mussels and bok choy and stir. Replace the lid for 1-2 minutes or until the mussels have opened and the shrimp have turned pink. Be sure to remove and mussels that have not opened because this means they were dead prior to cooking.

Serve hot with rice or alone as as a soup.

** If you don't like seafood you can make this recipe with chicken or tofu (fry them first) or any other vegetables you like. If you are substituting or adding vegetables make sure to put ones that take a long time to cook, like carrots, in first and faster cooking vegetables in at the end.

Squid, shrimp and mussels

Chopped orange pepper

Cubed portobello mushrooms

Squid, cleaned and sliced into rings

Chopped bok choy, ends removed

That Seafood Curry
Serve with rice or noodles, or eat as a soup!

Stuffed French Toast

What perfect way to spend New Year's morning by indulging in a cheesy sweet treat? This recipe is another one adapted from my new WeightWatchers Complete Cookbook. This book is golden! So here is my version of their recipe for stuffed French toast.

Ingredients

Serves 2 people

4 pieces of whole wheat, no sugar added bread

1/4 cup egg white substitute
1/4 cup skim of 1% milk

1 tbsp Splenda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 oz brie cheese

2 tbsp jam (I used raspberry but you can use your favorite)

Directions

Heat a non-stick pan on medium heat and spray with cooking spray. In a shallow bowl whisk together the milk, eggs, cinnamon and Splenda. Using a fork dip a piece of bread in the mixture and turn it over to coat. Cook in the pan for about 1 minute on each side. To make the processes easier cook two pieces of bread at once. Once you have flipped the bread place the brie cheese on one piece of bread and spread 1 tbsp of jam on the other. Flip the piece of bread with the jam on it onto the bread with the cheese. Once the cheese has melted place the stuffed French toast on a serving plate. Repeat the same process with the other two pieces of bread. Serve the stuffed French toast with maple syrup and enjoy!

Golden French toast

Raspberry jam and brie

Finishing touch: maple syrup

Pancakes for Breakfast

I'm on holidays and every day feels like the weekend. Waking up at noon is a luxury I'll soon miss. And with waking up at noon and having no responsibilities this leaves me with a lot of time to make weekend style breakfasts.  So here is a new recipe I tried for basic pancakes. They were light, fluffy and delish! And I added blueberries to the mix, making them even more tasty.

Simple Pancakes
Adapted from WeightWatcher's complete cookbook
Serves 2-3 people

1 cup flour
1/4 Splenda
1 tsp baking powder1 1/3 cups skim or 1% milk
1/4 cup of egg whites or 2 egg whites
1 tsp canola oil
Blueberries, raspberries, chocolate chips (optional)
Syrup

Combine the flour, Splenda and baking powder in a small mixing bowl. In a larger bowl whisk together the egg whites, milk and oil. Add half the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir. Add the remaining dry ingredients and whisk until combined. If you want to make berry or chocolate chip pancakes add them to the batter. Spray a non-stick skillet with cooking spray and pour the desired amount of pancake batter onto the preheated pan. The pancakes should be cooked for about 1 minute on each side. This recipe made 8 pretty big pancakes.

re: Stacks

Perfect Wednesday morning

Home for the Holidays - Ginger Crackle Cookies

Along with the fudge, shortbread cookies, apple pie and large quantities of chocolates that my mom has available during the holidays, I thought I would try to make a new cookie recipe courtesy of my good friend Amanda (why do I do this to myself?). These cookies are easy to make and are full of holiday flavour (cinnamon, molasses and cloves)!!

Ginger Crackle Cookies

Ingredients
3/4 cup butter or margarine
1 cup white sugar + extra to coat the cookies
1 egg
1/4 molasses
2 cups + 2 tbsp flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ginger (if you aren't a huge fan of ginger you can use 1 tsp)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves (can substitue all spice)

Preheat oven to 350F. In a mixing bowl stir together the butter and sugar. Add the egg end mix until well combined. Add the molasses and stir. In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients in stir well. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients 1/3 at a time. Once the dough is well mixed roll the dough into balls (about i inch in diameter). Roll the balls in a dish of white sugar and place on a cookie sheet (about 8 cookies should fit on a standard cookie sheet. Make sure to leave lots of room for them to expand). Bake the cookies for 12 - 14 mins. When they come out they should be golden brown and still a little soft. If you prefer a crispy cookie bake for an extra 2 minutes. Enjoy them while they last!

* If you want to make these cookies a little more special you can melt white or milk chocolate and dip half the cookie in the chocolate mixture then place in the fridge to harden.

Winter Salad and Hot Cocoa Cookies

Today was probably the coldest day of the winter so far, which was quite a contrast to the 25+ degree weather I just experienced for the last week while in Mexico. You might be wondering why I'm not making something Mexican themed but honestly I need a few avocado free days before tackling a guac recipe.

This salad is perfect for a cold winter day and the hot cocoa cookies do more than warm you up.

Baked Squash Salad

Adapted from http://kirantarun.com/food/2011/12/16/warm-acorn-squash-salad/
Serves 2

Ingredients
1 small acorn squash
1 endive
3 small clementines
1 small Macintosh apple
1/3 cup dried cranberries
3 cups baby spinach
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp honey
1 lemon
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350F. Cut the squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the pulp with a spoon. Flip the squash flat side down and slice into 1 cm thick slices. Arrange the slices on a cooking sheet sprayed with cooking spray and sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake for 20 mins on each side.

For the dressing combine the honey, lemon juice, cinnamon and cranberries in a bowl and stir until combined. Set aside.

For the salad chop the endive into bite size pieces, peel the clementines and slice the apple. Arrange the spinach in a bowl and layer the endive and fruit on top. Top with the warm squash and the dressing. To make serving the salad easier I arranged half the ingredients into two bowls and served the salad as individual portions. A nice addition would be goat cheese or roasted cashews for a little more protein. Enjoy!

Sprinkle acorn squash with brown sugar 

Perfectly golden acorn squash

Fresh apples and clementines

Sliced endive

Cranberry cinnamon dressing

Layered warm squash salad

Now for desert!

These hot cocoa cookies are a combination of the Joy of Cooking's chocolate chip cookie recipe and the mouth watering recipe from http://www.pipandebby.com/pip-ebby/2011/11/14/hot-cocoa-cookies.html

Hot Cocoa Cookies

Makes 16 cookies

Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
1 cup + 2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup cocoa powder

Wet Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 large egg

16 large marshmallows
4 cubes semi-sweet baker's chocolate

Combine the dry ingredients in a glass bowl and mix well. In a separate bowl combine the butter and sugar and mix until combined. Add the egg and vanilla and stir. Once all the wet ingredients are combined stir in the dry ingredients 1/3 at a time. Roll the dough into 16 balls and place on a cookie sheet. Press the cookies down and bake for 8 minutes. Meanwhile, cut the bakers chocolate into 16 pieces and press them into the marshmallows. Once the cookies have baked for 8 minutes remove the tray from the oven and place the marshmallows on top of the cookie, with the chocolate piece covered. Return the cookie tray to the oven for 2 more minutes. Remove the cookies and allow them to cool slightly before serving. I dare you to eat only one!

Tobey loves cookies!