Four Ingredient Valentine's Healthy Coconut Butter Fudge (vegan, refined sugar free)

Hi everyone!  TGI ... T. 

Whatever, close enough!  You know how I was so ready for the weekend last week?  And a day with nothing going on?  Well, God answered that selfish prayer by dumping a whole city full of snow around here and shutting down the schools.  Even though I'm homeschooled, I do have some classes outside the home, and there are many things that get canceled when school gets canceled, so I've had several days with absolutely nothing to go to.

Can I just say how much joy that snow brings me?

Let me amend that:  Can I just say how much joy that snow brings me when I'm admiring it from inside?

(read: I DON'T like shoveling)

Isn't it gorgeous?  Yeah, try shoveling a quarter mile of it ... without a plow.  Somehow, because of how our house and driveway are placed, the wind blows two to four feet high drifts all along our circle and driveway. 

Dad takes the snow blower up and down the driveway and us kids are in charge of the circle.  We spent a good hour and a half clearing part of it, just so Dad could go to work. 

I *kind of* over did it ... and now typing and writing and basically anything requiring movement of my shoulder and hand hurts.  I had to prove I could shovel just as much as Nathan.  And I did.  Aaaand it hurts.  P.S. Did you know that with the wind, it was -20 degrees yesterday? 

Since we've had so much time to kill inside, I taught Abigail to knit.

Note: Unless you want to start a full time knitting school, I wouldn't recommend showing a 6 year old how to knit. 

She has knit herself a scarf and headband and also some for two of her friends. 

I can't say no, even if she does ask me to help her every couple minutes.  I find it funny that her yarn is Valentine's themed.  It was not on purpose!

 This is coconut butter fudge.  It is also Valentine's themed.  And it was on purpose.  I can't lie.

Isn't it gorgeous?  Try shoveling 5 pieces in your mouth at once.  It sure beats shoveling three foot drifts!  Contrary to the color, this is not strawberry or bubble gum flavored.  It is straight up sweet fudge.  There is a little texture from the coconut because mine was homemade.  The dominant flavor is the coconut and honey and the fudge texture was spot on.  An easy way to satisfy your sweet tooth in a good-for-you way.  But shhh, no one would ever guess.

Healthy Coconut Butter Fudge
Recipe Source: The Sweet {Tooth} Life
Yield: 10 pieces of fudge

2/3 cup coconut butter (mine was homemade and very firm)
1/4 cup honey
3 Tablespoons dairy free milk
2 drops red food coloring

Blend all ingredients in a food processor. 
Press into a small, foil lined pan.
Refrigerate for at least an hour before cutting and serving.
Enjoy!

Avocado Chocolate Mousse Blackberry Fudge Tart (dairy free, gluten free)

Roses are red,

Raspberries are too,

But I'm choosing blackberries,

It's time for some blue!

(Cheesy poem #2 - this is why I bake, not write!)

 

Raspberries rule the roost come February. Everything is pink or red - or a dark chocolate. In keeping with the formal theme, I kept this tart lusciously smooth and dark, but instead of using the traditional raspberries, the chocolate pairs with juicy dark blackberries.  I layered some between the crust and the chocolate fudge mousse layer, but also placed some on top.  Blackberries are a little tart, a little sweet, but still seedy and juicy like raspberries.

 

This tart is very untraditional in several other ways.

 

One:  There is no dairy or gluten.  There a lot of hard things in this world and I've come to know that getting a recipe to follow both of those guidelines is no piece of cake.  But this tart is both and it doesn't sacrifice any richness.  Period. 

 

 

Two: That tall, dark, and handsome filling?  (Okay, skip the tall and handsome)  It gets all its creaminess from the power food, the avocado.  Do you love avocados?  *If you don't, I'm covering my ears and singing la-la-laaaaa.*  Where were we?  Avocados ... these are some versatile little fruits (they are also known as alligator pears, for their skin, you know?  You learn something new every day - thank you Google for enlightening me.)  Blended with cocoa powder, sugar, and a little vanilla and coffee, avocados become the richest, thickest, fudgiest mousse I've ever eaten.  And I've eaten a lot of it recently, telling myself I'm somehow prolonging my life or something like that.  I hope I get something out of it, because I've (literally) eaten three whole avocados in less than a week.  Just in this recipe.

I've made chocolate avocado pudding, but for this recipe, I omitted the milk and upped the cocoa powder, creating a thicker and firmer texture.  It is almost like cheesecake.  But I can't call it that, because the title clearly states this is a fudgy mousse ... and I created that title, so yeah, consistency is good!

 

 

And the crust is easy peasy.  Simply oats, coconut, almonds, some coconut oil, and honey.  I didn't bake mine, just stuck it in the fridge, but I bet if you stuck it in the oven (probably 350) for no more than 8-10 minutes, the crust would hold together better and have a deeper, nuttier flavor.  As it is, this is my favorite gluten free crust because of all the textures.  It does NOT taste like a pie crust, but it does taste like a delicious tart crust!  The nutty, crunchy, chewy crust pairs so well with the creamy, sweet, and rich chocolate filling.  And the blackberries, don't forget the blackberries!

 

Avocado Chocolate Mousse Blackberry Fudge Tart (dairy free, gluten free)

Recipe Source: The Sweet {Tooth} Life.  Adapted from Fresh Fit n' Healthy

Yield: 2 servings

Crust:
1/2 cup almonds
1/3 cup oats
2 tablespoon unsweetened coconut shreds (sweetened will work as well)
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1/3 cup honey

Filling:
1-1/2 avocados
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons instant coffee granules

1/4 cup blackberries

For crust:
Pulse almonds, oats, and coconut in a food processor. 
Pour in melted coconut oil. Add honey.
Pulse until mixture forms a ball.
Press into two small tart pans.
Place in freezer for 10-15 minutes.  Or bake at 350 for 8 minutes. 

For filling:
Blend all the ingredients in a food processor until smooth. 

Tart:
Divide blackberries between two crusts, sprinkling over the crust.
Spread filling over the blackberries.
Serve or chill until serving.

 

Mocha Coconut Macaroons

My post yesterday morning was pretty lazy, do I decided to make up for it with, well, a lazy day recipe. 

#fail

Sure, these might be for lazy days when you don't feel like doing much, but they don't taste lazy!  They are loaded with rich flavors like coconut and chocolate and coffee!  The coffee adds another level of flavor and makes these a little more sophisticated. I mean, ok, these aren't very pretty :) but coffee was always  an adult thing here at our house.  Now we "underage drinkers" can enjoy our coffee in these little cookies. 

(Actually, most of my siblings don't like coffee, buuuuut {most of them ;) } do like these!  I think it's the chocolate ...)

I've been wanting to try these chocolate macaroons from the Cake Boss cookbook for a while, but because I can never make a recipe exactly as written, I was waiting until I had something a little special to mix it up. I know, it is just coffee, but I personally think coffee is very special.  I have major cravings for it and I always have a mug first thing in the morning or when I'm cold. Which is a lot of the time right now.

I only used a teaspoon of instant coffee, and while there was coffee flavor, I would add more next time, probably 1-1/2 to 2 teaspoons. Coffee has this delicious quality of enhancing chocolate flavor, so in small quantities, coffee just helps the chocolate flavor be stronger. There is a little of that going on here; 1 teaspoon is enough to give some coffee flavor, but not a robust addition. Play around with it; the goal is to have both the chocolate and coffee flavors shine. 

And then there is the coconut … need I say more?  There is no flour or oats in these cookies, just coconut shreds. I will confess, I used 2 cups sweetened shreds and 1 cup unsweetened because we ran out of sweetened. It worked incredibly well!  If you don't have enough sweetened (ahem) I wouldn't suggest using more than half unsweetened, because it isn't as sticky or sweet.  The coconut adds all the body to these cookies and makes them addictive my chewy. 

Lazy days, don't go away!  I like you when you bring me mocha coconut macaroons.  Lazy or not, I hope you all are having a great weekend! 

 

Mocha Coconut Macaroons

Recipe Source: Adapted from Cake Boss Family Celebrations Cookbook.

Yield: 2 dozen

 

1/2 cup chocolate chips

4 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon instant coffee

2 eggs

3 cups sweetened coconut shreds

Preheat oven to 325.
Melt chocolate chips, either in the microwave or on the stove.
Mix sugar and instant coffee. 
Beat in eggs.
Add melted chocolate to sugar, coffee, and egg mixture, stirring quickly.
Add coconut shreds and stir until all coconut is coated.
Form in tablespoon sized cookies (mixture will be sticky!)
Bake for 15 minutes.
Remove from pan after 5 minutes of cooling.
Enjoy!

Salted Chocolate Coconut Popcorn

I always claimed to be a sweet and salty kinda gal, but to be honest, my exposure to sweet and salty was limited to, well, I honestly can't think of anything off the top of my head.  (I can just see the shame I'm bringing down on the sweet and salty club.)

But now that I officially tried it, I can't stop adding salt to all my desserts. It's really weird, but it is so good. I might actually get around to the whole salt-on-watermelon thing this summer. 

It all started with a recipe I can't tell you about right me because I'm going to post it soon, but lets just say, it took the veil off my eyes and opened a world full of salt.

My sodium intake will probably double and my doctors will probably roll their eyes every time they see me, but that doesn't matter because - oh, their eyes are already back in their heads when I show up. (I'm only half kidding.  I get hurt and sick - a lot - in the randomest ways. My doctors love me.)

Just in case you were wondering, my hands are not that cute (right now, the skin is dry and the nails even more cracked, if that were possible) but Abigail's sure are!  She graciously let me use her as a photo assistant.

Anyways, salted chocolate. What an easy way to upgrade!  And it coats our popcorn, making it irresistible. I threw in some coconut, because coconut is plain good and I really like coconut and chocolate, but also to add some texture and chew to the popcorn. My mom, who really isn't a big fan of coconut, gave me the mock groan when she saw it, but after a handful, decided that this was really good and it was ok that there was coconut. 

This stuff is so easy and so good and so easy to snack on!  There is no baking, only one bowl, and five ingredients. I melted the chocolate, poured it over the popped popcorn, added the coconut, and then sprinkled the salt on top. I used a tablespoon and it added enough that it was salty, but not too much so that the salt was all you tasted. I think I was more sensitive to the salt because this was my first salty chocolate, but I really liked it. If you don't believe me, I'll show you the empty bowl. And the three salted dessert recipes I have ready to go.

Salted Chocolate Coconut Popcorn

Recipe Source: The Sweet {Tooth} Life 

Yield: 4-5 cups 

1/4 cup unpopped popcorn kernels (yields about 4-5 cups) 

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips 

1 teaspoon oil (coconut, canola, or olive)

3/4 cup coconut 

Sea salt (I used about a tablespoon, but adjust to personal preference)

Pop your popcorn.  (An easy way is to place your kernels in a brown paper sack and just microwave for 90 seconds.  Easy, oil free popcorn!)  Then, melt your dark chocolate with the oil.  To do this, place your chocolate chips in a microwave safe  bowl and drizzle the oil over the chips.  Microwave for one minutes, stirring every 30 seconds.  Drizzle over the popped popcorn.  Stir in the coconut.  Sprinkle on the salt.  And now you can eat and enjoy!

Related Recipes:

Popcorn n' Pretzel Butterscotch Puppy Chow

Brown Butter Coconut Caramel Popcorn Blondies

Almond Joy Energy Bites (No bake and Gluten Free)

Hello from Nationals!  My favorite memory of Halloween is the mini almond joys.  Oh my goodness, I could eat half a dozen of those in a heartbeat.  Now, I can have them in a healthy form!  But before I get to these energy bites, I want to thank you for all your sweet comments.  Seriously, you make my day.

Icing my hand does not make my day. (Icing cupcakes does ... But I can't do that right now.)

Ice hurts!  I know it's supposed to reduce swelling and pain, but, wow, my hand hurts worse after I ice it. I'd like to think I have a higher pain tolerance!  However, all athletes use ice when they hurt something because they know the pain is worth the quicker recovery. (Note to self; pick up games of volleyball do not result in quicker recovery. :)

I don't like the ice on my hand right now but I'm grateful something so simple makes such a difference. As I was thinking about this (I usually kill my 20 minutes of ice time on pinterest, but tonight, I just laid on the couch) I realized for me right now, grace is like that ice. It hurts me to give it. Isn't that terrible?  I don't like giving people grace or the benefit of the doubt or a smile when I feel like being rude. It hurts my pride to be gracious sometimes. But, it always makes me feel better. That's not ever a good reason to do something, but in this case, it not only blesses the person, but it lets Jesus shine through me and keep molding my heart. That's something that has popped up again and again in my bible times - letting Jesus mold my heart. The act of getting my heart to a place where if has no will and yields to Jesus. Where my life is given to God to interrupt and mold as He chooses. It's made me realize if I can't be responsible in the little things like grace, then there is something wrong with my relationship with Christ. That thought hurts, too, but if I respond to it, it will make me better. 

So, as I sit here trying to recreate Antarctica for my hand, I'm hoping to get rid of the Antarctica around my heart and let God melt and mold it as He chooses. 

I'm also eating the last of these energy bites. They're the only redeeming part of icing my hand:)

These are incredible. They truly taste like almond joys - but they're healthy!  The honey is the sweetener and binder, but not the dominant flavor. It's the coconut and chocolate chips that take center stage here.  The coconut shreds make these chewy and if you like coconut, feel free to add extra. My favorite part is the mini chocolate chips. First, they're mini!  I mean, what is not to love?  And second, they're chocolate!  Seriously, what is not to love?  

And these are gluten free, if you use certified oats. The perfect snack or dessert and they come together in five minutes. Totally worth icing my hand.

Almond Joy Energy Bites
Recipe Source: The Sweet {Tooth} Life
Yield: 12 bites

1 cup quick oats (divided) (use gluten free certified oats to ensure this is gluten free)
1/2 cup coconut shreds, sweetened
1/2 cup almonds (I used slivered)
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Using a small food processor, grind 1/2 cup oats into a flour (or close to.)  Add almonds and pulse until finely chopped.  Add coconut shreds and remaining half cup oats and pulse once or twice. Pour in coconut oil and honey and pulse until mixture forms a ball. Stir in chocolate chips. Roll into 8-10 uniform balls and serve. Store at room temp or in refrigerator.

 

Blueberry Coconut Oatmeal Smoothie

I don't know about you, but I'm happy it's Saturday. 

I love my Saturday mornings and although part of it will be spent at Auditions this morning, I'm ready for a full afternoon to do as I please. I hope to bake something from my chocolate board, figure out physics (ugg, I've read the chapter a dozen times and have gone nowhere) catch up with some friends and get in a run. I do enjoy the weekends. Anything I do on the weekend seems extra, you know?  Bonus points ... I'm all about bonus points. You know what else I'm all about? ( I seriously need new transitions) Smoothies.  (P.S.  there are a lot of pictures in this post. Consider yourself warned.) 

Guys, I tried oats in my smoothie for the first time ever ... where has this been all my life?  It added so much "fill me up" and held me for hours longer than normal. That was something I had missed from my other smoothies.  

 

I know, I know, I could add flax and spinach and chia seed, but lets face it; I'm self conscious about oats in my smoothie, let alone kale and protein powder. My family isn't quite ready for all that other healthy power foods. I don't think they'll ever care and that's a-ok. It's nice not to have the pressure of eating right all the time.
 

 

In addition to oats, I also added coconut and coconut oil for some healthy fats. Works like a charm. And this smoothie tastes amazing, sweet, thick, creamy, coconut-y and fruity.  I was surprised by how much I liked the added texture in my smoothie. Smoothies are supposed to be smooth (hence the name ... I know, I'm smart that way;) but the heartiness of the oats blended with the yogurt was delicious.  As with all smoothies, feel free to adjust any measurements. Only use 1/4 cup oats got less texture, add more blueberries and yogurt for more body and stronger flavor, add
more milk to thin it out - its completely customizable!

 

 

I really appreciated how long this kept me full and fueled. For some of you, this may be old hat, but if its not, try it!  

 

Blueberry Coconut Oatmeal Smoothie 

Recipe Source: The Sweet {Tooth} Life 

Yield: 1 serving

1/3 cup quick oats 

3/4 cup vanilla yogurt (Greek or regular)

3 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1 cup frozen blueberries 

2-3 tablespoons coconut shreds 

In a food processor or blender, pulse oats a few times. Add milk, coconut oil, and yogurt and pulse again.  Finally, add blueberries and coconut shreds and blend until all the ingredients are blended well together. Serve immediately.

Related Recipes:

Skinny White Chocolate and Blueberry Milkshake

Blueberry Lemon Cottage Cheese Muffins

Homemade Blueberry Larabars 

Oreo Coconut Cheesecake Bars

After the crazy long post yesterday, I'm going to rest your eyes by making this short and sweet.

Just kidding, I'm going to show your eyes pictures of this cheesecake.  You can give your eyes a break on Saturday. (Woot woot for the weekend!) 

Okay, guys, this cheesecake. It has a thick crust made of Oreo crumbs and coconut which is texture party and then I used coconut oil instead of butter to go with the coconut theme.  And there are supposed to be health benefits with coconut oil and I'm all about putting health into cheesecake. 

Right.  Who am I kidding?

Anyways, and then we have out thick, ultra creamy cheesecake with shreds of coconut all throughout it. Plus, the cheesecake layer only requires four ingredients.  Compared to the most recent recipe (everything was long in the last post!) this ingredient list is so easy. But it sure does taste amazing. 

My favorite part of this was the crust. Crunchy, yet a little chewy from the coconut, and full of chocolate and coconut flavor. I could've eaten the crust by itself! 

When I put this in the oven, I thought, what if my coconut burns?  Thankfully, it didn't, so if you're worried about that, you don't have to anymore. :)  My coconut survived its half hour in the oven and turned out so nice and toasty, the perfect topping to the cheesecake. 

I'm looking forward to the weekend, anyone else with me?  I don't have big plans ... We have practically an all day volleyball tournament which I'm pumped about.  I love my Saturdays and me time (we extroverts do actually like alone time, albeit brief!) but I am loving this years team and season, so its not a sacrifice at all to give up my Saturday. This year has been a blast and we get to play some tougher this teams on Saturday. Our team plays with the competition; we play up when it's tough and we play down when it's easy. Not preferable but it sure makes tough games fun!

 

Oreo Coconut Cheesecake Bars

Recipe Source:  The Sweet {Tooth} Life

Yield: 12-16 servings 

For the crust:

1-1/2 cup Oreo crumbs

3/4 cup sweetened coconut flakes

1/3 cup coconut oil, melted 

For the filling:

2 (8 oz.) low fat cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs 

1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes 

Garnish:

1/3 cup Oreo crumbs

1/3 cup unsweetened coconut flakes

For the crust: stir Oreo crumbs and cockpit together. Stir in melted coconut oil and press into a lightly greased 9x9 pan. 

For the filling: beat cream cheese and sugar together until smooth, about a minute.  Add eggs and beat well. Stir in coconut. Pour filling over crust. 

For garnish: sprinkle Oreo crumbs over filling and then sprinkle the coconut over the Oreo crumbs. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes. Let cool. Refrigerate for several hours before serving.

Related Recipes:

Oreo Cheesecake Reeses Brownies

Oreo Layer Cake



Coconut Cheesecake Stuffed Chocolate Snickerdoodles
 

Coconut Cheesecake Stuffed Chocolate Snickerdoodles

Humidity is bad.

Humility is good. 

There is a difference, although my spell check doesn't seem to think so!  More on that later.

These are my dream cookie. Here's why. The chocolate cookie itself is soft and fudgy, yet firm enough to picked up and held (except in 80% humidity weather). Then, once you bit into the cookie, there is a creamy cheesecake filled with coconut shreds. Can we talk flavor and texture heaven?  Finally, I dusted them with cinnamon and sugar. They looked amazing, they tasted amazing, you must make these.  My dream cookie.

However, you would be better off taking these Rice Krispy Treats or these peanut butter no bake bars when going to a potluck dinner outside when it's 80 degrees with almost unbearable humidity levels. When you do that, these cookies turn into squishy desserts strongly resembling their form before they were baked.  Delicious yes, as appealing?  Not really. We did bring home an empty box (downside of sharing:) but save these for your air conditioner, okay? 

Then, once you've got yourself in your air conditioned house, you can take your batch of cookies and think, you know, in the name of humility, I'm going to keep these all here that way I won't have any chance of being prideful about them. I'm not being selfish, I'm being humble!  

Them you can stick one of these in your mouth and savor your air conditioned glory.

Ok. Hope you all realize I was joking.

Humility is something you have to have a heart change to even truly desire.  The hardest part about humility is not being humble, but willing to be humble.  As our first volleyball tournament is this next weekend, I've been reminded part of teamwork is humility. If I'm not willing to make choices that will help the team and not just me, then I am not a good team member. Every role is important even though some  don't get any glory. Needing that glory, that attention, is a red flag. If I have to have affirmation based on my playing to have a good attitude, then Houston, we have a problem!  On a team, you win together and you lose together. And teamwork isn't isolated to sports. My family is a team. One that will last way longer than sports. As much time as I invest in volleyball, something that only lasts a couple years, how much more should be invested in relationships that will last my whole life?

Humility, putting others needs first. 

Humidity, melting incredible cookies into dough. 

Avoid the latter. The humidity part, I mean. 

 Coconut Cheesecake Stuffed Chocolate Snickerdoodles

Recipes Source: The Sweet {Tooth} Life.  Cookie base slightly adapted from Craving Chronicles

Coconut Cheesecake Filling:

4 oz. cream cheese

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup shredded sweetened coconut

Cookie:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 ounces cream cheese (I used low fat)
6 tablespoons butter, melted and still warm
1/3 cup applesauce
1 large egg
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon brewed coffee

Cinnamon and sugar for dusting

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
Combine sugar, cream cheese and melted butter in a large bowl and whisk until smooth. Whisk in applesauce. Add egg, milk, coffee, and vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth. Add flour mixture. Fold in with a rubber spatula until all flour is incorporated and a soft dough forms.

Refrigerate dough overnight or up to four days. 

For filling: Beat softened cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Stir in coconut shreds. Using this method, spoon small balls of cream chess filling onto a lightly greased cookie sheet and freeze for an hour. 

After dough has chilled and cheesecake filling has frozen, remove dough from refrigerator.  Lightly grease two cookie sheets and preheat oven to 350. 

Roll dough into 15-20 uniform sized balls. If dough becomes too sticky, return to refrigerator. Place one ball of frozen cheesecake in the center of the cookie dough and wrap the dough around it. Place on prepared cookie sheet and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. 

Bake 1 sheet at time at 350°F for 11-13 minutes, until cookies are set and tops have cracked. (They might not look done, but don’t over bake!) Cool on the baking sheet for 3 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Browned Butter Coconut Caramel Popcorn Blondies

I have only one word for these bars.

Gooey-sweet-chewy-coconut-caramel-heaven.

Don't laugh.

I've become the subject of many jokes among my friends.

The first one concerns my hand sanitizer. I used to be kinda sorta obsessed with it. Like, even my acquaintances remembered me for it. Yes, I am a clean freak (although my dad thinks otherwise. After watching me bake, he decided if we did have a dog, it would be so fat from eating everything I drop and splatter) Yes, and maybe a germiphobic, but I have gotten much better. Meaning Germ-X isn't an extension of my hand anymore. However, my legacy lives on. At a volleyball tournament last year, there was a gift bag for our team and in it was a Bath n' Body hand sanitizer. I immediately received it and I hadn't even gotten to look in the bag yet. "Mary Frances, this is perfect for you!"  

Gee thanks:)

One of my friends got me half a dozen little Bath n' Body sanitizers for my birthday last year and attached a little note as to their specific purpose. One was for my purse, another for my elbow (don't ask!) and another for after killing spiders. I laugh at that one now, because I would have to kill a spider in order to use the hand sanitizer. I really don't like spiders. However, you all will be proud to know I have improved in that area too. I now squash spiders without squealing and practically bathing in sanitizer afterwards. (See, that friend knows my needs well!)  Ok, I'll kill it provided its a little spider. I still don't mess with the big ones. That's why I have brothers. Anyways, I still adore those little scented bottles of germ annihilators. They're just the best. My favorite scent right now is Island Margarita. 

And then there's the joke that I have the body of a 90 year old. Some part of me is constantly put of whack. Right now, it's a lot of things. Like both my ankles, my back, my hip (again! ... *sigh*) my jaw and my hand. The hand will heal, I do know that.  First I burned it by picking up the 350 degree glass pan of these blondies without hot pads. Then they got really calloused from swinging a golf club several hundred times.  My jaw?  Well, I'll probably have to get a splint for that. My hip (ugg, touchy subject) has bothered me off and on for years and lovely me gets to start rehabbing it. Again. Everything else I get to "just let heal."  Yeah. My ankles are new and I'm not sure what's up with them, but I can't run and that's really disappointing. Not that I run a lot anyways (read not at all) but I wanted to keep up conditioning for volleyball. My annoyingly wise ex trainer mother advised me to rest and let it heal now when there is no need to "push through the injury."  

So I baked instead of doing whatever I normally do that hurts my ankles. And back. And ... Oh just forget it. I decided, I needed something gooey. With caramel. And coconut. Oh yeah, popcorn is good, too. 

These bars have so much going on, it's crazy. There is an incredibly soft blondie base that takes advantage of browned butter to give it maximum flavor. Browned butter was new to me, but I was blown away by how such a simple trick adds so much depth to a recipe. So much deeper and richer and all you have to is, well brown your butter!  Melt it and let it boil until it is a deep amber color. Don't cheat on it, let it cook, but do watch it closely. We want brown butter, not burned butter. There is a difference. 

And the caramel!  Adapted from the peanut butter caramel sauce, this one hits home. It is thick and gooey and sticks the popcorn and coconut to the blondies, melding it all together. Caramel is so good and this sauce is sooooo simple. Only four ingredients!

Pop up a couple cups of popcorn, add some coconut and pour your caramel sauce over it all. Bake it a little longer, let cool (yes, otherwise you will be dealing with a gooey sticky hot mess) and then dig in.  

My dear mother, chocolate lover (even more than I!) forgave me for putting popcorn in her blondies because of how soft and gooey they were. They do firm up after about 12 hours, but the first few might be a little rough. Did I mention a hot mess? Me and mom love those. :)

So there you have it, coconut and caramel, popcorn and blondies, and a whole lot of sweet, gooey goodness - and no, I'm not joking.

Browned Butter Coconut Caramel Popcorn Blondies
Recipe Source: The Sweet {Tooth} Life.  Blondie base adapted from Sweet Treats and More
Yield: 12-16 servings

Blondie
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shredded sweetened coconut

Toppings:
3 cups popcorn (3 tablespoons unpopped kernels)
1/2 cup shredded sweetened coconut

Caramel:
2/3 cup milk
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. 

In a small saucepan, melt and brown butter. Let cool for a minute and then whisk in coconut oil and sugar. Whisk in egg and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Once combined, stir in coconut and spread in a greased 9x9 pan. Bake for 10 minutes. 

While blondies are baking, pop the popcorn. Toss popcorn with the coconut and set aside. 

For caramel, whisk cornstarch into a couple tablespoons if milk. Stir in rest of milk and sugar. Stir on medium heat until thickened. Stir in vanilla. 

Once the 10 minutes are done, sprinkle popcorn mixture over blondies. Pour caramel sauce over popcorn and return to the oven. Bake for 10 more minutes. 

Let cool for several hours before cutting. Store leftovers in an airtight container. Enjoy!