Guess

Anyone want to guess what this is?

Oo is that chocolate cake with layers of frosting?
Super dry brownies?
Nope! That would be 3 small pieces of homemade rye bread stacked with layers of french onion laughing cow cheese in the middle... ridiculous as that may sound, this is yummmmy.

Makes more sense now? No? Well okay..

I used the recipe on the back of the Hodgson Mill Rye flour bag but foolishly added HALF the amount of yeast as I was supposed to! I was prepared for a block of inedible cement but luckily it came out perfectly dense and great flavor.. I can't wait to make another loaf again using the correct amount of yeast because even though I like dense bread, I'd like it to be a little more fluffy (so I could use it to make a sandwich; reuben anyone?!)
So on to yesterdays dinner. We had some leftover ham from Christmas, so I thought that we could do a simplified version of chicken cordon bleu. I looked online for a recipe where they DIDN'T roll of the chicken but instead stacked it in a casserole dish but I wasn't finding what I wanted. There was a lot of things that called for condensed cream of chicken soup... ew, when was that ever called for in a chicken cordon bleu?? Anyways, I just winged it. My mom helped me out by pounding the chicken breasts down flatter while I got out the mustard, crackers, ham, oil, and seasonings. That's all you need! I seasoned the chicken with S&P then browned it on both sides in a skillet with a little oil. After that, I put the chicken in a casserole dish, topped with mustard, ham, and Swiss cheese, and popped it in the 400 degree oven. While the cheese was melting a little bit I crushed up some wheat butter crackers (leftover from Christmas appetizer spread). I took the chicken out briefly to top with cracker crumbs then put it back in till it was cooked all the way through. This was so easy and pretty tasty! I don't know if I will be compelled to make this again though, unless we have all the ingredients on hand. I felt like something was missing...the rents liked it though!

My plate with a side of sweet potato fries.

Maybe different cheese? I think I'm just not a fan of ham :/ I got second of the fries.
I finished off the night with a huge cookie I made the day before. One will do ya.

size comparison.

I used a recipe I found online but modified it by using Brummel and Brown Yogurt Butter instead of butter along with using crushed peppermint candy canes, white chocolate, and dark chocolate chips (instead of just normal chocolate chips) to make a "peppermint bark" type of cookie. I really want to try this recipe again but use a lot less butter (maybe half as much?) and see what happens. The dough for me was way to liquidy and sticky ( and it wasn't just because I used a substitute, I noticed many reviewers had the same problem). I'd HIGHLY reccomend making these cookies, they are exactly as described- the "Best Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie". I'd also high reccomend using Brummel & Brown in baking; it has worked great for me so far and is so much healthier. It has 5g of fat per serving compared to 11g of butter, no cholesterol, no trans fats, and 65 less calories. And this stuff tastes GOOD people, I wouldn't use it if it tasted like crap like those other artificial butters.

Okay so that was yesterdays eats! Today I woke up with a pounding headache and puffy eyes. I blame my phone because I was feeling fine until my phone started acting up. I got really upset with that thing (once again, its one of those "last straw" type of deals) and my body started feeling really hot, my head started pounding, and my nose stopped up. In the morning I took a shower and that helped. I think I was also a little dehydrated too so that might have been why I had such a headache. My temperature? a 98. My normal temp is around a 96, so it was a little higher than usual but not bad. Nothing a little breakfast can't cure, right?

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll and coffee.

I took this cinnamon roll out of the freezer, it was originally from a couple days before Christmas and I had saved it for my Aunt but I totally forgot about giving it to her. This has got to be my favorite cinnamon roll recipe I have made so far, it comes out so light and fluffy despite being over 70% whole wheat flour. It must be the fact that you put a hefty amount of pumpkin puree into the dough. I've modified the recipe quite a bit from the original, and I still have a couple more tweaks before I post it on here, so I'm saving the recipe for another post (once I make these again). I've made them two times so third times the charm right? These things are good; even my whole wheat hating siblings gobbled these up. They're my toughest critics.
I drink mostly decaf coffee but will sometimes drink a cup of the caffeinated stuff in the morning because that's what our expresso machine makes. I have to go through a lot of trouble to use the machine with decaf coffee beans, so sometimes I'm just too lazy.
On the side, half a huge honey crisp apple with a little bit of Swiss original laughing cow cheese and homemade chocolate hazelnut butter. Don't hate on the laughing cow-apple combo because its the best combo in the world. Better than apples and peanut butter; yeah, that good.

Okay so that chocolate hazelnut butter? That's probably better than apples and laughing cow, YES, that good!!! Let's not compare it to Nutella, because I know that's what you're thinking. This spread is on a league of it's own. I made this a couple months ago and used this recipe. I was having trouble skinning the hazelnuts and, lazy girl that I am, just plopped most of the hazelnuts, skin and all, right into the food processor. I don't think this caused any bitterness in the final product but I don't really have anything to compare it to. Also I used coconut oil instead of veg oil, you can't taste the coconut but rather the coconut rounded out the chocolate flavor very well. Also I used half the amount of sugar and the sweetness was perfect. Next time I think I would add a dash of salt so all the flavors could be brought out even more. This stuff is like magic on the tongue, I swear. The recipe filled up that whole jar so I'd say it makes about a cup and a forth of nut butter in case you were wondering.
I'm going to do a post later on my costco loot, plus an unexpected lunch!
<3