Category: Food

DIY, Food, Homemade Gifts, Sweets

I decided I was going sugar free for the month of March. Then I made these and decided April was the better month to go sugar free. Also, who else here puts m&m’s in their theatre popcorn? I can’t be the only one. Asking for a friend here. What is it about sweet and salty together?

Have you ever had someone invite you over for a girls night, or a small get together, or supper and you ask “what would you like me to bring?” But really, you only ask because 9/10 the person usually replies with “just bring yourself!” Well, there will come a day friends, when someone will betray you and reply with  “just bring whatever is easiest! A snack or whatever. Nothing fancy.”

This recipe will save you. It’s not fancy. It’s not hard. But it is delicious. And it’s chewy. Best part? It’s sweet and salty, so best of both worlds. If there were two worlds.

You definitely should bring this to your next girls night. Watch Hugh Grant dance in his underpants in Notting Hill. Or raise your hands and say “Amen sister” when Bridget Jones is trying to get her wobbly bits to fit into her jeans. Whatever movie you watch, or whatever it is your bring these to… they’ll be appreciated.

My best friend and I are going to Banff for the week over spring break and we plan on having movie nights and eating junk food. Please comment your fave chick flick and fave snack, Preferably sweet and salty. I thank you in advance, my trainer will not. Just kidding, I don’t have a trainer.

Caramel Pretzel Bark
 
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Sweet and salty caramel pretzel bark. It's easy and so addicting!
Author:
Ingredients
  • 2 cups pretzels
  • 1 cup of butter
  • 1 cup of brown sugar
  • 1 cup chocolate chips
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • sea salt
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350* and cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper
  2. Place your pretzels evenly in a single layer
  3. In a small saucepan, melt the butter and brown sugar over medium heat. The caramel will start to bubble and thicken
  4. Remove once the caramel has thickened and add the vanilla
  5. Pour evenly over the pretzels and bake in the oven for 5 minutes
  6. While its in the oven, melt your chocolate in the microwave and pout into an icing bag
  7. Pour the melted chocolate over the caramel in little squiggles and top with some sea salt
  8. let cool completely, cut into squares and refrigerate
  9. Enjoy!!
Notes
This recipe is adapted from 3 fois par jour blog

You guys can check out the original recipe here… among tons of others! I have both her cookbooks, her first one is my favourite cookbook I own. Which is saying a lot because I own a ton. Like if we weighed them, they would probably weigh a ton. The Blog is call Trois Fois Par Jour

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Food, Sweets

I’ve made a lot of cookies in my life.

Chocolate chip. Oatmeal raisin cookie. Oatmeal chocolate cookie. Peanut butter cookie. Sour cream chocolate cookie. Cracker Jack cookie. Shortbread cookie. Sugar cookies. Monster cookies. Christmas cookies. Thumbprint cookies. White chocolate cranberry cookies. Macarons. Macaroons. S’mores cookies. I could go on (not really, my mind is drawing a blank. But I feel like I’ve made a lot more than just that).

But then I made these cookies. I am not lying to you when I tell you that in the month of February, I have made these 6 times. No lie, no exaggeration. SIX times. And two of those times I doubled the recipe. That’s 8 dozen cookies that I have mostly consumed myself. I shared some, but for the majority I ate most. So do yourself a favour and make these. They’re rich, they’re gooey, they’re gluten free, they’re easy, they’re no bake. I found the recipe on pinterest from  the Sugar Apron Blog.

Cow Pie Cookies
 
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Might be one of the easiest, tastiest cookie you will ever eat! I like to keep mine in the fridge, I like the snap of a cold cookie!
Author:
Serves: dozen cookies
Ingredients
  • ½ cup butter
  • 2 cups white sugar
  • ½ cup milk
  • 4 tbsp cocoa powder
  • ½ cup peanut butter
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 3 cups quick oats
  • ½ cup coconut
  • pinch of sea salt
Instructions
  1. In a medium sauce pan, add the butter, sugar, milk and cocoa powder
  2. Bring to a rolling boil, and boil for one minute
  3. Remove from heat and add in the peanut butter, vanilla, oats, coconut, and salt
  4. Mix well until completely combined
  5. With a cookie scoop, drop onto prepared cookie sheets with parchment paper and flatten slightly
  6. Put in refrigerator until cool and set
  7. Enjoy!!
Notes
This recipe was adapted from Sugar Apron

 

 

And they’re also Olive approved, clearly.

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Food, Sweets

My friend Julie had made these the other day when I went for a visit. She gave me one and I liked them so much she shared the recipe. I feel like they’ll be the perfect thing when you’re trying to eat healthy but are craving something sweet. You can just grab one of these and nibble on them. Or shove 4 at once. Your call.

Every time I see a recipe on pinterest that says “healthy” I tend to skip it. I think it might be because I have it in my head that healthy means hard ingredients to find, or tasteless. And what does “healthy” even mean anyways? You ask a vegan- means no animal products. You ask someone trying to lose weight- low carb, low calorie. You ask someone on keto- high fat, low carb. So whatever. To me, these are healthy. I made mine with regular peanut butter, but you could use all natural and it would be refined sugar free. Coconut oil is not low calorie, but it is good for your body (I think). This all besides the point though. I’m sharing this because it is one of the easiest things I’ve made and they are so good. They’re almost like fudge. Please make them.

 


Healthier Peanut Butter Cups
 
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Author:
Ingredients
  • 1 c coconut oil
  • 1 c peanut butter
  • 1 c cocoa powder
  • ½ c creamed honey
  • 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
  1. Mix all the ingredients with an immersion blender until smooth.
  2. Fill mini cup cake liners
  3. Freeze and enjoy!
  4. You can obviously just use a whisk if you don't have an immersion blender. Also, i froze mine by putting the cookie sheet outside, because well, hello Alberta.

 

 

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Food, Sweets

Wanna know how many times I’ve made these cinnamon buns in a week? FIVE. Five times. That’s 20 cups of flour, and a whole lot of yeast. The first time I made them, I forgot to put cinnamon in them. I know. I’m totally Amelia Bedelia. Then I made them a second time, and they turned out perfect. So I figured I could make them again, because I went from Amelia Bedelia to Gordon Ramsey pretty quickly. So I did. For the third time. I put them in the oven and went to feed Olive. You know where this is going. I baked them for a solid 10 mins more than they needed, which resulted in dry, hard…. crusty, nasty garbage. So then I thought, maybe third time isn’t the charm, but maybe the fourth time is a charm? Can that be a thing? I think it should be a thing for moms, cuz we deserve an extra chance over the average person. So I made these for the fourth time in a week, and my yeast must not have worked cuz my dough ended up in the garbage next to a poopy diaper. I’m not selling this recipe am I? In it’s defence, the three times they’ve failed, they’ve been my fault. Or my baby brain. Either way, don’t blame the cinnamon buns. On the fifth attempt I got this bright idea to put raspberries in them. And low and behold, the fifth attempt became legendary. Just kidding. But Dane is my biggest critic, and he said these were delicious. And somehow 9 went missing from 7:00 in the evening to when I woke up this morning… so that says something. If you’re a conservative, you can skip the raspberries. But you should take a walk on the wild side and try them, you might surprise yourself. You might even change your political views due to these little red berries appearing where they normally wouldn’t. You’re welcome liberals, I may have just gotten you an extra vote.

Raspberry Cinnamon Buns
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Ingredients
  • 1 tsp granulated sugar
  • 2¼ tsp dry active yeast
  • ½ cup warm water
  • ½ cup whole milk
  • ¼ cup granulated sugar
  • ¼ cup butter
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 4 cups all purpose flour
  • ¼ cup butter, softened
  • ¾ cup brown sugar
  • 1½ TBLS cinnamon
  • 2 cups fresh raspberries
Instructions
  1. In a small bowl add your 1 teaspoon of sugar and yeast, along with your warm water. Let stand until frothy and you can smell the yeast, Approx 10 mins.
  2. In a small saucepan, heat your milk until it starts to bubble. Remove from heat, add in your ¼ cup of butter, and ¼ cup of sugar. Stir until butter has completely melted. Set aside until it is room temperature.
  3. In the bowl of your stand mixer with the dough hook attachment, combine your yeast mixture, your milk mixture, as well as your beaten eggs and 1½ cup of flour. Mix until the flour has been incorporated, and continue to add the remaining 2½ cups of flour, ½ cup at a time. Once the dough has come together, knead on a floured surface until smooth and elastic. (about 5-7 mins). Form into a ball.
  4. In a large lightly oiled bowl, place dough and turn over a few times making sure all sides of dough have been oiled. Wet a dish towel so it is damp, and cover. Place in a warm area where there are no drafts (I always place mine in the oven). Let sit for at least one hour, but two is ideal. Or until it has doubled in size.
  5. Turn onto a lightly floured surface, and with a floured rolling pin, roll dough out to a rectangle 18x14 inches. Brush with ¼ cup of softened butter, sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon, and with raspberries. Tightly roll up, brush the edge with butter and pinch to seal. Cut into 12-15 pieces, place unto cookie sheet/ or pan. Brush outsides of cinnamon rolls with any leftover butter, cover and place back in a warm, draft free area for another hour, or until doubled in size.
  6. Bake in a preheated oven at 375* F, for 25 mins, or until slightly golden. Do not over bake or you will end up with dry cinnamon buns!

 

Food, Sweets


So I have this friend. I won’t say her name, but it starts with an “A”, and the last three letters are “ton.” And there is an “F” after the A. It’s Afton. Her name is Afton. She’s my best friend, and I love her to bits, but she has a problem. She’s a shopaholic. More than me. Her favourite phrase is “Ya But!” when she’s defending her last purchase to her fiancé, and “I could be tempted” when she’s trying to not full on say that she is going to buy something. I’ll give you an example. We’re at anthropology, and she sees a dress she doesn’t need, nor does she have the funds to buy it. “I could be tempted to get it….’ Or I’ll ask her if she’s hungry, “not really, but I could be tempted with a glass of wine…” But her “tempted” means she gives in to it EVERY time. Like she bought the anthro dress and had the glass of wine. But I love her, and I could be tempted to be her best friend forever. A few years ago we found a tank top at Lululemon with ruffles on the bottom. I bought one in black and one in cream because it’s the perfect under shirt to complete an outfit. So one day Afton and me are in Lululemon and she sees that they still have a few of these ruffled tanks still in stock. Ours are in perfect condition, and basically still new. But she is adamant that she should buy an extra one to have as “backup.” “Look Claud, they have more of our tank top… I could really be tempted to get another one.” If she hadn’t seen the tank top, she wouldn’t have been “tempted” to buy another one, but because she SAW it, she wanted it. What does this have anything to do with key lime pie? The other day I was in Save on Foods buying a cucumber. ONE cucumber. And off to the corner I see a bag of key limes. They are the tiniest, cutest little limes I’ve ever seen. I have no idea what to do with them, nor do I need them. But “I could be tempted” because they’re tiny and cute, and they don’t always have them in stock. So I buy not one, but TWO bags of key limes. And this is how this key lime pie came to be.

The Duchess Bakeshop is the most delicious bakery I’ve ever been to. It has the cutest decor and style, but best of all, the best pastries. Their key lime pie and florentines are my all time favourite thing to order. Or maybe their eclairs. Or their macarons. Their Paris Brest is pretty top notch as well. Everything. I choose everything. This is their recipe from their ridiculously awesome cookbook. Thanks Duchess, for making my jeans tighter circa 2012.

 

Key Lime Pie
 
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The creamiest, easiest Key Lime Pie you will ever eat.
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 8 servings
Ingredients
  • 1¼ cups graham cracker crumbs
  • 3 Tbsp granulated sugar
  • ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 2 egg yolks
  • Zest of one lime
  • 1¼ cups of condensed milk
  • ½ cup key lime juice (regular limes can be used)
  • 1cup of whipped cream
Instructions
  1. Preheat your oven to 300* F degrees.
  2. To make the crust, in a large bowl mix together your crumbs, sugar and butter (I found that you could get away with adding more crumbs than the recipe calls for). Gently press into an 8" inch pie plate, making sure to go up the sides. Bake in preheated oven for 14 minutes. Remove and set aside.
  3. Increase oven to 325* F
  4. In a bowl whisk together your egg yolks, lime zest, and condensed milk. Whisk until well blended and smooth. Slowly pour in your lime juice whisking again until smooth. Pour into prepared pie crust and bake for 18 minutes. Allow pie to cool, then refrigerate for at least two hours. Serve with whipped cream, topped off with some fresh lime zest.
  5. Enjoy!

 

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