Happy Valentine's Day!

I love chocolate covered strawberries and grapes, yes I said grapes. If you have never had a chocolate covered grape before I highly recommend you try it.

After I dip all of the strawberries I usually have left over chocolate, you can not waste this chocolate-no no no, so I always have grapes on hand. Wash a couple of them, put it in the chocolate, mix it up and use a fork to get them out.

Any left over chocolate after that, I top the grapes with it. So good. I forget how I thought of dipping grapes in chocolate, but I will never ever regret it. So I wanted to decorate the strawberries a little this year with some melted white chocolate, I had some of that left over and made a few white chocolate covered grapes, as well, which are very sweet.

White chocolate is just too sweet for my taste, but in small amounts it can be yummy. I used a combination of my grain sweetened chocolate chips (which are dark chocolate with barley and rice syrup sweetened) and carob chips. I like the deeper taste the carob chips add to the chocolate.

I also made valentine's inspired gingerbread cookies. I was going along the lines of spiced cookies for vday. I have heart, lip, and arrow shaped cookie cutters, also x's and o's, but I didn't use the x's and o's for these cookies.

I think I finally discovered the perfect peanut butter cookie recipe! :] I am so happy. I combined a few different ideas and made them in bar form, but hey it is still considered cookie like! I used a recipe for Peanut Butter Blondies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. So here it is:

Peanut Butter Bars

1/2 cup peanut butter (no stir smooth type, feel free to use chunky)
1/4 cup cashew butter
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup non dairy milk (i did use organic skim milk- one of my vices)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup oil
2 mashed bananas
1 1/4 cups whole wheat white flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup peanuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8x8 inch baking pan with parchment paper.

Mash the bananas, add the peanut butter, cashew butter, oil, and agave nectar.

Add in the milk and vanilla.

Combine the flour, salt, and baking powder in a small bowl, then add that to the pb mixture. You may want to use your hands to combine everything better.

Knead the dough until it is soft, it will be very thick and will not spread on its own. Put the dough into the pan and top with the peanuts.

Press them into the top of the dough. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes, until the edges just start to brown. The top will be soft, but all is well.

They came out soft, chewy, peanut buttery, and so good. I am going to try a different pan next time because they came out thick, good but thick, so I will see if they changes anything. I like how the bananas only add a slight banana taste to these bars.

What's For Dinner?
Thursday, February 10th
Roasted veggie, cashew, and parsley salad.

Friday, February 11th
Salad- the usual.

Saturday, February 12th
I was at a bridal shower and I have this very bad habit of forgetting my camera when I go out. So I had lettuce, fresh salsa, and guacamole.

Sunday, February 13th

Salad with roasted corn and asparagus, black olives, black eyed peas, mango, yellow peppers, and cucumbers with roasted red pepper dressing.

Monday, February 14th <3
Sweet potato platski's with cinnamon apple sauce and toasted hazelnuts.

Now go eat something! ~muah