Sugar Coated Pecans

Just when you thought pecans couldn't get any better.

Peanut Butter Banana Granola

I feel like Elvis everytime i eat this.

Be warned though! this recipe makes a measly mount if you are known to consume excessive amounts of toasted oats.
(especially since this one has peanut butter)

The only way i justified finished the whole batch in a day (Alone!) was that it was full of good-for-me peanut butter, and natural sweeteners and nuts. Good, right?

I hope so.

I got a bit carried away with the photography this time round, so i thought i would take all of you on a virtual tour of my new favourite food.

I know your stomach is growling. Man i can hear it from here. Do yourself a favour and whip up a batch so that your tummy will stop that nonsence.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

What kind of baker would i be if i didn't have a chocolate chip cookie staple recipe?

And these cookies are 'da bomb.
crisp and brown on the edges and gooey and chewy and divine in the middle.

Man, I am still hungry.

If you want to shake it up a little, add white chocolate chips. Or butterscotch chips. Or peanut butter chips.
Well, whatever floats your boat.

I love walnuts and semisweet hersheys bake-able chocolate morsels.

Mmm.
Now ponder this: Should i ask for a giant tower of chocolate chips cookies for my sixteenth birthday 'cake'?
Fancy Schmancy sweet sixteen cakes are so overrated.

I'll have a leaning tower of choc. chip goodness.

Pros:
1. i don't need to CUT the cake into slices
2. You don't need to feel bad asking the hostess to cut you another slice. just nip one right off the tower.
3. i like cookies more than cake
4. i ESPECIALLY love these cookies

cons:
1. i might finish the whole cake myself

well, then.
it looks like i am having a birthday cookie tower.

Blondies

I have a confession:
I am not a brownie lover.

Which is shocking, right?
what 16-year old girl who has a sweet tooth the size of alaska hates a dense, fudgey, oogey gooey chocolate brownie?

(This one)

Then Rachel came to school one day with a box full of betty crocker box-mix brownies.
Best. Brownies. Ever.

And i realised why i loved them.
They were light and crisp on the outside. they weren't dense or overly-rich or glue-your-jaw-shut chewy.

So i was a girl on a misson:
To make a spongy light brownie WITHOUT THE BOX MIX.
(somethign about the box mixes just isn't quite right)

So i went home and opened up my big book of THE NEW BEST RECIPE.
Which is, for the record, the best recipe book you'll ever find because all the recipes have been tested and tried out again and again so they are pratically idiot-proof for baking dummies such as myself.

And i found it!
My brownie recipe! Alas!

Then, i discovered obstacle No. 1: Sarah had used the last of our baking chocolate for chocolate lava cakes.

I wanted to cry out in despair.
A brownie without chocolate?
What was that?

Apparently--a blondie.

I was about to slam the book shut in frustration whne i spotted the recipe right beside the brownies.
Blondies.
Brownies-chocolate+white chocolate chips.

Perfect!

Now i am going to lie and say that i DID NOT, under any circumstances, finish 7 pieces before it was even teatime.

So since i DID NOT eat that many (ahem ahem)
It would be perfectly alright if i just had... one more?