Strawberry Chocolate Chip Bread

There's something about the combination of chocolate and strawberries that just seems decadent.  Even in this quick bread, a few sliced strawberries and a handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips brings a regular morning treat to a whole new level.  Strawberry bread isn't very typical-- you don't see it in a lot of coffee shops or hear about people making it, but it's such a seasonal and lovely twist on quick bread.  And the chocolate chips add a great flavor element for a different sweetness.  Moist, tasty and easy to make, this is perfect for sharing with coworkers, making for a bake sale or pot luck, or gifting to a neighbor or friend in need of a pick me up or a quick breakfast option.  I brought this to work for a meeting and it was a big hit.  One attendee turned to me during the meeting and said, "Excuse me, but I'm going to make a pig of myself on this if you don't mind."  Ha!

I've been following Christina at Sweet Pea's Kitchen since last fall--she hooked me with her tailgate recipes. But I really like her baked goods and how she makes subtle changes to classic recipes to come up with whole new flavors and the shear abundance of beautiful desserts to choose from is like a wonderful day of window shopping for me..plus a little drool.  So when I wanted to make a quick bread because I was short on time, I took a spin through Christina's archives.  I had strawberries in the fridge, so this recipe called out to me. I added 2 Tablespoons of cake enhancer because I wanted to test it (it's supposed to make my breads "softer, moister, and stay fresher longer"--I think it did the first two, but the bread didn't stick around long enough to test the third) and decreased the sugar just a smidgen because my strawberries were very sweet already.  Otherwise, I followed Christina's instructions, which were spot on.

Soft Sugar Cookies

Sweet, soft, and chewy cookies. And pretty yet, too!  While I really enjoy a rolled, shaped and frosted sugar cookie, sometimes I just want a dropped sugar cookie, maybe with some colored sugar.  These totally fit the bills, so I made them for an afternoon work meeting.  They were met with much appreciation.  To the point that after the meeting, I asked one of the attendees if he wanted to take any home for his young sons.  He said, "No, I already had 4!"  I said, "Not for you, the boys!"  His response: "Oh, yeah, the boys."  Guess if the cookies are good enough you forget that you have children, they're pretty good.

This is one of the essential recipes from the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion, the Essential Chewy Sugar Cookie.  It's a basic recipe that can be adapted in to loads of different flavor combinations, but before I attempt a variation, I wanted to master the basic.  This is a simple recipe, bringing together the perfect blend of flavors to the ultimate in soft and chewy sugar cookies.  I especially liked the use of nutmeg, which offered another level to the sweetness without making it taste like a spiced cookie--very subtle.  I also added a half teaspoon of Princess Cake and Cookie Flavor, in lieu of one teaspoon of vanilla, which lent a light and citrus-like flavor to the cookies.  It's a bakery emulsion that is thicker and bakes out more slowly than regular extract, keeping the richness of the flavor.  I'd gotten it from King Arthur Flour on a recommendation to add into the various layers of flavor.  Enjoy the simplicity of this recipe, roll them in some pretty colored sugar, and treat yourself to a sweet afternoon.

Salsa Chicken and Black Bean Soup

Even though this winter has been mild, it's still gray and chilly in March, so a hot bowl of soup like this is exactly what hits the spot when it's rainy and not quite spring yet.  This soup is delicious, smooth and has a slight kick, but not super spicy.  Black bean soup can be ho-hum, but add in chicken, salsa and a bit of spice and you've got a lovely kick for a cool evening.  Plus you can really personalize it by dressing it up with your favorite toppings like shredded cheese, sour cream, cilantro, avocado, tortilla chips--whatever you like.

Of course, one of the main reasons I love this recipe is that it's another crock pot favorite.  Seriously, if you're not checking out Stephanie at Crockpot 365, you're missing a lot of easy and tasty meals for all kinds of occasions.  And if you don't have a crockpot (or use it very often), then what are you waiting for?  Dinner could be ready when you come home from work with very little effort on your part. Slight differences from Stephanie's recipe were to drop the mushrooms, canned beans rather than fresh and I used my immersion blender to make a smooth, creamy soup.  If you don't have an immersion blender, you could (carefully!) use a blender and blend the soup in batches.  I finished this soup with some chopped cilantro and shredded cheese and served it with a few tortilla chips on the side.  Delicious, easy and perfect for a cool, rainy evening to give a kick of flavor from warmer climates.

Individual Baked Oatmeal Cups

I like breakfast.  On the weekends, I have to talk Dave into letting me make a big breakfast of waffles or pancakes with eggs or sausage and fruit.  And while I love it during the week too, I want something quick and easy because I would much rather sleep than get up any earlier than I have to just to feed my hungry belly.  I usually have a banana before I leave the house and take something to eat when I get to work, like cereal and yogurt.  When I'm on top of things, I'll make extras of a weekend breakfast and throw the leftover waffles or pancakes in the freezer to put in my work bag before I leave.  I've even made extra mini frittatas, put them in the freezer, individually portioned, to pop in the microwave when I get to the office.  So these tasty, individual baked oatmeal cups called my name as another weekday morning breakfast.  Wholesome, tasty and healthy, these individual baked oatmeal cups are perfectly sweet, nutty and hearty, and totally customizable to your favorite oatmeal flavors.  Topping them with blueberries, dried cranberries or chocolate chips was just the beginning (because that's what I had closest in reach), but I can see other fruits or nuts getting their opportunity to be part of this perfect breakfast too.  Freezable and easily portable, these are definitely in my breakfast rotation.

My friend Mere (you remember Mere, she gave us these lovely gems), pinned these a few weeks ago and when I saw them I said, "yes, please!"  Brenda from Sugar-Free Mom created these from a large baked oatmeal casserole and provided a lot of good tips. I liked that even though this is a healthy, diabetic and gluten free (if using gluten free oats) friendly recipe, the ingredient list is accessible.  I'm not sure exactly what I did differently, but I ended up getting 24 individual cups, rather than Brenda's 18 (not that I'm complaining!), so I suppose you could fill the cups a bit more (although I think my end product is about the same size as Brenda's).  I did take Brenda's suggestion of using honey since I don't stock stevia in my pantry, but I only used 1/3 cup rather than 1/2 cup (that just seemed like a lot of honey to me).  Use whatever type of toppings you like--the cool thing is you can do a little of this and a little of that to satisfy picky palettes (or expand your own).  I used between 1/2 and 1 teaspoon of toppings, but you can adjust as you like, or leave some plain. 

Cranberry Almond Coffee Cake

Sweet, tart, and nutty.  That's a lot going on in one little cake.  But totally delicious.  This coffee cake has a lovely crumb and the tart cranberries play well with the soft nuttiness of the almonds.  I took this to work for a meeting and everyone loved it.  There is one group member in particular who couldn't get enough.  And they were funny in selecting their slices.  Since it was an 8 x 8 inch pan and sliced into 16 pieces, there were four middle pieces and 12 edges.  The gobbled up the center slices before venturing into the edge territory--which was fine by me because I liked the balance of the slightest of crunchy, crispy edge with the soft interior.  But really, any way you slice it, this cranberry almond coffee cake is good.

I'd pinned this recipe from Shanon at The Curvy Carrot (love the name of her blog!) ages ago and when trying to decide what to take into work, I scoured my pin boards, hoping to find something easy that I already had ingredients to.  Since I still had cranberries in the freezer from the fall and just enough almonds, this was the perfect recipe.  Shanon's recipe needed no adjustments and it came together quickly and baked up perfectly.  This coffee cake has a pretty little presentation with the cranberries popping off the top of the cake, so it's great for guests or gifting as well.