cooking ala mel

healthy recipes and the occasional craft

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Bacon and Brussels Sprout Salad

Well!  I’m back.  After a week of tests, I’ve been slowly cleaning up the apartment, finding the kitchen counter under a mess of dirty dishes, and actually making something other than oatmeal for pretty much the first time all week.  It feels great.  I also got a haircut and dyed my hair (red – I needed a change).  Tonight, I’ll catch up on all my TV shows and binge on this salad.

I’ve made this salad so many times, now.  The first time I made it, I use the ingredients I had on hand, and thought it was almost too tangy.  Then, I made the actual recipe for dinner at my aunt’s on Christmas Eve, and I didn’t think it had enough flavor.  So I went back to how I made it the first time, and yeah.. I’m in love.  I could eat this salad pretty much endlessly and be perfectly happy.  Alex actually likes it, too!  He actually requested it again, which doesn’t usually happen with salads for him.

Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies

So.. I’m sort of buried under notes, so you probably won’t hear from me for a bit (although, let’s be honest, on social media, you’ll probably hear from me more – procrastination at its finest).  In the meantime, though, it’s time to talk about cookies.  My cousin-in-law, Tristan, got me a TARDIS cookie jar for our family Secret Santa gift exchange this past Christmas, and after giving it a prime spot on the counter right next to my espresso machine, I vowed to never let it go empty.  It’s now been empty for two weeks (when I ran out of these cookies), although I had been pretty good about it up until that point.  Oops.  Better replenish!

I want to say I haven’t replenished the TARDIS because these cookies are hard to top (which is true), but I just haven’t found the time to make cookies.  I’d rather, you know, actually eat a homemade dinner, or catch at least one episode of Doctor Who.  I have to have a few priorities during the hectic weeks.  But these cookies.. fantastic.  Browned butter, dark chocolate, sea salt, vanilla bean, coconut sugar.  The perfect combination of flavors for a chocolate chip cookie.
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Chocolate Hazelnut and Almond Spread

So.. it was World Nutella Day today.  I’ve been pretty busy with the first exams of the semester, so I probably wouldn’t have made a post for a while had it not been for this food holiday.  It was just lucky that I’ve had a recipe lined up that fit in perfectly with today:  a homemade chocolate hazelnut spread.  One that is way healthier than Nutella.

For this spread, I used half almonds, half hazelnuts, mostly because I’m too cheap to use up all my hazelnuts for a nut butter (and because I go through nut butters like water).  The hazelnuts are the most pronounced flavor, so you probably wouldn’t even guess the almonds were there.  Flavored with cocoa (use the best you can find – dutch process preferred) and sweetened with Truvia/stevia drops, this is a healthier version of Nutella that you can eat at any time of the day.  I’ve been stirring it into my oatmeal in the morning, and I can’t even begin to tell you how much I look forward to it every day.  It’s like dessert for breakfast, and I don’t even have to feel bad about it!
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