Soft Frosted Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

Ok, I know, for trying to pose as a "Fit Momma Foodie", I admit I bake a lot during the holidays.  I can't fight it.  I'm only human!  That being said, I only bake what I know is worth my calories, and what I crave.  Which is 99% of the time Peanut Butter, but during the holidays I can't get enough peppermint! I Love candy canes, and I love to smell eat and breath peppermint!  And these yummy, soft cookies are magical, and melt in your mouth!  I got the recipe from the great Jaime Cooks It Up!

These are just a perfect treat for yourself, or if you have enough will power to give half of them away, then they are wonderful treat to share!!

Even my boy that swears he doesn't like peppermint or mint for that matter, he wont even chew mint gum, HE actually LOVED them!  Score!

Soft Frosted Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Yield: 48

Ingredients

COOKIES:

1 C butter, softened

1 C sugar

1 C brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

2 1/4 C flour

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 C milk chocolate chips

PEPPERMINT FROSTING:

1 C white chocolate chips

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

4 Tb butter, softened

4 C powdered sugar

2 Tb milk

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp peppermint extract

4 drops red food coloring

dash salt

15-20 mini candy canes

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. In your stand mixer, cream together the butter, sugar and brown sugar for 2 minutes. Scrape the bottom of the bowl and add the eggs. Cream for an additional 1 minutes, or until light and fluffy.

3. Add the vanilla and mix just until combined.

4. In a separate bowl toss together the flour, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and mix just until combined.

5. Fold in the chocolate chips.

6. Spray your cookie sheets with cooking spray and form the dough into 1 1/2 inch balls.

6. Bake for 7-8 minutes or until the tops of the cookies crack. Remove the pan from the oven and allow the cookies to finish baking on the hot sheet. Remove to a wire rack and cool completely.

7. To make the frosting melt the white chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring after each one.

8. Beat the butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Add the white chocolate and mix. Don't be worried if it looks kind of chunky at this point. That's normal. :)

9. Add powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, peppermint extract (if you don't have extract you can use peppermint essential oils and only use about 6 drops), food coloring and salt. Mix for 1 minute. Scrape the bottom of the bowl and mix on medium speed for about 2 minutes of until its nice and smooth and a bit fluffy.

10. Unwrap the candy canes and place them in a gallon sized ziploc bag. Seal the bag tightly and crush them with a rolling pin.

11. Frost each cookie, making sure to sprinkle the candy canes over the top directly after it's been frosted.

Store in an airtight container. These cookies freeze super well! Make sure and lay a sheet of parchment paper between layers of cookies if you are going to stack them, so they don't stick together.

Enjoy!

Coconut Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice

Wow, What a a mouthful! Coconut Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice!  I know, everyone knows about the Cauliflower Rice, it's been going on for quite a while now.  And I like cauliflower rice, but I made this the other night, and had to make it again the next night because I loved it soo much.  LOVE is a strong word, and I have weird food relationships, and get slightly obsessed over food sometimes, but you will LOVE this "Rice" too!  Promise!  Seriously it is just bursting with sooo much flavor, you will not even notice that it's not real rice!

I Served it with marinated lime coconut milk, cilantro Chicken and what was supposed to be grilled vegetables ended up getting thrown in the oven last minute because we ran out of propane!!!  

CAULIFLOWER RICE

1/2 Head Cauliflower - Riced in a blender
1 Tblsp - Coconut Oil
1/2 Lime
1/4 Cup Chopped Cilantro
2 Tblsp - Coconut milk
Salt and Pepper to taste

First start with cutting your cauliflower down pretty good with no stems.  Stick the florets into your blender and pulse it maybe 3 times.  You don't want it too small that it gets mushy with heat.  Heat your oil onto a skillet pan and add your riced cauliflower.  Season really well with Salt and pepper and saute for about 5 minutes.  Once cooked through add in your lime and Cilantro, then add in your Coconut milk.  I just used the silk brand coconut milk that comes in a carton that you put in your fridge.  Cook and stir constantly for another 2 minutes or so, then remove from heat so it doesn't sog up.  Serve with anything!  It's Fabulous!

Almond Butter Bombs

So I know I haven't posted a lot of meals lately, but when you are clean eating, it mostly comes down to a meat, and a veggie, and different ways to cook it up!  Ha! Ha!  So it's hard for me to put basic stuff on here.  But these bad boys have become my staple in the past 3 weeks!  Literally I have made them 4 times, and this is my treat.  They are absolutely delicious!  I'm following a Metabolism Re-set, well I'm past that, now onto the Fast Metabolism Diet, where I came across this recipe, and have since tweaked them to make them awesome!!!  Literally, they take me 20 minutes from start to finish!

It's a small batch, so it only makes about 12 small cookies, umm, I mean Almond Butter Bombs. They do taste like cookies though! They are sort of called a fat bomb, because they are loaded with Almond Butter (your healthy fat).  During this FMD, you have 3 phases per week, and on Friday Saturday and Sunday (phase 3), your 2 snacks for the day is supposed to be a Healthy Fat source.

I truly think they are divine.......

Almond Butter Bombs
Approx 12 Bombs

Time: 20 minutes - Start to Finish

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Organic Rolled oats  *see note below
1/2 Cup Almond Butter - microwaved for 30 seconds
1/4 Cup Stevia Sweetener Baking Blend
3 Tblsp - Peanut Butter Protein Powder
2 Tblsp - Organic Apple Sauce
1 egg White or 2 Tblsp out of carton
3/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp maple extract (you can use vanilla, but I highly recommend Maple)  Sometimes I add a squirt of Pure Maple syrup in there too!
1/4 tsp Salt


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix all ingredients together.  The true recipe calls for 1/2 Cup + 2 Tblsp Oats.  I wanted to lessen the Carbs and add Protein so I added the 3 Tblsp of Protein Powder instead.  Roll the dough into 12 balls and cook for 8 minutes.  They may not look done, but they are!  You can eat right away but I prefer them refrigerated on the next day!!!

Crepes - Gluten Free

Ok, so I know I've already got 2 other Crepe recipes on here, BUT, my family loves crepes, and we eat them every Sunday!  So I experiment a lot with them.  Right now, I'm doing no sugar, no dairy and no wheat.  Yikes!  I Know!!  The things a girls got to do to try and keep a figure!  Anywho!  These Crepes!  My kids didn't flinch, didn't question, didn't nothing!  They loved them as usual AND I actually got to eat them during this strict meal plan I'm doing, and ENJOY them!  Ok, I didn't get to enjoy them with Peanut Butter and Pure maple syrup as I usually do, but I put drizzled Almond butter and crushed berries on them and didn't feel deprived at all!  YUMM!



This Recipe is very similar to my other recipes, but with a few tweaks to make it work!:

CREPES - GLUTEN FREE

8 eggs
2 Cups - Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk (or your choice of unsweetened non dairy milk)
2 TBLSP - Olive Oil (Or coconut oil)
2 tsp - Pure Vanilla extract
2 tsp - powdered stevia
1 tsp- salt
1 Cup - Organic Oat Flour
1 Cup - Tapioca Flour** (see note below)

Combine all ingredients except for the gluten free flours and mix until well blended.  Slowly add in the Oat flour and the Tapioca flour.  There will be slight lumps in the batter, just work them out as much as you can without over beating.  I kind of just squish them down with my measuring cup as I pour them into the pan.  I have two crepe pans going at one time to keep this moving along.  Make sure the pans are hot, and if you are using a non-stick pan, you only need to spray oil on it once in the beginning.  I pour between 1/4-1/3 cup of batter onto pan and swirl it around, then flip when bubbles are showing and its has slight browning spots on the bottom.
Serve hot & Enjoy!

**The Tapioca Flour gave these crepes a great texture.  Very springy and squishy.  They held up better than any other gluten free flours I've tried in the past (and I think I've tried them all!!)