cookie dough

Have I mentioned before that I love cookie dough? Remember the chocolate chip cookie dough brownie?

I have tried two new recipes involving cookie dough recently. First, let's deal with the one that didn't work out so well.

The name is super long:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough + Cupcake = The BEST Cupcake. Ever.

Quite a name, right!?! For me, the equation ended more like this:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough + Cupcake = Lots of potential. But fail.

Oh well! I'll try again!

The cookie dough looked great. There may or may not have been some major sampling at this point. ;-)


The recipe actually involves making cupcakes from a mix. I don't really ever make cakes from mixes because I don't like the flavors very much, but I figured it would save some time and not be as noticeable with cookie dough so I did it that way.
Still looking very promising!


And then they came out of the oven looking delicious!


The reviews of this recipe warned that the cupcakes wouldn't look done but to take them out anyway. Within a minute of being out the oven, I realized that they clearly hadn't been in the oven long enough. They had all sunk in way too much:


I still sampled, because it takes a lot to deter me from dessert, but they just weren't edible. Way underdone.


I haven't given up on this recipe yet, but next time I will make the cake from scratch and I will leave them longer in the oven.

The other cookie dough recipe I made was a much bigger success. And was much easier. And is vegan!! It's from Angela over at Oh She Glows: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough "Blizzard"



If the "vegan" description turned you off, I beg you to reconsider. You would have no idea these were vegan if I hadn't told you.

At this point, once again, there may have been some serious sampling. I couldn't even resist eating one between these two pictures. Just look at these!


Then you blend a frozen banana and a few tablespoons of cookie dough, add a few cookie dough balls and you have a blizzard!


I'm sorry for the quality of the pictures for this recipe. My camera has been acting up so I sent it in for repair. I'm lost without it and have to make do with my iPhone. (Although I do think it's doing a decent job.)


The best part of this recipe? Aside from the deliciousness of course... I got to use my Ninja blender! Still loving it! :-)

dessert obsession... and two healthy dishes

I have a few things to show you today. Let's start with the sweet stuff, shall we?!

My favorite classic flavor combination is vanilla and chocolate. Take that into baking dessert and we're talking about brownies with vanilla ice cream, chocolate fudge, and whipped cream. With the brownie preferably warm. One of my favorite ice cream flavors is Ben & Jerry's Half Baked that includes chunks of brownies and cookie dough. Imagine my excitement when I came across a Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownie recipe over at recipegirl.com!! I was slightly disappointed, maybe because my expectations were so high, but that doesn't prevent it from being a delicious indulgence that I would still recommend. Here is the result:

Now moving on to actual meals... I tried another recipe from my favorite daily food blog: dailygarnish.com. This Mexican Quinoa with Black Beans and Avocado looked good and I already had most of the ingredients so I made it just a few days after her. The only modification is that I had red quinoa, but I doubt that impacted it much. I thought this dish was really good. I never would have combined these ingredients on my own, but they worked really well together. You should try it. Super easy too.

And last, but not least, I made an oldie but goodie from allrecipes.com. Chicken breasts with balsamic vinegar and garlic served with mashed potatoes. Yum! Look for my comment (in 2008) to see what I change in the recipe... really just don't flour the chicken and add a bit of cornstarch mixed in with cold water at the end to thicken the sauce.

And I will end with this: would you believe that my new blender broke?! It overheated one day while I was making a smoothie. I used it, what, 3 times!?! Anyone know of a good blender I could buy that will actually last a while? Anyone?