Chocolate Chip Muffins

Posted by: Annie

Every Monday at my job is "Marvelous Monday", meaning that every Monday morning a different person brings in a treat to kick the week off on a great start. This week it is my turn for Marvelous Monday and my initial idea was to just go with a staple, and in my kitchen that would be my chocolate chip cookies. However, the more I thought about it I realized that I would be less inclined to eat a chocolate chip cookie at 7:30 am, because it lacks that certain breakfast-y feel. After much deliberation I settled on chocolate chip muffins - enough chocolate to make a Monday happy, but with enough muffin to make the guilt of eating chocolate for breakfast disappear.

 

What you'll need: (recipe below yields 1 dozen, I doubled it)

Batter:

2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1 cup chocolate chips

Crumb topping:

3 tbs sugar

2 tbs brown sugar

 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. In a separate large bowl mix the milk, eggs, oil, vanilla extract and chocolate chips. Slowly add the dry mixture to the milk/egg mixture until the mixture is moistened. Fill cups 2/3 way. Sprinkle the crumb topping on each of the muffins and bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick entered in the center comes out clean. 

Sangria

Posted by: Annie

Summer may be officially over, but the beautiful weather Friday night inspired my roommates and I to mix up a pitcher of white sangria. Because truly, after a day of work what is better than sipping on a glass of homemade sangria. After a quick trip to Trader Joes, our Mango Raspberry Pineapple Sangria was in the works.

What you will need to make this refreshing, slightly intoxicating beverage:

1 bottle white wine (we chose Yellowtail Chardonnay)

3 T sugar 

1 pint raspberries

2 cups mango/pineapple (we purchased a pre-sliced version of this from Trader Joes- really any fruit choice of your liking will work)

sparkling soda (we chose Raspberry flavored)

Mix sugar, raspberries, mango/pineapple and chardonnay together in a large pitcher or bowl. Let chill for 2-3 hours. Pour into glasses and top off with sparkling soda.

Pretzel M&M Bars

Posted by: Annie

Pretzels and chocolate have always been one of my favorite combinations. That being said, the new Pretzel M &M’s are constantly finding their way into my shopping cart. I was in a baking mood after work yesterday and really wanted to bake something involving pretzel M&M’s, so I was thrilled to find a recipe that called for not only M&M’s, but peanut butter. From there on Peanut Butter Pretzel Crumbly Bars were born. I adapted the recipe from here.  Enjoy!

What You Will Need:

1 stick butter

2 eggs

1 cup peanut butter

¾ cup sugar

2/3 cup  packed dark brown sugar

2 cups flour

¾ tsp baking soda

1 ¼ tsp baking powder

1 “Medium” Bag Pretzel M&M’s (9.9 oz)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat together the butter, eggs, peanut butter, dark brown sugar and sugar. Gradually mix in  the flour, baking soda, and baking powder, and mix until smooth. Remove 1 ½ cups of the dough mixture and set aside. Press the remaining dough into the bottom of an ungreased 13x9 pan. Add the M&M candies to the reserved dough and crumble into the pan pressing down lightly. Bake 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Cut into bars.