Hawaiian Dream Cookies

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Casey

As promised, here is a photo of me from prom this past weekend!

I did not ask permission to post a picture of my date, but he’s not that important anyways right? In all seriousness, he is actually a really great guy and was super fun to spend the day with. Can’t believe I have no more high school dances left EVER!

I really don’t have a ton to share about prom, there wasn’t any major drama worth sharing so let’s move onto these ahhh-mazing cookies I baked up!

I’m sure many of you have tasted or heard of white chocolate macadamia nut cookies.

I’m a huge fan. I particularly love macadamia nuts, which are sort of a special treat for me because they are super duper expen$ive here in the non-tropical Midwest. I decided to treat myself and bake up some cookies made with a match made in heaven-coconut and macadamia nuts.

All I have to say is, you MUST try this recipe. These cookies are everything you need and more.

Coconut Macadamia Nut Cookies (Hawaiian Dream Cookies)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 egg

pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups coconut

3/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts

Preheat oven to 350˚F.
Cream together butter and sugars using a mixer. Mix in egg and vanilla extract. Add in salt, baking soda, and flours. Stir in coconut with mixer. Fold in nuts by hand or slowly using the mixer
Drop dough onto an ungreased baking sheet by the teaspoonful and bake in preheated oven for 7-9 minutes or until edges are golden. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes, then let finish cooling on wire rack for about 5 minutes. Enjoy! Store leftovers in sealed container.

Random Fact of the Day: A sneeze can travel as fast as 100 miles per hour.

Lime Coconut-macadamia Oatmeal Cookies (tamaraleighauthor.wordpress.com)
Easter Cookie Recipes, Easter Sugar Cookies (potterybarnkids.com)
Mango coconut chocolate chip cookies and Hawaiian sunrise juice (applesandginger.com)

Monster Cookies

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Casey

I have been thinking.. I really, really want to get a scooter. Ever since my mom and I rented them in Key West, I have been considering it even more. I should probably start growing my money tree first, but like in all seriousness, I think they are a smart investment especially for when I get out of college. So fuel efficient and hellooooo parking is like a bajillion times easier.

I have my eyes on this beauty. Normally I wouldn’t want my car a real “out there” color, but I am in love with that aquamarine color! (Dear Santa…This would be great in about 4 years when I graduate from college. Thanks! love, Casey) A girl can dream right??

Anyways while I’m waiting for that dream to come true, I have some monster cookies to share with you all! There are loads of variations of the famous “monster cookie” floating around everywhere, but this one is the version I came up with that is loaded with a bunch of stuff.

I wanted to put crushed pretzels and peanut butter chips in there too, but I didn’t want to overload the cookie with add-ins. Feel free to mix up the add-ins what whatever you have in the house! This recipe is great for using up post-holiday candy that is laying around that you can cut into small pieces and throw in the dough.

Monster Cookies

(Makes about 2 dozen large cookies)

1/2 cup (1 stick)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup peanut butter

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup oats

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup butterscotch chips

1/3 cup M&Ms

Preheat oven to 350˚ F.
Using a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugars. Mix in peanut butter. Add in egg and vanilla extract. Stir in baking soda, flours, and oats. Finally, mix in chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and M&Ms until thoroughly combined.
Drop dough by Tablespoonful onto an ungreased cookie sheet, flatten cookies slightly (they don’t spread in the oven), and bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes or until edges are set and golden. Let cool on cookie sheet for about 2 minutes then transfer onto wire rack to finish cooling. Enjoy!

Random Fact of the Day: The most popular sport as a topic for a film is boxing.

Potato Chip Cookies (familyrecipebooks.wordpress.com)
Oatmeal Butterscotch Brown Butter Bars (whatchamakinnow.blogspot.com)
Gluten-Free Tuesday: Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies (seriouseats.com)

Toasted Coconut Double Chocolatey Cookies

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Casey

It is no secret that my family has a fascination with coconut, particularly when it is teamed up with it’s bestie, chocolate.

All during Lent I was CRAVING to bake like you wouldn’t believe (reason for approximately a million quick bread recipes). Because my family gives up treats for Lent, it is really hard for me to keep coming up with new things for the blog. Yes, I could make real entrees with cooked veggies and shenanigans like that, but the problem with me and cooking “real” meals is that I often eat at a different time than the rest of my family. Or an average human.

Whenever I get home from school I am STARVING. My lunch at school is at 9:40 AM. Yes. Take it in. Many of you are probably still chowing down on breakfast at that time. Sooo I basically go ham on my fridge when I get home and eat a dinner then. That is sometimes at 3 PM. Okay, 3 PM dinner is rare, but 4 Pm (retirement home time), that is quite common for me.

Eating dinner at 4PM is usually a solo occasion because my mom and dad are either still working or like not even thinking about dinner. So there is my overly long explanation of why I baked you guys these cookies. Actually they were more for my favorite with their favorite flavors in mind, but I hope you try them and love them as much as we did!

Toasted Coconut Double Chocolatey Cookies

(Makes 1-2 dozen small cookies)

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder (I used dark)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

5 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon sea salt (regular salt is fine too)

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2/3 cup sweetened coconut, toasted (toast coconut on a rimmed baking sheet in a 300˚ F oven for 8 minutes, shuffle with spatula half-way through)

1/4 cup chocolate chips (minis work really well, but I have used regular-sized and they’re stil great!)

Preheat oven to 350˚F.
Sift together flours, cocoa, salt, and baking soda into a medium bowl and set aside.
In the bowl of a large stand mixer, cream together butter and brown sugar. Mix in egg and vanilla extract. Slowly mix in sifted dry ingredients until completely combined. Finally, mix in toasted coconut and chocolate chips.
Drop dough onto cookie sheet by the teaspoonful, about 2 inches apart, and flatten down slightly to about 1/2″ thick. Bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes. Let cool on baking sheet for about 2 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Store in sealed container.

Random Fact of the Day: There are 365 steps on the front of the U.S. Capitol Building – one for every day of the year. Not sure why you would need a step for each day of the year (and what about leap years??)

Improvise (wscwong.typepad.com)
(Mostly) Raw Vegan Cookie Balls (findingbalancenaturally.com)
Adventures in Macaroon-ing. (winethursdays.wordpress.com)

Double Chocolate M&M Cookies and a BIG BIG DAY!

Posted on April 13, 2013 by Casey

WOoooo!!! Today is my 2 year blogoversary!

I can not even believe that two years ago, I was just posting my first post on Beautiful Disasters. I still have fun looking back on some of my first posts and looking at the photos

The other day I had to go through a lot of old posts and get rid of all the pictures and just keep one for every post because I was running low on memory on the blog and needed to clear up some space..YIKES some of those pictures had reaaaaallly extended their stay on the blog a wee bit too long.

Those were the days before I snagged my mom’s fancy, nice Nikon D80 camera (thanks mom!). Slowly, I have become more used to the camera and have picked up on what works and what doesn’t work. The most important thing I have picked up on for good pictures is to take picture with NATURAL lighting when possible. For me, this has meant that I bring my food outside and set up my photo shoot out there. There certainly are days that I get lazy or it is too dark or there is just some down-right icky weather out where I just say screw it, I’m gonna take pitiful pictures in my cozy house.

I have researched ways to take high-quality photos inside, but I have found it requires a bit of set-up and more supplies than good ‘ol Mr. Sun. So whenever I can, I try to take pictures outside.

But I digress from all this photography talk…on to these cookies!

I was having a little trouble deciding what to make for my 2 year blogoversary (granted, I realized my blogoversary was happening 3 days before today). So I turned to my mom for some suggestions. I was thinking something along the lines of a cake or cupcake, maybe something with funfetti to bring out the whole “blogoversary-birthday” theme. But, my mom came up with an idea that I liked even better. Soft chocolate M&M cookies!

One of the keys to making these cookies fabulous is to make them fairly generous sized cookies. I’m talking 2 Tablespoons to 1/4 cup size of dough here. Be sure that you flatten them slightly, so they bake up nicely. And then, of course, you can’t forget the M&Ms! These cookies sure are a winner and I’m glad that I can share them with you all for my 2 year anniversary of Beautiful Disasters.

Double Chocolate M&M Cookies

(Makes 1 dozen large cookies)

1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, room temp

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder (I used dark cocoa powder)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

about 1/4 cup M&Ms

Preheat oven to 350˚F.
In a small bowl, whisk together flours, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
Using a mixer, cream together butter and sugars. Mix in egg and vanilla extract. Slowly add in the dry ingredients and mix until thoroughly combined, be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Drop the cookie dough by large spoonfuls (between 2 Tablespoons and 1/4 cup of dough) onto the ungreased cookie sheet and bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes or until edges of cookies are set and slightly firm to touch. Let cool and sit on cookie sheet for 2 minutes and then transfer cookies to wire rack to finish cooling for 5-10 minutes. Store in sealed container.

Random Fact of the Day: The opposite sides of a dice cube always add up to seven!

Chocolate Raspberry Espresso Quinoa Cookies (thepescetarianandthepig.com)
The Bestest Awesomest Double Chocolate Chip Cookie (hellohungryones.wordpress.com)
Limoncello Lemon Bars (piafulton.wordpress.com)

Choco-Mint [Cake Mix] Bars

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Casey

Weeeirdest thing ever has been happening to me quite frequently lately…

Ever since I have stopped eating meat (about 3 months ago), I have been having the craziest dreams(/nightmares).

It’s usually pretty short, but basically the way it goes is this: I eat meat without thinking about it or remembering that I gave up meat, I FREAK out, start crying, ask about surgery to remove the meat, cry some more and just freak out in general.

Then I wake up, and it always feels like the dream was so real. I’ll be like “Did that really just happen? Did I really do that? WHY would I freak out about eating a little meat?” especially because I really don’t care that much if I eat a little meat, especially when I don’t want to be an inconvenience to others during meals that are outside of my control.

At a pasta dinner for soccer, the sauce was of course a meat sauce, so I pretty much tried to make the best of it and just avoid the sauce as much as I could but those little things certainly aren’t worth creating a fuss over. Thankfully all my little meat-eating tantrums have been dreams.

On a totally unrelated note..You may have noticed these pictures of these delicious bars. Oh yeashhh they are delish. One of my favorite flavor combos (chocolate and mint) and then the cake mix I used already have marshmallow bits in it, so I was just like SCOREEE. This recipe is super versatile, so feel free to use whatever cake mix you want and what add-ins you like!

Choco-Mint [Cake Mix] Bars

1 (13.75 oz.) Chocolate* Cake Mix (This size is usually labeled as “Cupcake Mix”)**See note at bottom!***

2 eggs

5 Tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 cup Mint Andes baking bits (Or chopped up Andes candies)

Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Spray a 8″x8″ or 9″x9″ baking pan with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, mix dry cake mix, eggs, and melted butter together until combined. Add in the mint Andes bits until evenly distributed. Pour batter into prepared baking pan.
Bake in preheated oven for 16-18 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for about 5-10 minutes, then slice and enjoy! Cover bars with plastic wrap or store in sealed container when not eating.

*You may notice the white little specks in my bars, the cake mix I used had marshmallow bits already included in it, so that is what those are!

***Note: If you can only find a regular sized 18.25 oz. cake mix, that is fine, just prepare the batter the same. You may need to add a few more Tablespoons of water or milk to make the batter a spreadable consistency. Pour the batter into a 13″ x 9″ baking pan and bake at 350˚F for 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Random Fact of the Day: 40% of women have hurled footwear at a man. Any readers out there guilty of this??

Pinterest Roundup: Delicious No-Bake Dessert Recipes (dailysavings.allyou.com)
Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars (mycrazysuburbanlife.wordpress.com)
White Chocolate Biscoff Cookie Bars (asweetbaker.com)

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