Peanut Butter Brownie Bites

Earlier this week as I was cooking dinner I saw my KitchenAid sitting in the corner, unloved and collecting dust. I'm pretty sure the frequency of my baking has a lot to do with the size of my counter and oven! I definitely lost a lot of kitchen space when we moved so it makes baking and cooking a bit of a challenge. As I was cooking I was trying to think of something to make for dessert that Jon would love. I figured that chocolate and peanut butter would do the trick. I mean, who doesn't love that combo?!

I thought about making brownies drizzled with peanut butter but then I would have to make one huge pan. I decided that baking individual desserts would be much more fun! Plus I always feel 10x better seeing mini individual brownies disappear than one giant pan!

After doing a bit of brainstorming, these Peanut Butter Brownies Bites were born!

You've seriously got to make these.

Peanut Butter Brownie Bites

Ingredients

1 1/4 c. sugar
11 tbsp. butter (1 stick + 3 tbsp)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 eggs, cold
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/8 tsp. baking soda
1 tbsp. arrowroot powder (can substitute with cornstarch)
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup peanut butter
chocolate chips (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a microwave safe bowl, heat the butter and sugar together for 1 minute 30 seconds. Remove, stir until mixed, and cool for 5 minutes.
3. Once butter/sugar mixture has cooled, stir in the vanilla extract and cocoa powder.
4. Pour the butter/sugar mixture in the mixing bowl and slowly add in the eggs one at a time.
5. In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, arrowroot powder, and salt. Turn the mixer on low and slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar mixture. Mix until no flour pockets remain.
6. Grease a muffin tin and evenly distribute the brownie mixture into 12 brownie cups.
7. Place in the oven for 18-20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Flip the brownies over onto a baking sheet or plate.
8. Take a small spoon to remove some of the brownie from the center of each cup. Be careful not to go all the way through the bottom of the cup.
9. Place a spoonful of peanut butter into the center of each brownie and top with chocolate chips (optional).
10. Enjoy immediately or allow to cool so the peanut butter has a chance to set.

I preferred these still warm with gooey peanut butter while Jon liked them better after they cooled so it's totally up to you! I suggest trying them both ways, I know I did ;)

Not-Your-Average Strawberry Banana Smoothie

When I have a few extra minutes in the morning I like to treat myself to a delicious smoothie rather than my usual banana/fruit and nut bar combo. Lately I have been loving this "Not-Your-Average Strawberry Banana Smoothie" that I whipped together.

Most strawberry banana smoothies have - you guessed it - strawberries, bananas, and milk as their only ingredients but I've amped this one up to add a burst of extra vitamins, minerals, healthy fat, and protein!

Recipe

Ingredients
1 frozen banana (Note: it's much easier to blend if you slice it before freezing - using frozen bananas replace ice cubes)
1 handful of strawberries
1 tsp chia seeds
1 packet Artisana raw coconut butter
enough almond milk to get things movin'

Directions
1. Put everything in a blender and blend until smooth
2. Enjoy!

Third Times A Charm

The first weekend we moved to Florida we went to a local furniture store and purchased a couch, only to get home and find that it wouldn't fit through the front door. We ended up returning it and purchasing a couch online that would fit through our tiny door frame. After a couple weeks of waiting we contacted the company only to find that the couch never shipped.

Because we have our first guest coming this week we decided we needed a couch and we needed one now. We hopped in the car and made the hour drive to the nearest IKEA hoping that we would find something that would meet the following criteria: 1: It had to fit through the front door, 2: It had to fit in the car in one trip, and 3: We loved it.

When we got to IKEA it was a mad house! There were people everywhere. I'm not sure if it's always that busy or if people were out shopping because of the holiday weekend. After walking around for what seemed like forever, we found the couch section of the store and decided on a couch that we prayed would fit.

When we were packing it up into the car we ended up having a few difficulties. To make sure everything would fit, we had to take pieces out of the boxes and put all of the seats down flat except the drivers seat, which meant someone had to sit in the back. Because I'm way shorter than Jon and the drivers seat was pushed up as far as it could go, he was sent to the back.

You should have seen the look on the people's faces next to us when he climbed in the back and I shut the trunk door! Naturally as soon as we arrived home I got my camera ready to snap a picture of him right when I opened up the trunk and I'm glad I did. Imagine stuffing something so full that when you open it, you have to be on guard to catch the things when they fall out. That was what it was like with him back there!

I am so glad we finally have a couch. I mean, it only took 3 tries and stuffing people into the trunk to get the perfect one! ;)

Question: Have you ever had any challenging or interesting moving experiences?