The Sunny Side Up Recipes

Fresh. Clean. Radiant. Living life on the sunny side.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

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I know I know, it’s technically after Thanksgiving, but can you really have TOO much pumpkin? In my defense, Trader Joe’s still has all of their famous pumpkin items out!

These pumpkin cookies are everything–extra moist, chocolatey, cakey, melt in your mouth deliciousness. I promise, you don’t want to miss them! Here’s how I do it:

 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
 
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Serves: 2 dozen
Ingredients
  • 2½ cups all-purpose flour (can also use whole wheat)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1½ tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup white sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 15-ounce can pure pumpkin puree
  • 2 cups chocolate chips (I use Ghirardelli milk chocolate)
  • 1 cup walnuts, finely chopped
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375ºF.
  2. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk dry ingredients together and set aside.
  3. In a small bowl, mix together butter, brown and white sugar, vanilla, and egg. Slowly incorporate dry ingredients.
  4. Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts.
  5. Spoon 1" spoonfuls of cookie dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake 15 minutes or until golden brown (may need additional time depending in your oven!).

 

(Whole Wheat) Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

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Confession: I love everything pumpkin. I’m that person who goes all out with pumpkin candles, pumpkin baked goods, decorations, you name it. So, with Halloween is only five days away (yikes!), I thought it was only fitting to go on a a little pumpkin baking experiment and share some of my very favorite recipes from my test kitchen!

These pumpkin muffins from Sally’s Baking Addiction are so delicious–they’re soft with warm, pumpkin spices and and chocolate that melts in your mouth in each bite. And I so love that they’re whole wheat and have hardly any butter, but they’re still cakey and moist. I recommend using use Ghiradellhi semi-sweet chocolate chips (or another high quality chocolate) and adding walnuts for a little extra crunch.

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…As you can see, they went pretty fast at our house 🙂 Happy pumpkin baking!

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Avocado Chocolate Mousse

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I absolutely love chocolate, so I was so excited to learn this healthier way of preparing it. The star ingredients in this recipe are raw cacao-chocolate its natural form- and avocado! Unexpected, right?

Here, the avocado adds creaminess, while the cacao adds that rich, chocolatey flavor that makes the mousse so decadent. Unlike the overly processed Hershey’s powder you find in the store (cocoa), cacao has more antioxidant flavonoids than any other foods known to man and is one of the highest whole food source of magnesium, which helps to mitigate the symptoms of stress. Win, win!

Avocado Chocolate Mousse
 
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Serves: 2
Ingredients
  • ¼ cup cacao powder
  • ¼ cup natural almond butter
  • ¾ avocado (preferably a bit more firm so that its taste is covered by the chocolate)
  • ½ banana
  • ¼ cup unsweetened almond milk
  • ¼ maple or agave syrup
Instructions
  1. Add all ingredients to a high speed blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
  2. Divide into small, individual ramekins and chill for 2-3 hours.
  3. When ready to serve, garnish with coconut, hazelnuts, fruit or other toppings as desired.

 

 

Lemon Yogurt Cake

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IMG_3387I have such a sweet tooth, so it’s always nice to find a lighter version of my favorite dessert recipes. This cake recipe from Barefoot Contessa is one of my all-time favorite summer recipes–it’s deliciously light, lemony, and moist, and I promise it won’t disappoint!

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The secret?  This recipe uses yogurt instead of butter or oil, and lots of lemon zest in the batter for extra flavor. (Not to mention, the most amazing lemony glaze on top).

Bon appetit! 

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Lemon Yogurt Cake
 
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Ingredients
  • Ingredients
  • 1½ cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
  • 1⅓ cups sugar, divided
  • 3 extra-large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
  • ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • ½ cup vegetable oil
  • ⅓ cup and 2 tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 cup confectioner's sugar
  • *Note: Recipe courtesy of Barefoot Contessa. Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/lemon-yogurt-cake-recipe.html?oc=linkback
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8½ by 4¼ by 2½-inch loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease and flour the pan.
  2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into 1 bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, the eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold the vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it's all incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
  3. Meanwhile, cook the ⅓ cup lemon juice and remaining ⅓ cup sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.
  4. When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully place on a baking rack over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in. Cool.
  5. For the glaze, combine the confectioners' sugar and lemon juice and pour over the cake.

4th of July

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Fourth of July is one of my absolute favorite holidays, and I’m so excited that it’s coming up in just a few days! 

Here’s a roundup of some creative treats to bring to your favorite Fourth of July BBQ or event. Go straight to recipes by clicking on the links below.  Happy Fourth!

BerryPie: 

Starry Pie

S’mores Kits: 

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Fruit Skewers with Lemon Curd Sauce:

Skewers

Flag Cake:

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Angel Food Cake with Berries:

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Gluten Free Banana Bread

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This is the best banana bread I have ever had and I’m so excited to share it with you! The recipe comes from one of my all-time favorite bloggers, Ambitious Kitchen, who has a knack for making the most delightful baked goods using healthier ingredients.

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Here’s what I love about Monique’s version:

  • Gluten free: The recipe uses coconut flour instead of regular flour. Coconut has a nuttier taste that adds much more flavor and has about 6 grams of fiber for every two tablespoons. Coconut flour is also about twice as absorbent, so you only need about half a cup for the entire recipe.
  • Sugar free: There is NO added sugar in the entire recipe! For sweetness, this recipe uses mashed banana and almond butter and you really can’t taste the difference.
  • No butter or oil: The result is that it’s a bit more dense and cakey, but so much more flavorful! Just a few natural ingredients can go such a long way.


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Toffee Chocolate Matzo Crunch

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I don’t personally celebrate Passover, but I’ve been making this recipe every year since college for my friends who do because it’s just SO good. It’s super cheap and simple (evidence: in college, we bought all of the ingredients from the campus store) and it has the most wonderful crunchy texture. Whether you do celebrate the holiday–and now have boxes of matzo left over–or are also a chocolate lover like I am, this is a quick and easy recipe not to be missed!

Step 1: Spread matzo (I buy Manischewitz thin unsalted matzo) out on a cookie sheet. One serving is 4 sheets, so you may have to break them down into smaller pieces like I did. Make sure the pieces are lined up symmetrically, since they’ll quickly disappear under all of the chocolate and caramel 🙂

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Step 2: This is where you have to be most careful. Stir together butter and brown sugar in a saucepan over low-medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture begins to bubble and the sugar is fully dissolved. Be patient at this step as you don’t want the caramel to burn or harden too quickly. Pour over matzo and place in the oven at 250 degrees for 12 minutes.

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Step 3: Remove from oven, toss on chocolate chips (I like to use half mini and half “regular” sizes ones) and place back in the oven. This will help to melt the chocolate evenly. Remove from oven after three minutes, spread chocolate evenly, and sprinkle on almonds or other toppings as desired. Let sit for half an hour, and then refrigerate until ready to serve. Store leftovers in an airtight container.

Sold yet? You’ll see that I have made a few of my own adaptions, but you can find the original recipe here.

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Green Matcha Latte

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I gave up coffee for Lent (one week left!) and since then have been drinking green tea almost nonstop. To mix it up a little, I started making these matcha green tea lattes, which I usually order at Starbucks for a treat but often find them to be too sweet. I decided to try making my own recipe at home and I love them so much that I think I might just stick with them instead of coffee from now on even after Lent is over.

Matcha lattes still have that same warm, comforting feel of a cup of coffee or a regular latte and offer a slight caffeine boost to increase focus and energy. Better yet, matcha is packed with antioxidants. amino acids, and chlorophyll, which is where it gets its light green color. Unlike traditional green tea, matcha preparation involves covering the tea plants with shade cloths before they’re harvested to increase chlorophyll production, at which point the matcha tea leaves are ground into a fine powder  (“matcha” literally means powdered tea). As a result, the powder is much more potent than drinking tea water and its nutrients can be more readily processed by the body. I make mine in the morning with almond milk and a touch of honey and it’s a wonderful way to start the day!

Green Matcha Latte
 
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Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • ¼ cup hot water
  • ¾ cup vanilla almond milk
  • 2 teaspoons matcha tea powder
  • 1 tablespoon honey (or as much as desired)
Instructions
  1. In a mug or a medium bowl, add the matcha tea powder and honey to a small amount of hot water and whisk until fully dissolved.
  2. Heat almond milk add in matcha solution, and pour into a mug. Serve hot and enjoy!

Kahlua Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Pretty much anyone who went to school can confirm that whenever finals week struck, these cookies would appear. Not only are they some of the best chocolate chip cookies you’ll ever have (think warm, gooey, melt-in-your-mouth chocolatey goodness), but the espresso and kahlua are my secret ingredients to make it extra special. I decided to bring them out again when the East Coast was struck with a blizzard a few weeks back, and was happy to see that they’re still a crowd favorite.

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While preparing your cookie dough, stir together one tablespoon of espresso powder and three tablesppons kahlua into a thick, aromatic syrup. Gently fold into your batter and voila! These aren’t your everyday cookies.

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Pumpkin Cheesecake Dip

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We’re doing a quick post today! Here’s a super simple (and delicious) recipe for one of my favorite fall treats, pumpkin cheesecake dip. This recipe is wonderful when you want something extra sweet but don’t want to have a full-out dessert–I love pairing this with apple and banana slices. So good!

Pumpkin Cheesecake Dip
 
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Ingredients
  • 1 8 oz package of reduced-fat cream cheese
  • 1 can pumpkin pie filling
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 tbs cinnamon
  • 1 tsp cloves
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
Instructions
  1. Combine all ingredients together (making sure to use cream cheese once at room temperature) and serve.