I made these no-bake goodies to give out before the holidays, and I heartily endorse them. The most labor-intensive part is melting the chocolate and/or caramel. Other necessities: stirring, spreading onto parchment paper, cooling, refraining from eating 10 cups of popcorn or an entire sheet of Samoa Bark in one sitting.

1. Samoa Bark - inspired by my favorite Girl Scout cookie. The recipe uses Lorna Doones, but I opted for Chessmen, which were totally delicious. You could probably use any flat-ish shortbread cookie with similar results. I *might* have reserved a bag of this just to nibble on myself.

2. Cookies and Cream Popcorn – I have somehow convinced myself (but probably no one else) that this is healthier than just eating piles of Oreos, because you’re getting a lot of popcorn, and therefore fiber, in your diet. Right?

It’s Movember, which means dudes are growing moustaches to raise awareness about cancer, as well as funds for cancer research. Some ladies can grow a ‘stache, too, but I (fortunately) am unable. Instead I volunteered to help with the bake sale at work. To stick with the theme, I opted to do a mocha cupcake.

MOcha. Get it?

Here’s the amazing thing about the recipes I used for the cake and frosting: No eggs, no milk, no butter.

I KNOW. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?

But hear me out. This is a cake you can make with a well-stocked pantry, without a trip to the grocery store. You can trust the cake recipe because it’s from Martha, and she can do no wrong in the kitchen. The frosting is a paleo recipe, but don’t be scared by that! It uses coconut oil instead of butter, and you don’t need to add sugar when you start with chocolate chips, because they’re sweet already. The coconut oil adds a nice flavor, so maybe I need to rename these mo(cha) co(coa) co(conut) cupcakes. Mococo.

I made two tweaks to the recipes to give it a mocha flavor. The cake got half water and half coffee (instead of water alone). For the frosting, I used coffee instead of vanilla extract.

Using the recipes linked above, I got 12 cupcakes and enough extra that I made a teeny layer cake for the Hubbs. (I baked it in a greased, standard-size ramekin.) It was a little messy, but SUPER delicious.

The headline begged for investigation: Peanut Butter Takes On an Unlikely Best Friend.

Really? I thought. A best friend that tops good ol’ jelly, or maybe banana and honey?

Pickles.

So tonight when I got home, I made a big salad for dinner, and then I decided to finish the meal with a little experimentation. Peanut butter on toast, three ways.

Pictured left to right:

1. Bread-and-butter pickles
2. Homemade relish from my mother-in-law
3. Oven-roasted grapes

The winner in my book? My mother-in-law’s homemade relish. It has just the right balance of sweet-sour-tang to counteract the peanut butter. The store-bought bread-and-butter pickles didn’t have quite enough character, and the roasted grapes seemed boring compared after the other options. If I had some Wickles Pickles, I’d probably try those in place of the homemade relish.

Will I eat this again? I’m going to give it a shot at least once more. But I doubt it’ll take the place of my standby sandwich choices.

Has anybody else tried this? Or would you try it?

Ingredients: One batch of Emeril’s lemon lavender ice cream and one box of Trader Joe’s Meyer Lemon Cookie Thins. Yes, you’ll need an ice cream maker for this. YOU DON’T HAVE ONE YET?!

Instructions: Sandwich together one (very tiny) scoop of ice cream between two cookies. Eat and enjoy.

Take one Trader Joe’s pizza dough (pre-made, from the refrigerated section of the store). Follow directions to prepare dough, and stretch onto pizza stone, cookie sheet or other flat pan of your choice. Spread a thin layer of mascarpone over pizza crust. Top with grapes (cut in half), chopped raw spinach, mild blue cheese crumbles and walnuts to your desire. Cover with thinly sliced (or shredded) mozzarella.

Serve with green salad, and drizzle with good balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Pat yourself on the back for such a yummy creation.

Buttermilk ice cream base with peaches sauteed in whiskey, brown sugar and vanilla, and graham cracker crumbles

You know those recipes where people sneak extra veggies into unexpected places? Like black beans in brownies or spice cookies with sweet potatoes?

Well, this one from Joy the Baker has WHITE BEANS in a bundt cake! It’s pretty good. I didn’t want to fuss with the meringue frosting suggested in the original recipe, so instead I mixed shortening, butter, sugar, vanilla and milk and called it a day.

What’s the downside of putting beans in a cake? Your husband may justify eating large portions by arguing that it counts as “protein” and “fiber.”