Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Bites

I'm obsessed with Laura Bars...my favorite is their chocolate peanut butter bar. At $1.79 a pop things can add up quickly, so I decided to make my own. It looked simple enough, right? It was! My version is refined sugar-free and packed with protein. They are the perfect treat! 

Ingredients:

15 soft pitted dates

2 tbsp. smooth peanut butter (raw or regular)

1 tsp. water

1/2 peanuts

1/4 tsp. sea salt

1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips or cacao nibs

1 cup shredded coconut

Instructions:

Blend pitted dates, peanut butter and water in a food processor until the mixture turns into a coarse paste. You may need to add more water depending on the brand of peanut butter you use (some pb's are drier than others).

Add peanuts, salt and chocolate chips to the food processor. Pulse a few times to incorporate the ingredients and break the peanuts into smaller pieces.

Take spoonfuls of the mixer and roll into 2-inch balls. Roll each ball in finely shredded coconut and place on a plate.

Refrigerate for 20 minutes or until ready to serve.

*I usually keep these in the refrigerator for the whole week and grab one whenever a sweet craving hits.  

Seventh Tea Bar

I heard great things about the Seventh Tea Bar and wanted to check it out. We had a friends birthday coming up so we thought it would be fun to take her to Seventh for a Grand Service. It was gorgeous! They have an amazing selection of tea! We decided on the jasmine pearl green tea and oolong, both were wonderful but I'm a sucker for jasmine. Our server even brought us a timer so we could steep our tea to perfection. 

This place is so cute! Both indoor and outdoor seating are available -- marble tables, bright chairs and industrial looking chandeliers on the inside or tiny cafe tables under a vine covered pergola on the outside. Very charming and relaxing, exactly the place you would hope to drink your tea. 

We were served shrimp rolls with fresh dill, creme fraiche, avocado, and diakon sprouts; fluffy pretzel bread with pesto, house-made apricot jam and ricotta; earl grey truffles; a mini citrus chamomile tart with tangerine curd and chamomile cream and salted caramel mousse cup... all handmade from the Seventh kitchen. Wow! Such a fun experience.

Pictures Via: A Bit of Bees Knees, Seventh Tea Bar Banner, SOCO {last picture}

Rose Infused Greek Yogurt with Dates, Oats, Berries, Walnuts & Fresh Mint

Ingredients:

1 1/5 cups Greek yogurt
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp rosewater
2 tbsp oats
2 tbsp crushed walnuts
1 tbsp chopped dates
small handful of berries
sprig of mint

Directions:
Super simple. Mix the Greek yogurt, honey and rosewater together in a small bowl or cup. Add the oats, walnuts, dates and berries {you can add them on top or get fancy and layer them with the yogurt}. Sprinkle with mint.
*I used a big sprig of mint for the sake of a pretty picture, but I would suggest finely chopping it.

Such a fun, flavorful and healthy breakfast...

Candied Orange Peels with Clove and Cinnamon

Ingredients

2 oranges

water

½ cup sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. clove

{+extra cinnamon and sugar for rolling}

Directions:

Peel 2 oranges and cut the peels into strips.

Boil the orange peels in water for 15 minutes. Change the water 3 times {to get rid of the bitter taste}.

Pour out the last round of bitter water into the sink.

Add 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp. cinnamon and 1 cup of water to the orange peels and boil slowly for another 15 minutes. Take out the orange peels and place them on a baking rack with wax paper underneath. The excess glaze will drip onto the wax paper for easy clean up. Once the orange peels are cool enough to handle, roll them in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar and place back on the rack until they have hardened.

Potluck Time

One of my wonderful neighbors Tamara Miyao, recently started a fabulous website called Potluck Time -- dedicated to sharing delicious potluck recipes that she has created and collected over the years. 

"There’s nothing better than coming together with friends and family to share food and fun times. Many of my favorite recipes were gifts from others. And there is nothing more flattering than when I've made a dish that others want to make and share at their next potluck. My hope is that this will become your source for inspiring, delicious recipes."
- Tamara 

Here are links to some of here tasty recipes!

Brownies with Peanut Butter Frosting and Salted Peanuts
Tater Tot Breakfast Strata
Apricot Walnut Bites

Thai Peanut Slaw
Edamame Salad
Sweet and Saltines
Spinach Cranberry Salad
Chocolate Cookies with Peanut Butter Chips
Bacon Wrapped Cream Cheese Stuffed Peppers

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Deviled Eggs

Mango Chutney and Cream Cheese Appetizer

Pizza Dip

Salsa Dip

Stuffed Mushrooms

Grilled Corn Salad

Spaghetti Pie

Portabello Burgers

Spinach Cheese Strata

Key Lime Pie

6 Layer Bars

Carrot Cake

Grandma’s Chocolate Eclair Cake

Irish Oatmeal Cake

Good luck with Potluck Time Tamara! I can't wait to try all your yummy recipes!

~Brittany

Peanut Butter Mousse with Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans

This treat is definitely not kind to your hips, but it's OK to splurge once in awhile right? Sometimes I get cravings for some sweet, creamy peanut butter...this is heaven. And the bitter coffee beans add the perfect complimenting crunch.

Ingredients:

Peanut Butter Mousse

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup coconut cream

2 T creamy peanut butter

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp granulated sugar

Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans

1 cup chocolate chips

1 tbsp canola oil

1/2 cup whole vanilla coffee beans

Directions:

Mousse

Whip all ingredients together in a medium size bowl with electric beaters until smooth and semi-fluffy. Pour mixture into individual cups and place in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans

Melt 1 cup of chocolate chips with 1 tbsp. canola oil in microwaveable bowl for 30 seconds. Stir. Add more time if needed. Chocolate should have a drizzling consistency. 

Pour whole coffee beans into the melted chocolate. Stir with a fork to make sure the beans are evenly coated with chocolate. Scoop out the beans with a fork, tapping any excess chocolate off the beans. Place the beans on a lined {silpat mat or wax paper} cookie sheet.

Place chocolate covered beans in the freezer until hard.

Chai Latte With A French Press {Using Coffee}

So traditionally chai lattes are made with a spiced black tea...."Chai TEA latte" but we're getting crazy here with this recipe and using coffee instead! I made this yesterday and it was marvelous -- so much flavor! What a special treat to start your day off right!

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 cup coffee grounds

1 1/2 tsp. ground ginger

4 thin slices of fresh ginger

3 aniseed stars

1 tbsp. cinnamon + extra for sprinkling 

1 tbsp. cardamom

1 tsp. whole allspice

1/8 tsp. ground clove {whole clove optional}

pinch of salt

pinch of pepper

4 cups hot water

1/2 cup evaporated milk {=1/4 cup into each mug}

1/4 cup condensed milk  {=2 tbsp. into each mug}

Whipped cream

Directions:

Combine coffee grounds and spices in a French press. Add hot water and give it a good stir. Let steep for 5 minutes. Then place the lid on the French press and gently push the sifter making sure the spices and coffee grounds stay below the seal. Pour the spiced coffee into drinking cups or mugs. Now add evaporated and condensed milk among the cups.

Top with whipped cream and sprinkle with cinnamon.

* Honestly I like both chai {coffee or tea}...if you're looking for a bold flavor, you'll love this coffee version. If you prefer a smoother taste I suggest substituting 6 black tea bags in replace of the 1 cup of coffee grounds for a tradition chai tea latte.

Picture:French press with spoon

Pirch Cooking Class

Last Saturday Dan and I took a free cooking class at Pirch {it's this super beautiful home design and fixtures wonderland. No joke.}. This place is amazing, even if you aren't a home owner, it's great to get ideas and look at all the purdy things. Dan and I are in the middle of building two rental houses, so we like to walk around this place and dream of the day when the houses will be finished or better yet, dream of the day when we can move into our own home someday {I love the little house we are renting, but it'll be nice to have a place we can officially call our own}. Oh I'll take that granite counter top and the built in espresso machine please -- if money only grew on trees right? Every square inch of the Pirch is spectacular!

So as I was saying. We signed up for a FREE cooking class! As soon as we entered the Pirch we were greeted by some lovely baristas offering us fancy coffee! What? Can we live here? Then two chefs gathered us for a walk to the local SOCO Farmers Market where we learned about organic farming and free range livestock. After sampling cocoa almonds, blood oranges and avocado honey we walked back to the Pirch to begin our cooking lesson.

Our awesome chefs John and Craig.

        Me and Danny concentrating on choppin' veggies. 

Eggs over sautéed kale and chard. Dan's new favorite dish...he's made it twice this week! I love it when he cooks! I even managed to take it to work with us {hot out of the oven}! I looked semi- ridiculous carrying a hot pan to my car in the morning, oven mitt and all. Worth it.

It was a fantastic class and a great start to our weekend. I can't believe they offer it for free! So cool. A big thanks to the Pirch for being so amazing. We had a lot of fun! 

Pictures 1,8,15 and 16 thepirch.com

Our Thanksgiving!

 

^^^I know it's a tad on the late side, but I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving! We had Thanksgiving with my Parents and our HUGE extended family. So, I might have gone a bit overboard with all these pictures of the table, but I think my Mom did and amazing job -- she should be a party planner...right?

 

 

^^^We reused the candle holders from our wedding. What a great investment...I think we've used them for every party since then!

 

              

                        ^^^Mom...you are killing me with the bitty butterflies and acorns! Too cute!

 

 

^^^ My cousin Charlie and hubby Dan. Dan teases Charlie for being a frat boy and Charlie teases Dan for being a surfer...basically they love each other. 

 

 

^^^My Dad is the turkey master. Our family loves to have potluck style dinners -- everyone brings their favorite dish. We have a huge family, so having one person cook the entire meal would be insane. I was in charge of bringing pureed candied yams and rosemary potatoes and carrots. I really got into it and sprung for the fancy multi colored carrots at Traders. Is it weird that I was excited about carrots? 

 

 

Because no Grams party is complete without a coffee station and butter cookies...^^^ Nice Mom ;)

 

 

^^^Meet my Family. Mom is up front and Dad is at the other end. Everyone in between is an Uncle, Aunt or cousin + about 20 more not pictured! My mom was the youngest of 8 kids and Dad was the oldest of 3 kids...who all grew up and had 2-6 kids of their own. So family holiday parties are of epic proportions.

 

 

^^^One of my Aunts always brings a box of See's Candy. It's sort of a tradition for family gatherings...one that I take full advantage of {I secretly snuck the rest of the box home when everyone had left}. And on the right is my Danny. This is what his face permanently looks like. ^^^

 

^^^And then we had a Friendsgiving with all of our friends who were still in town. We originally were going to have it in our tiny house {in the backyard},  but it rained all day, so my parents offered their house. How nice :) Well that made things super easy....everything was still set up from Thanksgiving, so we just cooked a new turkey and everyone pitched in with leftovers.

 

 

 

^^^The table looks so different at night! I love me some ambiance and candles!

 

                                          And then we had hot cider and beers in the backyard^^^

It was a great Thanksgiving! We have SOOOOO much to be thankful for! I/we couldn't be more blessed.

P.S. It is now officially CHRISTMAS TIME!

Woot Woot. Lets go get a Christmas tree!