Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies

I found this recipe in a cookie cook book when I was in high school. It was on sale at Barnes and Noble! In the book they are called Chocolate Fudge Brownies, but I think they are more on the cookie side then the brownie side. And if you are expecting a brownie - you will be disappointed.

Personally, I don't like these cookies very much because I'm not a big fan of chocolate. However, they are the first to go when I bring them to a party and everyone always asks for the recipe. So I'd say try them if you like chocolate!

These cookies freeze well and it is easy to make a big batch of them. You can space about 15 of the cookies per cookie sheet as they do not spread out too much on the pan.

Also see the recipe for Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie and my Mom's favorite white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies!
 
Triple Chocolate Cookies 
Adapted from Cookies by Pamela Clark
Makes 4-6 dozen depending on cookie size

2 sticks butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 c sugar
3/4 c packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup chopped nuts (hazelnuts, optional)
2/3 cup each coarsely chopped of dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate

Preheat oven to 350F, line cookie sheets with parchment paper or use your silpat mat.
Using paddle attachment on your mixer beat butter, vanilla, sugars, and egg until light and fluffy.
In small bowl combine flour, cocoa, and baking soada.
Combine dry ingredients into wet ingredients.
Add in nuts and chocolate bits.

No Bake Peanut Butter Granola Bites

Here are some easy no bake bite sized snacks! I looked at many different recipes for no bake granola bars including the recipes from How Sweet Eats, Smashed Peas and Carrots, and GranolaNola in order to come up with a combination that I would enjoy.  

I love granola and granola bars. I don't really like protein bars. They have this funny after taste. So here are some relatively healthy snacks to munch on while filling you up.

Some ideas: you can change the nuts in the recipe, change the peanut butter to almond butter or walnut butter or soy nut butter, add in raisins or dates or dried apricots, and any other fixin's until you would enjoy! 

Using the stand mixer combines the ingredients better than stirring with a spoon. It was hard to roll into balls by hand because it was sticky but it wasn't sticky enough to use the cookie scoop so I pushed the mixture into a mini muffin tin and let it chill overnight.
 
I put the ingredients in Recipes.Sparkpeople Calculator to see what the approximate nutrition of each bite. The findings were 127 Calories, 8 g Fat, 1.6 g Sat fat, 11.2 g Carbohydrates, 4.5 g Protein

I had to add in a lot of peanut butter this time because I added in extra oats.  The nutrition info above is based off of 1 cup of peanut butter.

Next time I will use less oats, I adjusted the recipe below from 1 1/2 cups of oats (which I had used) to 1 cup below. I think adding more honey will help the ingredients stay together better as well. I used less than the recommended 1/4 cup of honey, next time I would use the full 1/4 cup. I also want to try to add in a couple tbsp of protein powder, perhaps vanilla flavored? To maintain the correct consistency with adding in the protein powder I would in less dry ingredients (maybe even less oats?) and gradually add in the peanut butter/nut butter until it looks about right.

Update (4/7/2013) 
2 cups toppings*
+ 1 cup oats
+ 3/4 cup PB (or other nut butter)
+ 1/4 c honey (plus an addition tbsp or two if the texture isn't right)
= approx 24 mini muffin bites and 3 reg muffin bites

*toppings = chopped nuts (almonds, cashews, walnuts, peanuts) / seeds (sunflower, chia, ground flax) / dried fruit (apricots, raisins, craisins, etc) / dark chocolate / etc

All the stuff minus the pb, honey, and vanilla

Fill the mini muffin tins and then pop in the fridge

Yum!!

No Bake Peanut Butter Granola Bites
Makes 24 bites
 
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

½ cup ground flaxseed

2 tablespoons chia seeds

¼ cup of sunflower seeds

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ cup raisins

2 tablespoons chopped dark chocolate 

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract 

½ to 1 cup creamy peanut butter, melted and slightly cooled (microwave about 30 seconds) 

¼ cup honey

Combine all the ingredients. Push the mixture into mini muffin tins and then put the tray in the fridge. Keep in a air tight container in the fridge to maintain freshness.

Enjoy!