Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies

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:)))

Healthy Edible Cookie Dough

Happy Friday!!! We are exactly five weeks away from Christmas- how exciting is that?!?! I’m definitely brainstorming some awesome Christmas recipes right now🙌 If you have any recipes that you’d like me to make, be sure to let me know because I want to have a plethora of holiday awesomeness available for you!

I think I’m about due for a dessert recipe because I haven’t posted one in a while. This is for all you people out there who like to lick the batter off of the spoon, or sneak a finger into the bowl of cookie dough. Which, let’s be honest, is probably all of us. I remember that I tried making this kind of edible cookie dough way back, but my blender wasn’t very good so I still had a lot of chickpea chunks leftover. No, I haven’t attempted edible cookie dough since, and yes, I said chickpeas. No typos around here people!

This Healthy Edible Cookie Dough mostly consists of chickpeas, and before you X out of this blog post, here me out. Chickpeas are actually a great base for any flavour you want to throw at them; they’re kind of the blank canvas of the legume world. Combine that with the amazing, dough-like texture you get when you blend em up, and you get the perfect candidate for a healthy, edible cookie dough base!

Of course, I added other ingredients to create that cookie dough flavour. We’ve got vanilla, peanut butter, cinnamon, a little bit of oats, some maple syrup and a pinch of salt. I blended my dough with some water as well so that everything came together nicely. After that it’s up to you to completely customize your dough! I suggest adding dark chocolate chips or chopped figs and cinnamon- that’s what I did and it’s SO GOOD👌 But really, anything works. It just depends what kind of cookies you like!

This “dough” can be eaten straight (very good) or used as a sort of dessert hummus (also very good), or you can use it to top your oats, toast, or smoothie bowl (really, anyway you eat it it’s going to be good). It makes a great snack or dessert! Hope you enjoy:)

Healthy Edible Cookie Dough

Serves: 2 as a dessert, 4 as a dip

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • 1 tbsp natural peanut butter
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 2 tbsp rolled oats
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • A pinch of salt
  • 1/4 cup mix-ins like chopped dates or dried figs, dark chocolate chips, nuts, seeds, or fruit (optional)

Directions:

  1. Add all of the ingredients, except the mix-ins, to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth and creamy.
  2. Spoon into a bowl and mix in your mix-ins!
  3. Eat straight from the bowl or use as a dip or spread:)

Have a great Friday and an awesome weekend my friends! I’ll see you next week with more delicious recipes and my December Bullet Journal Set-Up❤️

Yours Truly,

Olivia:)

No Powder Protein Smoothie

Hey guys:) I got a cool new blender over the weekend that makes single serving smoothies, so I thought I’d whip up a smoothie for breakfast this morning, and I could drink it on the drive to school. This morning was Upper Body day💪💪 so I wanted sone protein in there. Protein powder is my first choice, and for a while I was using some that we just had in our pantry. But now we’re out, and it’s so dang expensive! I’m not about to spend sixty five bucks on a thing of protein powder. This is where we get creative, people.

I tried adding black beans into one of my smoothie bowls a few weeks ago, and it may sound gross, but you can’t even taste them. Plus, they help thicken things up. Boom, 6 grams of protein. Then you’ve got a tablespoon of peanut butter, which adds great flavour. Another 4 grams of protein. Then some spinach and kale for the vitamins. 1 more gram. And finally, a cup of almond milk. 1 gram. So then you’ve got yourself a smoothie with 12 GRAMS of protein without using any powder whatsoever!!

This smoothie is not only full of vitamins and protein, but it tastes great👌 The peanut butter gives it some nuttiness, and the strawberry, banana, and peaches make it sweet🥰 This is a recipe that I will definitely be remaking, because it’s a quick, portable, protein filled breakfast that satisfies my sweet tooth! Definitely give this one a try😊

No Powder Protein Smoothie

Serves: 1

Total Time: 7 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 banana, frozen and chopped
  • About 5 fresh strawberries
  • 1/2 cup cooked black beans
  • 1 tbsp natural peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup packed spinach
  • 1/2 cup packed kale
  • 1/2 cup chopped frozen peaches
  • 1 cup unsweetened almond milk

Directions:

  1. Add all of the ingredients into a good quality blender and blend until smooth.
  2. Enjoy!

Such a quick and easy breakfast recipe!! Hope you enjoy:)💪💪

Yours Truly,

Olivia:))

Peanut Butter and Banana Overnight Oats

Hey there! Lunch is important, but breakfast is also essential to a great school day👍 I don’t get how people skip breakfast- it’s so delicious and totally fuels you up! With these overnight oats you won’t have to skip breakfast ever again because they’re so simple and quick👌

I haven’t made overnight oats in a long time, but they’re awesome because you just mix everything up, then leave them in the fridge for the next day. It saves a lot of time in the morning, and this recipe is really tasty- I used my favourite combo of Pb and banana. Also, I used almond milk in mine, but you can use any milk you’d like😊

Hopefully these oats solve your breakfast problems!! I’ll try and post more fun flavours in the future😋

Peanut Butter and Banana Overnight Oats

Serves: 1

Total Time: 5 minutes to make, then let sit overnight.

Ingredients:

  • 1/3 cup quick cooking oats
  • 1 ripe banana
  • 1 tbsp peanut butter
  • 2/3 cup milk of choice

Directions:

  1. In a small bowl, mash half of the banana. Mix in the oats, peanut butter, and almond milk, then cover with seran wrap and place in the fridge overnight to set up!
  2. Remove from the fridge in the morning, top with the remaining banana, and enjoy!

**Fun tip: for an on-the-go breakfast, mix your oats in a Tupperware container with a lid!**

Have a great day guys!

Yours Truly,

Olivia:))

Peanut Butter Cluster Nice Cream

It’s summer so bring on the ice cold treats! Nice cream is one of my favourites because it’s super fast, tasty, and CREAMY, all without any dairy or refined sugar. I’ve made Neapolitan Nice Cream in the past, but today I made PEANUT BUTTER CLUSTER NICE CREAM. There are actual PEANUT BUTTER CLUSTERS in here. Summer, here we come.

All nice cream is is basically blended up frozen bananas. It has an amazing texture and is also really good for you:) Because of this magic, I ALWAYS include a frozen banana in my smoothie bowls. From now on I might throw these peanut butter clusters on my smoothie bowls too cause they’re pretty darn delicious. I made them using oat flour- which is just ground up oats. So yeah, you’ll be needing a good blender to make this recipe. The peanut butter clusters also contain peanut butter 😋, maple syrup, vanilla, and some dark chocolate chunks. I DEFINITELY recommend using crunchy peanut butter for these, because then you get some peanut pieces in there. I’ve actually been converted from team creamy to team crunchy, cause I love those peanuts❤️ If you don’t feel like making nice cream, these clusters would make a greet breakfast with some almond milk or yogurt, or a nice snack on their own.

Once you have the nice cream made and the peanut clusters rolled and frozen, you fold the two together and BOOM! A super delicious summer treat. Let’s be honest though, I will probably be eating this all year long. Hope you enjoy this recipe, and be sure to let me know some other nice cream flavours that you want me to make a recipe for!

Peanut Butter Cluster Nice Cream

Serves: 3

Total Time: 210 minutes

Ingredients:

For the Peanut Butter Clusters:

  • 1 cup oat flour
  • 2 1/2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 tbsp runny or melted crunchy peanut butter
  • 2 tbsp dark chocolate chunks

For the Nice Cream:

  • 3 bananas, sliced and frozen
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • Splash of water

Directions:

  1. Mix all of the peanut butter cluster ingredients together in a bowl. Roll into 1/2 tsp sized balls, then put into a container and freeze for about 2 hours, so that they’re easier to mix in with the nice cream.
  2. Once the peanut butter clusters are ready, throw the frozen banana, vanilla and SPLASH of water into the blender. You don’t need to much water, or else you’ll miss out on that creamy texture. Use the tamper to push the bananas down and blend until smooth. You want a nice swirl like this:

3. Scoop the nice cream into a parchment lined loaf pan, and mix in about half of the peanut butter clusters. Place in the freezer for another hour until the texture resembles ice cream. Serve with the rest of the clusters on top!!

This stuff is legit SO good and you should for sure make some ASAP. Perfect for a hot day!

Yours Truly,

Olivia:))