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Saturday Night + Dark Chocolate Avocado Cookies

My Saturday evening was a low-key night at home. Sometimes, when the weekend comes around I am ready to dress up and go out with friends. Other times I’m so ready to spend time at home in comfy clothes and messy hair. Last night was one of the latter. It was a perfect compilation of making a healthy veggie-filled dinner, sipping on Sprout’s coffee, listening to new music (Echosmith’s album obsession), watching the latest Grey’s Anatomy episode, reading some of 50 Shades of Grey (more on that further down) and spontaneously creating a vegan-ish, gluten-free, and (most importantly) super-chocolately dessert.

My Saturday Night In (Stronglikemycoffee.com)

Last weekend was full of craziness; next weekend I have all sorts of fun plans. So I really didn’t mind a casual Saturday night at home this weekend. It was so relaxing :)

My lowkey Saturday Night (stronglikemycoffee.com)

Before last night, I hadn’t watched any television shows (including the news or Sports Center *gasp*) in over two weeks. Too busy playing catch-up from missing a week of school due to my internship! But now that I’m getting back on schedule, I had the series finale of Parenthood and the return of Grey’s Anatomy waiting for me in my Hulu queue.

In between though, I was struck with inspiration to raid my kitchen cupboards and create something for dessert that was still semi-healthy. Also….Sprout’s had avocados on sale this week so I bought 5. Then all 5 proceeded to ripen at the same exact time. This is my alternative to guacamole:

Vegan Gluten Free Chocolate Cookies made with avocado recipe and blog post (stronglikemycoffee.com)That adorable mug is from one of my best friends, Miss Chelsea! It is too perfect for me. (Chelsea and I are no strangers to baking with avocados, either!)

Chocolate Avocado Cookies:

Makes 20 soft cookies

Healthy Chocolate Avocado Cookie Recipe (stronglikemycoffee.com)

  • “meat” of 1 very ripe avocado
  • 1/4 cup stevia (or substitute regular sugar)
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup Chobani Greek yogurt (0% fat, plain flavor)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tps. vanilla
  • 1 Tbs. instant coffee granules
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
  • 1/2 cup oat flour (ground oats)
  • splash of almond milk (approx. 3 Tbs)
  • 1/4 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Mix the avocado, stevia, and sugar with a mixer until smooth.

3. Add in the yogurt, egg, and vanilla.

4. In a small bowl, combine oat flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and coffee granules. Add this dry mixture to the wet mixture. Stir to combine.

5. Add in almond milk as needed to thin out the batter.

6. Use a spoon to place batter on baking sheets. **Note: this batter will not flatten out or expand, so the “shape” it goes on the pan is the shape it will come out in.

7. Top cookie dough with chocolate chips. Bake for 10 minutes, and allow to cool before enjoying with a steaming mug of delicious coffee or a cold glass of milk. Sharing is highly recommended.

Chocolate Avocado Cookies (stronglikemycoffee.com)The recipe really was just an experiment, and thank goodness it turned out. My roommate and I polished off that place seconds after this photo was captured ;)

Now on to my reading material…. I love to read. My book shelves at home are completely filled with novels I’ve read but can’t bare to get rid of, mostly fiction. When I received a book for Christmas that I had already read, I decided to exchange it for 50 Shades of Grey and finally see what all of the hype is about.

Saturday night readingGuys…… the writing style and the conversations between the characters are so weak, it ruins my interest in the plot! I know this book has millions of fans and maybe it improves? I wanted to finish reading the book before the movie comes out next week but honestly, I’d rather just read some blog posts instead :)

What’s your ideal Saturday night?

Throwback Thursday – Blog Post Style

This morning I loved waking up to Instagram posts of baby pictures, parents’ wedding pictures, embarrassing elementary poses. It must be Thursday! (side note: does it constitute a “throwback” if it happened less than a month ago…?)

After over 2 years of blogging, I have an archive of 250 blog posts. Most of which are bound to go unnoticed by new-to-the-blog readers, and lay under the radar in the giant info-overload that is the internet. Instead of leaving them in the cobwebs, I wanted to pull some back into the frontlines for a second life. Starting this week, I’m bringing #TBT to SLMC! Thursday’s will now include a favorite forgotten workout, recipe, or recap post. :)

This was originally posted on September 17, 2012 during the first few weeks of sophomore year (when the blog was still a baby, awww…). Don’t worry, I’ve got plenty of NEW goodies to share in the coming days too. In the meantime….THIS FROZEN YOGURT. Omg.

Enjoy!

SUMMER’S ENDING, MAKE FROZEN YOGURT

(September 2012)

“It’s already the middle of September, and the Pumpkin Spice Latte is already back at Starbucks. I guess that means summer is wrapping up, huh? Well it hasn’t completely started cooling down yet, so I think we can get away with one more batch of frozen yogurt before switching pumpkin-and-apple-flavor-everything.

This weekend has been the most productive couple of days… There was the first home football game of the season, a complete shut out by our boys! My suitemates switched up roommates, (lots of heavy furniture moving involved) and now I have a wonderful new roomie! The Price is Right Live show was a fun and different way to start a Saturday night, but I sadly walked away empty handed. Then there was my first strength training workout, my first James Bond movie (a homework assignment- I would rather be watching old episodes of Grey’s Anatomy) and a ridiculous amount of homework plus some other fun stuff here and there. I wasn’t ready for this Monday morning alarm clock but here I am, hair curled and all, ready to share a super-healthy-super-sweet-summer-dessert : )

You will need:

1 1/2 Cups Vanilla non-fat Greek Yogurt

1 Cup fresh strawberries, diced

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup sugar *could substitute 1/4 cup with stevia

1 dark chocolate bar, broken into pieces

6 graham crackers, broken not crushed

*An ice cream maker

1. Heat diced strawberries, water and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat until they start to soften. Drain and refrigerate until cool.

2. Once the strawberries are cold, stir in the greek yogurt.

3. Pour yogurt mixture into the ice cream maker and allow to mix together in the machine for 20 minutes.

4. By hand, mix in the graham cracker and chocolate pieces; place the whole bowl in the freezer for at least 60 minutes before serving.

If you like greek frozen yogurt, you may also want to try: Peach n’ Pecan Greek Frozen Yogurt

Now we can welcome autumn. Onto all things cinnamon & spice.”

 

:)

2 Years Strong!

We have a big bad birthday celebration in the house…..

Strong Like My Coffee turns 2 years old today.

My blog is a toddler!

Despite what you’ve heard about those Terrible Two’s I think exciting things are in store ;)

Strong Like My Coffee 2 Year Blog Anniversay

Anniversary…Birthday…whatever you want to call it….we need a cake! Because, I say so. (Who made the rules?!)

Last year, SLMC’s first birthday brought you this “healthified” Raspberry Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake. In keeping with my coffee cake theme, I searched for something equally cute. I adapted Chocolate Covered Katies “1 minute coffee cake in a mug” with a recipe down below :)

The blog statistics:

  • In the past 365 days….
  • 77 blog posts
  • 278 pictures
  • 14,562 cups of coffee

Stats on this recipe:

  • Healthy (low-sugar, low-fat, portion controlled)
  • Convenient (microwavable!)
  • Quick (5 min. tops)
  • Adorable (it’s a cake in a mug, c’mon!)
  • Coffee-themed (how appropriate.)

And that is as statistical as it gets around here :)

Coffee Cake in a Mug Recipe (stronglikemycoffee.com)The Cinnamon Pecan Coffee Cake in a Mug Recipe:

(Serves One)

  • Combine the following:
    • 3 Tbs. flour of choice
    • 1 Tbs. water
    • 1 Tbs. coffee
    • 2 tsp. unsweetened applesauce
    • 1 Tbs. Stevia (or sugar)
    • tiny pinch of salt
    • pinch of cinnamon
    • 1/4 tsp. vanilla
    • 1/4 tsp. baking powder
  • Spoon 2/3 of the mixture into a mug (I recommend lightly spraying with cooking oil first.)
  • Combine the following in a separate dish:
    • 1/2 Tbs. cinnamon
    • 1 Tbs. brown sugar (or stevia)
    • 1 Tbs. pecan pieces
    • 1 Tsp. applesauce
  • Spoon half of the cinnamon mixture over cake mixture.
  • Add remaining layer of cake batter.
  • Add remaining layer of cinnamon.
  • Microwave for 1 minute 15 seconds. Increase by 10 seconds if needed.

Coffee Cake Mug Recipe (Stronglikemycoffee.com)

Bring on a brand new year of coffee, celebrations, cake, hanging out on New York rooftops and many more mornings of blogging :)

Strong Like My Coffee Blog Anniversary

***Cheers!***

And if you are on Instagram, I just joined your world. You can follow along @stronglikemycoffee if you’re into that sorta thing :) I’m looking for good fitspo accounts to follow too!

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