Almond Flour/Macadamia/White Choc Cookies

I baked AND cooked today.  That shouldn’t really deserve an announcement, but I feel like it does.  I haven’t spent some quality time in the kitchen in what feels like a WHILE!!  May was FULL of weekend events and activities, and I’ve been trying to get to Crossfit as much as I can in the weekday evenings.  I love being busy, but I’ve noticed that I haven’t been really cooking or baking as much…except for simple dinners that I don’t really feel are blog-worthy. 

June is shaping up to be just as busy, so I had to take advantage of this relatively FREE weekend…those don’t come around often!

This past week was not the best for me, eating wise.  Especially after being pretty diligent about cutting back on the starchy carbs.  We had a LOT of leftovers from Brian’s birthday party…including CAKE!  Delicious delicious cake.  I had a little piece pretty much everyday last week…yeah.  It doesn’t really bother me, I mean it was AMAZING cake, but when I’m putting so much effort into my workouts, I want to respect that with what I’m eating.  Everything works better that way. 

So the cake is now gone!  (Brought into work and froze some for future cake cravings).  However, I do enjoy a good baked good so I opted to make some Paleo-ish cookies!

I saw these at Trader Joe’s yesterday and new I wanted to do some sort of white chocolate/macadamia cookie!

For my while chocolate I ended up with this…

Yes it has pieces of freeze dried strawberry in it…

But I figured that would taste good, AND it was the only white chocolate I could find with non-GMO soy lecithin in it.  Soy lecithin is in SO many things!!  Especially chocolate.  It’s an emulsifier used in numerous products, and even in organic products it doesn’t have to be non-GMO.  Being “certified organic” means 95% of the product must be organic, but no one is regulating that pesky 5%.  Then if that 5% is made from soy products, chances are it’s genetically modified since about 90% of all soy in this country is from genetically modified seeds. 

This bar specifically listed it’s soy lecithin as (non GM), so that’s why I got it.  It also would have been okay if it said 100% organic, or if it was organic soy lecithin. 

I know I can’t avoid it all the time, but when I can, I will. 

Anyways…moving on :)

Almond + Macadamia + White Chocolate
+ Cherry Cookies

• 1 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup macadamia nuts, chopped small
• 1/4 cup ground flax
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup butter, barely melted (grassfed is best!)
• 3 T maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup dried cherries
• 1 ounce white chocolate, chopped

Pre-heat oven to 375

In a mixing bowl combine almond flour, macadamia nuts, flax, baking powder, and salt.  Stir to combine. 

Add in butter and syrup.  Stir to combine.  Add egg and vanilla.  Stir to combine.  Mix in cherries and chocolate.  Since there is no wheat flours in this dough, you don’t have to worry about “over-mixing”, so just stir until it’s all combined evenly. 

Scoop or spoon mixture onto a cookie sheet.  I lined mine with a sil pat.

Bake for 10-14 min, until starting to get a little golden brown on the edges.  Cool completely.

Between the nuts and butter, these are pretty rich!  But also delicious. 

Happy to have these to indulge my dessert cravings this week. 

As far as Crossfit goes, I’ve been able to do a couple of the more well known workouts lately!

On Memorial Day we did “Murph”.

“Murph"

For time:
1 mile Run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Squats
1 mile Run

In memory of Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, 29, of Patchogue, N.Y., who was killed in Afghanistan June 28th, 2005.

This workout was one of Mike's favorites and he'd named it "Body Armor". From here on it will be referred to as "Murph" in honor of the focused warrior and great American who wanted nothing more in life than to serve this great country and the beautiful people who make it what it is.

Partition the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats as needed. Start and finish with a mile run. If you've got a twenty pound vest or body armor, wear it. (source)

Sounded intense.  I was a little nervous about this one, but it ended up being pretty fun!!  It helped that we had  BIG crowd that day!!

(I’m on the left, kneeling on the ground) (source)

Because there were SO many people, the pull up bars were for those who could do them unassisted (i.e. no resistance bands which is what I use).  So I did body rows which is using a racked lifting bar that’s set up closer to the ground.  So basically I was sitting/lying on the ground, grabbing the bar and pulling up that way.

Like this! (source)

I’m sure it would have been a lot harder if I could have done it with regular pull-ups (even with a band), but it was still challenging.  Most people break it up by doing 5 pull ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 squats for 20 sets.  Much more manageable that way!

Took me 44 min and change. 

Also had my first go at Fight Gone Bad

"Fight Gone Bad!"

Three rounds of:
Wall-ball, 20 pound ball, 10 ft target (Reps) 14lbs for women
Sumo dead lift high-pull, 75 pounds (Reps) 53lb for women
Box Jump, 20" box (Reps)
Push-press, 75 pounds (Reps) 55 lb for women
Row (Calories)

In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute.The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. On call of "rotate", the athletes must move to next station immediately for best score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point. (source)

I did the weights prescribed for the ladies.  Again we had a lot of people at this one, so we did 2 heats and had a partner.  Having a partner was great because they counted your reps for you and kept you motivated!  It’s a lot harder to give up if someone is telling you that you can get a few more reps! 

Score: 217

Still LOVING Crossfit :) 

Now lets all wish the rain away, at least by Wednesday!  I’m golfing (for work) and the DMB Concert that day! 

How do you deal with party leftovers???  I have such a problem throwing out food, so a lot of times I end up eating things I normally wouldn’t have in the house, but I have my limit too!  I try to give them away, or bring stuff into work but that doesn't always work either. 

What’s in the Middle? The White Stuff.

Let’s not talk about the events of last night.

So instead I’ll just talk about the food that I just happen to make for this particular Sunday night ;)

I made two items to bring over to my friends place, and one I’ve been dying to make since I first tried it back in September!

Pizza Monkey Bread!!  Elina made it for a little after-work shin-dig that she hosted back in September, and ever since then I knew it would be the PERFECT food to serve for a party!  I’d been waiting for a good opportunity and I' finally decided that the Superbowl (there, I said it) would be the best excuse to eat little hot balls of dough stuffed with cheese and pepperoni! 

I used the same recipe she used, from Confessions of a Foodie Bride, and since I was also making a dessert, I opted to purchase the dough and sauce to make my life easier.

I grabbed a ball of plain and a ball of multi-grain pizza dough from Whole Foods.

I also used the suggestion of weighing out the pieces for uniformity.

Brian helped me with this one, and as I divided up the dough, he started flattening each piece and filling them with a slice of pepperoni and a chunk of mozzarella cheese.

Teamwork!!  I then coated each piece in garlic butter, filled up the Bundt pan, wrapped it in plastic wrap and headed to our friend’s apartment where I baked it up hot and fresh!

Not surprisingly this was a huge hit!!  I mean, who doesn’t love pizza in bite size form!      

I also made something on the sweet side.

I knew I wanted to make a dessert, and this wasn’t actually my first choice, but my friends rave about these cookies from Flour Bakery and I have wanted to try my hand at them.  Plus I love making something I know people will get excited about!

Oh-Oreo’s, Oh-Oreo’s,   What’s in the Middle?   The WHITE stuff! (sung to the tune of NKOTB “The Right Stuff”…no?  no one ever sang that version back in the day?)   Nevermind…

Here in the Boston area, Flour bakery is pretty well known for these replica’s of the iconic chocolate wafer cookie.  In fact, they sell out often!  I remember one time I went to Flour, and really wanted an Oreo…the line was so long and in the time I was waiting someone phoned in an order and took them ALL!!  I WAS SO SAD!

No more sadness now, because these are actually quite simple to make.

Lucky for you the recipe is online here!  The cookbook also has an option for a Peanut Butter filling, so I did half and half. 

The dough comes together pretty fast and easy. 

Lots of butter and chocolate!

I used salted butter for everything, and just omitted the salt that the recipe called for…I usually do this when I bake and everything comes out great.

I forgot to grab a picture before I added the dry to the wet ingredients, but the butter, chocolate, sugar, egg mixture solidifies fast!  It’s still very soft and workable, I was just surprised.

At this point the recipe recommends diving in with your hands to mix the dough.  Make sure you WASH YOUR HANDS GOOD FIRST…then dig in!

Once the dough is mixed, it sits out for an hour to firm up.  Then form into a log on wax paper.

The recipe calls for a 2.5” diameter roll…I wanted my cookies smaller so I just made my log longer and narrower…mine was just under 2” in diameter.

At this point it’s hard to get the long nice and round, mine was more of a long rectangle.  But once you wrap it up you can roll it out a bit, and from there you chill it for 2 hours, taking it out every 15min or so to roll it and make sure it’s not getting a flat bottom.

I didn’t do that every 15 min…I did it maybe 2 or 3 times during the 2 hours and it turned out just fine.

I did this the night before, and this was my dough log the next morning.

(so many jokes…)

Ready to be sliced into cookies!

I actually used my measuring tape and scored off 1/4” slices to get them roughly the same size.

I found that my cookies baked up in 16-18 min.

Once cool, I arranged them in pairs, and tried to match them up by size.  They are all fairly uniform but some definitely were bigger than others.

The filling was a simple butter cream…my FAVORITE kind!

Your standard butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, milk.  Classic.

I filled about half of the cookie pairs.

Then used the same bowl to whip up the PB filling.

I can’t pick a favorite, both were delicious!!

My Oreo-loving friends were thrilled! 

Kind of want one right now with some milk…  Good night!! 

What was the best thing you ate last night???

Cookie Swap time: Butterscotch Brownies

Oh yes it’s that time of year again!  I’m almost overwhelmed by the shear quantity of cookies I have in my house right now.  And it’s not like their just so-so and I want to give them away…no…they are all painfully delicious. 

This past weekend my mom hosted the family cookie swap for her, her sisters, sisters-in-law, and my grandmother.  I only get to attend because I help my mom prepare, but I don’t actually participate in the swap (even though I end up with my fair share of cookies…I think I have a sweet deal going here). 

(I spy an engagement photo) 

By the time I arrived, she had already set the table and prepared most of the food.

 

My grandmother used to host the swap and each of the women could pick a tea cup (my grandmother has quite the collection).  So now she just brings a sampling of the cups over to my moms for everyone to choose.

I chose before everyone arrived :)

I LOVE all her tea cups, and hope to have a nice collection for myself someday!

Somehow I missed photo’s of the food but there were little tenderloin sandwiches, chicken salad, crab salad on endive leaves, egg salad, and a big garden salad.  Delicious.  Dessert is obvious: cookies!  Although we also had a little carrot cake my aunt made as it was my mom’s birthday on Saturday too!! 

Now I have this pile on my counter:

Mmmm cookies.

The day wasn’t over.  As soon as I got home it was time to get gussied up to go out for the annual holiday cocktail party my friends from college always have each year!    

No good outfit pic, but I grabbed this one in the bathroom ;)

Light mauve/pink sequin dress I got last year at Kohls!  It’s from the Lauren Conrad line…she makes cute clothes!! 

 

Needless to say I was exhausted and a little “dehydrated” the next morning.  I woke up with a craving and immediately set out to fulfill it:

Oh Bagel World…I love you.  Whole wheat bagel with light scallion cc, cucumber, tomato, and sprouts!

Delish with a cappuccino I made back at the house.   

Then the cookie-craziness continued: Blogger Cookie Swap!  Shannon has hosted this swap for the past 2 years, and this time we finally were able to have it before Christmas :) 

I wanted something easy and delicious…after some thought I called my mom and asked for the recipe for her Butterscotch Brownies (basically blondies).  I should of guessed…Betty Crocker.  We don’t have the same version, but luckily my old book had it!

Seriously OLD

Second edition!  Copyright 1956

Fairly certain you can’t buy this book anymore, so I’m not sure how that works with giving out recipes.  But I figure a picture of the recipe can’t hurt. 

If you can’t read it or want the recipe email me! 

It’s basically lots of brown sugar and butter

I made a double batch, and added half walnuts

and half chocolate chips

All done in one pan!  Easy.

Time to swap.

Ranjani’s cranberry caramel bars

Kerstin’s Spiced Caramel Pecan Bars 

Melissa’s Chocolate Mint Cookies

Lauren’s “Better than Crack” Brownies 

Cara’s Cinnamon Coffee Pecan Cookies and Chocolate Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Elizabeth’s Nutella Oatmeal Cream Pies!  

Lizzy’s Andes Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies and Hot Cocoa Cookies

(Cara’s photo, my shot of these didn’t come out well)
 
Joanne’s Rainbow Cookies (mmmm almond paste!!)

(photo from Cara) 
Shannon’s Pumpkin Blondies and she also made these other little pumpkin oatmeal cookies that I love…somehow missed the name!

Shannon also made us some delectable snacks

Her version of bruscetta above was phenomenal!  Cranberry bread toasted, topped with ricotta, roasted butternut squash and apples, crispy sage, and balsamic reduction.  AMAZING.  I need to make this.

As you can see it was a jam packed weekend and now I am the proud owner of an abundance of cookies!  No complaints here, but thank goodness for Crossfit!