Chocolate Chip Cookies with Coconut Oil and Sea Salt - Gluten Free Option

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I recently realized that I never posted about my favorite chocolate chip cookies. I made them for my MIL/FIL when they came to Chicago at the beginning of the summer, and entirely forgot that I'd taken out my camera during the process and captured the beauty that is chocolate chip cookies.

It's an old thing, I guess, these chocolate chip cookies that so many of us make. Yet, we are always trying to reinvent the wheel, are we not? We sprinkle them with sea salt or stuff them with nutella. We add a little peanut butter here or some oats there. It is such a standard thing, yet we all find a way to put our own spin on it. Such is life, I suppose.

On this particular day, my changes were made more out of necessity than desire. You see, when I do impromptu baking, I have a tendency to try to make do. Make do without eggs, or make do without vanilla. Make do without anything, just so I can get one step closer to cleaning out the pantry while simultaneously creating something I may never have thought of if I'd had my perfect choice of ingredients.

So, when these buggers were in the making, I made a few swaps. No olive/canola/veggie oil? No butter? I had some coconut oil on hand and gave it a whirl. No chocolate chips? Well, let's ignore the fact that a true household should never go without chocolate chips. I had a dark Lindt chocolate bar that was begging to play a role in these cookies, so I busted out the knife and got chopping.

In the end, these babies were delish. Adapted from this recipe.

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Coconut Oil and Sea Salt

Ingredients:

• 1 cup coconut oil, melted
• 3/4 cup + 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon coconut extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour (if you are making this gluten free and using coconut flour, add an egg)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 chocolate bar, chopped (or 2/3 cup chocolate chips)
• Sea salt, for sprinkling

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Combine oil, sugars, eggs, and extracts and mix well. Then add flour, baking soda, and regular salt (not sea salt) and mix until well combined. Because this recipe uses coconut oil in place of butter, it may seem a bit crumbly. Never fear! It will come out of the oven perfectly!
3. Fold in chocolate with a spoon or spatula.
4. Put 1.5 inch balls on parchment lined baking sheet and sprinkle with sea salt.
5. Bake for 7-8 minutes and then remove. Let cool and then stuff your face!

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

• Do you have a special cookie recipe?
• Do you make it up on the fly or go step by step using a recipe?

Italian Overnight Kale Salad with Sea Salt

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When I was in High School, I used to get sick a lot. A lot. Like I missed 28 days of school one year. So, in the interest of boosting my immune system, my mom decided to force me to start juicing (at 17 years old, I was very opposed to the idea and thought it tasted like garbage sludge). The key ingredient she continued to put in these garbage sludge smoothies? Kale.

Five years later, I started putting Kale in my salads. Though my immune system is now near teflon (thanks to consistent exercise and healthy eating), I am always looking for the next healthy element I can incorporate into my life. After reading about the seemingly never ending health benefits of Kale, I was sold.

Only I wasn't eating it right. I was just throwing it in a salad and eating it immediately. Little did I know that there really is a better way to eat Kale. It needs a bit of... coaxing.

Enter this new method. By letting the Kale marinate in olive oil and lemon juice overnight (or at least for a solid few hours), the Kale begins to break down just slightly, enough to get rid of the bitter flavor Kale tends to have when eaten on its own.

Combined with Italian toppings and Sea Salt, this is officially my favorite salad ever. I love it so much that, when I couldn't find pre-cut Kale at the grocery store this week, I was legitimately upset. It's just that good.

Italian Overnight Kale Salad with Sea Salt

Servings: 2 (Feel free to cut in half for only one serving, but keep in mind that this salad keeps very well in the fridge, so making it ahead of time doesn't hurt!)

Ingredients:

• 4 cups Kale
• Zest of 1 Lemon
• Juice of 1 Lemon
• 2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Sea Salt
• Pepper
• 1/3 Red Pepper, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 Cup Shaved Parmesan
• 2 tbsp Purple Onion, coarsely chopped

Directions:

1. Combine lemon zest, lemon juice, and a sprinkling of sea salt and pepper in a bowl. Whisk.
2. Rinse Kale and cut into ribbons (or any bite size pieces) and pour mixture over the Kale. Toss.
3. In a small tupperware, combine shaved parmesan cheese, chopped red pepper, and chopped purple onion.
4. Cover both bowls and store overnight. 
5. To serve, put marinated Kale on a plate or in a bowl and drizzle extra virgin olive oil over the salad. Then, spoon cheese/pepper/purple onion on top. Top with Sea Salt and Black Pepper, if desired.

P.S. Looking for more Kale in your life? Check out Sea Salt Kale Chips, Sriracha Polenta with Kale Chips, and The Ultimate Salad of Health

Sea Salt Avocado Rye Toast

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I'm a sucker for the simple. That's not to say that I don't like the finer things in life, the luxurious, the extravagant, the glorious. In fact, I believe that most of those things are simple. 

Take a classic string of pearls, for example. So simple. So elegant.

 

Even my favorite recipes are simple. The simpler the recipe, the less ways it can go wrong. Spending hours in the kitchen, measuring and scooping endlessly, feels more like work than fun to me. Which is why you might notice that most of my recipes are as simple as I can make them. I try to keep everything at 6 ingredients or less, if possible - because it's cheaper, simpler, and a more enjoyable experience.

This might be the simplest recipe of all. Yet, it is bursting at the seams with creamy goodness, with rich flavor, with crunchy deliciousness. Oh, and it's heartily good for you. Can't forget that one.

Sea Salt Avocado Rye Toast

Recipe by Carly of Createliveblog.com
Prep Time: <5 Minutes
Ingredients:

• 2 small/medium pieces Rye Toast*
• 1/2 Avocado
• Sea Salt
• Pepper

Directions:

1. Toast Rye Bread
2. Cut avocado in half. Wrap remaining half in plastic wrap and refrigerate for later. Spoon out the half you intend to use, trying to keep the entire half of the avocado "whole." On a cutting board, use a sharp knife to slice thin, long pieces of avocado. Lay in a single layer on toast.
3. Sprinkle with sea salt and pepper.

Notes:

• *If you don't have rye toast, feel free to substitute. Bread with richer flavor will go best, though you can use any bread on hand.

Sea Salt Kale Chips

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Sometimes, a girl just craves chips. It’s like it’s hardwired into human DNA (except it’s totally not – but these Kale chips just might be!). But the issue, it seems, is that… well… CHIPS ARE HORRIBLY BAD FOR YOU! Even the baked lays you can find in grocery stores are filled with processed ingredients and substitutions that are shady. In the end, all we really want is a little crinkle. That snap, crackle, pop that you get when you bite into a chip (or shove a handful in your mouth, amiright?!).

So when I heard that people were making chips out of Kale, I was intrigued.

I have to be honest here – I haven’t read any of the recipes on Pinterest, etc. I wanted to start from scratch instead of being "inspired" to "copy" someone else's recipe. So I’m not sure if other recipes add more salt, more seasoning, more olive oil, etc. But you know what? I don’t freaking care! These are delicious and low calorie and low sodium (for Chips, at least). And, best of all, for the many friends I have who beg me for low-ingredient recipes, there are only three ingredients... and the only prep required is ripping and tossing! Purrfect.

Sea Salt Kale Chips

Prep Time: 2 Minutes

Bake Time: 8-10 Minutes

Servings: Makes enough for 3-4 people to snack on!

WW Points (Old): 1

WW Points Plus (New): 1

Calories Per Serving: 25 (Based on this recipe making 3 servings. If you eat the whole thing, it's 75)

Nutrition: High in calcium,Very high in manganese, High in potassium, Very high in vitamin A, High in vitamin B6, Very high in vitamin C, Very high in sodium

Ingredients:

• 5 large leaves Kale
• 1 tsp Olive Oil
• 2 pinches Sea Salt or Garlic Salt (or 1 pinch of each!)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425.
2. Wash Kale and rip into chip-size pieces.
3. Toss with olive oil and salt.
4. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until Kale pieces are crispy.