almond joy cookies

My friend Rose and I went out for a quick dinner the other night at Great Harvest, a local soup and sandwich kind of place. As part of our meals, we could pick a cookie. They were specialing a new cookie that they called an Almond Joy Cookie. We thought they were pretty scrumptious, and I thought I could easily duplicate the idea. So I did. And they were yummy. I took them to a work party, and they were quite a hit. Hooray! This recipe's a keeper.

It's basically just an oatmeal cookie with chocolate chips, almonds and coconut added in.  Any yummy oatmeal cookie recipe should work.  But for my own benefit and for future reference, this is the recipe I used. 

RECIPE: Almond Joy Cookies

Yield: 

3 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 c. butter, soft

1 c. firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 c. sugar

1 egg

1/4 c. water

1 tsp vanilla

1 c. flour

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

3 c. uncooked oats

1 bag (2 c?) chocolate chips

1 c. slivered almonds

4 oz shredded coconut

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F. Beat together butter, sugars, egg, water and vanilla until creamy. Add flour, salt and soda. Mix well. Stir in oats, chocolate chips, almonds and coconut. Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheet/stone. Bake at 375F for 12-15 minutes. 

pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

RECIPE: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
1 c pumpkin puree
1 c sugar
1/2 c canola oil
1 egg
2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 c (1 pkg) semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Mix all ingredients until well-incorporated (usually wet first, mix, then add dry, mix, then add choc chips). Bake on a cookie sheet or stone at 350F for 10 minutes.

chocolate banana muffins

This recipe originally comes from a food blog I frequent, For the Love of Cooking. The concept of adding cocoa powder to banana muffins was super appealing to me, so I decided to give it a try. I changed a few things {adding a few ingredients... skipping a few steps...etc.}, but the recipe is mostly hers. It was a success! We all loved them, and James {let's be honest... Derek} didn't even know that they were good for him. :)

RECIPE: Chocolate Banana Muffins

Yield: 2 dozen muffins

Ingredients:

1 egg

2-3 ripe bananas

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. white sugar

1/3 c. canola oil

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 c. cocoa

1/4 c. flax seed meal

1 1/2 c. flour

1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix first set of ingredients, whisking well. Then add dry ingredients, minus the chocolate chips {you could and probably should pre-mix these dry ingredients separately, but I never do... who needs another dirty bowl??} and mix/whisk well. Fold in the chocolate chips. Then spray muffin tins with non-stick spray and spoon the batter into greased muffin tins. Bake at 350F for 20-ish minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool on a rack and then gobble 'em up!

chocolate mug cake

This recipe came from Aubrey via our mommy blog, Young Wives' Tales. I have no idea if it is hers alone or if she got the idea elsewhere, but it's so. darned. good. Really. You nuke the stuff right in the mug... I know! It takes less than two minutes and comes out all sorts of chocolatey and gooey and devine. No more worrying about having tons of leftover cake to devour and/or waste... we're talkin' single portions, people! Try it. It really is that good.



RECIPE: Chocolate Mug Cake

Ingredients:
5 Tbsp. flour
2 Tbsp. cocoa powder
4 Tbsp. sugar
1/8 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt

3 Tbsp. milk
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 tsp. vanilla

1/4 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Mix the dry ingredients together in your mug of choice. Then add the milk, oil and vanilla. Stir well, making sure to get all the flour mixed in from the bottom corners.

Set your microwave to 2 minutes. Microwave for about 1 minute, 45 seconds. Stop around 50 seconds to let deflate; then continue cooking. Check to make sure the cake is cooked through {by sticking a toothpick into the center; it won't be clean but should have some residual goo, like when checking brownies}.

Top with chocolate chips. Mix it all together if you want {this is best, imo}. Have milk on handy, as it's wonderfully rich. And mmm.... enjoy.

Serves: 1*

Calories: 444

*(unless you share, and you may want to)