Mary Kate’s Easy Delicious Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe

Who is Mary Kate? Good question. Mary Kate is one of my best friends from college. We were put randomly as roommates together freshman year and since then, it’s history. Shout out to my baby girl. Anyways…we both share a passion for cooking and baking. Nearly every night, when we were both RAs and no longer living together, I would trek over to her apartment no matter the weather. She would always have something cooking or baking, or simply in the works so that we got the chance to cook/bake together, which we loved.

Mary Kate, Chris and I on MK’s and my graduation

Talking about it makes me miss it way too much so let’s get on to the food. Besides the many amazing things she’s created, one of my favorite and easiest recipes was her peanut butter cookie recipe. On any given night while watching X Factor or Family Guy, Katie and I (Katie was her roommate at the time) demanded peanut butter cookies and wouldn’t shut up until she made them for us. Luckily for her, it was quick and easy. So here it is, I take no credit for it, except maybe the chunky peanut butter because I’m pretty sure it was supposed to be creamy.

Prep Time: 5 minutes?
Bake Time: 9-12 minutes (took mine 11 minutes)
Set Oven to: 350 degrees

Ingredients

1 egg
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
handful of chocolate chips (optional)

And that’s it…I kid you not. Just talking about them makes me want to run to my kitchen and eat more. SO SIMPLE YET SO GOOD.

Directions

Butter up or grease your baking sheet
Drop that egg in a mixing bowl and slowly whisk in the cup of sugar

Using a wooden spoon (or whatever you’ve got), stir in the cup of peanut butter into the egg-sugar mixture
Now, you don’t have to use chocolate chips, but she suggested I did, so I went for it and it added an amazing counter-taste to the peanut butter. Classic combo, right? So I just grabbed a handful of the chocolate chips and folded them in the peanut buttery mixture.

And that’s it! That’s all the prep time! Now use a spoon or your fingers to place them on the baking sheet, spaced apart enough.

Waiting to bake

Now pop em in the oven for 9-12 minutes. Mine took 11 minutes. Take out, leave them a bit to stiffen up…THEN EAT THEM!!

They turned out lovely, and it brought me back to baking with her which was probably the biggest plus of this recipe. I hope you enjoy how easy and delicious this recipe is. Give thanks to Mary Kate!

Sep082012

Need Some Protein? Whole-Wheat Peanut Butter Cookies

I know, I know, it’s a pretty cheap way of protein, but I had to catch your eye somehow. But maybe just the word ‘cookies’ would’ve done it. Hmmm…

Anyhow, this is a real easy recipe and takes no longer than 20 minutes (including prep time!). It’s great to have with a nice cup of tea (for me, Chai tea). I originally got the recipe from here, but as always, it’s altered. Take a peek below for ingredients and directions!

Ingredients

1 cup of peanut butter (I used creamy natural)
1 egg
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups of whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Mix the peanut butter, butter, honey, sugar, and egg til it’s smooth like…butter

3. Then stir in the whole-wheat flour and baking powder until blended in

4. Make little balls out of the cookie dough and place them on the cookie sheet

5. Place in oven for 13-15 minutes (depending on how you made the cookies)

6. Enjoy!

Let us know if you enjoyed this recipe! We’d love to hear back from you. Cheers 🙂

Aug282012

Home-Made [EASY] Chips & Guac

Let’s be honest. Has anyone ever in the HISTORY OF THE WORLD ever said no to an offer of chips and guacamole? No, I don’t think so.

I had two avocados hiding in our cabinet. And a tomato in the fridge. Hmmm…what could I POSSIBLY do with these two ingredients? I think you know the answer. However, we didn’t have any tortilla chips (I know, a travesty), and they just go so well with guacamole. But…we did have some tortillas that were going to get old soon. Aha! It’s all coming together now!

Okay so first, let’s get out these corn tortillas. I use Mission Corn Tortillas (see below). I’m not even going to post an “Ingredients” section for the chips because it’s literally tortillas, olive oil, and salt. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Now, go have fun and rip them into little pieces. I used only about five tortillas. Think of how many chips you can actually make if you used the WHOLE bag (30). Put olive oil on the baking sheet before you plop dem tortilla pieces on. Then sprinkle salt all over.

Now let them cook for however long you like. 10 minutes, they’ll be a little soft. I left them in for around 15 minutes to get a nice crunch. Okay, we’ll get back to these when they’re ready from the oven. Let’s get to the important matter…the guac.

Get your ingredients ready!

Ingredients:

2 ripe avocados
1 tomato
1 lemon
2 garlic cloves
Plenty of salt n peppa

First, let’s tackle the avocados. Now I wish I took a picture of this, but the best technique I’ve found is to put the knife you’re using on the avocado, press down til you hit the core (the pit), and circle it all around the avocado until you’ve made it full-circle. Then grab each half of the avocado and pull! If they are the proper ripeness, they should pull a part easily, making it really easy to scoop the goods out.

Now that you’ve scooped it all into a bowl, mash it up!! And have some fun with it! Next, cut up the lovely in-season tomato (small pieces), the garlic, and constantly put pepper and (especially) salt. Once you feel everything is properly seasoned, cut open a lemon, and squeeze that baby out. The lemon (I know people normally use lime–use whatever you want) will give it that nice zesty taste, but also it will preserve it if you want to keep it in the fridge for a bit. Avocados have a tendency to brown fairly easily.

Now that the guac is all mixed up, GO BACK AND TASTE IT! Make sure it has enough salt, guacamole can be notorious for not being salty enough to fill that need. Did you hear something? DING! Chips are ready! (Just kidding, I still don’t have an oven timer). Pull them out of the oven and let them sit for a few minutes so you don’t burn your tongue (like I did after being over-eager and piggish).

They are goooood. So that’s pretty much it. We loved it so much, we made another batch of chips to finish off the guacamole. One of the best things about home cooking is that you know what’s in the food you’re cooking so you have no reason to feel guilty about it, which is an awesome feeling.

Maybe you have a party coming up (Labor Day is right around the corner) and want some awesome snacks that will impress the neighbors (or friends), but won’t cut a hole out of your wallet. Get this:

A bag of Mission Yellow Corn Tortillas (which contain 30) costs under $3. Avocados are still in season (hurry before fall ends!), so you can get them for $1 a piece. All you need are tomatoes, which can be found for roughly 59 cents each. Now you do the math. I had a whole pan-full of chips from FIVE tortillas. Imagine you did THIRTY? You’re going to have a ton of chips and if you get 4-5 avocados and 2-3 tomatoes, you’re going to have a TON of chips and guacamole, for a huge price of under $10. And trust me, your friends will love you. And invite me too, because I will do anything for a scoop of guac.

Enjoy!

Aug172012

[HEALTHY] Fast-Food — the Asian way

I know this sounds sketchy, but LISTEN UP!

Chris, during his time teaching in South Korea, lived on kimbap which is something you will find in any Korean gas station, 7-11 type stores, and groceries. Images probably cross your mind of seaweed fried twinkies (which even makes me gag), but no, it’s so much more than that.

My first experience with kimbap was the Japanese version. This version is called onigiri (or omusubi)–pretty much the same thing. It’s basically a rice ball, filled with magical goodness. I first experienced this in no other than my home~~town~~ CITY of Santa Monica. It was a hole in the wall we passed tons of times until one time we didn’t. We stepped inside, speculative, and Chris immediately perked up at the fact of omusubi being served here in Santa Monica! It seemed pretty legit too. This place is called Sunny Blue, and they provide fresh omusubi filled with various ingredients: miso beef, mushroom, pickled plum, etc.

No joke, we literally hit this place up at least twice a week. Sorry, dog-walking cash…

So, ever since my experience with omusubi, I crave for it often. Unfortunately, I haven’t found a substitute yet here in Boulder, but to be honest, I haven’t looked hard yet. Thus, when everywhere else fails you DO IT YOURSELF! …and depend on your partner for instruction.

SO. Look below for a recipe, although the stuffing can be altered to whatever you want. We just chose to go with spinach and mushrooms because that’s what the fridge gods had in store for us:

1 cup sticky rice
1 huge portobella mushroom
2 handfuls of spinach
Sprinkle of sesame seeds
Nori seaweed
Ton of soy sauce

First, you need to make some sticky white rice. I don’t care how you do it, just do it.

Then, stir-fry the mushrooms and spinach in a pool of soy sauce…(and garlic)

Once those are cooked to perfection, in comes the mastery. That’s when I stepped out and Chris stepped in to handle the rolling of it.

DISCLAIMER: We didn’t have the right saran-wrap to shape them the proper way, so we attempted to use wax paper (fail with hot rice) and then settled with our hands. So you’re getting the ghetto version. Which may be what you want 😉

First, lay out the rice so you can embed the wonderful stuffing ingredients inside