Love for Food

I hope everyone on the East Coast fared well with Irene. I never saw so much fuss about a hurricane or rather ... tropical storm before. NYC was in a panic! I had to go to three chaotic stores to find some water. I was out of luck with batteries. The stores, subways, restaurants were all closed. The city that never sleeps was a ghost town. I was a bit upset that this was going to hit on a weekend. One of my Facebook friends posted, "Leave it to mother nature to give you what you need". What I needed was a weekend of rest and she was right. I was able to escape all my obligations and do all of my most cherished things.

I was happy to have time to bake. I always bake on snow days and figured baking on a hurricane day would be ideal. I choose to make Peanut Butter Cup Blondies, a recipe I found in Cooking Light. I've made quite a few different types of brownies. I figured blondies would be a bit different while sticking with the familiar. They are pretty low in calorie-if you manage to eat one serving. I had a hard time cutting my batch up to 20 and ended up with 16 squares. C'est la vie.

I had a wonderful hurricane weekend which included watching TV in bed with the fur balls, baking, wine, cheese, and the cozy pitter-patter of rain on the awning. The only damage we received was a huge puddle of water in the living room. No wonder why I am always cold in the winter. My windows aren't completely sealed up after all. Sigh! Unfortunately, the dam MTA was back up in time for work Monday. Since when are they so effective?! But I was glad to have a blondie as an afternoon snack with tea. Yum!

On another note, you may have noticed that I don't post as much as I usually do. I am down to posting once a week. Bear with me for one more month of school, internship, and work craziness. Working 60 hours a week and spending 15 hours a week commuting has left me drained. September also brings the start of another semester of classes, and more intense training for the 10K I am doing in October. I would rather reduce my postings than post less than par recipes. I promise to post more in October in time for the return of some of my favorite foods: Apples, Butternut Squash, and Pumpkins. Where did the summer go?

Ingredients: Serves Sixteen
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 butter melted and cooled
2 tablespoons fat free milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
cooking spray
2 large eggs, beaten
4 peanut butter cups, coarsley chopped

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
• In another bowl mix peanut butter, butter, milk, vanilla extract, and eggs.
• Add wet to dry ingredients.
• Stir in chocolate chips and scrape into 9 inch greased pan.
• Sprinkle peanut butter cups on top of mixture and bake for 35 minutes.

Weight Watcher Points +: 4 per serving