These cookies are super easy-- something to throw together if you have friends or family about to show up and you want your kitchen to smell wonderful, but maybe want to do a little more than just the break-and-bake cookies. Plus, who can pass up on coconut?

Oh, and the surprise inside? If you have some Hershey Kisses handy, they give the cookies a little extra chocolate-boost. (Which is always amazing, am I right?)

They also have the Michael & Clark seal of approval, just so ya know.


Ingredients:

- 1/4 C butter, softened
- 3 TBSP Coconut Oil, melted
- 1/2 C brown sugar
- 1/2 C sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 C all purpose, unbleached flour
- 1/2 C chocolate chips
- 1/4 - 1/2 C unsweetened coconut flakes
- 12 - 18 Hershey Kisses (optional)


Directions:

- Preheat your oven to 350 and prepare your baking sheet by spraying or lining with parchment paper.
- Using a handheld or standing mixer, blend your butter and oil together. Then mix in your sugars until fluffy.
- Add your egg and vanilla to the mixture.
- *Optional: Mix your dry ingredients (flour, salter, baking powder & soda) in a medium-sized bowl.* Add your dry ingredients in batches to mix your batter more thoroughly.
- Fold in your chocolate chips and coconut flakes.

- Using a cookie scoop, scoop your dough and place on the cookie sheet.

If you are adding Hershey Kisses put about 1/2 the amount of dough in your cookie scoop, then push a Hershey Kiss into the middle and cover the bottom with more dough. If you have a medium-sized scoop, it works perfectly. *Note: If you do not have a cookie scoop, you can simply shape the dough around the Hershey Kiss, about 2-3 tablespoons worth.*


- Bake for 8 - 11 minutes. Remove immediately to cooling rack.

In my opinion, you can never have enough chocolate-- or coconut. Enjoy!

Michael loves popsicles. It is one of the sweets that he would probably sit down and eat as many as he could before feeling sick. That, of course, is not an option.


The last time we were at Ikea we spent a grand $2 on popsicle molds. They were so worth it.

Enter the easiest popsicle idea ever.

Are you ready?

Chop up your favorite fruit or fruit that's in season. Put them in the popsicle molds. Pour coconut water over them. Stick them in the freezer.

TA-DAH!

Michael, who doesn't like Coconut Water plain, by the way, positively loves them. He got so excited to eat the kiwi, pineapple, and strawberries in the popsicles. He loved making them as much as he loved eating them.

Here in AZ it's already hitting the upper 80s. Last month we even hit 90, though it's gone done and up again since then. When it's so hot, I don't necessarily feel like baking. I feel more like having fruit and, well, ice cream.

But Michael loves to cook, and he misses it. Juicing and making smoothies doesn't always cut it, and the other day he specifically asked for muffins. I've had this big bag of coconut flakes for a while because I only needed a little bit for a previous recipe and haven't needed it since. Then I thought, what would be better than coconut muffins?


These are super easy to make, and even easier to alter to make them vegan! I was worried Michael wouldn't like them if he saw the coconut sprinkled on top, but I went for it anyway. And wouldn't you know it, he ate two of them (over the course of a day, any way).


Ingredients:

- 1/4 C coconut oil, melted
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 C milk
- 1/2 C sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 C unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/2 C whole wheat flour
- 1 C sweetened coconut, plus extra for sprinkling

Vegan option:

- Use 1/2 C of Coconut Milk
- Nix the egg and add an extra 1/4 C of coconut oil.

Directions:

- Preheat your oven to 350 and prepare your muffin tin with liners/cooking spray.
- Whisk together your coconut oil, egg, vanilla, and milk in a large bowl.
- Add your sugar, salt, baking powder, and flour to your wet mix. Stir until well combined.
- Fold in your coconut. If you want to, you can also add chocolate/ white chocolate chips!
- Scoop your mix into your muffin tin, filling each hole about 2/3rds full. If desired, sprinkle extra coconut on top of your muffins.
- Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, depending on your oven.
- Remove to cooling rack and let sit for a few minutes before enjoying. These are so easy and wonderful to make when you have company or just want a treat!


My favorite things about these muffins is the flavor was just perfect, and they're so moist! My oven has the tendency to overcook things, and even though a couple of them got a little browner than I'd like on the outside, it didn't keep them from being perfect in the middle.

Recipe adapted from Easy Indian Recipes.

HAPPY JULY!
I know. The title is a mouthful. But you won't mind once you make these! Are you sensing a trend? The last muffin recipe I posted was Banana Coconut. What can I say. Now that I have coconut and coconut oil in the house... the options are endless!

Ingredients:

- 3 tbsp coconut oil, melted
- 1/2 c applesauce
- 1/4 c honey
- 1 C milk [vegan options include coconut, almond, soy, etc!]
- 1 C whole wheat flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp baking soda
- 1 C oats
- 1 C diced/cut up strawberries
- 1/2 C coconut flakes


Directions:

- Preheat your oven to 375 and prepare your muffin pan with liners/cooking spray.
- Whisk together the first four ingredients (coconut oil, applesauce, honey, and milk). Fold in your flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Stir in your oats. Then add the strawberries and coconut. Do not over-mix.
- Use 1/4 C or so of batter for each muffin.
- Cook for 18 to 24 minutes. Check with a toothpick. When it comes out clean (no batter-- strawberry juice an exception), they're done!

Super easy and delicious. Michael was excited to have another muffin recipe to try.


Want more vegan muffin recipes? Check these out!

Banana Coconut Muffins

Mystery Muffins

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Veggie Muffins

I just had to bake something. I couldn't stay away that long. So it had to be relatively healthy.

I adapted this recipe from The Shrinking Kitchen. Which, if you've never visited their site, you need to. It's pretty much amazing.

Ingredients:

- 4 VERY ripe bananas, mashed
- 1/2 C wheat germ
- 1/2 C all-purpose unbleached flour
- 1 C whole wheat flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 C unsweetened applesauce
- 2 tbsp honey
- 3 tbsp coconut oil (melted)
- 1/2 C unsweetened coconut flakes

Directions:

- Preheat your oven to 350. Prepare your muffin pan with liners/spray.
- Mix together your bananas, applesauce, honey, and coconut oil.
- Stir in your dry ingredients If you want to pre-mix your wheat germ, flours, and baking soda you can. I always tend to skip that step.
- Fold in your coconut flakes.
Note: Adding chocolate chips could make these extra sweet and yummy!

- Bake in the oven for 12 to 16 minutes. Check with a toothpick to make sure they are cooked all the way through.

Enjoy! Michael certainly did.

Want more vegan recipes? Check these out!

Vegan Brownies

Vegan Veggie Muffins

Vegan PB Oatmeal "Chocolate Chip" Cookies

Vegan Banana "Chocolate Chip" Muffins

These are incredibly delicious and super easy. Clark has told me that this is his new (easy) way for me to prepare chicken. So, if you're a fan of spicy and a fan of coconut, these should be right up your ally!

Ingredients:

- 1 lb chicken tenderloins
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/2 C flour
- 1/2 - 1 C coconut flakes
- 1/2 - 1 C Panko bread crumbs
- 1 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp sea salt (or regular salt)
- 1 tsp curry powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
*If you don't want them with a "super" kick, then cut down on the curry and don't add the cayenne!*
- olive oil
Directions:

-Preheat your oven to 450. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray it with cooking oil.
- In one shallow bowl/dish, mix together the panko crumbs, coconut, and spices.
*Pictured is using 1 C of coconut and 1 C of bread crumbs, but I had A LOT left over, so I feel like 1/2 C may have been sufficient, in which case you may want to cut your spices down as well.*

- In another bowl, whisk your egg. In another, put your flour. Set up your "station".

- Dip a chicken tenderloin in the flour, then your egg, then roll it in your coconut mix. Place on your prepared baking sheet. Repeat with however many tenderloins you have/desire!

- Drizzle the top of the chicken tenders with olive oil if you want them a tad bit crispier.

- Bake for 12 to 20 minutes. I know, that's a rather big difference. My chicken tenders were small, so they were done I think around 13 minutes, but if yours are thicker/larger, they may need more time. They may even need 25 minutes! Just keep checking on them and you'll know when they're ready.

I was told these don't need any sort of sauce, but I think they'd go great with a sweet & sour sauce!

Inspiration for this recipe came from: Our Best Bites.

Remember how in Crazy for Coconut I mentioned we were in for a roller coaster with our cat?

Well, this was the first incident.

Our second Christmas together we spent at home. But just the day after, we hit the road for Fayetteville, and then Germany. A sorority sister of mine was going to be in town (at school) after Christmas, so she said she'd take care of Coconut for us.

Never having a kitten before, I didn't see a dilemma. My cats had never been high maintenance when it came to care when we were gone. I told her just to check in on him every day. Clean the littler box. Feed him. You know, the basics. She mentioned she would be gone for a day or two around New Year's, and I really didn't think Coconut would mind.

Never mind that he was only about 2.5 months old. Never mind that our apartment complex didn't allow pets. Never mind that I had been there since we got him following him around and loving on him. It would be fine.

Can you see where this is going?

While we were in Germany it was easy to go a few days without getting on the computer. Especially when we were traveling. Our second trip to Germany we went to Rhotenburg; one of the prettiest places I've been to date.



When we got back to my parents place and I logged in to my Facebook... it was disaster.

There were several messages from our sitter. She had locked the key to our apartment inside the apartment and had no idea what to do. On the first day she contacted us. And the second. Finally on the third she went back and had to get help. Coconut was taken to the shelter.

I freaked out and burst into tears.

Not only had we had our kitty for less than a month, but in that time frame he had been almost starved to death and taken away to a strange place.

Clark was calm. First we called the girl and she explained how difficult taking care of him had been. Never mind that she locked the key in the apartment, but before that every time she left he would cry. She was certain the entire complex could hear him (I have no doubt of that).

Poor dear.

Next Clark called the shelter. They said they'd keep him there for the duration of our trip for a $25 fee. That doesn't sound bad, but at the time we budgeted things to the very last penny. I had to log on our bank account online and figure out just how we were going to pay that $25, especially since Clark had just left Walgreens before we flew out of the country.

When returning home, I was anxious about our kitty. What I wasn't thrilled about was having to meet with our RA (or whatever he was called) about the incident. We were forced to sign a paper saying we had a "mature discussion" about why we shouldn't have pets in the apartment, and then we told him we were wanted to move out of the apartments. It was possible to simply withdraw at that time, which was nice. Living in campus apartments meant no technical lease. So... we then had thirty days to find a new place to live.

Great.

It was our fault. Had we waited (like responsible adults) to get a pet once we had an apartment that allowed pets, we wouldn't have been crunched into a deadline. However, we jumped the gun (as was and is a trend with us) and got Coconut. So, we had to pay the consequences.

We were faced with another situation that reinforced the fact that God truly was looking out for us.

In December of 2008 I was craving something. Perhaps it was the fact that my own cat (that had been stationed in Germany with my parents) had passed away. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that I always had animals around when I was younger. Perhaps it was simply because I wanted one.

By the way, it you didn't figure it out, I'm referring to a cat.

What I didn't think of, is that there is definitely a difference between a cat and a kitten.

One day after exams had ended and we truly had nothing to do (Clark was off work but we still had to wait out leaving for our vacation because he had to work Christmas day), we started driving around. We started looking at other apartments because we were rather bored with living on campus. We went out for Chinese food. We went to the pound. We adopted a kitten.

You know, the usual stuff.

The fact that our apartment didn't allow pets and that we were leaving for Germany in a matter of days didn't seem to phase us.

Rather, it didn't seem to phase me. And Clark wanted to please me. (I'm so blessed.)

When we went to the pound there was a shy little thing hiding in the back of the cage. Her name was Beth. I picked her out since she was the only one in the bunch that wasn't black and white.

Clark said no. If we were going to get a cat, the least the cat could do was be male. (Clark "doesn't like cats"... like all men "don't like cats". OK, some legitimately don't... but... ya know.)

So, there was one male kitten in the bunch. When I picked him up, he clawed his way up to my shoulder and snuggled under my chin.


He won.

When we found out his name was Coconut, Clark decided it was fine. I personally, actually, wanted to name him Figaro (after the cat in Pinocchio)... but now I can't imagine Coconut being Figaro at all.

We brought him back to the apartment and followed him around like two parents watching their baby first learn to crawl or walk. Seriously. When Coconut found something new to play with, we were so excited for him. When he curled up and went to sleep somewhere, we were "oooooh"-ing and "ahhhhh"-ing at how adorable he was. When he curled up and decided to sleep on Clark's shoulder... Clark declared, "he was ok."


The fact that I have an entire Facebook photo album dedicated to Coconut still astounds me. When that happened, Clark (even then) said, "What are you going to do when we have children?"

Heh. Heh. Heh.

I'd say it's "worse" with Michael than it was with Coconut.

Coconut kept me company, busy, and entertained while Clark was working and I was just sitting around the house. When I put up our Christmas decorations, Coconut successfully climbed up our (fake) Christmas tree and just about tipped it over. He got into the trash can, the sink, the bathtub... everything.



And I loved him all the more for it.

Little did we know that Coconut was going to cause us a lot more trouble in the year(s) to come.