Acai Bowl

If I could start out every day with a breakfast as beautiful as this I would, and lately I have been because I found out how easy and simple this recipe is!  For the acai part, most recipes call for Sambazon 3.5 oz frozen packets, but I found it easier (and I got more bang for my buck) to buy the big $6.99 bottle of Sambazon acai juice and freeze it in ice cube molds which I found out were 1 oz each.  The toppings I chose are completely optional, so feel free to add on whatever you want on top!

I N G R E D I E N T S

--4 cubes frozen Sambazon acai juice

--1/2 frozen banana

--more banana, for topping

--1/2 cup unsweetened original almond milk

--1 cup frozen berries

--grounded flaxseed

--coconut

--granola

 --Find a pretty big shallow bowl and fill the bottom with a few banana slices and a handful of granola.

--In a blender, put in the frozen acai juice, frozen banana, berries, and almond milk and pulse until it's smooth.  It's supposed to be really thick.

--If you need to stop it a couple times and shake it up, that's fine!

--Scoop it into your bowl and smooth it out over the bananas and granola.

--Then top it with whatever sounds good to you!  I put on flaxseed, coconut, and more granola and bananas.

XOXO

Coconut Macaroons

recipe from Barefoot Contessa

I'm always very anxious to get things moving along to spring after a cold winter.  This year has been unreasonably warm this winter, but I was still ready to swap out winter decor for imitation grass and bunnies.  

Coconut macaroons make me think of springtime.  Is it the coconut?  Or the fact that it's officially spring tomorrow and I had an urge to make these on the eve of?  For whatever reason, I made these and think they're delicious.  I also wanted to try out a different spin on these cookies and make them festive-looking.

How cute are these??  They're supposed to resemble little robins egg nests.  It only takes one simple step to make these ones different, and I'll tell you how a little later.  Here is the recipe!

I N G R E D I E N T S

(keep in mind, these amounts are doubled because I made two different batches, so if you want to make just one recipe, make sure to half everything!)

--2 14 oz. cans sweetened condensed milk

--2 tsp. vanilla

--1/2 tsp. salt

--2 14 oz. bags shredded coconut

--4 large egg whites, room temperature

(not pictured)

--green food coloring

--semisweet chocolate, melted

--mini Cadbury eggs

D I R E C T I O N S

--Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, toss in egg whites...

 --And don't forget the salt!  And mix these babies on high until medium-hard peaks form.

 --In a separate bowl, dump in the coconut,

 --sweetened condensed milk,

--and vanilla and mix together until completely combined.

--Like so!

--To make the nests version, just add the LITTLEST BIT of green food coloring to the coconut and stir it until it's evenly distributed, then continue on with the steps of adding in the milk and vanilla.

--Add in the egg whites and gently fold them into the coconut.

--With an ice cream scooper, scoop the coconut batter onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and pop them in the oven for about 25-30 minutes, or until the tops turn golden brown.

--Take them out and let them cool for a minute before adding a little chocolate to the top of each one (completely optional!!!!)

 --To finish the nests, take a small 1/4 tsp. spoon and create a compression in the middle of the cookies.  These cook for the same amount of time, 25-30 minutes.

 --Once they're done, add some color by sticking on a few Cadbury chocolate eggs and call it good!

 --They could honestly stand in for Easter decorations.

XOXO