Heidi's Spinach Artichoke Dip

I've been waiting for a chance to make this dip since I saw it earlier this year...unfortunately having people over is not something that happened often in our last little apartment! I finally got a chance to break out the recipe this past weekend & I was more than pleased. I added some spinach to the recipe, of course forgetting to wait until after I'd blended the other ingredients, so I ended up with something that looked like ectoplasm. It still tasted delicious, & since I completely forgot to take pictures, today's recipe is sans illustration, which might be a good thing. ;) Check out Heidi's website for some delicious looking photos instead!

Baked Spinach Artichoke Dip
adapted from 101 Cookbooks

1 12-ounce bag of frozen artichokes (mine were Trader Joe's brand...you can use canned too)
3 cups baby spinach, chopped
3 ounces silken tofu
3 large garlic cloves
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/8 tsp freshly ground sea salt
pinch of cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. In a blender or food processor puree the artichokes, tofu, and garlic. In a separate medium bowl whisk together the spinach, parmesan cheese, yogurt, salt, and cayenne. Stir in the artichoke puree and pour mixture into a medium-sized baking dish (or multiple smaller dishes). Sprinkle the top with more Parmesan. Bake uncovered until heated through and the cheese on the top starts to brown, about 45 minutes.

Now, I have a big block of silken tofu left over, & unfortunately I have no idea what to do with it. I don't want it to go to waste, so...what can I do with silken tofu? I don't like it in smoothies, but other than that I've never really had it. Any ideas? I trust your foodie brains more than my own!



Ok. One picture. Because, really, is a post a post without any photos?

Lately I have been making these every night for a snack. It feels healthy. :)

Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter "Milkshakes"

1 frozen banana
1 cup cold chocolate milk
1 Tbsp peanut butter

Throw in blender & blend!

(The guinness glass purchased by Tim's mom at a yard sale is optional!)

Brown Bag "Cookies"

Oh. My. Goodness. These were SO good! I love peanut butter, and I've probably had peanut butter on wheat bread (minus the jelly) 4 days a week for the past year. So it only follows that these would be amazing to me. I spent weeks dreaming about making them. :) Now that I finally have, I can tell you it's definitely worth it! And it's not too difficult a recipe either.

Brown Bag Cookies
adapted from Cookie Baker Lynn
original recipe found here

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temp
3/4 cups sugar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 extra-large egg, at room temp
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cups blackberry jam (mine was Trader Joe's brand)
1/2 cups salted peanuts, coarsely chopped (accidentally used unsalted)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 x 9-inch square baking pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light yellow, about 2 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the vanilla, eggs, and peanut butter and mix until well combined.

Sift together into a small bowl the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture. Mix just until combined.

Spread two thirds of the dough in the prepared pan, using a knife to spread it evenly. Spread the jam evenly over the dough. Drop small globs of the remaining dough evenly over the jam. Don't worry if all the jam isn't covered; the dough will spread when it bakes. Sprinkle with the chopped peanuts (I chopped them using a food processor) and bake about 45 minutes, until golden brown. Cool and cut into 16 squares.


The biggest change I made was obviously using the white whole wheat flour. I was a little worried that the taste would be too strong (the batter tasted surprisingly wheat-y) but once baked you couldn't even tell I'd used wheat flour. Also, I added a little cinnamon because I love cinnamon & pb together...my favorite combo.

One comment about the instructions...I think because I used the wheat flour, my batter was a little thicker, and I kind of had to spread the second layer of batter on top of the jam. It definitely wouldn't have flattened out on its own for me like it says in the original recipe. But it wasn't difficult to just spread it out instead.

Best of all, these get better with time...I think the jam & the peanut butter merge & get even softer as they sit. I really really loved them the second day. And of course, they were also loved by all (even the first day). :) Definitely a winning recipe!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies

FINALLY!

courtesy of Smitten Kitchen

I'd been SO excited to make these ever since I saw them. I love peanut butter and had been itching to make some cookies. Plus her pictures are so beautiful that any dish would look irresistible!

They were pretty easy to make, even the sugar sprinkling. I used chunky peanut butter, & the batter was a little grainy so it's possible I didn't mix it enough, but they still tasted great so don't worry if you run into that problem. At the end, I put a couple inches of sugar into a bowl, rolled the batter into 9 or 10 little balls, dropped them into the bowl & swirled it around. Did the job well! Make sure to press the cookies down before you put them in the oven, because they definitely will not flatten on their own.

Here's the recipe.

Of course...we actually barely ate any of these. Ha, that's the way things work in our kitchen. We buy or make LOADS of delicious things, and hardly seem to eat them when they are here. Perhaps that's due to there only being 2 of us here, but for whatever reason there is an entire container of stale cookies currently sitting on our kitchen table. Luckily, I gave away quite a few of them. :) And they were well-received!

You won't be sorry if you make them...good luck!