Date Night Deep Dish Cookies

My husband is a peanut butter cup fiend.  He prefers the holiday shaped varieties because (according to him) they have the ideal peanut butter to chocolate ratio.  My mother-in-law gave him a huge bucket filled with football shaped ones (which look suspiciously like the Easter egg variety) for Christmas so I've been "helping" him drain the contents.  The other night I had a wicked craving for a deep dish gooey pizza cookie so I decided to put some of those "football" cups to use.  I placed them in the freezer for about 15 minutes so that I could chop them up into pieces and went to work.

You can substitute the candy in this recipe for your chocolate/toffee/other sweet of choice.

Date Night Deep Dish Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp non-fat plain greek yogurt
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 C chopped peanut butter cups (if gluten intolerant, use a belly friendly candy!)
• 1/2 C flour (I use Better Batter, a gluten free blend)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)
• 3 Tbsp light agave syrup (or 1/4 C brown sugar)
• 3 Tbsp white sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg white

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray two ramekins with non-stick spray and set aside.
2. Mix flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda in a small bowl.  Set aside.
3. Beat butter, yogurt and sugars in a mixing bowl for approximately one minute on a low-medium speed. 
4. Add egg white and vanilla then blend for another 30 seconds
5. Slowly add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl.  Make sure the ingredients are blended together, approximately 1 minute on low-medium.
6. Fill each ramekin just over halfway full
7. Bake for approximately 17-20 minutes, depending on how gooey you like your cookie
8. Remove from the oven and serve with your favorite vanilla ice cream :)

Chocolate... for breakfast

This post is has nothing to do with cooking or baking... oops.

I am addicted to the Lean1 protein powder that is made by Nutrition 53.  It comes in flavors like Chocolate (nom), Cookies & Cream, Strawberry and Vanilla.  They are jam packed with vitamins, minerals and the best part is, they are all lactose free.  Smoothie King sells it at their stores and I tend to go in there for my fix, but recently I brought the powder home to experiment with a few of my own concoctions.  I also found out that Smoothie King adds sugar to their smoothies (seriously!) so I wanted to make my own from home.

Here are a few of my favorites that I've made with the chocolate protein:

Heaven in a Cup
1 cup ice
2 scoops chocolate Lean1 powder
1/2 banana
1/2 single serve container of plain fat free Greek yogurt
4 oz water

Combine and blend (do yourself a favor and get a Ninja blender... they are the best)
310 calories, 29g protein, 24g sugar, 7g fat

Chocolate Covered Strawberry
1 cup ice
2 scoops chocolate Lean1 powder
6 large strawberries
1/2 single serve container of plain fat free Greek yogurt

Combine and blend
295 calories, 29g protein, 19g sugar, 7 g fat

You get the point... add fruit and yogurt to this chocolate wonder and you have one delicious meal on the go!