Table For Two's Everything But the Eggroll Bowl

During the month of January, I joined Table For Two's cooking challenge, which consisted of making a few meals a week based on her meal plans.  It was a great way to try new recipes and cook at home more regularly! 

One of my early favorites was this Everything But the Eggroll Bowl- essentially the meat and vegetables of a delicious egg roll, but deconstructed as a dish on its own.  It's a really quick recipe, especially with the use of a cole slaw/broccoli slaw (in my case) from the grocery store as the bulk of the vegetables.  Also, it's a great recipe for adapting to any vegetables that you might have in your kitchen - just chop them up and throw them in.  This is the only recipe from the January challenge that I have made twice so far, and I definitely will be adding it to my regular rotation! 

The Kitchn - Chocolate Cake Mix Cookies

I normally keep a few boxes of cake mix in my pantry, especially when they go on sale at the store.  They're good to have around for quick baked goods, and are very versatile for lots of recipes!  I saw this recipe for chocolate cake mix cookies from The Kitchn and thought it'd be a perfect base for cookies to bring to a work potluck. 

The recipe is super simple and very easy to make with what you have on hand!  Instead of the powdered sugar coating, I added Reese's peanut butter chips to the chocolate cake mix dough.  I love the combination of chocolate and peanut butter, so I'm hopeful that these will be a hit at the potluck as well. 

The Kitchn - 5-ingredient Mini Pumpkin Pies

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! I tried out a new recipe for pumpkin pie this year - these 5-ingredient mini pumpkin pies from The Kitchn.  The filling was super easy to prepare, and the only step that took longer was making sure to press the pie crust dough fully in the muffin cups without breaking apart the dough.  

This mini pie option is good to have on hand in case you're planning on having a variety of desserts - that way people don't have to commit to a larger dessert and miss out on the other options, haha.  This was a great little bite-sized dessert that was just as delicious the next day! 

Pike & Rose - Pike Central Farm Market + Blueberry Peach Crumble Pie

Going to the Pike Central Farm Market on Saturday mornings has become a nice little weekly routine for me whenever I am home - it's so nice having a great market that I can walk to! Recently, when I received an offer to write a post about baking something using Pike Central Farm Market ingredients, I knew it would be a good opportunity to see what seasonal items that I could work with.

Before I looked at the produce though, I had to stop at Sunday Morning Bakehouse which is quickly becoming one of my favorites for pastries!  They just started selling at the Pike Central Farm Market a few weeks ago, and I love their Matcha croissants.  They have had some interesting specialty flavors too, like the Elvis croissant above with peanut butter, bananas, and bacon - so delicious!

 

After I picked up a Matcha croissant, I went over to the Twin Spring Fruit Farm stand, and decided to make something using their yellow peaches and blueberries.  The peach samples they had out were super juicy and delicious!

As part of this blog post I received coupons for free entrees at Roti, so I went and got a rice bowl for lunch after leaving the farm market.  I have only ever had their chicken rice bowls, so it was a nice change of pace to get to try their steak and garlic sauce, which were both delicious.  The pita bread that came on the side was nice and warm -  always a nice touch.  I'd definitely get the steak again next time I come here to eat!

 

After browsing recipes online, I decided to make this Brown Sugar Peach Crumble Pie from Sally's Baking Addiction using a mix of the peaches and blueberries, and Wewalka pie crust.  The recipe was very easy to follow, and using the pint of blueberries plus five small yellow peaches worked out perfectly.  I normally don't make pies, so this was a great way to get out of my baking comfort zone and try out something new.  The crumble part of this recipe is really tasty as well, and is a great mini recipe to have on hand to top muffins and other baked goods.  This crumble pie really highlights the sweetness of the blueberries and peaches, and it's the perfect way to enjoy the current offerings from the market!

Pike Central Farm Market (Saturdays 9:00AM - 1:30PM)
910 Rose Avenue
North Bethesda, MD 20852

Roti
11584 Old Georgetown Road
North Bethesda, MD 20852


Note: My Roti entree was complimentary as part of writing this blog post.  The pie ingredients were purchased separately and I was not paid for this blog post.

Toll House Chocolate Peanut Buddy Bars

During the big East Coast blizzard that came through a few weeks ago, I wanted to make something that was easily shareable with some friends and was easy to bake.  Luckily, the back of the Toll House chocolate chips bag had the perfect recipe for me - Chocolate Peanut Buddy Bars.  I had everything needed on hand, and I love basically anything with chocolate and peanut butter combined.  

This recipe comes together really easily, and you can adapt it with any mix-ins you like - different flavor chocolate chips, nuts, candy, Nutella, whatever you feel like adding.  Of course, these big Toll house milk chocolate chips are always a good option! The official recipe included melting part of the bag of chocolate chips and spreading it over the top of the bars, but I kept it with just the chocolate chips mixed in and it was still delicious. I will definitely be making these again soon! 

Pumpkin Nutella Muffins

I always keep Nutella and canned pumpkin on hand in my kitchen, so I when I felt like baking last week, I decided to try out this recipe for Pumpkin Nutella muffins from Simply Happenstance.  

The recipe is very easy to follow, and even if you add a little more Nutella than the recipe calls for, the muffins turn out great, haha.  As you can see mine are nowhere near as pretty as the ones on the blog, which is due to me spooning globs of Nutella into the muffin batter and not swirling them.  The pumpkin and Nutella flavors go really well together, and are a fantastic way to celebrate the cooler weather and fall season coming up!   

Nestle Toll House + Pretzel Cookies

Happy Friday! What better way to celebrate than with delicious cookies! I recently bought a "college dorm" gift bag at Whole Foods because it was a great deal for a bag full of items that I use.  Included in the gift bag was a big bag of pretzel sticks, which I thought would be perfect in a chocolate chip cookie!  

I used the Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe on the back of the bag of chocolate chips, halved the original recipe since I don't need FIVE DOZEN cookies haha, and added a generous bowl-ful of crushed pretzel sticks to the dough.  I made sure that the pretzel sticks were small enough to get distributed evenly in the dough, but large enough that you can still see them.  These cookies turned out great, and the pretzel pieces added a lot of texture and a slight salty taste to the sweet cookies. They were a big hit at work and I would definitely make these again! 

Rice Cooker Cheesecake

I have previously posted my love of Japanese hot cakes made in the rice cooker, so when I saw that a cheesecake could also be made in a rice cooker I thought it was such a fun idea! 

This recipe wasn't the exact recipe link that I used when I made this, but the ingredients and process are pretty much identical as far as I can remember.  The cream cheese and lemon juice especially add that classic Japanese cheesecake flavor to this cake.  As you can see mine turned out a bit soft in the center, but it was still cooked through and settled a bit more once it had cooled.  I love the process of a one-bowl cake that basically cooks itself in a rice cooker, and the gigantic, round size is just crazy in the best way possible, haha! 

Soft Peanut Butter Cookies from Two Peas and Their Pod

I saw this recipe on Two Peas and Their Pod last month, and knew I had to try these soft peanut butter cookies for myself! 

I did not roll my cookies in sugar before baking, but otherwise I used the same ingredients when I made them.  Another part in the process that I did change is that I used a cookie scoop and did not roll the dough before baking.  I'm not sure if that's the reason why, but my cookies turned out noticeably puffier than the ones on the blog, haha.  But clearly that had no effect on the taste - these were amazing! Bite after bite of delicious, pure peanut butter flavor - what more could you ask for?  These were a big hit at work and were snatched up pretty quickly.  I definitely would use this recipe again for a delicious peanut butter fix! 

Hershey's Rich Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars

I recently discovered a can of sweetened condensed milk in my kitchen, and no idea why I bought it - haha.  I'm sure I had a recipe in mind at some point, and then forgot all about it.  

When I mentioned this my friend T, she sent me this recipe that she has made before - Rich Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars.  I omitted the nuts, and went out to get the toffee bits on my grocery trip that day.  Otherwise, it's all items that are readily available in my pantry!

It definitely helps to read through the recipe first, because there's a few separate steps involved - compared to regular cookie bars.  The layers come together very easily; however it's important to make sure you do everything at the right time.  I used the Nestle springtime chocolate chips, which added fun pastel colors to the bars.  The bars are very soft when they come out of the oven, but firm up quite well once they're cool.  They were a big hit at work, with lots of flavor and texture in each bite! 

Georgetown Cupcake - Vanilla M&M Cupcake

What a perfect signature swirl!  

This colorful secret flavor from Georgetown Cupcake is the Vanilla M&M cupcake.  It consisted of vanilla cake with M&Ms baked in, and a swirl of orange colored vanilla frosting.  I loved the bright orange frosting, and how the you could see the M&Ms through the cupcake wrapper.  I hope they bring this one back again, it was delicious! 

Table for Two's Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chunk Muffins

I realize that pumpkin foods are generally abundant in the fall, but in my mind there's never a bad time for them, haha.  Canned pumpkin is so versatile and I especially love baking with it.  

I found this recipe for Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chunk Muffins from Table for Two's blog on my pumpkin Pinterest page, and thought it sounded like a good recipe to try out.  This recipe comes together very easily, and the pumpkin + chocolate in the oven smells amazing! The only modification I made was using a full bag of Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chunks - which sounds like a lot, but it was awesome having so many chocolate chunks throughout, haha.  I brought these in to work to share, and they were a great breakfast muffin/afternoon snack.  I would definitely make these again and it's a great recipe for any time of the year!  

Gimme Some Oven's Peanut Butter Banana Cookies

These Peanut Butter Banana Cookies from Gimme Some Oven are the perfect recipe for when you have ripe bananas, but don't want to make yet another banana bread.  I also love that all of the other ingredients are readily available in most kitchens, even if you are an occasional baker.

The recipe is very easy to follow, but it definitely helps to have a stand mixer or hand mixer if possible, just to keep things moving.  Instead of rolling out each cookie by hand like in the original recipe, I instead scooped out the dough using an OXO Medium Cookie Scoop, which makes very uniform cookies but not the perfectly smooth edges like you see on the original recipe.  Even so, the taste isn't affected and these are delicious!  Since my cookies were a little more pillowy than the original recipe, they were cakey and soft.  They were a big hit at work, and great for a morning snack thanks to the combination of banana and peanut butter. Give this recipe a try if you're looking for something different to bake with a ripe banana!        

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Banana Bread from Cooking Light

Ok, not the best photo if you aren't really sure what you're looking at, hahah.  

This is a Chocolate chip peanut butter banana bread from Cooking Light magazine, which originally started as a peanut butter banana bread without chocolate.  I really liked that this recipe uses yogurt (always a staple in my fridge), and it was a tasty new way to use up bananas that have started to get soft.  In place of the chopped peanuts, I added chocolate chips to the bread batter, because I think chocolate chips are always a good addition to baked goods, haha.  I thought this was a delicious twist on a classic banana bread, and it was a big hit in the office!

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Oreo-cookies

I saw this recipe for peanut butter Oreo cookies on Kirbie's Cravings' blog, and I thought it would be extra delicious to make them using the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Oreos that I had purchased.  I love the idea of putting crushed Oreos in a cookie - it's like you're getting 2 cookies in 1, haha. 

The recipe is very easy and the cookies are delicious! You can definitely adjust the size of the Oreos that you put in - if you want bigger pieces, just don't crush them as much.  Or, if you want more of a blended Oreo flavor, you can even pop them into a food processor to get a fine crumb.  The peanut butter cup flavor was still very prominent in these cookies, and they were a big hit at work! 

Picky Palate's Perfect M&M Cookies

I saw this Picky Palate recipe for "Perfect M&M cookies", and I was intrigued by the use of instant pudding mix.  The recipe was very easy to follow, and the raw dough smelled even more delicious with the vanilla pudding haha.  

While my cookies turned out considerably rounder than Picky Palate's version, these cookies were soft and super delicious.  I highly recommend this for anyone that is looking for a new twist on a classic cookie recipe! 

Eggless Nutella Cookies

I don't normally bake with dietary restrictions in mind, but I thought it would be interesting to try out Kirbie's Cravings eggless Nutella cookies mainly because it uses Greek yogurt as one of the ingredients.  I enjoy eating Greek yogurt for breakfast, but I've never tried baking with it before.

The best part about these cookies have to be the large chocolate chunks I put in, hahaha.  But aside from that, these cookies turned out pretty tasty! I was a little worried that they would be so soft that I wouldn't be able to get them off the cookie sheet, but it wasn't an issue.  The cookies are soft, but not so much that they crumble in your hands or anything - it was easy to transport them to work the following morning.  If you're looking for an egg-less cookie recipe, or just want to try something out with Greek yogurt like me, give this recipe a try! 

Salted Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yum, peanut butter and chocolate is always a winning combination! 

I took this Table for Two recipe for salted chocolate chip cookies and added peanut butter chips to make these fantastic cookies you see above.  I never really measure chocolate chips in the baked goods I make, so there's always a chance that the dough won't come together as well due to too many "things" inside.  However this was not the case at all, there was a great balance of flavors between the chocolate and peanut butter chips.  The salt sprinkled on top of each cookie definitely adds some depth, and is a great little touch to make these cookies special.  I highly recommend this cookie recipe!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups - Averie Cooks

Peanut butter and chocolate is always a good idea- and these cookie cups are no exception! Averie Cooks is a great blog with so many delicious looking recipes, and this one for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups was a great one!

I made these in regular muffin tins, but these would be excellent in mini muffin tins for smaller cookie cup bites as well.  It's also an easy recipe to replace the add-in ingredients, like nuts, different types of chocolate, or other items you prefer.  These are a quick and easy way to get a delicious peanut butter and chocolate fix!

Rice Cooker Japanese Hotcake-cake

I thought it would be fitting to have a Japanese food post on my birthday, haha.  As soon as I saw this post about using a rice cooker to make a gigantic Japanese hotcake, I knew that I HAD to try it.  It sounded like the perfect amount of delicious and ridiculous haha.

The recipe really is SO easy as the blog posts and review claim - I mixed all of the ingredients directly in the rice cooker bowl, and hit "Start" to bake.

And here's the final result! It was actually pretty funny how this big round cake just pops out of the bowl, haha.  Because the rice cooker bowls are nonstick bowls, it really does pop out very easily. 

If you've ever had a Japanese hotcake before, you'll know already that they are normally thick and on the sweeter side.  This is like an extreme version of that, as you can see in the photo above.  The cake wasn't dense at all though, and remained nice and fluffy throughout.  The slices of cake freeze really well too, and overall I'm very happy with this giant hotcake recipe!