Knitting is the new Nintendo

Chocolate pretty much makes anything delicious! And that includes these muffins. My mom asked me to make some zucchini muffins and I'll admit, my reaction was like that of a kid who's like "Zucchini muffins? You can't taste it? Really?" But really! I am living proof haha! These muffins are delicious and nutritious (okay maybe not entirely healthy...), but I like the rhyme.

p.s. the flavour of these muffins from the spices taste like autumn which is approaching all to quickly!

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Yield: 2 dozen 

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups margarine
1/2 cup oil
1  3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sour milk
2 1/2 cups flour
4 Tbs cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups shredded zucchini
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions

1. Set oven to 350F.
2. Cream together margarine, oil and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla and sour milk.
3. Sift dry ingredients together and then combine with creamed mixture.
4. Stir in the zucchini and 1/4 cup chocolate chips.
5. Spray your muffin pan or line with parchment muffin cups and fill with batter. Sprinkle remaining chocolate chips on top.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. (If you want to make a cake instead, bake for 40-45min)

They are best enjoyed warm out the oven with a cold glass of milk :)

Enjoy!





Please note: This recipe is for personal use only. Please do not pretend that you made any of it, please give proper credit when featuring elsewhere. Thank you!

I finally made time to bake again and I chose to make a Flourless Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie. Can I just say... YUM!

I doubled the recipe and brought these to the office and I will admit I probably snuck 4 myself throughout the day. No portion control here, however I definitely got my protein for the day! They are sooooo goood! And bonus for those that are gluten free, there is no flour! And for bonus #2 I eliminated the chocolate chips in a few cookies for a friend who is dairy free as well.

I've never baked with almond butter before, but I'm always up for an experiment if someone else has had success with it first. For the first go with on this recipe I found the final cookie quite soft and may break apart in your hand, but if you're holding it that long and aren't chowing down on it in 2-3 bites there is something wrong with you. Just kidding, but seriously ;) Anyways I think next time I might try a different almond butter that is more the texture of peanut butter and they may stick together better (see notes below).


Flourless Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yield: 1 1/2 dozen 

Ingredients
1 large egg
1 cup almond butter
1/2 cups brown sugar, lightly packed
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions

1. Set oven to 350F
2. Crack the egg into a medium bowl and beat it lightly. Add in the almond butter, baking soda, and sugar and mix everything together well.
3. Fold in the chocolate chips.
4. Scoop the dough onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet. Space the cookies well apart, and flatten them slightly with the back of a spoon.
5. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Don't overbake these, the cookies will look underdone, but they will firm up as they cool.
6. Let them cool for a couple of minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer them carefully to a cooling rack.

Please note: This recipe is for personal use only. This recipe is from Sue at the view from great island. Please do not pretend that you made any of it, please give proper credit when featuring elsewhere. Thank you!

Not too long ago we had a chili cook off at work. It's been an annual occurrence for almost 10 years! This was the first time I participated and it was a lot of fun!

The chili's were lined up on the table and had small jars in front for anonymous voting. Each individual was given one dry bean as their vote. Fun!

I've only made chili a handful of times in my life, to be honest I never used to like beans, but in chili they are okay. I quite enjoy making chili though and another confession, each time I make it I use a different recipe! The cook off was no exception, I had the attitude that I was participating for fun and if I won great, if not, it was fun to try (an ancient family recipe wasn't a stake here haha).

And in fact I got 2nd! (out of 5) The man who won last year won again this year. It was good chili I'll admit, but I've got a plan now and I'm in it to win next year!

If you'd like to know which recipe I used I'm going to share it! I made some adjustments from the original as I doubled it to feed more as well the grocery store didn't have all of the exact ingredients I needed. I also took a tidbit from another recipe I read and incorporated it in. But hey, it's chili and the greatest thing about that is it is completely flexible and fairly forgiving :) That's my kind of cooking!

Enough talk, let's cook!


Chocolate Bacon Chili

Ingredients
-1 package of bacon
-2 pounds ground beef
-1 onion, chopped
-1 tbsp + 1 tsp chili powder
-1 tbsp ground cumin
-2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
-3 garlic cloves, minced
-Two 15oz cans Home-style Baked Beans
-1 tsp dried oregano
-One 15oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
-One 15oz can red beans, drained and rinsed
-One 15oz can diced tomatoes
-4 cups tomato sauce
-2 cups beef broth, low sodium

Directions 
In a large fry pan cook your bacon. Fry it fairly crispy, but not burnt. Set it aside, but leave the bacon grease in the pan. On medium heat add your ground beef and brown it. Drain off the fat.

In a large dutch oven over medium-high heat, stir together your ground beef, onion, chili powder and cumin. Next add the cocoa and garlic, mix together and cook for 2 minutes. Next, add the home-style beans and oregano and cook for another minute. Add the black and red beans, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and beef broth. Lastly, crumble up the bacon and mix in. Cover your chili and simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

I love to eat my chili over nachos with sour cream and cheese, delicious :) 

The trophy - next year!

The competition!

When you double a chili recipe it make for a lot of cans!

That's right, you read it correctly, Mini Egg Cookies!

There are so many different recipes out there for scrumptious cookies, and I'm sure I wasn't the first to think of putting mini eggs into cookie form, but I would like to say I did come up with these on with my own imagination before I was able to 'Google' or 'Pinterest' anything :)

It's super simple:
1) Take your favorite choco chip cookie recipe
2) Smash up some Cadbury Mini Eggs and use them instead of the chocolate chips.
3) Enjoy!

Here's my recipe!

Mini Egg Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup margarine
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups whole Mini Eggs

Directions
First combine the margarine, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a small bowl. Next mix in a larger bowl the baking soda, salt, and flour. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir. Now the fun part! Place the Mini Eggs into a large Ziploc bag and smash them up to your hearts content (you may like bigger chunks or smaller pieces, its up to you)! Stir the smashed mini eggs into the batter. Drop by teaspoon onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 7-8 min at 350F. Makes about 2 dozen.

You really can't go wrong with this one, a super soft and yummy cookie, perfect for Easter :)

Just in time for Valentine's! It's the Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookie!


I love red velvet.

I love white chocolate.

Put the two together and YUM!

Original recipe from Cooking Classy:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 Tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp distilled white vinegar
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tsp red food coloring
• 3/4 cup white chocolate chips, divided

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a mixing bowl whisk together [dry ingredients] flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch, baking powder and salt, set aside. 
• In a second bowl, use a hand mixer to whip together butter, sugar and vinegar until pale and fluffy, about 3 - 4 minutes. Mix in egg. Add in vanilla and red food coloring and mix until blended.
• Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Mix in white chocolate chips (note: press in some extra white chocolate chips into the tops of cookies AFTER baking for a nice look).
• Scoop dough out by the heaping tablespoonfuls and shape into balls. Transfer to Silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheets and bake in preheated oven 8 - 11 minutes*. 
• Allow to cool on cookie sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Store cookies in an airtight container. 

*I found that my cookies didn't flatten the same as the pictures showed and they also took a few min less to bake, so I have yet to do some research on how to adjust temp and time for baking at different altitudes. 

I could eat these by the spoonful...

Enjoy!

This morning I spent a lovely couple of hours visiting my Mom! We continued a tradition that her, my sister, and I have done for the last few years: making chocolate dipped pretzels! Unfortunately my sister is away (in Africa!) so she was unable to join us, but the tradition continues :)

It's super easy and I probably don't even have to explain, but for those that like all the details here's what we do!


What you need:
~a bag of large pretzels (we figure the ratio is one bag of chocolate to one bag of pretzels so buy accordingly)
~melting chocolate - we do both white and chocolate (found at the local Michaels store)
~small bowl for chocolates
~larger bowl for hot water
~couple of baking pans
~wax paper to cover the baking pans
~gift bags
~freezer space
~Candy Canes
~Smarties
~mini food processer (to crush candy)
~spoons




1) Clear an area to work and spread out, kitchen table is great! Prep at least 2 baking sheets with wax paper (will make for easier cleanup!)


2) Boil a kettle of water  - we use an electric kettle, but stovetop or microwave works too.

3) Melt the chocolate in small bowl according to bag instructions  - microwave on power level 50 for 1min did it for me. Might come out chunky still, but stir it and it should all melt into itself.
NOTE: Do not over-melt the chocolate or it will burn and become hard as a rock, do 10-30 sec intervals if the first min doesn't work.

4) Pour about 2 inches of hot water into larger bowl and place small bowl inside the larger bowl in the water. (This ensures the chocolate doesn't harden while dipping. Add more water, but you don't need too much.
NOTE: Be sure not to let the water get into the chocolate, bad things happen!


5) Get ready to start dipping! (We separate the broken pretzels from the whole ones to make things more efficient.)

TIP: When you dip a pretzel be sure to tap off excess chocolate so that it doesn't drip everywhere. Also when the chocolate gets low then use a spoon to cover the pretzel.

6) Be creative! We do different varieties every year. This year we tried crushed candy cane on the white chocolate and crushed smarties on the milk chocolate!


7) Once you fill a pan place it in the freezer to expedite the solidifying process. If you can't put it in the freezer you can leave it out, but it just takes a bit longer.

8) When you are done dipping and the chocolate has all hardened on them then you are ready to package them up OR eat them! I buy fun little bags so I can gift them away about 8 in a bag.












And that's it, now just enjoy...and clean up!