Simple & Fresh

This has been a hectic week to say the least. Work, work, work. Not to mention, getting ready for our trip next week!
But Aston's not stressin'...

Yesterday I spent my usual one day hanging around my Grama's place. We baked up a quick a simple batch of peanut butter cookies for Grampa. But these really were hands down the best PB cookies of my life. 

Grama's favorite cookbook was given to her for her bridal shower when she was 18 or so, and she still loves it. I love it too, old but simple and fresh recipes. 

And thats where she gets these PB cookies from. 

As you can see, there's the recipe... simple as can be, yet the best one I've tried. 

Scoop Scoop Scoop....

Bake Bake Bake...

Tasty Treats!! 

My Grama and Grampa also have the most amazing vegetable garden you've seen. On my list of things to do in life is "have a vegetable garden like Gma & Gpa"

For lunch, we headed to the garden to pick some fresh veg for a big pot of soup and some tasty tomato sammies. 

All washed & trimmed. 

We made up a nice big pot of soup with simply a big of hamburger, all these veggies, and some barley. Oh, and a jar of canned tomatoes. 

Wa-lah! 

And I had me a nice big beefsteak tomato (from the garden) sandwich, but it went down too fast to snap a pic, hehe. 

Everything we made today was so simple, but so so delicious and fresh. 

I need a garden...

Me & PB

As I've told you before I have an extreme addiction to peanut butter! As a child I used to put it on hotdogs...yes I know, thankfully not anymore. I thought to myself yesterday I should give you all a taste of my usual summer breakfast...

They're simply 1/3 cup overnight oats, soaked in unsweetened vanilla almond milk. Upon morning time, I add a chopped apple or banana and stir..

Enter peanut butter! I usually use about 1 Tbsp of melted peanut butter. And stir til my heart is content. Not going to lie, while the peanut butter is melting in the microwave, I take advantage of those 25 seconds to eat a few more finger swipes from the jar, hehe. 

Yesterday taking these pictures I thought this would be a good post if I added dinner. However dinner was a last minute thought, and so I turned to one of the most delicious and quick dinners I have....but yes, you guessed it, it contains peanut butter! 

So with the posting of this dinner recipe, you will now truly see the sheer amount of peanut butter consumed in one of my days (haha usually its just breakfast, I swear)

This is one of Mark's favorite dinners hands down. He, being a man, prefers it on simple starchy white rice, while I eat mine on brown. Last night, brown rice was simply not an option with no time, so I opted for white.. oh well. 

Saucy Coconut Shrimp

(makes 2 servings) <-- exactly why its a perfect last min din

1 tsp. oil

1/2 lb. peeled, deveined shrimp

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp. crushed red pepper

1/2 cup canned light coconut milk

3 Tbsp. peanut butter

3 Tbsp lime juice

2 tsp. soy sauce

1/4 cup mango slices (I top mine with more after)

Heat the oil in a wok or fry pan, add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook for 30 seconds. Add shrimp and cook for 1-2 minutes, until shrimp is pink. Transfer to a bowl and cover. 

Add all the remaining ingredients to the same pan, except the mango. Cook for 3-4 minutes until the peanut butter is melted and everything is blended nicely. 

Stir the shrimp and mango back in until heated through, 2-3 minutes. 

Serve over rice. 

Don't be deceived, this dish is spicy and sweet, and the peanut butter is not overwhelming at all. 

I promise you all must try it! 

Addicted to trail mix?

For those of you who have not tried this...

you don't know what you're missing! 

I sincerely believe I am addicted!! I could eat it all day long. However, I like to pick out the almonds, raisins, and cashews. At the end of the bag that leaves an overwhelming amount of peanuts and m&ms left. 

Instead of taking up space in the cupboard, why not make some cookies??

Oatmeal Trail Mix Cookies

1 1/4 cups oat flour

1/4 cup ground flax

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 cups oats

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 cup brown sugar

3 Tbsp vanilla yogurt

2 eggs

2 heaping cups trail mix

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a seperate bowl, mix all wet ingredients. Especially make sure to add the vanilla yogurt, it adds alot to the cookie. Then add this wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir until well combined. Lastly add the trail mix and stir until combined. Place tablespoonfuls of dough onto a greased cookie sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes, til golden brown. 

These are definately a lazyman's cookie. But even the day after, they are nice and moist (thanks to the yogurt)

They're not pretty, but they are a tasty treat!

And they store great!

So pick out all the tasty bits of that bag of trail mix, and leave the rest to make some tasty cookies!

Brown Nanners

A weekend away left my counter plentiful with many brown bananas. This honestly made me quite excited...nothing I love more than a good banana loaf. This time I decided to switch things up by adding a little PB!
For those of you who know me well, not a day goes by without some form of peanut butter overconsumption. Even Aston has caught the bug...poor pup didn't stand a chance with me as a mom, she now sees the green lidded jar and the drool begins to pool on the floor.

This peanut butter banana bread comes from a recipe I adapted loosely from  Cooking Light.

Peanut Butter Banana Loaf

(makes 1 9x5 loaf)

2 mashed ripe bananas

1/3 cup vanilla yogurt

2/3 cup creamy or chunky peanut butter

1 1/2 Tbsp melted butter

2 eggs

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cups oat flour (oats ground in the magic bullet)

1/4 cup ground flax

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan and set aside. 

In a large bowl, mix together the oat flour, ground flax, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder. 

In another bowl, mix together the mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, peanut butter, melted butter, and brown sugar. Blend until smooth, and then pour this wet mixture into the dry oat flour mixture. 

Pour this batter into the greased loaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes and until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. 

A Weekend Away

So this week has been hectic to say the very least. We headed to the island VERY early Friday morning for our friends Dustin and Hayley's wedding. The wedding wasn't until Saturday but Mark was a groomsman so we headed over a day early to help set up. Upon arriving to the island we decided that lunch was going to be somewhere local with a patio. We came across The Local Kitchen.

If you go to Victoria you must go here! The first day for lunch I had the tuna tataki.....YUM!

We enjoyed it here so much, us girls went back for lunch a second day while the boys prepared for the wedding. This time I knew I'd be eating a ton at the wedding for I opted for the garden salad (minus the garbanzo beans)

After lunch we got ready and headed to the wedding!! 

My dinner plate got a little out of control to say the least...

But it was delicious and I almost ate it all! By the time desserts arrived, well we'd all had a few drinks and I was apparently too busy capturing other photos to take one of the massive dessert buffet! 

All in all, a beautiful wedding and a great time had by all, but it leaves me with much cooking to catch up on! 

Congrats Dustin & Hayley!