Recipe: Two Ingredient Cookies.

I ran across this website on a friend's facebook page, and I couldn't wait to give it a try!  And I already had the ingredients, so I couldn't use that as an excuse not to bake right?  So I got to baking straight away.

The recipe truly calls for TWO main ingredients - bananas and oats.  And then you can add in whatever mix ins you want.  Sounds easy right?  Well, it sure was!  All I needed was a bowl and the main ingredients and I was able to mash it up with my hands.  I didn't even use a spoon!

I got the main recipe from The Burlap Bag, and then I added my mix-ins - semi sweet chocolate chips, cinnamon, and almonds.  The second time I made them I added in dark chocolate chunks, almonds, walnuts, cinnamon, and vanilla.  I think I liked the second batch better!

First batch ingredients - minus the cinnamon

Ingredients

• 2 large bananas (can be a few days old for easier mashing)
• 1 cup quick-cooking oats
• mix-ins of your choice

Bake cookies at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes on a greased cookie sheet or you can use parchment paper.  Truly DON'T forget the grease/parchment paper.  I did on the second batch and I set off the smoke alarm...twice.

I diced the almonds and combined the ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Pre-mixing.

And then I mixed it all up with my hands - that was the fun part!  Post-mixing.

Either grease the pan or use parchment paper - I opted for the parchment paper.  Pre-cooking.

Post-cooking - this is the second batch.  Don't those chocolate chunks look delicious.

With my first batch, I made about 10 cookies, and those cookies didn't last long in our house.  

So I doubled the recipe the second time around.  We will see how long those last us!

Happy baking!

Xoxo,

Malia

It's the Little Things

In the last few months I have taken loads of pictures - most of these from Peter's fancy new phone!  He upgraded his smart phone, and yes, I am still left with an old school flip phone.  I have dropped it loads of times, but it just keeps on living - and my upgrade isn't for another few months.  So in the meantime -  Peter's phone serves as my camera on the go!  

This past month has been filled with loads of adventures, house projects, picnics, and cooking and baking with all the lovely items growing in our garden (I will save all those details for a post of it's own!)

But as you can see from the top left photo - we got new windows!  It's crazy how much of a difference it makes.  Who knew right?  They use to be the old metal black ones and now they are all beautiful and white - more pictures to come at a later date.  And Peter updated our back entrance with those lovely pavers - looks so much better, but now we just need to start working on the FRONT of our house.  And then we have our apples from our apple trees and a lovely red tomato.  For some strange reason our tomato plants have chosen to grow, but they haven't chosen to ripen and turn red quite yet, thus we have loads of GREEN ones.  Fried green tomatoes anyone??  And I have been baking all sorts of apple treats - so don't be surprised if you have us over for dinner and we come bearing an apple pie.  And then the other few photos are the lovely city of Seattle taken from the eyes of a ferry and a picnic at Gasworks park to celebrate our anniversary.

So many more photos to share...but I will save those for another day and another post! 

xoxo,

Malia

It's the Little Things.

It's the little things in life that really make it so sweet isn't it?   A hug, an I love you, a delicious cup of coffee, a chocolate chip cookie, beautiful flowers, sunshine, an afternoon with a dear friend, a good laugh, a good book, and I could go on, but I won't because you get the point right?  It is such a beautiful thing when you begin to find beauty in the most ordinary things! 

So today, I am linking up with Heather over at Finding Beauty in the Ordinary for her new "Cup Half Full" link up party - thanks Jen for posting about this!  

And without further ado...here are a few beautiful little things from this past weekend!

I love baking muffins!  Banana muffins with crumble toppings.  Yummy!

I have started baking all sorts of things on the weekends in hopes of tiding us over for the week!  Here we have turkey chili, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and potato and carrot soup that has yet to blended.  

 

And one of the best things from this weekend...our BIG yard project and our patio in the making.  Can't wait for it to be finished!  Hello summer, bonfires, and roasted marshmallows!

xoxo,

Malia

Blueberry Muffins.

This past weekend I baked muffins.  They weren't just any muffins ...they were blueberry muffins, my absolute favorite!  I wanted to try a new recipe, and that in itself is always kind of risky, but I figured I couldn't really go wrong could I?  

I perused a few recipes, and landed on this one from Allrecipes, titled To Die for Blueberry Muffins.  And guess what? They were to die for!  I brought them to a girl brunch on Saturday, and they loved them, and Peter loved them too, but let's be honest, it's not too difficult to please him.  

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 cup fresh blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
3. To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Kitchen Chaos.

Gosh - I had such a good Saturday!  Take a look at the chaos in my kitchen.  For someone who is a neat freak, I can honestly say, I loved every single moment of this kitchen chaos.

Every single inch of counter space was covered by something.  I have banana bread on the left - broccoli soup in the pot, the new Fast and the Furious move on my laptop and chicken cooking in the crockpot!

And then on this side I was making another loaf of banana bread - this one with pecans and cinnamon.

And then I started on our soup for the week - Cream of Broccoli Soup.  It was super easy!  I have yet to eat it, but Peter has had about 4 servings already in the past few days!  So I suppose that's a good sign? My advice to you - don't put too much soup in the blender because it sprays EVERYWHERE and I mean EVERYWHERE or maybe just wait till it cools off a bit?!  I even had broccoli bits in my banana bread batter, but I got most of it out, and I think I had a few bits in my hair!

And onto something sweet!  I love banana bread and we have a TON of frozen bananas.

So cheers for a very successful Saturday - should have us sorted for the week!  

Baking...in a different country.

Since when did I become so set in my ways?? And who would have thought that baking in another country and in another kitchen would be so...interesting! Peter decided that he really wanted me to make these oatmeal cookies that are frequently found at our house...but its not like I brought the recipe with me, along with all the conversions, in my suitcase. So I did what we all would do and googled oatmeal cookie recipe and came up with a HUGE selection of choices. I decided to go with the allrecipes website considering I had been there before...and found some recipe from there. But to be honest, I was a little sad that I didn't have MY recipe that I use or whole wheat flour or measuring cups and teaspoons...instead I would be baking with a little scale thing and measuring it all in kilograms. interesting...and fun. But when did I get so set in my ways? I would rather just bake without having to really THINK about it all...I mean who wouldn't right? It all goes a whole lot faster when I am not having to WATCH the cookies and pay attention to the countdown simply because I can't quite figure out how this oven works. But then again baking in my own kitchen, with my own oven, using my own measuring cups and things is just boring right?? ...yes it may be boring, but it is comfortable.

So when Peter suggested we bake cookies I was a little hesitant and not entirely up for this baking adventure! But I told Peter I would bake those cookies on one condition - that the man himself would help me. And help me he did...with the mixing and the weighing and the tasting while constantly exclaiming "I had no idea there was this much sugar in there" along with "I had no idea there was that much butter in there!" We made some pretty good cookies once Peter got over the shocking realization that the cookies weren't quite as healthy as he believed them to be and once he realized that he couldn't use the cookie cutters for these ones. And it was fun to be in the kitchen together having a baking adventure, and thanks to my dear friend Bekah another one awaits us and this time Peter will be able to use those cookie cutters!

Wheaten Bread.

I had to post an entry about the Perfectly Moist Irish Wheaten Bread recipe I found. Now, it certainly is moist and delicious, which was one of my goals I was trying to achieve considering the wheaten bread I have made in the past has always been a little dry. However, I think I could have left the bread in the oven a bit longer because it was extremely moist and slightly difficult to slice. So I guess that means I will just have to bake it again!

Cookies.

So this past week, in honor of St. Patricks Day, I perused countless sugar cookie recipes in order to find the perfect one to suit my shamrock cookie cutters. I must say I found the recipe, but for some strange reason the recipe doesn't ask you to chill the dough, which I did after discovering it was FAR too difficult to roll the dough. So after many mess ups, many eaten cookies, and many laughs we had some finished products! Thank goodness Bekah was around to help me for the hard part (decorating), otherwise the task would have taken up far to much of my time and it would have been pretty boring.

Valentines Day.

So I bounced out of bed on Valentines Day to declare to my bed mate that I was going to bake some blueberry muffins and finish up the chocolate covered pretzels I was making for people. I must say I LOVE Valentines Day, I love everything about it and I think I always have! So I had packaged up some goodies for everyone in my family and a little special treat for Bekah and handmade little cards. But truly, I love valentines day...and it doesn't have to solely be about love birds and having a date night with a significant other because for me its about showing those you love that you Do in fact LOVE THEM. So we spent the day with my family, and we went to the Body Exhibit and then to the Palomino for dinner. And then to top it ALL off, we went to the Cheesecake Factory to get cheesecake to go. Here are a few photos from the day and all our baked, delicious treats!

Failed French Bread.

So I decided that for Sunday dinner on Superbowl Sunday I was going to diverge from the normal bread I make and be adventurous by making my very own French Bread. Now I knew this had the potential to go VERY wrong even before I started. But I took the risk anyways and embarked on the nearly 4 hour French Bread journey, which was extremely selfish because as I mentioned in the first sentence it was not just any sunday, it was Superbowl Sunday, and all Peter wanted was to watch the game from start to finish in ONE spot. Needless to say he didn't miss a WHOLE quarter, just a few minutes. And thank goodness someone bought garlic bread from Safeway to go with the pasta dinner that was to feed 15 because the bread was small and dense kind of like a baguette and I don't think it was suppose to be like that. But it was delicious and never would have fed 15 people! So my French Bread adventure wasn't entirely a disaster, but Peter did tell me to stick to the normal bread i make...don't know if I will be venturing down that path anytime soon.