Almond Joy Smoothie

I am old. It feels like just yesterday that I arrived on campus, sleep deprived from the red-eye flight, knowing no one and extremely lost. But today I officially finished my last class of third year, thereby making me a little old lady, minus the little part. I'm not sure how I feel about this, but right now I think I just want to be in undergrad forever because the real world seems pretty scary.

Does the real world have cafes that offer 5 different types of dairy to put into your coffee? How about state-of-the-art gym's that I can enter with the swipe of my student card, gyms with smoothie joints with half-price Tuesdays? And professors that defer deadlines on 'compassionate grounds' when you drop your laptop and shatter the screen? I like my current world.

I think its best to brush away these panicky thoughts until at least halfway through fourth year by going to said card-swiping gym. Gyms are sacred places where you get to run, swim, elliptical away all that's concerning in the world. At the gym there are no exams, interviews, rejection letters, or the 'real' world to freak out about. At the gym it's just me, my 'Cardio <3' (I keep the <3 from my high school days for nostalgia) playlist, and the treadmill. I can handle that.

Another one of my favorite cure-all's are smoothies. There's really nothing more soothing than an icy drink that tastes like dessert. I had an epiphany yesterday afternoon that coconut, almonds and chocolate would make the perfect combination for one. You know, like an Almond Joy? Except I've never actually had an Almond Joy before, is it an American thing? Because if so, I'd like to know so I can grab a few on my next cross-border shopping trip. I'm hoping it'll taste like this so I don't have to rename my recipe and because this is delish!

Almond Joy Smoothie
Yield: 1 ~16oz. smoothie

• 3/4 cup almond milk
• 2 tablespoons cocoa
• 1/2 cup unsweetened dried coconut
• 1 small frozen banana
• water to adjust consistency
• handful chopped almonds
• Almond extract (I don't have any but I imagine it would be delicious)

1. Blend all ingredients except the almonds, it might take a while to get the coconut smooth
2. Top with almonds
3. Sip away the 'real' world

Strawberry Shortcake Stacked Pancakes

My two favourite meals of the day are breakfast and dessert. I'm often tempted to eat pancakes for dinner and always scoping out the dessert menu while the waitress is asking whether I'd like an appetizer. I'm sure that's only half bad, after all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

My blackberry has been acting up lately and has failed to wake me up 3 out the 4 last mornings. Frustratingly, this means that I missed out on my 8:30 90 minute spin class this morning. And no, I'm not insane for waking up that early on Saturdays to work out. Ok maybe slightly insane, but the resultant endorphin rush and charming middle-aged couple that teach it do help.

Putting that behind me, I decided to whip up these Strawberry Shortcake Stacked Pancakes from ohsheglows. That's right, strawberry shortcake for breakfast! Like I said in a previous post, Angela at ohsheglows is a genius that can make healthy food even more appealing than junk. Did I mention it's all vegan too? Genius indeed.

These were quite a bit of work but were well worth it. The 'soft serve' topping reminds me of summer, regardless of the fact that it's -8C outside right now. I'll definitely be making it by the bowl in the next few months.

The pancakes themselves were also delicious. I loved the addition of shredded coconut and they tasted surprisingly buttery even without the use of any butter, oil, or eggs. I'm still in amazement.

Luckily I did snap a few pictures before I went straight for it.

Already half way there, the party's almost over.

Did anyone catch on to the P90X Ab Ripper X reference there? No? Ok..then.

And then it was all over :(

Strawberry Shortcake Pancakes

Yield: 8 pancakes (I ended up with 9.5)

Recipe here

Note: I didn't have any nutmeg, allspice, maple syrup or coconut milk so I omitted the first two and used cow's milk and honey instead. 

Per 4-ish pancakes (with strawberries and topping):

575 calories | 31g sugar | 21.45g fat | 17g protein (whoa!)

Nutella Granola Bars

I am a granola/energy/protein bar fiend. They're portable, tasty and can be quite healthy if you want them to be. Most importantly, they're also extremely customizable. Even though I have about 40-50 bars of many varieties lying in my room right now, none of them taste like the heavenly union between hazelnut and chocolate, which is a problem. Enter, the Nutella Granola Bar.

Nutella Granola Bars

Yield: 15 Bars

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup rice krispies cereal
• 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips (next time i'm going to replace these with more hazelnuts)
• 1/2 cup chopped roasted hazelnuts (refer to roasting instructions)
• 1/4 cup Nutella
• 2-4 tablespoons honey (depends on how sweet you like it, I think 4 was too many)

1. Preset oven to 350F
2. Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl
3. Microwave honey and nutella for about 30 seconds
4. Mix wet and dry ingredients, hands work well
5. Press into a parchment lined or greased 9" pan (10" would be ideal, I used a 9" and had a bit of mix left, it was delicious 'raw')
6. Bake for 10-14 minutes (10 for chewy bars), allow to cool slightly (but not completely) and cut into bars/squares

Per Bar (using 4 tbsp honey):

159 calories | 10.7g sugar | 6.7g fat

Week 5: Chocolate Coconut Marshmallow Puffs: An experiment

After eating quite a few these delicious cookies from President’s Choice and deciding that the thin Chocolate Coconut kind were my favorite (see below), I’ve set out to create the perfect Chocolate Coconut Marshmallow Sandwich. I optimistically thought that I would be able to do this with one go, but it appears that this experiment is still a work in progress. Here’s a summary of attempt 1 and 2! Also, thanks to the all-consuming huge lab report I have due next week, I currently only know how to write in the form of lab reports. So here it is!
 
Objective:
Thin crispy chocolate coconut cookies with marshmallow centre
ATTEMPT #1 (January 2, 2011)
Reagents and materials:

• 2 1/4 cup flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tbsp water
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• 2/3 cup sweetened shredded coconut
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup butter
• 18 large marshmallows

Methods:
1. Oven was preheated to 350F.
2. Butter and sugar were creamed and vanilla added, followed by milk and water.
3. Dry ingredients were then added and mixed until a homogenous dough was formed.
4. Level teaspoons (small cookies)  and tablespoons (large cookies) of dough were distrubuted onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and baked as follows.Tbsp: 8 min; Tsp: 6 min
5. Half a marshmallow was then placed on cookie halves and broiled until marshmallow was lightly browned, another cookie half was placed atop immediately out of the oven to form sandwiches
Results: 3 dozen thick soft cookies with the  right level of sweetness, needs more coconut
Future Experiments: Try more baking time and more liquid (more water, less milk) to get flatter cookies.