Vanilla Cinnamon Biscotti

It’s finally the weekend (for me).

This has been one of those weeks that draaagged on and on. But finally (thankfully!), it’s done.
And I am so excited to sleep in tomorrow morning. And when I wake up, I’m going to enjoy my coffee and biscotti while watching a marathon of Project Runway.

Life is good.
Life is very good.

Makes about 12 biscotti.

• 2 eggs
• ⅔ cup sugar
• ½ tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1½ tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract (or caviar from 1 vanilla bean)
• 2 cups AP flour

Preheat oven to 350℉.
Combine eggs and sugar and mix until frothy. Add baking powder, salt, vanilla, and cinnamon and mix well. Gradually add flour and mix just until incorporated. Transfer dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Shape into a flattened log. Bake for 25 minutes.
Remove from oven and let rest for 10-15 minutes. Reduce oven to 325℉. Slice dough on the diagonal, about 1″ wide. Stand biscotti upright on parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake an additional 10-15 minutes.

TGIS. (Thank god it’s Sunday!)

Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips and Walnuts

I consider myself to be a bit of a banana bread connoisseur.

I could eat banana bread every single day.
A loaf doesn’t last long in this house.
Because everyone knows that if you only take one bite every time you walk by the pan, it doesn’t count.
So technically I only had one slice today. Give or take half a loaf.

I love it. I’m addicted.
When I say I have over twenty banana bread recipes, I am not kidding.
But this one is my favorite.
This is everything I love about banana bread. Simple, comforting, delicious.
The banana flavor is big. The chocolate chips highlight the banana, not detract from it. The loaf is soft inside, but has a nice firm crust. And the walnuts add a nice crunch.

Makes one loaf.

• ½ cup butter, room temperature
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 2½ cups AP flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• ¼ cup milk
• 3 small bananas, mashed
• ⅔ cup semisweet chocolate chips
• ⅔ cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350℉.

Beat together the butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs and mix until smooth. Alternately add the flour and milk. Fold in mashed bananas, then fold in chocolate chips and walnuts. Pour into a buttered and floured loaf pan. Bake 60-70 minutes until dark golden brown.

I’m in heaven.

Peanut Butter Cookie Bars

It’s Monday again.

Can we all just agree that Mondays are terrible?

Agreed? Agreed.

Mondays just seem to drag on and on. The time seems to go by so slowly. And on some very unfortunate Mondays, no amount of coffee can give me any sort of energy or enthusiasm.

Enter these cookie bars.

They make Monday just a little less dreary.

Makes one 9×13″ pan.

• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 1¾ cups sugar
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 2 eggs + 1 egg yolk
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups AP flour
• 1½ cups semisweet chocolate chunks
• ½ tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350℉.

Beat butter and sugar until creamy, then add peanut butter and mix well. Add in eggs, egg yolk, salt, and vanilla. Fold in flour until just combined. Fold in chocolate chunks. Spread in a buttered 9×13″ baking pan and bake 35-45 minutes until golden brown.

My Favorite Pancakes.

I promise I will be back to posting recipes on the regular very soon.
But I’m tired, you guys.

I’m in the middle of a ten-day stretch at work. Working ten days in a row is not that bad in and of itself. But I wake up at 4:15 a.m. every morning. So yeah, it’s a little draining.
I adore my job. But I love weekends because, well, I don’t have to wake up at 4:15 a.m.

I love the weekend. I get so much done that I can’t get done during the week. And I get to make breakfast! And I know I have already written about how much I love breakfast. I love getting to enjoy my coffee in the morning instead of having to chug it before I leave. And I love being able to catch up on all my favorite shows that I missed during the week. (I don’t know if any of you watch New Girl, but it is killing me right now. I think I’m in love with Nick Miller.)

I’m addicted to pancakes right now. It’s been my go-to weekend breakfast food for the last few weeks, alongside some soy bacon and a steaming hot cup of coffee. Or iced coffee. I go back and forth.
Anyways. I’m already craving these pancakes for this weekend. It’s helping take my mind off of, well, how little sleep I have been getting.

This is my favorite pancake recipe, and it lends itself well to customization. I’ve been doing blueberry lately, but the possibilities are endless. I’m thinking banana and chocolate chips for this weekend.

Serves two.

• ⅔ cup AP flour
• 4 heaping tbsp. old-fashioned oats
• heaping 1 tsp. baking powder
• scant ½ tsp. baking soda
• heaping 1 tsp. cinnamon
• ½ tsp. salt
• dash of vanilla extract
• about ½-¾ cup almond or soy milk
• ½ cup blueberries (or add-in of choice)

Heat a skillet over medium-low heat and spray with nonstick cooking spray or add a tablespoon of butter and let melt over entire skillet. Mix flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Pour in milk and vanilla extract. The batter should be thick, but almost pourable. If too thick, add milk 1 tbsp. at a time until batter reaches desired consistency. Fold in add-ins. Pour batter onto skillet in 3 mounds. Spread slightly with a spatula. When bubbles form on surface, flip pancakes. Cook until golden brown.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Lunch Lately.

I’m terribly guilty of forming food ruts and eating the same thing for days and days until I get sick of it. This is a perfect example.
Although, I have only stopped eating it because we ran out of tortillas.
Sad story.

This is embarrassingly easy to make. That’s actually perfect, because there are some days where I don’t get a lunch break at work and when I get home, all I want to do is stuff my face with anything and everything I can find.

I’m trying to work on my patience. It’s not going well. I’m grumpy when I’m hungry.

 

Step one. Spread beans on an UNCOOKED tortilla. None of that Mission brand nonsense. You need a raw, unbaked tortilla.
Step two. Dice up a tomato and sprinkle over the beans. (Cheese is optional, but encouraged.)
Step three. Slide the tortilla onto a skillet over medium heat. Cover and let it cook until the tortilla is crispy.
Step four. Remove the tortilla and top with shredded lettuce, salsa, and avocado.
Step five. Stuff your face and enjoy.

Mexican Spaghetti

I’ve been trying to eat super healthy for the past few weeks. As much as I hate to think about it, bathing suit season is coming up.
And as you know, I have a slight obsession with carbs. As in, I want to eat carbs every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Oh, and dessert too. I like dessert.
But loving carbs and dessert makes me really hate bathing suits.

So I’ve been trying to eat really healthy to prepare myself for summer. But last week, I really needed some carbs for dinner.
Plus it was date night, and I’m not going to make my boyfriend eat salad with me. And I’m not going to sit and eat salad while he gets to eat a big, delicious bowl of pasta. That’s totally not fair.
So I took a break from the health food for a night and made this pasta dish.
I mean, it has some vegetables in it, so it’s technically healthy! Right?

Humor me on this one.

Serves 4-6.

• ½ of an onion, diced
• ¼ cup red pepper, diced
• ¼ cup green pepper, diced
• ⅛ cup yellow pepper, diced
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• ½ tsp. salt
• ¼ tsp. pepper
• ¼-½ tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1½ cup sharp cheddar cheese
• ½ lb. noodle pasta, like spaghetti or fettuccine

Preheat oven to 350℉.

Cook pasta according to package directions. Combine onion and peppers, then stir in cream of mushroom soup. Stir in spices and 1 cup cheese. Fold in cooked spaghetti and mix well. Add up to ½ cup pasta water if consistency is too thick. Pour into 8×8 inch baking dish and top with remaining ½ cup cheese. Bake until bubbling, about 20-30 minutes.

I regret nothing.

Beer Bread Dinner Rolls

I hope everyone had a great Easter!

I don’t know about your family, but my family is literally just a group of the loudest, most sarcastic people in the world. And I enjoy every minute I get to spend with them.
Seriously though. I really appreciate every time I get to see my family because we always have so much fun together. It’s a little bit crazy and maybe a little overwhelming, but it’s always a good time.

After Easter dinner, we played this game where you write down a noun on a post-it note, stick it on someone else’s forehead, and then they have to ask yes or no questions and try to guess it. It gets pretty funny when your mom is trying to guess what a ‘pimp cup’ is and your boyfriend has ‘Zooey Deschanel’ stuck on his forehead.

Easter dinner was wonderful, as usual. A plethora of carbs and desserts. My favorite.
I added to the carb overload and made beer bread dinner rolls. When piled with ham (or in my case, vegetables), cheese, and toppings, it makes one awesome sandwich roll. Guinness is my favorite beer to use when making beer bread, but really any beer will work.

Makes 24 dinner rolls.

• 6-7 cups AP flour
• 1½ tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 8 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1½ cups butter, as cold as possible
• 2-2¼ cups beer
• 1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 425℉.
Sift together 6 cups flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Cut butter into chunks. The colder the butter, the better. I used frozen butter. Throw butter chunks into flour mixture and cut butter in using pastry cutter or your hands. Keep cutting butter into flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Gradually pour in 2 cups beer and stir to bring the dough together. If dough is too wet, add up to an additional 1 cup flour. If dough is too dry, add up to an additional ¼ cup beer. Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface and pat dough out until dough is about 1 inch thick. Cut to desired shapes (I used a basic round cutter) and place on baking sheet. Brush each roll with a little bit of beaten egg. Bake 13-15 minutes until golden brown.

 

Cinnamon Rolls

You guys, I’ve been moping for the past week.
I don’t know if it’s because this month is almost over, or if this is what they call ‘seasonal depression’, or if I am just in a funk.

I am really good at staying positive and snapping myself out of bad moods, but sometimes it just feels good to be sad and lazy for a while.
So lately, I really haven’t done anything except take naps and watch The Twilight Zone and mope.
But after several days of staying sad, I needed to snap myself out of it and keep my mind busy. So I made cinnamon rolls.

Recipe by The Pioneer Woman
Makes four 8″ cake pans with 7-8 rolls per pan.

• 2 cups whole milk
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• ½ cup sugar
• 2¼ tsp. active dry yeast
• 4½ cups AP flour
• ½ tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tbsp. salt
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• ⅛ cup cinnamon
• 1 lb. powdered sugar
• 1 tsp. maple flavoring
• ¼-½ cup whole milk
• 2 tbsp. melted butter
• ⅛ cup strong brewed coffee
• pinch of salt

Combine 2 cups milk, vegetable oil, and ½ cup sugar in a large saucepot. Scald, then remove from heat and let cool to about 100℉-110℉ (this took about 45 minutes).
Sprinkle yeast over milk mixture and let sit 2 minutes. Stir in 4 cups flour. Cover and let rise 1-1½ hours.
Fold in remaining ½ cup flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Turn out onto a well-floured surface and roll to a large rectangle, about ¼” thick. Brush dough with 1 cup melted butter, then sprinkle with 1 cup sugar and ⅛ cup cinnamon. Starting at far end, roll tightly towards yourself until you get to the end. Pinch the seam together. Slice dough into 1″ thick rolls and lay in lightly buttered cake pans. Let rolls rest 30 minutes. While rolls are resting, preheat oven to 375℉.
Once oven is hot, bake cinnamon rolls for 15-20 minutes until just starting to turn brown.

For glaze: combine melted butter, milk, maple flavoring, and coffee. Add pinch of salt. Gradually sift in powdered sugar and mix well. The glaze should be thick, but pourable. While rolls are still warm, pour glaze over top.

I made these cinnamon rolls at night, and only snapped these two quick pictures on my phone.
And when I woke up the next day to take a picture, they were gone. Completely.
True story.

Vegan Orange Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins

Common misconception: vegan food is gross.
I know most people think that vegan food is bland, boring, tasteless health food.
I thought so too, until recently.
I’ve been vegetarian for almost five years, but have stayed far away from vegan food. While living in Pasadena, I found a vegan restaurant within walking distance from my apartment. I tried it once and fell in love. It became a weekly staple.

They had such a variety of foods, including BBQ sandwiches, pho, chicken wraps, steak sandwiches, and an endless list of salads and soups.
Being vegetarian, I’m used to eating tofu and fake meat. But this food was so good, that even my non-vegetarian boyfriend couldn’t believe that it was vegan. The meat had the same taste and texture as real meat, and the spices and sauces were so flavorful.
This restaurant got me thinking more and more about vegan food. And then I thought about vegan baking. And I started to experiment.
Make these muffins, and I guarantee you won’t be able to tell that they are vegan.

Makes two dozen mini muffins.

• 2 cups AP flour
• ⅔ cup sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 cup orange juice (freshly squeezed)
• ½ cup coconut oil
• 2 tbsp. orange zest
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• ¼ tsp. almond extract
• 1½ cups vegan mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375℉.
Sift flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Stir in salt and sugar. Mix oil, orange juice, orange zest, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix well. Fold in mini chocolate chips. Fill greased mini muffin tins ¾ full. Bake 20 to 25 minutes. Eat. Enjoy. Be amazed that vegan food is actually delicious.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Is it weird that I almost always go to bed excited for tomorrow’s breakfast?
Maybe a little.
But I could eat breakfast for every meal of every day.
Don’t get me wrong, I love lunch. And dinner. But no where near as much as I love breakfast.

The best part of breakfast (besides coffee. Although I could drink coffee all day.) is that it is a really good excuse to eat cake early in the morning. Or stuff yourself with carbs. And that makes me very happy.

The only problem I have is that I leave my house for work at 5:00 a.m., so mornings are kind of rushed and I never get to enjoy breakfast like I wish I could. So on my day off last week, I made this coffee cake for breakfast. And I am so glad that I did.

(This recipe requires a kitchen scale. If you don’t have one, I strongly recommend buying one. They are awesome.)
Makes one 9″ round coffee cake.

• 9 oz. butter
• 11¼ oz. sugar
• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
• 11¼ oz. sour cream
• ¼ oz. vanilla extract
• 8¾ oz. flour
• ¼ oz. baking powder
• ¼ oz. cinnamon
• 5¾ oz. add-ins (I chose blueberries, but sliced apples would be delicious too)

Preheat the oven to 350℉.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in eggs and sour cream and mix well. Add vanilla. Sift flour, baking powder, and cinnamon. Fold dry ingredients into batter. Fold in add-ins. Pour into greased and floured cake pan (8 or 9 inch). Bake until golden brown, between 30-45 minutes.

Please tell me that you love breakfast as much as I do.