Chocolate Peanut Butter, Banana, and Oat Smoothie

Not quite ready to make the switch to eating oatmeal for breakfast every morning? Try it in your smoothie! It sounded weird to me at first, but after my first gulp I was sold. Healthy? Check. Easy to make? Check. Tastes amazing? Check. Easy way to get a half serving of whole grains in the morning? Check.

Now, is this the world’s lowest calorie breakfast? No, sadly peanut butter is higher in calories than I would like to admit. But in one smoothie you get over 25 grams of protein, 10 grams of fiber, tons of iron and calcium, and it’s low in cholesterol. For me, that’s worth the extra time on the treadmill!

Cauliflower Crust Thai Chicken Pizza

I previewed this pizza last week – didn’t it look fantastic? And then I teased you even more by suggested you’d never guess how I made it gluten-free. Of course, those of you who have to deal with me on a day-to-day basis have had to deal with hearing me brag about this recipe.

Because seriously, I made a pizza crust out of cauliflower. How cool is that?

I normally like to make this pizza with a regular crust, but this just seemed so much cooler. And gave me a chance to add another vegetable to my day. But disguised as a pizza crust. If you have a food processor, this recipe is seriously easy to make. Just use the shredding blade and the entire recipe will take you 30 minutes from start to eating. And that includes baking time.

Hope you enjoy!

Spicy Peanut Sauce

So, it’s been a while. Yikes! Sorry about that – I’ve still been cooking and baking, don’t worry on that front, but it hasn’t really been on weekends. And the light in my apartment is pretty terrible in the evening, so I wasn’t taking pictures. And what’s a cooking blog without pictures?

Boring.

Also, painfully un-updated. Speaking of, I finally updated the Recipe Index. I mean, sure some people enjoy scrolling through 4 months of recipes manually rather than going to a single page with all the recipes I’ve made, but I’m fairly sure they’re in the minority. In any case, it’s finally includes the recipes I’ve made since February.

The picture above is a teaser for next week’s recipe. This is the sauce I used in the pizza, but it’s also great on sandwiches, as a marinade for chicken, and on salads (add a splash of water to make it more liquid). I’m a huge fan of using it on pizzas as you can see, though you’ll never guess how I made it gluten free! 

So make this sauce to have on hand for next week's recipe - you won't regret it!

Faux Ice Cream

I am a huge ice-cream fan. When I was a child, it was the first treat I had once I was gone from the careful watch of my parents (thanks grandparents!). In college, more than one meal was a pint of Chubby Hubby from Ben & Jerry’s.

But sometimes you want to eat ice-cream without dealing with all of it’s lovely additives – sugar, cream, oh my! It’s not the healthiest of treats, sadly. Nor is it very kind to those with lactose problems (not me, but several of my friends and one family member. They get sad when faced with such delicious dairy treats like ice cream or macaroni and cheese).

I’ve talked about the joys of frozen bananas before and how creamy they can make a smoothie. Incredibly, this trick works perfectly well when it’s just a banana; it blends into a thick, creamy mix that tastes incredibly similar to frozen yogurt or slightly melted ice cream. Since you all know that I’m a fan of the chocolate-peanut butter, it’ll be no surprise to see what I did with my frozen banana – added cocoa powder and topped with peanut butter!

Double Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Center

Yes, another recipe for a chocolate peanut butter cupcake. You’d think I was obsessed or something. Whatever, it’s a winning and delicious combination.

I like this recipe because I don’t have to bother with piping or even too much prep work. But the cake is amazingly moist and chocolately. And the peanut butter center in the middle is a great treat for anyone in their right mind.

Hope you enjoy!

Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter Muffins

I made these over Superbowl Weekend. Because when everyone else is talking about chicken wings and nachos, I want peanut butter and chocolate. To be fair though, I want peanut butter and chocolate all the time. In any case I thought they would be a good compromise between breakfast and dessert.

In that I would eat one for breakfast on the Saturday I made them and then serve them as dessert on Sunday when I watched the Superbowl. Yup, I’m crafty that way.

I know I've said I don't really like it when super sweet things are called "muffins" when they are clearly cakes, so you might be surprised I'm calling these muffins in spite of the cocoa powder, chocolate chips, and peanut butter. Honestly, I debated over it for a while. But despite everything these aren't particularly sweet except for the bites with the peanut butter.

We clearly need a word for things that straddle the muffin-cupcake divide. Mufcake? Cupfin? Those both sound disgusting. I'll get back to you.

In any case, I'm sorry I've kept these from you for so long. I think a part of my brain was afraid that if I shared the recipe there would be no more for me. It's a strange place, my brain. It likes to hoard delicious delicious recipes. 

Though once you eat one of these suckers, I think you'll begin to understand. Hope you enjoy!

Healthy Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

I love muffins, but I get confused where the line is between muffin and cupcake. The chocolate-chip muffins with frosting? How isn’t that cake?

Personally, I prefer a heartier muffin because I like to eat them for breakfast. While I’ve also never had a problem eating cake for breakfast, I first tried this recipe back in January aka the month of good intentions. While I’ve clearly fallen off the healthy eating wagon once or twice since then, these have been a great find. Crunchy peanut butter + banana + no added sugar? And they actually taste good?

I tend to make a batch of these, keep ‘em in the fridge for the week, and bring them in for a mid-morning snack at work. Does anyone else have the problem where no matter what they eat for breakfast, or even if they skip breakfast, ten o’clock rolls in and your stomach is rumbling so loudly people two cubicles over can hear it?

Just me then? Oh well, these muffins definitely hit the spot right around them. I hope you enjoy them too!

Spicy Peanut and Sweet Potato Soup

I’ve been wanting to make a sweet potato and peanut soup for a while now, but for some reason hadn’t gotten around to it until I saw this recipe and bam! I needed that in my belly yesterday.

Let think about this – sweet potatos are awesome, peanut butter is awesome, spiciness is awesome, and lentils are tasty. How could this recipe go wrong? Easy, it didn’t.

It’s a very thick soup, so feel free to stir in some extra water after you blend everything together. But make sure you top with peanut – they really add an extra dimension!

Linguini with Broccoli and Peanut Sauce

There are a million and 10 recipes for peanut butter noodles on the internet (I know, I counted). I'm not claiming this one is my favorite, but it did hit the spot recently when I couldn't figure out what I wanted for dinner. It's vaguely reminiscent of Pad See-Ew with the whole wheat noodles, soy sauce, broccoli, and egg but it's sweeter and doesn't employ dark soy sauce. Instead, it uses a variety of ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen. I always love recipes that don't make me buy new spices that I'm not sure I'll use again (it's one of the reasons you haven't seen anything made with 5 spice powder or all spice - I'm not sure how often I'd use either and am still on the fence about making such a commitment). 

As I've told you before, I'm a weird breakfast person so bear with me when I tell you these are awesome cold and early in the morning. Give it a try! Not every day has to be a smoothie or pancakes kind of morning. Or you can always eat them cold when all the microwaves at work are busy and you're too impatient to wait another minute for tasty tasty noodles. Not that I have experience with that kind of behavior...

Puffy Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chips

I know – another peanut butter chocolate cookie recipe? Didn’t I just post one? How much peanut butter am I going to force you poor souls to buy and consume alongside chocolate? WHEN WILL IT END?

This one is different, I promise. For one, it has gluten in it. It’s also a peanut butter cookie base with chocolate chips, rather than a chocolate peanut butter cookie base with peanut butter chips. Fine line, but big difference (for connoisseurs of all things peanut butter and chocolate, such as myself, at least). This cookie also cooks up nice and fluffy, like you’re eating a traditional chocolate chip cookie that magically also tastes like peanut butter.

It’s a hard job singlehandedly keeping the peanut business afloat with my obsession, but someone’s got to do it.

Although I'm sure everyone is sick of cookies, sweet, and even plain eating at this point in the holiday season, these cookies are worth making an exception for. Besides, you can always stop eating sweets after New Year's, right? 

Flourless Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Welcome to Day 1 of Baking Extravaganza! When else during the year do you need so many cookie, candy, and sweets recipes in so short a time? The next two weeks will feature some of my favorite cookie, candy, and sweets recipes - some holiday, some classic, and some for people with allergies or food restrictions. Because this kind of excess needs to be celebrated in style, with this blog's first group of purposefully themed entries! I hope you find some new recipes during the next two weeks, or least drool a bit more at all the tasty sweets presented for your perusal. 


As you all well know, I love peanut butter and chocolate. You’ve seen my obsession in smoothies, cupcakes, and crispy treats so here’s another recipe to add to the pile: double chocolate peanut butter cookies.


I know, I started drooling at the name too. So wipe up the puddle that’s somehow started forming on your laptop and get to work! These little treats are easy to make (and easy to eat). At this point, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing. Let's go with good. This recipe is plenty easy to double if you'd like to bring in some to share (or you can do what I do, which is form the balls and freeze them, then pop out a couple at a time when you need a cookie fix). 

Peanut Butter Crispy Bars

This blog is almost three months old and it’s pretty apparent that I love peanut butter and chocolate. It would be embarrassing if it weren’t so delicious.

I’d been eying making these bars from SmittenKitchen for a while and finally couldn’t stand it any longer. I wasn’t going to let little things like a lack of candy thermometer, the insane amounts of calories they contain, or incoming hordes of visitor stop me. I would blame visitors or lack of time for the few photographs I managed to take, but really it was because I was too busy stuffing my face to bother with the camera.

The layers in this dish are a pain to make, but a joy to eat. Of course, the entire time I kept flashing back to this commercial, am I the only one who remembers that?

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

You know how sometimes you just really want chocolate and peanut butter? And sometimes a Reese’s just doesn’t cut it? In those cases, you should do what I did when I was craving peanut butter and chocolate and knew that my friend Amber was coming over to help me eat whatever I baked.

This cupcake combines the best of many worlds – a rich, moist chocolate cake, peanut butter cream cheese frosting, and a chocolate peanut butter ganache. All you need are some friends to help you with the extras and a tall glass of milk.

Or just the milk depending on what kind of week it’s been.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie

My breakfast habits aren't consistent; some days I'm happy with a quick bowl of Cheerios and milk, others only an egg will satisfy, while still others demand cold pad thai (don't knock till you've tried it). But I also tend not to like eating in the first hour I've been awake. It feels too rushed. Unfortunately, this makes eating during the week a bit tricky. I need a meal that can be prepared quickly because I'm generally eating it during the time I should be brushing my teeth before I leave for work.

So when I found this recipe for a chocolate peanut butter smoothie, you can bet I was excited to try it out. Chocolate and peanut butter in the morning? Prep time under five minutes? Chocolate and peanut butter in the morning? (This point needs to be repeated)

Sold.