bake, brunch, pack

This morning I woke up and thought, I’m allowed to eat ice cream again – yay!  Naturally, the only way to celebrate that was by eating ice cream for breakfast.

There were fresh berries and the waffle was whole grain plus, I opted for frozen yogurt so it was a semi-balanced breakfast, right?  Okay, I’m not fooling anyone.  This wasn’t the healthiest start to the day but it sure was delicious.

Actually, before I even had breakfast I mixed up the dough for Toffee Studded Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies a la Lauren from Keep it Sweet.

Here’s the recipe:

1/2 lb (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

a pinch of salt

3 cups of quick or old-fashioned dry oatmeal

1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chunks (I like lots of chocolate so I went to 1 1/2 cups per Lauren’s suggestion)

1/2 cup toffee bits

Directions:

Mix together flours, cinnamon and baking soda.  Set aside.

In large bowl, beat together butter and sugars until creamy.

Beat in eggs and vanilla. 

Make sure to scrape sides of bowl and mix some more.

With mixer on low, carefully add in flour mixture.  

Once all ingredients are well-combined, stir in oats.

Stir in chocolate chunks and toffee bits until well-mixed.

Now, refrigerate your cookie dough for 2 hours or overnight.  This is necessary to avoid flat cookies.

Once you are ready to bake, pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. 

Drop heaping tablespoons of dough about 2 inches apart on baking sheets.

Bake in oven for 8-10 minutes or until centers of cookies appear cooked and edges are light golden brown.

These bad boys are delicious!  I love the chunks of chocolate, they always taste so much more substantial than chocolate chips.  If these are decadent enough for you, Lauren also has a recipe for a sandwich version of these cookies with peanut butter frosting.  Sounds pretty tasty, no?

While these cookies were chilling in the fridge, I went to meet my parents for an Easter brunch.

We had a long leisurely meal which was really nice.  I don’t have a meal alone with my parents that often and it was really good to just chat with them.

After brunch my mom came over to help me with packing for the move.  She’s a good person to have around when you need to get things done.  We worked for a few hours and made a lot of progress.  You should see the pile of boxes that are ready to move – not to mention the 3 or 4 trash bags and 3 or 4 more full of donations.  It feels so good to get rid of so many things that I don’t need anymore!

Also, Todd was home by the time I got there so he filled me in on all of his bachelor party shenanigans.  It sounds like they had a great time and it made me really excited for my bachelorette party next weekend in Chicago.

All in all this was a really nice, laid back but productive weekend.  Now only 8 more work days until I’m off for the wedding!  It couldn’t be here soon enough.  I’m ready to be a missus.

P.S.  You have to try Jess’s Hobo Margaritas.  I made one last night and it was so yummy!  I even bought festive cups to drink them out of, delish!

Hope you all had an amazing weekend!

How was your Easter?

Did you celebrate with family today?