Put the lime in the Coconut

and...

~Voila~

These cookies were divine. Absolutely heavenly. I made cookies for the ladies I visit teach last week. I always make chocolate chip cookies, and since I'm sick of them- they have to be too right?


I was torn between this Coconut Lime cookie and this Pumpkin Snickerdoodle cookie. I love pumpkin, and I love snickerdoodles- how could that be wrong? I was leaning towards the pumpkin cookie because I don't particularly enjoy the texture of coconut- I try to steer clear from it.

FORTUNATELY, Dan's Market was out of pumpkin so I was blessed to make this delicious treat. You must make these, today. Thank me later.

Coconut and Lime Sugar Cookies:

Adapted recipe by Lindsey Shumway

Original recipe by Two Peas and Their Pod

• 2 cups of whole wheat flour
• 1 1/4 cup of flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 t. Mexican Vanilla
  
• Zest of one lime
• 3 tbsp lime juice
• 1 cup of coconut
• Bowl of white sugar for rolling
  

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a silpat mat.

Combine the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Using a mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy.

Slice the vanilla bean down the center lengthwise without going all the way through the underside. Take your knife and scrape out all of the seeds from inside the bean, place the seeds into the sugar mixture. Add the egg, lime juice, and lime zest to the mixture then beat until well combined. Gradually add the dry mixture and the coconut to the sugar mixture and mix until combined. Don't over mix.

Roll dough into small balls then place the balls into a bowl of white sugar (about 1/2 cup); roll the balls in the sugar then place on the lined baking sheet about 1 1/2 inches apart.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and let cool on a baking rack. Enjoy.

The changes I made: brown sugar instead of white, split white flour for 1/2 white 1/2 wheat, increased total amount of flour by 1/2 cup.

Will you love this? I think so.

Pizza Pasta

My cute friend Courtney is looking for some easy new dinner recipes, and let's face it, who isn't? So I told her I'd post a couple easy delicious ones. This one is something I've made when friends come over because it's SO easy and a picky eater pleaser (um, Courtney). This is great to make when you have absolutely NO IDEA what to make.

8 ounces rotini pasta
1 pound lean ground beef
1 small onion, diced
1 (28 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
1 small onion, chopped
8 oz mushrooms
2 T butter
1 packet of spaghetti sause (powder)
4 ounces sliced pepperoni sausage
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
12 pepperoni saucers (optional)

Brown hamburger meat using Italian seasoning and garlic. Add spaghetti sauce and power packet. In separate pan saute onions and mushroom using butter and set on a plate lined with a paper towel to drain before adding to sauce. Season spaghetti sauce as you'd like but make sure it's delicious before adding combining in casserole. Begin boiling pasta, add a teaspoon of olive oil and a dash of salt. Cube pepperoni sausage and microwave for 15 seconds on a paper towel to get rid of excess grease. Combine sauce, noodles and pepperoni into a 9x13 inch casserole pan, top with pepperoni saucers and cheese then cook at 350 for 30 minutes.

Delish!

German Chocolate Oreo

I was looking for some fun recipes for Memorial Day the other day and found this fantastic recipe for German Chocolate Oreos...In a word, fab.

For this recipe you use half a bar of cream cheese and only part of the container of coconut pecan frosting, if you want to use the whole block of cream cheese you have to use two boxes of cake mix...freakin' enjoy these suckers.

(small batch-- makes about a dozen full Oreos)
For the cookies:
1 German Chocolate Cake mix
1/2 c. butter (or margarine) softened, NOT melted
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

For the frosting:
1/2 cube (or stick) butter, softened
4 oz. cream cheese
1-2 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp milk
1 container coconut topping (the kind in the plastic container by all the frostings)

Mix "cookie" ingredients together into cookie batter texture, roll into balls as big as desired (walnut size). Bake at 350 degrees for about 8-9 minutes. Do not over-cook (they may seem underdone but they aren't, you want them to be soft and chewy). Leave cookies on the baking sheet for at least 5 minutes after removing from oven. Allow to cool completely before adding frosting.

For the frosting: Mix butter and cream cheese with an electric beater until smooth. Add powdered sugar a little at a time, then add vanilla and milk. Keep adding powdered sugar to reach desired consistency. Mix equal part cream cheese frosting and coconut topping (you can do this any way you want- it doesn't have to be EXACTLY equal.. add more of the topping you like best). Assemble cookies by spreading with coconut/frosting mixture in the middle of 2 of the German Chocolate cookies. Serve with milk.

Lemon Bars

I've had more free time this semester. More time to try delicious recipes. Behold the lemon bar:

These lemon bars are great, I like lemon but I don't so much like tart. These have just the right about of lemon!


1 pkg. lemon cake mix
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg

Mix together until crumbly. Reserve one cup. Set aside. Spread remainder of crumbs in a 9x13 pan and bake 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

8 oz. pkg cream cheese
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1-2 tsp lemon rind
1 egg
1 cup sugar

Place remaining ingredients in a bowl; whip until fluffy and light. Spread over baked crumb mixture and crumble the reserved cup of crumbs over the top. Return to oven and bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Trust Me.

These are the absolute best chocolate chip cookies you've every had in your life. Really.

1 1/4 cups real butter
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 1/4 c. brown sugar packed
4 eggs
2 Tbsp. vanilla
6 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 bag semi sweet small chocolate chips
1/2 bag bitter sweet small chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugar, add eggs and vanilla, mix well. Mix dry ingredients and add to sugar mixture. Add chocolate chips. Scoop with small ice cream scoop. Bake at 325 for 8-9 minutes; for convection bake at 300 for 10 minutes. Do not over bake! You might think they look gooey, good, they're supposed to. Let them sit on the pan for five minute before placing on the cooling rack. Play around with chips if you'd like.

Deal of the Century!

So I got some two great deals today:

For $.40 a box....and angels sang.

A Slice of Heaven

This new red velvet cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory is absolutely lovely. I think it might be the best I've had there.
Although, I have not tried the pumpkin. That has rave reviews.

My husband, the chef

Doug makes dinner on Sundays- it's nice to have a break. Last week he made these buns to go with our hamburgers.


My friend Stacey said they were so pretty we should take pictures. Turns out, they are pretty!

To diet or not to diet...

This week, well month, has been all about breaking the rules of healthy living. Doug was just lecturing me about needed to find my own self motivation. The thing is, I need to be in a contest to eat healthy because my competitive side is much more interested in being successful than my healthy living side.

First it was cinnamon rolls two weeks ago, then banana pudding last week, then dream bar jellO and now....FUDGE. (there was some overlap with the last two)

All desire and capacity to eat healthy was squashed this week when we got a shipment of fudge from Doug's sister Julie. Julie is the all-time most fabulous maker of fudge. It's so creamy and wonderful that you have in your mind to eat just one piece and you end up with five. I had ever intention of taking some of the massive quantities we received to Doug's office to share, but I just couldn't. I don't know that I'm confident they would appreciate it like we do- and let me tell you, we appreciate it every night after super...and multiple times throughout the day!


Thanks Julie, for the flawless fudge. And thank you husband, for being sweet enough to your sister to get us some!



On the upside, a new gym opened by our house. I called about pricing and found out that our membership could actually be as low as $36/mo for both Doug and I. That's insane! On top of that we get the first three months free if we sign a contract.

We were paying $39/each at Lifetime before we canceled it a month or so ago. We are going to go look at it today and see if we think it's worth the deal- but I can't see how it wouldn't be. I have enjoyed doing yoga, but sometimes...especially after fudge, banana pudding and jell-O I feel like I just need an hour on the elliptical!

St. Patricks Day Mania

Check out this website for all your St. Patrick's day needs.

Valentine's Day with the Shumways

Doug and I decided that we aren't going to do anything for Valentines day... we are on a budget- and in preparation for Wicket, we're just trying to save up. So instead of Flemmings and Godiva we made Valentines Day cookies and decorated them, played volleyball and he helped me study for my Med Path test next week... ah, love.

This recipe was truely the best, Doug said it was as good as Granny B's...SUCCESS; a better than Granny B's review would be aiming too high.

We made so many cookies, that we decided to share the wealth around the community... so I hope they all like lots of frosting;)


Recipe:

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 cups sour cream
5 to 6 cups flour (until desired consistency for rolling)

Cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, vanilla and sour cream. Mix in dry ingredients. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Preheat oven to 425ºF.

Roll out dough to a 1/4 to 3/8 inch thickness using a generous amount of flour. Cut out shapes and bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Frost and decorate as desired. Yield: a dang lot

PS. These may look like they're not quite done when you take them out- but that's ideal... the perfect done-ness is just slightly golden on the bottom.

Valentines Day Cookies

Doug and I have made sugar cookies for several different occasions over the last couple years... Halloween, Christmas... just because...

We've used a different recipe everytime and Doug is never satisfied...ever. He thinks the perfect sugar cookie is Granny B's and nothing else will do.


I learned, through extensive research that the cake-like texture of Granny B's can only be achieved through sour cream.

So here goes the sour cream cookie- I'll let you know how it turns out.