{Flourless} Chocolate Chunk Blondies with Sea Salt

I got in a little baking amongst everything else going on today! I had found this "healthy" sweet treat recipe on Pinterest a while back. I'm so glad I finally tried it! Plus, it was a good excuse to break in my recent Target find:

Pretty great, right? These blondies are flour-free, egg-free, refined sugar-free...but not taste-free. The big secret ingredient? Chick peas. Mixed up with honey and natural peanut butter. ANYTHING is better with peanut butter. (Fine, I realize that may not be completely true...but mostly.) I broke apart some Velata discs for my chocolate chunks. Great choice. I promise there is a difference in the taste between regular chocolate chips/chunks and Velata. It's kind of epic. 

Being me, I under-baked these babies. So mine turned out very soft and gooey. Yum. I couldn't tell you what they might be like if you actually bake them for an appropriate amount of time...but I'd imagine they still taste good! Enjoy!

Flourless Chocolate Chunk Blondies with Sea Salt

Inspired by: Ambitious Kitchen

Ingredients:

1 can (15 oz) chick peas, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup natural peanut butter

1/3 cup honey

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup broken Velata premium chocolate pieces 

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350*F. Prepare an 8x8 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
• Combine everything except the chocolate into a food processor (really, a Ninja or Vitamix is best). Process until the batter is smooth. Fold in the chocolate chunks. 
• Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Sprinkle a little sea salt on top. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes clean out of the center and the edges are slightly browned. 

Apple Peanut Butter Snack Bars

It's no secret that I love peanut butter. And I like baking things with peanut butter. I was pretty excited when I came across these yummy Apple Peanut Butter Snack Bars on Pinterest. Not only do they have peanut butter, they do not have flour or refined sugar...and they taste great! If you get the right oats, they can even be gluten free. Score, right? I think so. I adapted the recipe from Happy Healthy Mama. Basically, I just added a little extra cinnamon because I like it. The bars are very soft and a little gooey. Super easy to make. They are extra good with extra peanut butter on top. (I'm serious about my peanut butter fetish. At one point, I was going through 2 pounds a month. Easy. Sometimes more...) These bars make a great afternoon snack, or you could cut them larger for breakfast. Enjoy!


Apple Peanut Butter Snack Bars

Ingredients:
2 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup shredded apple (1 medium apple)
1/4 cup natural creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup local honey
2 eggs
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp natural vanilla

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x8 or 9x9 (depending of if you want them thicker or thinner...I went with thicker) baking dish and set aside.
• In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well. Transfer the mixture to the baking dish and press it down evenly.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the edges are slightly browned. Allow to cool before cutting into squares.

{Flourless} Peanut Butter Cookies

The first cookies I made since being on break were peanut butter.  The brother requested them for his winter band concert.  I was pretty short on time, so I needed something really quick and easy.  I picked out a 5-ingredient recipe from Claire Robinson (Food Network...I love Food Network...).  It was SO easy, and the cookies turned out really well.  The were very peanut butter-y and had a nice flaky texture.  Would've been perfect with a glass of milk.  Click here to get the recipe!

Warning: Be prepared for an onslaught of recipes for cookies and baked goodness.  It's the holiday season.  And apparently I'm on the "Elf" diet...not really, but you may think so after you see what all I've been up to!

In other news, I managed to pull off a 4.0 for the semester.  Pretty miraculous considering I had been fairly confident I would end up with solid B's...only to discover the week before finals that I had 90's...which made me feel like I needed to try to do well on finals.  Apparently, it worked out okay.  My hamstring is getting better.  Definitely not 100%, but I can touch my toes! (Which is really good because they need painted.)  Well, I'm off to try to get everything done that needs to be done...it's a REALLY long list...that continues to get longer.