We Should Be Folding Laundry

This recipe is so insanely simple that I’m just going to break it down right here for you.

Ready?

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Oh yes.

Chocolate glazed donuts topped with crumbled bacon, potato chip shards, and a salted beer caramel drizzle.

Because it’s my birthday!

That’s right.

Today is my special day and I think that warrants a pretty special treat.

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I love this dish because it’s a healthy, budget-friendly, one-pot meal that you can have on the table in thirty minutes or less. Dinner win!

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Wait.

Before you make your ew, gross face and wander off to another corner of the internet, let me just ask you this one question:

Do you enjoy dipping your fries in your milkshake?

If you do, that seemingly crazy concoction up there is for you!

It was inspired by my daughter who came to me one night after dinner and said that she thought it would be a great idea to dip her fries in her ice cream.

Little did she know that I just so happen to love that combo myself and ate it more often than I care to admit when I was pregnant with her.

I never turn my kids down when they want to try any food or combo of foods. I want adventurous eaters! So I made her a little bowl of ice cream and sat it down in front of her. Right next to the fries left on her plate from dinner.

She tried a few and loved it.

I’m not surprised, it’s a fantastic combo. Crispy fries and softened ice cream. Hot and cold. Sweet and salty.

So good.

So after she had fries and ice cream again for dessert the second night, a genius idea came to me.

Quite possibly the best idea that has ever come out of my crazy foodie brain.

Turning the yummy combo of french fries + ice cream into a bite-sized sandwich and serving it on a stick!

If you like to dip fries or chips in your ice cream, you will really, really like this.

Promise.

And if you have no idea what I’m talking about or if this sounds crazy to you, just try it. I think you’ll be hooked.

I think vanilla ice cream works best for this particular application but Cam likes chocolate and even mint chocolate chip ice cream so use whatever ice cream floats your boat.

Ingredients

Potatoes – I use Yukon gold

Ice Cream

Oil

Sea Salt

Directions

Preheat your oven to 375º and spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray.

Using a mandolin or sharp knife, slice the potatoes into approximately 1/4 inch slices. If you wanted to use small cutters to cut the potatoes into cute shapes, now would be the time to do that as well.

Gently boil the sliced potatoes in salty water for about two minutes and drain well. You want them to be as dry as possible.

Carefully toss the potatoes in a light drizzle of the oil of your choice (I use extra virgin olive oil but any oil would work) and sprinkle them with a little sea salt.

Bake until golden brown, about 8-10 minutes, flipping halfway. Keep an eye on them though, you don’t want them too dark.

Remove the potatoes from the oven and let them cool for a few minutes. Check them for seasoning at this point. You may need to add a little more salt.

The only downside to these is that you have to eat them pretty fast if the potatoes are still warm or the ice cream will become really soft and the whole thing will slide right off the stick. So what I do is make up all the ice cream sandwiches and give my daughter a couple of lollipop sticks so that she can sort of skewer each one as she eats it.

If ice cream sandwiches aren’t your thing, just dip the crispy roasted potatoes into a bowl of softened ice cream.

Either way is delicious!

I realize that posting a cookie recipe in January might seem a bit odd.

Especially since (according to my blog feed) we’re all supposed to be drinking green stuff and avoiding all the sugar right now.

Every January.

I haven’t made any resolutions in a long time. I have however, made a lot of cookies and I can tell you that these are some of the best peanut butter cookies I’ve ever had.

Actually, scratch that – I’ll go as far as to say that these are the best peanut butter cookies I’ve ever had because I honestly can’t think of any that I’ve had that have been better.

The original recipe for these cookies is great as is but I tweaked it just a bit so that I wouldn’t have to roll each cookie in sugar and then press it down with a fork to make cutesy lines.

Also because extra recipe steps usually means extra dishes to wash. Pfft, ain’t nobody got time for that.

I also wanted to add big chunks of chocolate without making the cookies too sweet so eliminating the sugar on the outside of the cookie was definitely the way to go.

The trick to these cookies magnificence is to actually underbake them just a little. They’ll harden a bit as they cool so underbaking ensures that you have soft, chewy cookies with slightly crisp outer edges which is just the way a chocolate chip cookie of any form or fashion should be.

So if you’re sticking to your resolutions, kudos to you!

Care to reward yourself with a cookie?

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
adapted from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book

 Directions

Preheat your oven to 375°

In a large mixing bowl or a stand mixer, beat butter and peanut butter until smooth and creamy.

Add the granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, and baking powder and beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally.

Beat in the egg and vanilla until combined.

Add the flour and mix on low just until incorporated.

Chop or break up the chocolate bar(s) and fold the pieces into the dough.

Scoop 2 tbsp of dough at a time and form it into balls.

Place dough balls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until bottoms are light brown. Cookies should look slightly underbaked.

Remove from oven and let cool on cookie sheet for about five minutes so cookies can firm up.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool but be sure to eat a few while they’re still warm. Yum!

And now for my next trick… I’ll transform cereal into muffins!

Okay, so it’s not really a trick at all.

In fact, there’s nothing tricky about it. You just need to let the cereal soak for a few minutes in milk so that it can soften up and become part of the batter. Then you add in lots of yummy things, mix in some dry ingredients and you’re ready to bake up some muffins!

I’m calling these Hearty Breakfast Muffins because (other than the fact that these muffins make a great grab-and-go breakfast) every other name I thought up was way too long. But I have to say, these muffins make a great slightly sweet anytime snack so you certainly don’t have to limit them to breakfast.

These wholesome and hearty muffins are great served warm with a little apple butter or Biscoff (if you’re feeling naughty) and a cup of tea.

Hearty Breakfast Muffins

made with Bitsy’s Brainfood Carrot Raisin Crunch cereal

Ingredients

1 egg

3/4 vanilla almond milk*

1 1/2 cups Bitsy’s Brainfood Carrot Raisin Crunch Cereal

1/3 cup vanilla yogurt*

1/4 cup craisins

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tbsp maple syrup

1 cup AP flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 apple – cored and shredded or cut into small pieces

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400° and grease 12 muffin cups or drop in cupcake liners.

Whisk the egg with the milk, yogurt, oil and maple syrup in a large bowl and add the cereal, shredded apple and craisins. Mix to combine.

Allow the mixture to sit for about fifteen minutes so the cereal can soften while you get the rest of the ingredients ready.

Add the remaining ingredients to a separate bowl and whisk to incorporate.

Once the cereal has softened, add the dry ingredients to the wet along with the walnuts and stir just until everything is incorporated. Try not to overmix.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tin and bake for about 20 minutes or until the tops spring back when pressed lightly.

* Listed above are the exact ingredients that I used to create this recipe. Feel free to use the milk or yogurt of your choice and just add a tsp of vanilla extract.