the rest of the mess

Cinnamon Peanut Butter Chickpeas

Jalapeno Cheese Dip
Failed to get a photo of this one, but it was awesome! I took it to a friend's for a party.

Cheesy Cauliflower Puree


Guacamole


Runny Egg On A Pita


Savory Pumpkin Grilled Cheese


Baked Acorn Squash

Super Bowl - PB Truffles

Super bowl time! For the past four or five years I have made 7-layer dip for Super Bowl Sunday because it's an easy, chilled recipe that doesn't require any cooking. Well this year I broke that tradition and broke out some cooking - two recipes in fact! First up, Peanut Butter Pretzel Truffles.

Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
- 1/4 cup crushed salted pretzels
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
- Combine peanut butter and pretzels in a bowl. Chill for 15 minutes in the freezer. Roll mixture into balls (about the size of a tsp) and freeze 1 hour till firm. Roll balls in melted chocolate and refrigerate until set.

Super easy, but I totally messed these up! I forgot to freeze the balls before dipping them in chocolate, no wonder I got such a mess! They obviously still ended up tasting awesome, but would have worked better had I actually read the directions right. I also made the balls bigger than recommended, but in the end they tasted great and the Super Bowl party attendees loved them! That is, all the boys devoured them.

I got about 27 (should've been like 40 though had I sized them right) and were 3 points/serving.

PB and Chocolate Chip "pod" Cookies

Last night I went to a Chrismukkah party and though it wasn't required to bring anything it was a perfect opportunity for me to bake cookies! As you know I rarely bake, unless for an occasion, so that's exactly what this was. I decided to make this recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (Mr. Goodbar Cookies) that was one of the very first I found and bookmarked. It's from a Weight Watchers friendly blog that seems to no longer be active. But in any case, here goes.

Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
- 1/3 cup chunky peanut butter
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp brown sugar, packed
- 1 large egg
- 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and cover two baking sheets with parchment paper (I used a silpat for one and foil for the other)
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and brown sugar.
- In a large bowl, cream the butter and peanut butter together with a hand mixer on a high speed. Add in the egg and vanilla; beat until fluffy.
- With the mixer on a low speed, gradually beat in the flour mixture until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips.
- Drop dough by tablespoons onto the baking sheets, forming 24 cookies total.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes
- Transfer to a cooking rack and cool completely.

The original recipe said to use the bottom of a drinking glass to press down on each dough ball and then use a fork to create criss-cross marks; I didn't do this. My dough was very crumbly and it was hard for the balls to stay together so when I tried to press them down they just fell apart, so I stopped. The original also mentions how her cookies didn't spread and mine didn't either! It was very frustrating. They ended up like little pods of cookies, as you see below.

In the end, yes they tasted good (I mean peanut butter and chocolate don't often taste bad together), but they looked not so good. They were definitely not an attractive cookie; however, still ended up being a success at the party and got eaten up! They're only 2 PointsPlus/cookie so definitely a good Weight Watchers option, if you can get past the weird look.