White Chocolate Blueberry Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

Could there be more ingredients in the title of these cookies? Despite the laundry list name, these cookies are good. They are also made with coconut oil, so they're like, healthy. So, like, have 5 and don't feel bad. 

Once you create the dough it's time to add the blueberries. The recipe uses frozen blueberries which I just so happened to have in the freezer. Berries in my smoothies and berries in my cookies:)

Each cookie gets two blueberries. Then the messy task of rolling the dough back up to hide the berries begins. Picture me with dough covering my fingers, holding a ball of cookie dough in one hand, and trying to juggle taking a picture with the other. My phone had a nice layer of oatmeal dough all over it after that. 

White Chocolate Blueberry Coconut Oatmeal Cookies recipe via Ambitious Kitchen
yields 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup shredded coconut flakes
2.5 ounces good-quality white chocolate bar, coarsely chopped (about 1/2 cup)
frozen organic blueberries (you'll need 2 blueberries per cookie, so around 40-50 blueberries

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. 

In large bowl whisk together flour, oats, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In bowl of an electric mixer beat together melted coconut oil and brown sugar until smooth. Add in egg, egg yolk, and vanilla; beat again for 2 minutes or until smooth.

Stir in flour & oat mixture to the wet ingredients; mixing until well combined. Slowly fold in coconut and white chocolate chunks. 

Use a cookie scoop to gather a large rounded tablespoon of dough. Flatten the dough in the palm of your hand and add two blueberries on top, roll dough back into a ball and place on cookie sheet. Repeat with each dough ball then place cookies on cookie sheet 2 inches apart and bake for 10-13 minutes or until edges just begin to turn golden brown. Remove from oven and cool for a few minutes on baking sheet until the cookies firm up a bit. Transfer to a wire rack to allow cookies to cool completely. 

I was making these for my great-grand littles (sorority terms if you weren't aware, I'm not actually a grandma) for their initiation week, but I snatched one off the pan real quick before I packaged them up. With all the snatching and quick moves I lost control of my cookie when I went to dump it in my milk, and ker-plump...floating cookie in a mug full of soy milk. I reached in, snapped a pic of the saved cookie (see first picture), then shoved the whole thing in my mouth. Happy Tuesday!

Annie

Bites of My Life

It's currently 11:36 p.m. on Sunday night. I'm watching The Social Network (random guilty pleasure) and trying to get this post finished as my eyelids get heavier and heavier over my eyes.
Fall cooking and baking, homecoming activities, wedding talk, game day and a cajun brunch sums up last week. I welcomed fall dishes with open arms. The cool fall temps are also getting me in the mood. Homecoming events took place all week including a Barre 3 class on Thursday's chilly morning. I may have had frozen toes by the end, but it was fun shaking and quaking with friends and classmates. Kappa took victory at the pep rally, OU lost in the game, I carb loaded on game day food then kept the merriment going at the new cajun restaurant in town. 
I was on a role of 4 to 5 posts a week since school started again, but last week was a struggle to get things posted. It wasn't a crazy busy week or anything, but the lack of motivation was apparent. I was able to get two great posts out that I hope you took a peek at, but hold on this week because Monday through Friday is stacked with posts! My first giveaway is going down along with some fall foodie features. 
-First batch of ginger cookies for the season. Mom used to always make these cookies at the first sign of fall! Try this similar recipe.
-Red Curried Lentils over rice with a dollop of greek yogurt. Out with the summer salads and in with the warm and fuzzy dishes. I used this recipe.
-Sleepytime tea and an almond butter graham cracker sandwich has quickly become a part of my bedtime routine. Also pictured is my new Paris mug brought back from mom and pop's Europe adventures and my newest Blogging for Books shipment. A Beautiful Mess "Happy Handmade Home" DIY book!
-Barre3 made it's way to Norman last week to teach a class as a part of homecoming week!
-B3 was accompanied by Kind snacks. Free bars and granola parfaits for everyone who walked by!
-My take on How Sweet It Is's Autumn Avocado Toast. Smashed avo, sliced granny smiths, cashews, feta, salt, pepper and honey!  
-Another autumn entree! Roasted acorn squash with quinoa salad. Recipe will be posted later this week!
-After a month and a half of practicing 4 times a week, it was so much fun performing then winning 1st place at the homecoming pep rally! 
-Despite the OU loss, it didn't stop us from a great game day.
-First time at Jax, a new creole soul food restaurant on campus. The seafood fondue to start. 
-Drool worthy trio of gumbo, jambalaya and etouffΓ©e. Jax is rivaling as my new favorite Norman restaurant.  
-I told myself I would only buy the things on my list, but you know that's just not how it goes when you step inside target. All the fall themed foods make my weak until I cave. Pumpkin Chobani, Pumpkin spice baking morsels, salted caramel almonds and a caramel almond sea salt Kind bar.

Annie


On Trend

Yesterday, Lauren Conrad posted to Facebook how to take runway trends to reality. She lists the trends in clothes, accessories and make-up that were seen on the runway. Her trends were on point and I'm all over them. 

For Fall 2014, we are seeing faux fur, 60s inspired dresses, knits, western hats, hard shell clutches, top-rimmed sunglasses, stylish sneakers, mod booties and fancy loafers.
Below is a round-up of my favorite fall trend pieces. I like to by my "trendy" clothes at a low price because we all know in a year they won't be cool anymore. For trendy but cheap, I turn to Zara, Missguided, H&M, and Forever 21


Do you have a favorite fall trend this season? I'm adopting the hat, knits and sneakers trend into my wardrobe. 
Annie


Bites of My Life

Post-ACL weekend and Pre-OU/Texas weekend caused for catching up and keeping up. It was a short week so it went by fast. I headed home Thursday night instead of going straight to Dallas because big sis Kathleen got ENGAGED!! We are all so excited! 

Mom and Dad and I woke up early the next morning to head to D-town. Before meeting up with my friends, I held back to make a stop at Zara (holy amazing right now). While we were there I got an email that my ACL food article was now live on Spoon University. I had been working the past few days on getting it published and it was so fun to see it up on the main site!

Spoon University is a website for college foodies. They cover everything from hot local restaurants and dining hall hacks to two-ingredient treats and tips on avoiding hangovers. Spoon is made up of student contributors across the country. They have individual college pages and a national page. Read my Eating My Way Through ACL post here!

-Roasted corn, peas, brussels sprouts and butternut squash topped with a dollop of pesto and greek yogurt. I'm a huge frozen vegetable fan, so I use this method all the time to cook up a quick dinner or lunch. 
-A pink smoothie before all the carbs and fried food during OU/Texas weekend. Beets and strawberries gave it that pretty pink color!
-The first Tucker sister is finally ENGAGED! Congrats Kathleen and John! I can't wait to co-wedding plan;) We were so excited we had to get froyo to celebrate!
-Finally in Texas for the weekend and since the game is played at the fair you can't go through the day without getting a Fletcher's corny dog. I seem to be a creature of habit because I have almost identical Instagrams from this year and last. 
-The crazy fried food ideas they come up with never size to amaze me. I saw a guy order the Fried Frito Chili Pie, and I couldn't help but ask if I could snap a pic. I actually think that sounds amazing, the guy thought it was sub-par. 
-My annual fried fair food purchase is the Fried Pumpkin Pie. Inside is pumpkin, cream cheese & pumpkin seasoning, sandwiched between two ginger spice cookies, dipped in funnel cake, batter rolled in a mixture of ground cookies, powder sugar & pumpkin seasoning, then served with fresh whipped cream. I swear by it and it made it on Thrillist's, Best Fair Food at the Texas State Fair.
-My last OU/Texas weekend as a student was as perfect as can be! An OU win helped too!
-A Texas shape and sized waffle to send us off back to Oklahoma Sunday morning. 
-Detox time round two after two foodie weekends. Quinoa fried rice for dinner and green smoothies for breakfast this morning. 

Annie