Brown Butter Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Cookies

adapted from: broma bakery

 INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup browned butter
1/3 cup pumpkin puree, cooked down*
1 cup brown sugar (213g)
1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup a.p. flour (220g)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
2/3 cup cinnamon chips

DIRECTIONS

In a large bowl mix together browned butter, pumpkin, and brown sugar until the brown sugar has dissolved.

Add egg yolk & vanilla, and mix until combined.

Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, and pumpkin pie spice. Stir until *just* combined. Light streaks of flour will probably still be chilling there.
Fold in cinnamon chips.

Scoop cookie dough with a #30 scoop (2.25 Tbsp). Place on a cookie sheet.

Refrigerate dough for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Place on cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Slightly flatten the dough.

Bake for 13 minutes.

Let cook on cookie sheet for 2 minutes before transfering to cooling rack.

*Take a 15 oz can of pumpkin puree, and over medium heat cook down to half the volume. The puree will become thick, and the color will deepen significantly.

Bengal Bowls with Bacon Wrapped Asparagus

 INGREDIENTS

Coconut Rice

2 cups jasmine rice

4 cups coconut milk

pinch of kosher salt

Sweet & Spicy Beef

2 lbs Beef Sirloin, Cut into Chunks

1 cup Pineapple Juice

1 cup Soy Sauce

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1/4 cup Trader Joe's Pineapple Spread

1 Tbsp Lime Juice

1 Tbsp Garlic, Minced

1 Tbsp Black Pepper

1 Tbsp Ginger

1/2 Tbsp Sesame Oil

2 tsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes

1/2 tsp Ground Cayenne

1 Tbsp Corn Starch

Veggies

1.5 lbs Baby Red Potatoes, Cut into Fourths

1 large Zucchini, diced

1 large Yellow Squash, diced

1 large sweet onion, diced

2 bell peppers, diced

Safari Asparagus

1 lb Thick Cut Bacon

Asparagus to your heart's content

DIRECTIONS

Coconut Rice

Throw rice, coconut milk and salt into rice maker, and press start. Please, just buy the rice maker.

Safari Asparagus

Preheat oven to 400ºF, or set up your grill to high, or your Traeger to 350ºF. 

Prepare asparagus spears- I like to snap each individual spear, but you can line them up, snap one, and then cut the rest at the snap line. You do you. The Safari Skewers at Disneyland use thick asparagus spears, and skewer them. I do not have the patience to mess with skewers- I am scared I will skewer my hand again. So I bought thin asparagus, and wrapped a piece of bacon around a bunch of four to five.

I then laid the bacon wrapped asparagus, bacon ends down on a cooling wrap placed inside a baking sheet. Then popped it into the oven until the bacon was cooked to my preference, crispy-chewy, which took about 25 minutes because I kept checking on it.

Sweet & Spicy Beef

Omitting the corn starch, mix all the ingredients together, and pour about half over the steak to marinate for 1 hour. You can do this in a ziploc bag, a bowl, whatever makes your heart happy. Just make sure the steak is covered, and let it chill in the refrigerator. 

Veggies

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Prepare baking sheet with a glug of high heat oil, like vegetable or canola oil. Do not ruin your pans and sanity with olive oil. It will scorch and will not taste good.

Placed diced vegetables on the baking sheet. You do not want to overcrowd the veggies, so it may take two baking sheets. 

Toss the veggies in the glug of oil, and season liberally with kosher salt. For the love of all that is holy do not use table salt- it's gross. I am a huge fan of Diamond Crystal Kosher, but will use Morton Coarse Kosher, just don't do table salt.

Then roast in the oven, if you had to use two sheets, rotate between racks placed on the top third, and bottom third of the oven.

The veggies will be done when the potatoes are fork tender. At this time, crank up the oven to broil and let the veggies really brown under the broiler. My onions and peppers had cooked much faster than my squash and potatoes, so at this time I put the Sweet & Spicy Beef on the bottom rack while I broiled the squash & potatoes.

Sweet & Spicy Beef (continued)

Prepare baking sheet with a generous helping of cooking spray.

Remove steak from marinade and place prepared baking sheet. Bake until the steak is cooked to your preference. My family wanted a hair over medium rare, and it took about 10ish minutes.

With the marinade you set aside, and probably some from the steak. Pour into a sauce pot and bring to a boil over medium-high. Let boil for 4-5 minutes, it should get a little thick on its own. At this time, remove like 1/4 cup of the mixture and whisk together with the corn starch to make a slurry. Reduce heat and whisk the slurry into the sauce, and let the magic happen.

Assembly

(Coconut Rice + Veggies + Sweet & Spicy Beef) Drizzle Sauce Over Top = YUM

Top it with the Safari Asparagus. And enjoy!

**I realize not everyone has two ovens, and a seemingly unlimited supply of baking sheets. Cook the veggies on the stove, but do not overcrowd the pan. We are not steaming our food, we want to give our food color and flavor.

Pineapple-Coconut Chicken Bowls

 

INGREDIENTS

Coconut Rice

2 cups jasmine rice

4 cups coconut milk

pinch of salt

Pineapple-Coconut Sauce

4 Tbsp honey

4 Tbsp Trader Joe's Island Soyaki

2 Tbsp Trader Joe's Pineapple Spread

2 Tbsp Soy Sauce

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp garlic powder

6 oz pineapple juice

1 cup shredded coconut

Pinch of salt

Chicken & Veggies

2 lbs chicken breasts, cubed

1 pineapple, cubed

1 large sweet onion, diced

3 bell peppers, diced

DIRECTIONS

Coconut Rice

Throw rice, coconut milk and salt into rice maker, and press start. Please, just buy the rice maker.

Pineapple-Coconut Sauce

Mix all the ingredients together. The amounts are a rough estimate, cooking is from the heart.

Chicken & Veggies

Pour half of the pineapple-coconut sauce onto the chicken, massage it in there. At this point, you can marinate it for up to an hour, or throw it on a sheet pan and bake in the oven at 400ºF for 30 minutes.

Pour the remaining half of the pineapple-coconut sauce onto the onions, peppers, and pineapple. Spread in an even layer across a baking sheet, and bake for 15 minutes, or until bell peppers just start to soften up.

Assembly

Rice + veggies + chicken = YUM.

This is my family's take on the recipe from a popular macro-counting recipe book. While we love love LOVE their version, this version is a lot easier to make and a little more packed with flavor. It's comforting, and bright and just a good way to eat flavors that aren't typical.

Mackles'more

Mackles'more

Adapted From Female Foodie

INGREDIENTS

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup unsalted butter

1 cup packed light brown sugar>

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 oz Theo Chocolate Pure 70% Dark Chocolate, cut into chunks (1.33 bars)

1 cup packed mini marshmallows

36 square-sized store-bought graham crackers

7.5 oz Theo Chocolate Pure 45% Milk Chocolate squares, halved (2.5 bars)

INSTRUCTIONS 

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk together the flour, cinnamon, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl; set aside. Cream the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar in a stand mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing on medium speed for 15 seconds after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix until smooth. Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Fold in the dark chocolate and the marshmallows.

Using a medium cookie scoop (about 1 1/2 tablespoons), scoop the dough into balls and place them close together on one of the prepared baking sheets. Freeze for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Place the graham crackers side by side on the second prepared baking sheet. Place 1 ball of the frozen cookie dough on each graham cracker. Bake until the cookies are puffed and just turning golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and immediately press 1 piece of milk chocolate onto each hot cookie--be sure to really press the chocolate into the soft cookie so that when it melts, it puddles on the cookie and doesn't run off.

Pupper Cake

 

INGREDIENTS

Cake

1 cup a.p. flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

1/4 cup applesauce*

1/4 cup peanut butter*

1/4 cup honey

1/3 cup pumpkin

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

"Frosting"

1/2 cup plain greek yogurt*

1/4 cup peanut butter*

2 Tbsp honey

DIRECTIONS

Cake

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Prepare two 4x2 inch cake tins with cooking spray, set aside. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and baking soda, set aside.

In a second bowl, whisk together coconut oil, applesauce, peanut butter, honey, pumpkin, egg and vanilla until thoroughly combined.

Pour wet ingredients over flour mixture, and gently stir with a rubber spatula until incorporated.

Pour batter evenly between the two prepared cake tins, and level the top of the batter.

Bake cakes on a baking sheet for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs.

Remove from oven, and let cool in tins on cooling racks for 5 minutes before removing to finish cooling.

Icing

Whisk together greek yogurt, peanut butter, and honey until smooth. Keep cool in refrigerator until needed.

Assembly

When the cakes have completely cooled, level-off the tops with a serrated knife.

Place bottom layer cut side up, top with 1/3 cup frosting. Place top layer cut side down, and frost with remaining frosting.

Serve to your favorite pupper friends!

*Unsweetened is the ONLY way to go! Please do not give your canine friends ingredients with excess sugar, sugar substitutes like xylitol and other sugar alcohols. They are just not good ingredients to give to your doggos.

This is Puppa-Roni on her first birthday… she was in Pupper HEAVEN with this cake.

Citrus Crumb Bars

Lemon Crumb Bars

adapted from TastyKitchen

INGREDIENTS

Filling
2- 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup lemon juice

Zest of lemon
0.5 tsp vanilla extract
0.5 tsp salt
Crumb

1.5 cups ap flour

1 cup oatmeal

1 cup brown sugar

2/3 cup melted butter

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Combine milk, citrus juice and zest. Mix well and set aside.

Mix remaining ingredients until crumbly..

Press half of the dry mixture into a lightly greased 9x13 baking dish.

Pour the sweetened condensed milk mixture over top.

Finish by sprinkling remaining dry mixture over the top of the citrus filling, and gently press.

Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Cool completely then store in the refrigerator.

KEY LIME COCONUT CRUMB BARS

Key Lime Coconut Crumb Bars

INGREDIENTS

Filling
2- 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup Key Lime juice

zest of Key Limes
0.5 tsp vanilla extract
0.5 tsp salt
Crumb

1.5 cups ap flour

0.5 cup oatmeal
1 cup flaked coconut

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup melted butter

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

DIRECTIONS

Same as above.

I first found this recipe a couple years ago, and instantly fell in love. I was going through a lemon phase, and this recipe filled my need for all things lemon. I doubled the sweetened condensed milk and juice from the original recipe because I needed it to have a little more zip. About a year later I went through a lime phase, and revamped this recipe to be my ultimate lime dream. I think this works best with citrus fruits that are zippy! Oranges might be too sweet to for this application. I'm not sure about grapefruit, because I'm allergic- but someone should try it and let me know! This recipe is fool proof, and easy!

Chrissy's Banana Bundt Bread

Recipe Source: Chrissy Teigen's Twitter
INGREDIENTS
2 cups mashed BROWN bananas (about 6)

4 eggs

2/3 cup canola oil

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar

1 3.5 oz box vanilla instant pudding

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp kosher salt

1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2.5 dark chocolate, chopped (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, pudding mix, baking soda, and salt.

In a large bowl, combine mashed bananas, eggs, and oil. 

Add dry ingredients into banana mixture, and combine. Gently fold in coconut. 

Pour batter into a greased and floured Bundt pan, and bake for 1 hour.

Test with a skewer or toothpick around minute 50.

Remove from oven, and let cool slightly. Use a butter knife to gently release from pan- don't forget inner circle, before flipping onto another plate.

Serve warmed up slices with a chunk of sweet-salty butter.

This is one of three ways that bananas should ever be consumed. The other two are: covered in ice cream & syrup, and Bluth's Original Frozen Banana- because there is ALWAYS money in the banana stand. All jokes aside, this is much like the banana bread that we all grew up with but better.
You look at it, and think, "that banana bread is pretentious AF." and then you taste it and realize that it is just a better version of your OG. The addition of vanilla instant pudding ups the moist factor, the shredded coconut brings a nice contrast that isn't nuts (imo- nuts are aways welcome to the party) and if you want to go hugely decadent, the chopped dark chocolate will do just that. Make this.

I did have to adjust Chrissy's recipe by baking this at 350ºF for the suggested time. I live at a high altitude, and the banana bread ended up heavy and gummy when baked at the suggested 325ºF, even after added an additional 20 minutes to the cook time.