Best Lightened Up Chocolate Chip Cookie Ever!

I was in the mood to make chocolate chip cookies tonight but had no brown sugar so I decided to make a few changes to a great recipe I found from http://kumpulanresepkoe.wordpress.com/. 

I made a few minor changes and came out with the most delicious cookie dough ever....Corey and I literally could have just eaten the cookie dough and not even bothered making the actual cookies because the dough was so delicious! But of course, the cookies were delicious too! I love this recipe because a lot of chocolate chip cookie recipes tend to have a lot of ingredients in them, mainly brown sugar that make them not the healthiest choice but this is a very lightened up version so you can enjoy a few of them and not feel so guilty! Let me know if you loved them as much as Corey and I did! 

INGREDIENTS

• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1 cup Stevia in the Raw or Splenda White Sugar 
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 3/4 cup light butter 

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Cream the butter with the sugar and the honey. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Add the flour and baking soda. 
3. Place teaspoon sized cookies about 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 8 minutes or until golden brown.

Chocolate Soft Serve

This is easily one of the healthiest and best dessert recipes I've ever had! It's so simple, literally 3 ingredients and all of the ingredients are delicious and good for you: banana, cocoa and skim or almond milk and of course an optional tablespoon of peanut butter if you're a peanut butter lover like myself! For an entire banana being in the recipe, the banana taste is not even that strong. The frozen banana is mostly what makes this dessert so delicious and creamy.

Best of all this recipe is easily changeable...feel free to add your favorite fruit, peanut butter, nutella, whatever you'd like... Enjoy!!

Ingredients:
1 banana (frozen)
1/4 cup skim or almond milk
1 tbsp cocoa
1 tbsp all natural peanut butter (optional)

Directions:
Peel then chop up banana into bite size pieces. Freeze for 1 hour. Blend the banana, cocoa, milk and peanut butter (opt) in a food processor until creamy, about 30 seconds. Enjoy!


Recipe adapted from: http://luxhippie.tumblr.com/post/6591042896/incredibly-easy-and-delicious-vegan-soft-serve

About 1 Month Left in Germany

Paderborn, Germany

Corey and I head back to US April 11th so almost 1 month left in Germany! I can't believe our first year in Europe is already almost over. It's been such an amazing, eye-opening year for us. I have to say that living in a foreign country is definitely not easy but it's really amazing to see a new part of the world and see the cultural differences. I've seen a lot of beautiful Germany (even if it a lot of it was from Corey's team bus), went to Salzburg, Austria and did The Sound of Music Tour, we're planning a trip to Prague the week before we head back to the US and I should have seen Rome if my mom and I hadn't gone to the wrong airport...oops, you live and you learn! I'll see Rome eventually I hope!

But Corey's team has a few games left and their goal is to stay in the Pro A...then lots of decisions will be coming our way. Corey will be deciding where he is going to sign for next year and once we head home in April, we have a lot of wedding planning to do! We'll be meeting with DJ's videographers and going wedding dress and bridesmaids dress shopping! Such a busy summer full of lots of big, important decisions! And I am very lucky to have gotten my job back at Brookstone HQ for the summer so I'll very happy to say that I'll be working in their Merchandising Department once again for the summer. So Cor & I plan to hang out in NY doing a lot of wedding planning from April until mid May then off to NH for the summer for us to work. Can't wait to be back in the States and can't wait for such an exciting and busy summer ahead of us!