Bites of My Life

Spring is truly in the air. I started my week last week, working outside in the sun, running outside (yes running, and yes outside), and enjoying the above 60 temps we had everyday. The week also started by replacing my Monday Bachelor nights with Monday book club! Our inaugural book club was a hit and I can’t wait for our second in April. The work week went by fast and the weekend came with plenty fun events. A wedding shower, an all day birthday celebration and a killer avocado benedict!

-I like to buy a kombucha every Sunday. I drink about 1/2 Sunday and 1/2 Monday to get my digestion back out of whack from the weekend. Health-Ade and their unique flavors have been my jam lately.
-First book club officially in the books (pun intended)! We just finished reading Educated and are working through Girl Stop Apologizing for Book #2. This is the scene before everyone came over…
-…and this is after. We did a BYOsalad topping theme potluck alongside lots of cheese, crackers and cookies. Because the food is just as important as the reading material!
-Oats are back on my radar! My steel cut oat hack is 1/4 oats to 3/4 water soaked overnight. In the morning bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes. Serve with cinnamon, maca, cashews and gogi berries!
-My sweet sweet Ashley/co-worker/work wife/sound board surprised me with this little pot of blooms last week to brighten up my desk.
-Gluten-Free & Dairy-Free Perfect CCCs are here!
-I have a weakness for Jordan almonds. I bought them for an Easter decoration, but my “decoration” isn’t going to last with me eating them all.
-I still print photo prints for photo albums. Anyone else?
-One last celebration for our Cali bride before we head to LA next weekend for her big day!

Annie

Gluten-Free & Dairy-Free Perfect CCCs

Celiacs and lactose rejoice! Perfect CCC’s free of dairy and gluten are here and just as perfect. I quote my father when I say, (my very non-lactose and non-gluten free father) “These gluten-free and dairy-free cookies are the (insert bomb emoji here).”

Coconut oil replaces the butter and dairy-free chocolate chips are used in replacement of the original stuff. I use gluten-free flour for a 1:1 swap for all purpose and they come out great! Just make sure to chop your chocolate up so you get specs of chocolate throughout, and you must sprinkle with flaky Maldon salt to get the Perfect CCC signature touch!

Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Perfect CCCs
yields 30 cookies

Ingredients:
1/2  cup melted coconut oil (measures 1/2 cup as a liquid, not solidified)
1/2 cup olive oil (use a basic, not fancy olive oil)
3¼ cups gluten-free flour (i use this brand)
1 ¼ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 ½ tsp. salt
1 ½ cups light or dark brown sugar, firmly packed*
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
12 ounces, Enjoy Life dairy-free chocolate chips, roughly chopped (key step)
Maldon salt

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the gluten-free flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl mix both sugars. *You can use light or dark brown sugar. I like a dark cookie so I prefer dark brown sugar, but I switch off depending on what I have on hand. Pour the melted coconut oil and olive oil into the bowl with the sugars and whisk until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking to combine. Stir in the vanilla.

In two batches, add the dry ingredients into the oil sugar mixture. I use a wooden spoon to incorporate. Once the dough has almost come together, but still a little floury, add the chopped dairy-free chocolate chips.
*I roughly chop my chocolate chips, so I can get more chocolate in each bite. I also love those little shavings of chocolate sprinkled through the dough! 

Form 2-3 tablespoon size balls. I use a 2 tbsp. size cookie scoop, but overload the scoop a little bit to get a larger ball of dough. Place them on a cookie sheet 2 inches apart and fluff them a bit*. Do not overcrowd the pan. Sprinkle the top of each cookie with flaky Maldon salt and any extra chocolate bits leftover from chopping.

Bake for 9 minutes, rotating the pan around halfway through. Bake until just barely golden around the edges, the key is to not over bake these! Shy on the underdone side.

TIPS:
Olive Oil: I note above, but when it comes to olive oil, please use a basic light olive oil. Nothing fancy or imported from Greece. You don’t want your cookies to taste like olives. I use Trader Joe’s or Bertolli light olive oil.

Chocolate: I feel most comfortable using Enjoy Life brand of dairy-free chocolate morsels. I opt for the chunks because they chop up best which is a key step of Perfect CCC. You can however you any brand of dairy-free chocolate morsels you like. Even super dark chocolate will work, just check the ingredients to make sure there isn’t any milk added.

Sugars: Do NOT, I repeat, do not use Trader Joe’s cane sugar or brown sugar. I love their olive oil for this recipe, but their organic cane sugar and brown sugar does not cut it. I’ve had multiple people, including myself, use these two sugars and say their cookies didn’t turn out. The sugars are not granulated enough. I don’t know quite how to explain it, but they are too corse and lead to a weird texture in the cookie. I have not tested this recipe with coconut sugar so I can not speak to how that will work.

*Fluffing stage: After using the cookie scoop, I give the cookies a “fluff.” Simply just rough the cookies up a bit so more chocolate chips are showing on the top and they are more rustic looking balls of dough instead of perfectly scooped. Then sprinkle with Maldon and more chocolate if needed.

Annie

And if you want all the butter and gluten, look no further.

Bites of My Life

Cassie and Colton, are we on board? I think I am. The only thing I’m hating is that my Monday’s are now empty without The Bachelor. However, tonight is the first of my friends and my book club! We’ve been wanting to start one for a while and over the past month we read Educated as our first book. Any suggestions on our next book?

-Spring has me eating and craving all the fruit. Apple and berries with a squeeze of lemon and ground flax on repeat for breakfast last week.
-Remember a few weeks ago when I accidentally died my hair strawberry blonde? Well, my sister/amateur hair colorist finally brought me back to my bright blonde roots.
-Spring also has me craving all the raw veggies. Veg and (double the) hummus for a working lunch on Friday.
-Thin Mint Brownies people.
-I had a r i p e avocado waiting for me to eat it. Sprinkle generously with EBTB seasoning for the best breakfast.
-They may be thin, but they are full of flavor. Thanks to my friend Miranda for letting me try out Thinsters. If you order, let me sway you in the direction of vanilla bean over chocolate chip.
-Lucky.
-Sweet and salty sourdough toast.
-Would you believe me if I told yo it’s gluten free and dairy free? Recipe coming this week!

Annie

Byte bite: I can’t get enough of his new album.

Thin Mint Brownies

I teased these brownies on my Instagram a few weeks back, but I was saving them to share until St. Patrick’s Day. I don’t know if the fact that the Thin Mint box is green or that when you think of mint you associate the color green, but when it comes to St. Patrick’s Day themed treats, several mint chocolate recipes come up.

A mint chocolate St. Patrick’s themed recipe I remember from growing up is when my sisters and I used to make little ice cream sandwiches from a scoop of mint chocolate ice cream between two Thin Mints. You would then wrap them individually in foil and freeze. The snack idea came from a March issue of the American Girl magazine, maybe circa 2000? Did anyone else get the American Girl magazine? Does anyone else associate mint chocolate with St. Patrick’s Day?

These brownies are insanely fudgey, but that’s how I like them. If you can’t do the mint chocolate thing, try my Perfect Fudge Brownies by themself!

Thin Mint Brownies:
yields 9 brownies

Ingredients:
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 tbsp. cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 sleeve of Thin Mints, roughly chopped (16 cookies)

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease and line an 8x8 pan with parchment paper and set aside.

Melt the butter and chocolate in a microwave safe bowl in 30 second increments until fully melted. Stirring between each 30 seconds. Make sure to scrape the bottom to keep from burning. In a separate bowl, use a whisk to beat sugar, eggs, and vanilla together. With a wooden spoon, stir in the melted chocolate mixture. Fold the flour, cocoa powder and salt into the mix.

Pour half of the batter into your prepared pan. Evenly distribute 1/2 of the chopped Thin Mints over the top. Repeat with the other half of the batter. I use a butter knife to help spread the batter over the cookie layer. Finish by distributing the rest of the chopped cookies over the top. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Support your co-workers daughter or your neighborhood Girl Scout and pick up a box of thin mints this week! Grab some Samoas while you’re at it for a batch of my Samoa Popcorn.

Annie

Bites of My Life

Lot’s of tile floor pics this week. I had more, but refrained from posting them. I think I need to start a #anniestilefloor hashtag for the amount of pictures I take in this exact spot. Lot’s of #anniestilefloor is showing up because lot’s a good food was and is going down these days. I’m reading a book that has a whole section on how food is medicine and what we eat, when we eat it, how we eat etc. can help cure a multitude of hormonal issues. That being said, lots of intentional recipes are being made and devoured!

Aside from food (always) I got extra time with my mini me this week, and had a double header of concerts this weekend. ‘Twas a good one!

Looking forward to The Bachelor finale tonight and tomorrow and celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in Dallas this weekend!

-Started the week with an egg craving. If you’ve been around here for a while, you know I go up and down and down and up with eggs. For a month I’ll eat them everyday and then one day I’ll wake up and almost gag getting them down and then won’t eat eggs for 6 months. Well, I’ve been off eggs for a few weeks, but decided this week I was going to try again. I made 6 1/2 minute jammy eggs and they were amazing. But then I made them again the next day and could barely get them down. Don’t ask. I don’t know why I’m so finicky with them. However, I posted on my stories about this and had several people say, they too, go through egg phases.
-Mardi Gras complete with a homemade King Cake from our baker at The Jones. Kind of one ups my homemade king cakes, but I’ll give it to the professional!
-Sweet Potato Lentil Dhal from one of my favorite cookbooks. Super cozy indian dish topped with avocado, yogurt, sesame seeds and toasted coconut.
-Really loved this brothy celery and chickpea soup I made for lunches last week.
-Elle, can you say puppies??
-Back to back concerts this weekend. Friday night with Ben Rector and Saturday night with my #1 music crush right now, Mt. Joy. After discovering them in Dallas a few weekends ago when they opened for RKS, I freaked out when I saw they would be in OKC. I’m Your Wreck and Sheep are my favorites. Do yourself a favor and jump on my bandwagon.
-Went a little protein pancake crazy this weekend. Woke up real early both days this weekend, starving none the less. These protein pancakes were equal parts filling as they were satisfying. Just 1 scoop vanilla protein, 1 egg, 1/4 cup water cooked in coconut oil topped with melted almond butter and cinnamon.
-Sunday Self Care <3 read my Sunday routine in yesterday’s post.
-Clean out the fridge meals are often my favorite. I pride myself on being able to repurpose leftovers like a champ. Seen here, I took leftover roasted broccoli, leftover corn tortillas, almond milk mozzarella and spinach to make a little quesadilla for lunch. I dipped it in a crema I made from leftover cashew yogurt, cilantro and cumin!

Annie

Music bite: just listen to them please!