Category: Breakfast

Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies

Leave a comment

Hey guys! I’m so excited because it’s Christmas Eve tomorrow!! And so to celebrate Christmas Eve Eve, we’ve got to have some more cookies! If you thought I could let a holiday season go by without making any sort of peanut butter recipe, then you would be mistaken. Peanut butter is still one of my favourite things on the planet, and so I had to make a delicious cookie using it!

I was inspired by the Kraft peanut butter cookie recipe, which I make a lot for my family. It’s super simple, using only peanut butter, sugar, and an egg, but I wanted to make it a bit healthier, and also add a super fun and delicious surprise inside! So I started by mixing together some oat flour, natural peanut butter, an egg, and some maple syrup. Natural peanut butter is one of my best discoveries over the past few years- you get all of the pure, peanut flavour without any added hydrogenated oils, sugar, or maltodextrin! If you haven’t already, make the switch because it’s definitely worth it:) Oat flour is another thing that’s great to have on hand; it’s just ground up oats. I keep a little bit in a small bag so it’s ready to use in speedy recipes like this!

Mixed up together, the ingredients make a nice dough that is easily rolled up into balls. This is where the surprise comes in! I stuck a frozen blueberry in each dough ball and then covered it with dough, flattening the whole thing a bit with my hand. The blueberry gets nice and melty and gooey in the oven, making for a super tasty centre and sort of a peanut butter and jam combo. The cookie itself is delicious as well! And they only bake for about 15 minutes, so they’re the perfect last-minute Christmas treat, either for Christmas day, or maybe after all the business is over and you want to relax with a peanut-buttery snack.

Enjoy these simple and tasty cookies!!:)

Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies

Serves: Makes 9 Cookies

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1/3 cup creamy, unsalted natural peanut butter
  • 2/3 cup oat flour
  • 3 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1 egg
  • 9 frozen blueberries

Directions:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Mix together the peanut butter, oat flour, maple syrup and egg in a medium sized bowl.
  3. Take a tablespoon sized amount of dough and roll it into a ball. Place a frozen blueberry in the centre, then roll again so that the blueberry is completely covered by dough. Put the ball of dough on a parchment lined baking sheet, and flatten slightly using your fingers. Repeat until you have 9 cookies on the sheet.
  4. Bake the cookies for 15-18 minutes, until golden brown on the bottom.
  5. Cool completely and enjoy!

Have an amazing Christmas everybody! I’ll have a recipe coming oat on Christmas Day so make sure you check it out if you want a fun snack to make with your family. I hope you all spend time with loved ones and have a great holiday:))

Yours Truly,

Olivia:)))

Chocolate Tahini Snowballs

2 Comments

Hey guys! There’s only a week until Christmas time and I’m so ready! I’ve been thinking about how I’m going to wrap my gifts and make them all pretty and it just brings me joy. And you know what else brings me joy? These Chocolate Tahini Snowballs!! They’re super cute and are a great addition to your spread of holiday baking.

I think that bite-sized desserts are honestly the best, because how else are you going to sample all those delicious holiday treats? These Snowballs are the perfect size and are absolutely stunning. They’re rolled in coconut just before baking to give that snowball effect, but the coconut adds so much to the flavour and texture as well. So yum! When you pick up these snowballs, they feel pretty hefty, and so it seems like they’re going to be dense and dry. But when you bite into them you get a warm, fudgy inside that is to die for! The tahini gives such a nice rich and nutty flavour, contrasting the chocolate perfectly. And these little bundles of joy deliver all this while being vegan, oil free, and refined sugar free!

I love how simple these are to make too:)) I started by mixing all of the ingredients together in a big bowl, and then rolling out little balls, covering them with coconut, and baking them for just fifteen minutes!! The recipe can easily be doubled if you want double the chocolate-y deliciousness, and why wouldn’t you? So yeah, these are amazing if you need a festive recipe in a pinch, or are just looking for a quick and healthy dessert to satisfy your sweet tooth. They would be great next to some of my Ginger Oat Cookies– just sayin.

I hop you enjoy these bite-sized holiday treats! They’re so fun to make and to eat:))

Chocolate Tahini Snowballs

Serves: Makes about 10 Snowballs

Total Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup oat flour (blended oats)
  • 1/2 cup rolled oats
  • 1/3 cup cocoa powder (I used organic)
  • 1/4 cup tahini
  • 3 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 tbsp almond milk
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened desiccated coconut

Directions:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Mix all of the ingredients, except for the coconut, together in a large bowl.
  3. Scoop out tablespoon fulls of the mixture and roll into balls using your hands.
  4. Dump the coconut onto a small plate, and roll the balls around in it until they are completely covered.
  5. Place the snowballs on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.
  6. Remove from the oven, let cool and enjoy!!

Make sure you come back for more delicious holiday recipes next week!!!

Yours Truly,

Olivia:))))

Roasted Winter Fruits

1 Comment

Hello! I’m sure you’ve heard me talk about my love for roasted veggies before- honestly I think that I could eat them all day. They get so tender and caramelized in the oven, making them the perfect addition to bowls, or one of my favourite stand-alone sides. However, when we’re talking about raw, uncooked veggies, I definitely prefer fruit. So I was thinking, what would happen if I roasted fruit?!!??! And, ladies and gentlemen, I can assure you that what happens when you roast fruit is PURE MAGIC.

Seriously. Magic. You get ten times the caramelization that you get with veggies because of the higher sugar content, and everything gets all soft, bubbly, and sweet. I roasted some nice in-season winter fruits that you might not think to roast. We’re talking grapes, mandarins, and apples, all of which release some beautiful juices and get amazingly tender. It all feels so Christmas-y and heartwarming!

There is so little prep that goes into this- just washing some grapes, peeling some mandarins, and roughly chopping an apple. I tossed everything in some allspice before roasting for some extra holiday flavour. Then it all goes in the oven for about forty minutes; this is where the enchantment happens. Halfway through the baking time, I took a fork and smashed some of those mandarins and grapes, just to get the juices flowing. Other than that, you just let those fruits do their thing.

Not gonna lie, I sneaked a few of these fruits right off the pan. They would be amazing over oats, yogurt, ice cream, cake, pancakes, waffles- you name it, these would make it better!! Feel free to add some more spices if you like as well- I know that cinnamon would be a welcome addition to the flavour explosion.

Hope you enjoy these festive fruits!

Roasted Winter Fruits

Serves: 2-3

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 Gala apple, chopped
  • 2 mandarin oranges, peeled and split into segments
  • 1 1/4 cup red grapes
  • 1 tsp ground allspice

Directions:

  1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Add all of the ingredients to a bowl and combine. Spread out the fruits onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
  3. Place the baking sheet in the oven and roast for about 20 minutes.
  4. At this point, remove them from the oven and use a fork to lightly smash the mandarins and grapes, just bursting them so that the juices can escape. Place the pan back in the oven and roast for another 20 minutes.
  5. Take the fruits out of the oven, serve warm and enjoy!

Have a great weekend everyone! Can’t wait for more holiday recipes coming next week:))

Yours Truly,

Olivia:)))

Ginger Oat Cookies

1 Comment

It’s December, which means it’s time for the holiday baking to begin! I have yet to decorate my room which is kind of sad but last night I baked up some delicious cookies! Baking cookies is so fun and I haven’t done it in a while. I love cutting them out, and decorating them is just so relaxing! These Ginger Oat Cookies are made in one bowl and baked for 15 minutes so that you can get to icing them (my favourite part) in a snap.

I used so many tasty ingredients in this recipe! We’ve got ground walnuts, oat flour, maple syrup, and of course lots of ginger. The result is a golden-brown cookie that is deliciously crumbly and full of oat-y, Christmas-y flavour. And did I mention the chocolate icing?!!!??? It’s probably the easiest icing you’ll ever make- it only consists of cocoa powder, maple syrup, and almond milk. And it’s SO rich and delish! I piped it on to my little ginger-oat men (that’s what I’m calling them lol) and gave them cute faces and outfits:) You can adjust the amount of milk you add to it to make it thicker or thinner, depending if you want to spread it on like frosting, pipe on some details, or flood the whole surface. The chocolate goes so nicely with the warm spices in the cookie.

To start make these festive beauties, I simply mixed together all of my ingredients in a big bowl until it came together to form a nice dough; then I rolled it out, cut out my cookies, and baked them up. Super quick and easy! I cut my cookies into the shape of gingerbread men, but feel free to use any fun holiday-themed cutters:)

I love how healthy these cookies are too. They’re vegan, refined sugar free, and can easily be made gluten free if you use gluten free oats. The oat flour and ground walnuts can either be bought or easily made by throwing either oats or walnuts into a blender, which is what I did. The holidays are definitely about treating yourself, but if you’re looking for something a little lighter or that’s maybe a nice and nutritious Christmas snack, then these are for you.

I hope you enjoy these Ginger Oat Cookies! They’re so tasty and cute:)) I can’t wait to share more of my holiday baking with you guys so make sure to keep checking out my blog!

Ginger Oat Cookies

Serves: Makes about 12 Cookies (I used a cutter that was roughly 4 inches by 3 inches in size)

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

For the Ginger Oat Cookies:

  • 1 cup ground walnuts
  • 2 cups oat flour
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tbsp coconut oil
  • 1/2 tbsp ground ginger
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp allspice
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup

For the Chocolate Icing:

  • 2 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1/2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 3 1/2-5 tsp almond milk (depending on how thick/thin you’d like your icing)

Directions:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Mix all of the cookie ingredients together in a large bowl. Use your hands to form it into a big ball.
  3. Place the dough on top of a large piece of parchment paper, and cover it with an equally sized piece. Roll it out with a rolling pin so that it’s about 1/4 of an inch thick. Remove the top layer of parchment paper and cut out shapes with cookie cutters, placing the cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
  4. When you run out of room to cut more cookies, collect all of the excess dough into a ball and repeat step 3. Continue to do this until you have used up all of the dough, and you have a pan full of soon-to-be cookies in front of you!
  5. Bake the cookies in the oven for 15 minutes, until golden brown. Remove and let cool completely.
  6. To make the icing, mix together the cocoa powder, maple syrup, and 2 tsp of the almond milk in a small bowl. Gradually add more milk until you reach your desired consistency.
  7. Scoop the icing into a piping bag and cut a small hole at the bottom. Use this to pipe decorations on to your cooled cookies.
  8. Let the icing on the cookies harden and proceed to enjoy! These can be stored in the fridge for about 10 days, or frozen and thawed when needed:)

Have a great rest of your week everyone! I’ll see you Friday with another great recipe:)

Yours Truly,

Olivia:))

Chickpea Shakshuka

Leave a comment

Hey there! I have a really fun and awesome recipe for you guys today! Even though you may not have heard of it, Shakshuka is SO GOOD. It’s a middle eastern dish that combines a warming tomato stew with poached eggs, and is the perfect addition to your breakfast spread. I added some chickpeas to mine for some extra protein and fibre. This recipe is super easy to follow and comes together in less than an hour, because the faster this deliciousness gets into your mouth, the better.

I’ve seen shakshuka on a bunch of cooking shows and featured in the occasional Pinterest post, so I thought, why not try it out? I began by frying up onions and garlic. What a shocker! I find it interesting how so many different cultures use garlic and onions in their food. Making tomato sauce? Garlic and onions. Curry? Garlic and onions. Shakshuka? GARLIC AND ONIONS BABY. I am not complaining because the smell of frying onions is out of this world. After I got that aromatic veg all sauteed up, I threw in some amazing spices, tomatoes, tomato paste, chickpeas, and lots of salt and pepper. Those ingredients all get to know each other very well in the pan while you continue on with your morning routine. I did some stretching:)

Personally, I am an egg lover, and so this is next part was my favourite. After stirring up the stew, I cracked four eggs DIRECTLY into there, brought it to a nice heavy simmer, covered, and let them poach. This is a critical moment because you want that yolk to be nice and runny. I appreciate a good hard boiled egg, but this is not the time. So set your timers because it will be very disappointing is you overcook these. I will personally be disappointed in you.

Once those eggs are done, you’re done! Step back! That’s all! I just took these off the heat, removed the lid so that the eggs don’t keep steaming, and I want to say that I dug in right then and there but no, I took the whole pan down to the fridge in our basement to preserve it for when the lighting was better, so I could take a good picture. Do you see the sacrifices that I make for you guys? Annnnnyways, when I finally got around to eating this, I scooped myself a big bowl, warmed it up, and topped it with fresh chives, parsley flakes, and avocado because you’ve gotta go big or go home. And let me tell you, this is AMAZING. It’s so full of flavour from all those spices, and then the chickpeas give you some texture, and that runny yolk is just perfection. This is such a great fall/winter breakfast, because it’s so cozy! Traditionally it is a breakfast dish, but I would be very happy to eat this any time of day.

Make sure that you try this out! I can’t wait to make it again for my family on a weekend.

Chickpea Shakshuka

Serves: 2-4

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 medium sized white onion, diced
  • 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
  • 2 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon (trust me)
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp red chilli flakes
  • 2 tsp parsley flakes (plus more for garnish)
  • 1 can of diced tomatoes
  • 1 can of tomato paste
  • 1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • 4 eggs
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Chopped chives, for garnish (optional)
  • 1 avocado for serving, sliced (optional)

Directions:

  1. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large, deep pan or skillet. Add in the onions and cook for around 4 minutes, until they’re just translucent. Next add in the garlic and cook for another 2 minutes.
  2. Add the all of the spices and herbs to the pan and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes, until they’re somewhat browned and nice and fragrant.
  3. Dump the tomatoes, tomato paste, and paprika into the pan. Season generously with salt and pepper, give everything a good stir, then lower the heat to a slow simmer. Cover the pan and let cook for 30 minutes.
  4. Remove the lid from the pan, stir everything again and make sure the stew is level across the top. Crack the 4 eggs directly into the pan, in a kind of square pattern so that they’re not too close to each other. Bring the stew back up to a faster simmer, cover again, and let the eggs poach for EXACTLY 5 minutes.
  5. Remove then pan from the heat and take the lid off. serve immediately and garnish with more parsley flakes, chopped chives, or avocado.
  6. Enjoy!

Hope you guys love this recipe! It’s one of my faves. Come back on Friday for my December Reading List!

Yours Truly,

Olivia:))