Cookie Butter Stuffed Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yes.  This sounds ridiculous.  It is delicious.  And not at all good for you.

Have you ever browned butter? You should do it.  It's tricky, but it's worth it.  And cookie butter?  Yeah, try that, too. Trader Joe's has it, but it's basically biscoff spread. I recommend you eat it by the spoonful.

For this recipe, scoop out some spoonfuls and stick them on a plate.  About 1/2-1 tsp full.  Throw that in the freezer while you prepare the rest of the cookie dough.

You're going to brown your butter next.  Heat a small saucepan over medium low heat and toss the butter in.     When butter melts, whisk constantly until tiny brown bits appear at the bottom of the pan, about 4-7 minutes.  Remove from heat immediately to prevent from burning.  Set aside and allow to cool 10 minutes or so.

Cookie Butter Stuffed Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from How Sweet It Is

1 1/2 sticks (12 tbsp) of butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg + 1 egg yolk @ room temp

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups + 2 tbsp AP flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup chocolate chips

1/4-1/2 cup cookie butter

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  

Add cooled butter to bowl/mixer.  Mix in sugars until smooth.  Add the egg + egg yolk, vanilla extract and mix.  Add the flour, baking soda, and salt, and mix until a dough forms.  It'll be a little dry, but it comes together.  Add chocolate chips.

Using scooper, spoons, or hands, roll 2 tbsp of dough into a ball, and stuff frozen cookie butter inside.  Should be a little smaller than a golf ball.  Place on a baking sheet, and bake for 12-14 minutes.  Let cool, then remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack.  Try not to burn your face ;)

I made these cookies for our superbowl party.  Unfortunately, since there was OMGSOMUCHFOOD, they are still left in my kitchen.  I say unfortunately because that means I'm going to eat them. LOL  Sending them into work ASAP.  That is, if I can pry them from Sean's sticky fingers!

Sausage, Peppers, and Onions

aka, easiest meal everrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I think I need to put this on the meal plan every week.  Takes 15 minutes, is easy, delicious, cheap, and healthy.  All I do is win, win, winnnnnnnnn

Ingredients:
Sausage (duh)
Peppers (duh again)
Onions (well, yeah, duh)
EVOO or coconut oil
Worcestershire (how the hell do you say that!)
Balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper

Don't measure anything.  Open container of sausages.  Chop up into bite size pieces.  (Unless you have to cook your sausage first, if so, do that).  Brown sausages in skillet on stove top.  Or on grill if it's nice where you are.  It's too damn cold here (and no SNOW! wtf).  Might want to add a little EVOO so they don't burn.  Chop up peppers and onions.  Saute them with EVOO, S&P in another skillet on stove top (or if you're lazy and don't want to wash two, wait til sausages are done, remove them to a plate, and re-use that one).  Put sausages back in skillet with peppers and onions.  Guesstimate about 1-2 tbsps each of Worcestershire and balsamic and sprinkle over top.  Cook for 2 minutes to heat everything through.  Serve and bask in deliciousness.

BAM!

Merry (belated) Christmas!

Our Christmas Card

Only in Philly

Back in November, Sean and I had the opportunity to attend this gala for charity.  He donated a bunch of membership/personal training for his gym, and they gave us free tickets, yay!

Aren't we cute?

Anyways, one of the items up for auction was 4 tickets to an Eagles game.  Probably because the Eagles suck this year (and every year).  But they were playing the Bengals, Sean's friend's favorite team.   So we bid on them.  And won! Whoop! Go charity!

The game was last week.  Didn't realize it was a Thursday Night Football game when we bought the tix, but we made it work.  ;)

Headed up early to go to Xfinity Live and get some cheesesteaks.  If you haven't checked out that place yet, you should.  It's pretty awesome.  Except for the cover charge, line to get in, and pat down...wtf?

Nom Nom Nom Cheesesteak (it was seriously delicious)

Headed over to Lincoln Financial Field!  I totally found $10 in the street on the walk over.

The game was terrible.  Seats were pretty awesome, but every scoring play in the first quarter was on the OTHER SIDE OF THE FIELD.  Come on, man!  Then they switched sides, and the Bengals decided they were going to start scoring.  Killed me.  We finally got to see some action in our endzone for the fourth quarter.  We moved closer to get a better view, since all the "die hard Eagles fans" were peacing out of there.

Check this out.

Apparently they don't joke around in Philly.  Security kicked out some Bengals fans for cheering.  Cheering for a team that's not the Eagles.  I mean they were semi-drunk and maybe disorderly, but they weren't bothering anyone! Oy.

Obligatory cute picture:

Got home super late, and we all went to work in the morning.  I felt like garbage from eating/drinking out of the norm.  Yay for recovery weekends!

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Hope you had a good thanksgiving!  We spent it at home, then went out to brave Black Friday in Delaware (no taxes!).  Got a lot of deals on stuff for ourselves, notsomuch for Christmas gifts.  Terrible.

We started out our Thanksgiving with Murph.  If you aren't familiar:
1 mile run

100 pullups

200 pushups

300 squats

1 mile run

Yeah.

I finished in an hour, with modified pullups and pushups.  Sean got in under 56 minutes, RX'd with the hands to prove it.

After we laid on the ground for awhile, we had some mimosas and MANmosas.  And finished the entire bottle of champagne.  Oops.

I made the most delicious thanksgiving turkey EVER.  No lie.  I made a sweet tea brine and left it in there for a day and a half.  We're still eating the leftovers. nomnomnom

So good.

And I kicked off the baking season with some oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies.  With mini oreos.  I didn't feel like having monsterous cookies laying around the house. ;)

Got to meet our new nephew, and hang out with this cutie on Saturday.

That doll had the worst hair.

If you are religious, please pray for this little one.  She's been in the hospital having seizures since Wednesday night.  The doctors are still trying to figure out what is wrong with her so they can treat it.  :(

Pumpkin Sweet Potato Pierogies

If it's not obvious by now, in this household we love everything pumpkin.  I think that the food manufacturers may have gone a little crazy with that obsession this season, but that's neither here nor there... And it's not an issue we really have to deal with, since I avoid all that processed crap anyways.  ;)

I'll stick with my pumpkin beer and homemade pumpkin baked goods, thankyouverymuch!

I had seen Mrs T's sweet potato pierogies in the store last month, and this prompted Sean to ask if I could make pumpkin pierogies.  Hmm.  Never heard of such a thing!  Wheels started turning, I stumbled upon a recipe for pumpkin raviolis, how about that?  Nope, had to be pierogies.

Okay then.  Pierogies it is!  Inspired by Mrs T's, I used sweet potato instead of regular potato filling...it worked beautifully.  And roasting the garlic really puts this over the top.  I have the other half of the batch frozen, waiting to be eaten.  Thank God Hurricane Sandy didn't knock out our power!  Would have been forced to toss 'em or grill 'em.  Hmm, but then again... grilled pierogies wouldn't be the worst thing in the world!

This recipe may seem intimidating, but it's really pretty simple.  Possibly a little time consuming, definitely a little messy, but from someone who's never made homemade pierogies/ravioli/NOODLES in my life, it was definitely easy enough.  And ABSOLUTELY worth the time/mess/cleanup.  You won't regret it.

Pumpkin Sweet Potato Pierogies
(makes about three dozen)

For the dough:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup plain yogurt or sour cream (low-fat or fat free.. it’s runnier, and makes the dough easier to work with)
1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp. melted butter
1/2 tsp. salt

For the filling:
1 cup of canned pumpkin
1 cup of roasted sweet potatoes (about 2 small or 1 medium potato)
6 pieces of bacon, cooked + the grease yielded from frying
2 whole heads of garlic, roasted until soft and dark golden
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
Salt, to taste

Roast the sweet potatoes and garlic in the oven before starting.  I put the oven on 400 degrees and just tossed them in there on a cookie sheet.  To make it easier to get to the roasted garlic once it's cooked, cut the tops off, so all the cloves are exposed.  When the potatoes are finished, the skin will peel right off.  The potatoes took an hour, the garlic was done around 30 minutes.

Make the dough:
Combine all your dough ingredients in a large bowl, and stir until a dough is formed. Get in there with your hands and mix well.  It will be a stiff dough, and you will need to knead it at first.  Knead for about two minutes, then let rest in a bowl covered with a dish cloth, for about an hour. The goal here is for the flour to absorb with the moisture of the wet ingredients, and to bring the dough to room temperature, making it easier to roll out.

While the dough rests, make the filling:
Combine all filling ingredients (pumpkin, sweet potato, bacon, grease, roasted garlic, parm cheese, pepper, nutmeg) in food processor.  Pulse until smooth, then taste. Add salt or more seasonings if needed.

Once it's at room temp, divide the dough into two pieces, rolling the first out until it’s about 1/8-inch thick, same as a pie crust.

Using a cookie cutter or a glass (about two inches in diameter), stamp out rounds of dough.  You can do this multiple times to get the most out of the dough.  Do the same with the second half.  I got about 32 rounds, total.

Stretch each round out a little bit, and then let it sit like a taco in the crook of your hand. Fill each round with about a teaspoon and a half of filling.  Pinch it together along the outside, but don’t squeeze the middle. Your first couple of attempts at this might be messy – that’s okay. Just freeze those ones.

To cook, caramelize some onions in butter with some bacon.  Bring a pot of salted water to a boil, then drop your pierogies in. They’ll be ready when they float to the top. It won’t take long--5 minutes or so.  When they’re done, drop them into the onion pan, and coat with the butter/onion/bacon sauce.

Enjoy!  Since this makes a lot, you can freeze the rest.  To cook from frozen, you can either fry them in butter until the outsides are crisp and golden, or bake them at 425 for 15 minutes.  Spray/brush with melted butter first.

Delicious!

And, for the record, this is how we spent our days off due to Hurricane Sandy:

Snuggles with Yankee.  No complaints here!  :)

Paleo Pumpkin Pancakes

Paleo Pumpkin Pancakes
Adapted from: Balanced Bites
Makes 8 small pancakes or 2 servings

 4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2 tablespoons butter  
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
10 drops liquid stevia
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch salt (omit if using salted butter)

Preheat griddle/skillet.  Whisk the eggs, canned pumpkin, and vanilla extract together.  Add in stevia if using. Add the pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and baking soda into the wet ingredients.

Brown 2 tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, until foamy and brown bits form on the bottom (use this tutorial!).  Then, mix the butter into the batter.  Grease the skillet with coconut oil and spoon the batter into the skillet to make pancakes of your desired size (keep them smaller--like 3 inches diameter--to make it easier to turn). When a few bubbles appear, and edges are browned, flip the pancakes once to finish cooking.

Makes 8 small pancakes or 2 servings

You can add maple syrup as sweetener if you like, but the stevia worked great!  I don't think these really need any additional sweetness. 

As you can see, I served them to Sean with pumpkin butter and maple syrup.  I ate mine on the go, right off the griddle :)  They were delicious, and don't really need topping, but it certainly doesn't hurt!

I've been getting up to run before work about once a week.  I'll get another run in on a week night, and am trying for a long run on weekends/days off.  So far, so good!  The good thing about getting up early to run, means I apparently have tons of time to do other stuff in the morning.  Like make these pancakes.  Who doesn't like fresh pancakes before work?

I've found the key to getting out of bed on time is laying out my clothes to go running in.  Also my work clothes.  I never do this, but it really does save time, and definitely helps with motivation.  I also bought a jacket strictly for running, so it's warm enough for the chilly mornings, and I don't have to worry about overwashing/sweating/ruining my other sweatshirts.  And hopefully it'll help people see me in the dark with those obnoxious sleeves!

I left these two behind...

That FACE!

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Running has been going great.  We did a few miles after softball on Saturday and I was off work yesterday (thanks Columbus!) so I ran 5k after I got to sleep in for a bit.

Being fall and all, I got an acorn squash in our bi-weekly Suburban Organics shipment last week.  I never thought I'd cook with this, but now that I had it, I needed a recipe! 

I had looked over this recipe on my google reader a few weeks ago, but when I went back to search, it caught my attention.  Seemed pretty easy, and it could use up some (one) of my apples from apple picking!  Oh, plus it has kale hidden in there.  Bonus points!

Stuffed Acorn Squashes
Source: Cave Woman Cafe

2 acorn squash, cut in half and de-seeded
1 pound of ground sausage
1 tablespoon of coconut oil
1/2 onion chopped
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 large apple, cubed
2-3 cups of fresh kale chopped
¼ cup of chopped pecans
2 eggs
2 tablespoons of milk or coconut milk
1 tablespoon of fresh rosemary, finely chopped
shredded cheddar cheese to melt over top

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Cut stems off squashes and a little off the bottom so they sit flat.  After halving, and scooping out the seeds, rub some coconut or EVOO on squash and bake cut side down in a baking pan for 20 to 30 minutes till a knife easily penetrates the skin.  (This will depend on the size of your squash--mine was good at 20 min)  Remove the pan and let the squash cool a little bit.  Flip them over so they're ready to be stuffed!  Set the oven temperature to 400 degrees.

While the acorns are cooking, heat up a skillet on medium high and brown the sausage, onion and garlic till the sausage is just done. Toss in the kale and apples and cook a few minutes till the kale wilts. Stir in the nuts and rosemary.

In a bowl, whip up the eggs and milk and stir into the sausage mixture. Stuff the squash with the sausage mix as full as you can get them. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.  In the last 2-3 minutes, add some cheese if you'd like.

Eat!
________________________________________________________________________________
This came out much better then I expected.  The acorn squash is kind of a mix between butternut and spaghetti squash.  Sweet like butternut, but texture is more a cross between that and spaghetti.  The sausage/apple/kale mixture is delicious.  Sean said this was something he would never have pictured himself eating and liking as a kid.  Look at me, broadening palates ;)

I got TONS of apples when we went apple picking last week, but they're almost all gone.  I might have an excuse to go back!  Here's my adorable niece I got to meet up with:

She kept taking a bite out of every apple she pulled off the trees!  too.damn.cute.

Early Morning Run - SUCCESS!

So, the new run plan started today.  5:00 the alarm went off, I rolled out of bed (much to my own surprise), and got dressed. 

Holy crap was it dark out.  It was super creepy.  Notgonnalie, I definitely looked over my shoulder a few times to make sure no one was following me.  And may or may not have side-eyed a few of the other early risers in the neighborhood.

It was also super disgusting and humid.  Just perfect weather to run in, right?!

I managed 2 full laps around the neighborhood in 25 minutes.  Naturally, my runkeeper app decided not to work correctly, so I don't know exactly how far I went or at what pace.   I'm going with 2-2.5 miles.  And hopefully slower then a 10 minute pace!  I kept making myself slow down when I'd pick up the speed. 

The run itself felt great!  I wore long sleeves, so I was a sweaty beast by the time I got back to the house.  Yum. 

I then showered, walked Yank, made breakfast, and walked out the door, EARLY for work! Whoop!  That never never happens.  And I got to rock out to Gangnum Style on the way to work.  Fist pumping before 7am is allowed, right?

It's going to be a good day.  :)  I think I could get used to this!

The New Running Plan

Contrary to the title of my blog, I don't love running.  I like it until everything hurts and then I just want to collapse, catch my breath, and give my jell-o legs a break.  However, I force myself to do it, because I want to like it, but I just can't get on the bandwagon.  I pretty much dread each run, and even though I feel awesome once it's over, it's frustrating that it's not getting any easier, and I'm not getting any better at it.

After some super official research (google, duh), I've determined that I am pushing myself too hard.  Trying to get less then 10:00 minute miles, keeping up with Sean, gasping to breathe at the end of each run isn't doing me any favors.

Sean's cousin ran with us last month and mentioned how my breathing got really bad towards the end of the 3 miles, which probably means my heart rate is out of control.  I should probably work on that. 

So!  I'm going to run slower.  Take it down a notch, try to enjoy the activity without being so competitive.  This is going to involve running by myself, before the sun rises, a few days a week.  I'm super stoked about the waking up early part...not.  I'll pair this with crossfit WODs in the evening and maybe use it to have some "me" time...or just try to get it done before my body wakes up and figures out wtf I'm doing to it! 

I plan to (eventually) increase my distance, as well as slowing down my pace.  I REALLY want to do a Tough Mudder next year, so it would be helpful if I was able to, you know, run the whole 10+ miles. 

Hopefully some road time to myself will help me focus on my breathing, perfect my form, and start enjoying myself, instead of counting down the minutes til it's over.

I'm going to try eating 1-2 scrambled eggs (fat + protein) before I go out, then have either a protein shake or some pumpkin protein pancakes (protein + carbs) afterwards.  I'm going to have to come up with a recipe for that one, so I'll make sure to post it once it's been perfected ;)

Wish me luck!  (and motivation to get out of bed when my alarm goes off!)

All those mocha lattes...