Sweet Thing

One of my absolute favorite parts about being home is the fact that I have a kitchen in which to work. Granted, I have a kitchen in my house in Austin, but I haven't officially moved in yet, and for the past two school years, as well as these past three months, I have had zero access to a kitchen, which means zero baking. And baking is one of my favorite things to do. I have come to the conclusion that baking for other people is one of my special gifts. It brings me so much joy to make others smile with something as simple as a baked good! Since I am only home for two days, I haven't been able to take a whack at some of the more bizarre (yet still delicious-sounding) recipes, but I did manage to whip up a simple batch of made-from-scratch homemade chocolate chip cookies. I made four dozen of them yesterday and currently only seven cookies remain. I'll let you be the judge of that!

Anyway, between yesterday and today, and three separate grocery store runs, I came up with four different creations: peanut butter banana oatmeal squares, chocolate chip cookies, Dr. Pepper cupcakes, and cake batter cookies.

All of these recipes (minus the chocolate chip cookies) were found on Pinterest, duh, and another duh, didn't turn out quite like the picture. How do they make them look so pretty? Luckily, as long as they taste good, no one really cares what they look like!

The first recipe I tried was the peanut butter banana oatmeal squares recipe, and since I have made something very similar to these bars in the past, I was fairly certain they would turn out well. I needed something easy to get my baking mojo back. I really like them, and since I am not a huge fan of oatmeal, baked oatmeal bars are a way of tricking me into eating it. They are delicious, and go great with breakfast, or pre- or post-workout. I had two with my breakfast this morning and I am looking forward to making them next year in the house!

Looks appetizing, no?

Next up was about as simple as it gets. Chocolate chip cookies following the recipe on the back of the bag of chocolate chips. I was in Spain for my brother's birthday this year, so I owed him a baked good of his choice. Chocolate chip cookies hit the spot after his first day of two-a-days!

This morning I woke up and enjoyed a delicious waffle and peanut butter banana oatmeal squares breakfast with a little bit of reading before getting to work in the kitchen. 

Tomorrow is one of my friends birthdays, and since I am heading back to Austin to finish up a little bit of work at SRD, I decided to try a new recipe that includes one of her favorite things thrown in: Dr. Pepper. Sounds weird, right? Well, commenters claim the end result tastes amazing, so I decided to give it a try. The original recipe was actually for Dr. Pepper cookies, but the batter turned out more cake-like, so I took out my cupcake tins and set to work. It was very easy (if not a bit strange), and I even managed to make the glaze to go with them! I had to add a bit more Dr. Pepper than the recipe called for, but I don't think my friend will mind. I also hope she doesn't read this before she receives the cupcakes!

Last up was something I made mostly because I found a box of yellow cake mix stashed in the pantry. This recipe was super simple, and called for the cake mix, a few eggs, some vegetable oil, and of course, chocolate chips (or whatever add-in you desire). I know, using the cake mix is cheating, but quite frankly, I have never heard anyone turn down cake batter cookies.

I am heading back to Austin tomorrow, but I will be returning home on Sunday for about a week or so. I plan on testing more fun baking recipes, but more importantly, my dad is going to teach me how to cook some of my favorite things, so you can be ready for some actual food recipes appearing on the blog very soon.

I'm off to the gym for a good cardio-filled workout before trying to organize all of my belongings for yet another trip back to Austin. I feel as though my life lately has consisted of too much packing and unpacking, so settling into my new house in Austin will feel wonderful. Can't wait to fill you guys in on that! Enjoy the rest of your afternoon - and come on over if you want a few sweet treats!