Chocolate PB2 Granola Chocolate Chip Cookies (Gluten Free)

Sorry my blogging has been so intermittent.  I wish I had all the time in the world to share things here, but it just hasn’t been possible as of late.  That said, I don’t plan on just disappearing, me and my little ol’ blog.  So stick around!  You might recall not too long ago I shared some PB2 Chocolate Chip Cookies I made with PB2 Powdered Peanut Butter.  They were delicious.  In fact, Bell Plantation (the company that makes PB2) shared them on their Facebook page and they went crazy!  I knew they made a chocolate version of PB2 and had to get some and try it in cookies, but I couldn’t just stop there……

My friend, Paige, posted about David Lebovitz’ Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Granola.  It was calling my name and I had to make some.   I made it with changes using raw honey instead of maple syrup and coconut sugar in place of the brown sugar, I also used gluten free oats and Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips.  It was a great granola!  (I need to make more!)  I swear I wrote down my changes somewhere so I could share my version of the recipe, but I CANNOT FIND IT!  sigh  It’s okay, David’s recipe is pretty simple and I really only made the few changes I mentioned, so check it out if you’re looking for a quick treat or breakfast.

I decided to use the Chocolate PB2 and make more cookies.  To bump up the delicious peanut butter and chocolate combination, I added some of the granola to the cookies, as well as more peanuts and lots of chocolate chips.  Score!  These were so good!  If you’ve been putting off trying the peanut butter powders, do not hesitate any longer.  It’s good stuff!

 Chocolate PB2 Granola Chocolate Chip Cookies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

1/3 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup organic brown sugar

1/4 cup coconut sugar

1/4 cup raw honey

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Granola (or granola of your choice)

4 tablespoons Chocolate PB2 Powdered Peanut Butter

2 tablespoons raw cacao powder (or cocoa powder)

1 cup gluten free flour blend

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips (or chocolate chips of your choice)

1/4 cup roasted peanuts

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  In a large bowl, combine the coconut oil and sugars.  Whisk together well.  Add the egg and vanilla and combine.  In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients (granola, PB2, cacao, flour, soda, baking powder and salt) and mix them together.  Add them to the creamed mixture (You can use a mixer, but it mixes just fine with a whisk!).  Stir with a wooden spoon until all combined.  Stir in the chocolate chips and peanuts.  Drop by tablespoonsful (or using a cookie scoop) onto the parchment lined baking sheets spaced about 2 inches apart.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Let sit on baking sheet for 2-3 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool. 

 Come on—they look delicious, huh!  I need to make some more.  I’ll try to be better at posting on my blog.  I miss it, I really do. 

White Popcorn Lime Kettle Corn

Looks like regular ol’ popcorn, I know.  But it’s different and better and……yummy!  Sometimes I want/need a little treat.  I’m over the wish for decadent desserts, cakes, cookies, brownies, ice cream, etc., well, mostly over it.  Every now and then I want something like that.  But I just get over it.  Healthy treats, like the ones I occasionally make with dates and such do the trick.  Every now and then, I want something crunchy and salty. 

One of my favorite things is making popcorn.  NEVER, and I’m serious, never eat microwave popcorn—all that butter “flavoring” stuff in it is NOT good for you.  Bad, bad.  But before I knew that a few years ago, I found Orville Redenbacher’s Lime and Salt microwave popcorn and I loved it.  Nowadays, I make my own with my Orville Redenbacher Presto Stirring Popper (no affiliate link, just love it).  Photo courtesy of Amazon.com. 

I have come to love white popcorn.  It’s just better.  Try it if you haven’t.  You can find it in most stores now.  Even better, but harder to find is organic white popcorn.  The kernels are smaller and it just has a more tender crunch.  You can use any popping corn you like.  The popper is great, you add a little oil to it and I ALWAYS use organic coconut oil.  I’ll never go back to anything else.  I love the slight coconut flavor and that it is a healthier option.  Plug in the popper after adding some oil, let it heat for just a minute.  Then add the popping corn and put the big, ventilated, plastic lid over it.  You can watch the corn start browning a bit, hear the sizzle and then you see the corn start popping.  Listen for the pops to almost stop, then unplug it and turn the whole thing upside down and the lid becomes the bowl (until you move it to a bowl that isn’t ventilated with holes to add all the yumminess to it).

I most often make the popcorn with just the coconut oil and some salt.  It doesn’t need butter!  Sometimes I add lime zest.  That lime and salt really is a great combination on popcorn.  Try it!  Just zest a little lime right onto the freshly popped and salted corn and stir it together.  Mmmm!

Today though, I felt like a little sweet and salty, so while the corn was popping (it’s fast), I mixed together a little salt, organic cane sugar and lime zest so that as soon as the popcorn was done, I could sprinkle it on the fresh, hot corn and stir it all together.  You can drizzle it with a little more coconut oil as soon as it is done popping, but it isn’t necessary. 

White Popcorn Lime Kettle Corn, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

1/4 cup organic coconut oil, 1 tablespoon or more to drizzle over popcorn if desired

1/2 cup white popping corn kernels

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 1/2 teaspoons organic cane sugar

zest of 1 lime

Put the 1/4 cup of coconut oil in the popper (*I use the Orville Redenbacher Presto Stirring Popper).  Plug it in and let the wire arm start moving around and the oil heat up for a minute.  Add the popping corn and put the lid on the popper.  Combine the salt, sugar and lime zest in a small bowl and stir it together.  Within minutes the popcorn will pop the corn.  Unplug it and carefully (with hot pads) turn it upside down so all the popped corn is in the lid.  Put the popcorn in a large bowl, drizzle with extra coconut oil if desired. Sprinkle the salt/sugar/lime mixture evenly over the popcorn a little at a time and stir it to combine.  Serve.  When you get to the bottom of the bowl, you’ll see lots of the lime mixture left, but you can still taste it throughout.  (I tried a little coconut oil drizzle on some and stirred the lime mixture around and it stuck to the popcorn more, but I was fine with the taste when it had less, so do it to taste.) *You can pop popping corn with any popper you’d like, including an air popper, this is just my preferred method.) 

There is a big bag of popcorn at Costco called Skinny Pop because it just has popcorn, oil and salt.  My friend, Paige, at For Love of the Table mentioned how hard it is to eat just a little bit once you open the bag.  I’ve seen it and resisted the temptation to buy it because I know I can just make my own popcorn at home.  I thought it was funny that Paige posted a photo of the empty bag of popcorn with Skinny crossed off the label and she wrote in Piggy.  She thinks it should be called Piggy Pop because it’s hard to stop eating it once you get started.  I’ll just say that this combination of lime and salt (and a little sweetness from the sugar) as well as just my version of plain popcorn with coconut oil and salt is pretty hard to stop eating when I make a big bowl of it.  It’s my version of Piggy Pop.