Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Perfection

Hey beautiful people! How has your day been? I hope that you found yourself smiling a lot today and feeling good!

I went to yoga class this morning at my favorite studio: Thrive. It was amazing, as usual. And my sweet lover came with me so it was extra special to have him on his mat next to me, moving through practice together. At the beginning of class the instructor, Brad, talked about how we are all born with this inherent perfection. The universe worked really hard to make us each the beautiful, perfect, divine beings that we are. If we could all hold up a mirror to our soul, we would see ourselves the way we truly are. Unfortunately, that mirror often gets covered in dust and we are unable to see our true selves in our highest perfection. If we can learn to clean the dust off that mirror, we would see the divine beauty within and recognize ourselves as the perfect beings we are. Then there would be no reason to feel like we need to change ourselves or become better in any way. So dear friends, dust off that mirror, take a look at your soul and rest comfortably within the beauty and perfection that you are :-)


Yesterday I posted a few photos of some cookies that I made. I'd like to share the recipes with you now! :-)




The ones on the left (the bigger, flatter, chocolate peanut-buttery goodness ones) are a new recipe I tried out. But the other ones (the smaller, more round, little nuggets of goodness) are actually a recipe that I made before. But they turned out so different this time! It's funny how that can happen. This time, I melted the coconut oil and peanut butter and it was still warm when I mixed it with the dry ingredients. I wasn't thinking and I added in the chocolate chips which totally melted right away! So, I ended up putting the cookie dough in the freezer for a few minutes until it cooled down. Then I added some more chocolate chips. So, this batch was a bit more chocolaty than the last. And they baked differently since I had the dough in the freezer for a while. Aside from being a bit crumbly, the cookies are fantastic! Super yummy and doughy.

Now for the other recipe! It's so simple and so tasty :-)

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Filled Cookies (I always wish I could come up with more clever/cute names for things, but I never do! Haha. So this will have to do. It is what it is!)

  • 2 tbsp coconut oil
  • 6 tbsp chocolate chips
  • 1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax seeds + 3 tbsp water)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 4 tbsp peanut butter chips
  • 1/2 cup Pamela's Baking Mix
  • and peanut butter for the center of the cookies
People have been asking me about Pamela's and what they can use in place of it. I realize that I use Pamela's pretty much all the time! And that may not be practical for everybody. I just love it because it's gluten-free and tastes awesome and works really well. You can try using any flour in place of it, but since Pamela's already has baking soda, baking powder and salt in the mix, you just have to figure out how much of those things to add to the recipe. For this particular recipe (which made about 10 cookies for me) I would recommend adding 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp baking powder. That is, if you choose to use another type of flour. Please note, that is just a suggestion! I'm not totally sure. If you are up for experimenting, go for it! 

Now, back to the recipe! Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Melt the coconut oil and chocolate chips in a sauce pan over low heat. Let it cool for about 5 minutes or so. Then add the flax egg and vanilla extract. Pour this mixture into a bowl, add the Pamela's mix and stir to combine. Make sure that the batter is cool enough to add the peanut butter chips without them melting. Fold the peanut butter chips into the dough. Then, lightly oil a cookie sheet. Form the cookie dough into little globs on the cookie sheet. (Yes, I said globs. Will I eventually get better at writing out recipe instructions! Haha. I hope so!) Then take a spoonful of peanut butter and just kind of mush it into the center of each cookie, as seen in the photo below. 



Bake for 8-10 minutes. I love how these cookies turned out. They are super soft and fudge-like but not too sweet. The sweetness comes from the small amount of sugar in the chocolate chip and peanut butter chips. They really are tasty! The glob of peanut butter in the middle is key! If you want to get sweet and fancy, I suggest using a sweetened peanut butter (or any nut butter!) like one of Peanut Butter & Co.'s or Justin's or Natrually Nutty's. Good stuff!


Thank you so much for the sweet comments I have been receiving. It means so much to me! *YOU* are a valuable gift and I appreciate you. Lots of love from my heart to yours :-) Don't forget to honor yourself as the perfect being that you are!

*~Namaste~*

11 comments:

Lindsay said...

I love your note on divine beauty and loving yourself from within. So well said, and one of my true aspirations.
Thanks for the sweet comment you left, I'm anxious about some things but overall I think of my blog as a journal, and a capture in time. There are some things that need to be "put on paper" so to speak, to reach a true acceptance of the past, the present and the future. Wow that was deep. lol You know what I mean though.
Awesome that your man does yoga with you! I've been trying to convince mine and he hasn't quite mustered his way to the studio with me yet ;)

Jacklyn said...

Great post Today Alaina! Cant wait to try these cookies. I have already tried a few of the recipes....... YUMMY!

Namaste gurl said...

Mmmm, my favorite combo: chocolate and peanut butter! You are quite the baker, girl, I say you come over and bake for me :)

Andrea said...

Thank you for the beautiful intro to this post Alaina :)

Megan D said...

This: "If we can learn to clean the dust off that mirror, we would see the divine beauty within and recognize ourselves as the perfect beings we are" was BEAUTIFUL! I loved that whole paragraph actually :)

Anonymous said...

another great post! you should seriously write a book- you have so many great things to say! SUCH a blessing in this blog world!

Rach said...

Hey girl! Found your blog via Katie's (What Katie's Baking) and I thought I'd say hey. :) Your cookies look fabulous and that flower is gorgeous! :)

Ari@ThE DiVa DiSh said...

You are such a beautiful person! So kind and sweet! Those cookies make me droll..chocolate and peanut butter..I am IN!

Alaina Rose said...

I am loving all the sweet, thoughtful comments from everyone! Thank you, thank you sweet souls! Much love <3

Jenny said...

Wow such amazing looking cookies and fabulous post. So glad to have found your blog :D

Jess@HealthyExposures said...

these cookies look fabulous, but what especially stands out to me is that first paragraph. so beautiful! thank you for sharing that :]

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