Marbled Coconut Brownies

What's better than a delicious mix of brownie, blondie, coconut and chocolate? Yeah, not a lot. I was wanting to make something a little different and this was the winner! I found this recipe over on a blog called Girl Meets Life and I must say that it was AMAZING (check out her blog too, it's cute!)

Along with these ingredients are 1/3 cup white chocolate, 1-2 tablespoons milk and 1/3 cup coconut which are for the topping!

Let's start baking!

Start off by making mixing together your brownie mix from the box. I know that a boxed brownie may not be everyones first choice, so use your own recipe if you'd like! After you mix that together, add in your coconut (coconut makes everything better!) and stir. Once that loveliness is combined, set it aside. 

Combine the melted butter and brown sugar in the other bowl and after those two have become joined at the hip, add in 1 egg, vanilla and flour.

   

In a greased, 9 x 13 pan, pour the brownie batter in and spread evenly. Once you have coated the bottom of the pan, pour on the blondie mixture (a.k.a the other bowl). Spread the blondie mixture over the brownie mixture, then take a butter knife (or finger if that's you're thing... a little taste test never hurt anyone) and swirl the two together.

Put that baby in the oven for 30 minutes! See ya soon!

After it's done and you've taken it out of the oven without dropping it like I did, you can either leave it plain or add some topping. I highly recomment adding the topping. Take your mixture (white chocolate, milk and coconut) and melt the white chocolate in the microwave. Add a little bit of the milk, then mix about. Drizzle on top of the brownie. Then sprinkle on that coconut.

Once this has cooled, cut up and enjoy! This dessert is beyond delicious, so go ahead and try it. You know you wannnna.

Marbled Coconut Brownies- recipe from Girl Meets Life

Ingredients

1 box brownie mix (+ additional ingredients for mixture)

1 egg

1 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup melted butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Icing (optional)

1/3 cup white choloate

1-2 tablespoons milk

1/3 cup coconut

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, comine brownie mix. Add the shredded coconut and stir.

In another bowl, mix together the brown sugar and melted butter. Add in 1 egg, vanilla and flour. Combine.

Grease a 9 x 13 pan and pour in the brownie mix and spread evenly. Pour the blondie mix on top and use a butter knife to swirl the two together. Bake in oven for 30 minutes.

Eat.

___________

Enjoy! xoxo Bethany



drive-by

I was pulling out of the mall parking lot today and I saw the most random sight ever. A massive, 15-ish person bike (there was around 5 rows of 3 seats in a line) just peddling down the road like it was no big deal. The bike was filled with people wearing brightly coloured ponchos and every so often I would see one of them lift up their hand and wave their hand clapper in the air (the coloured ones you get from the dollar store that make noise when you wave them obscenely back and forth). Please just imagine this for a minute. It was definitely not something you see everyday (or I've ever seen). Once I got closer I read a sign on the back which was for the heart and stroke foundation (or was it for MS? I feel bad for not getting this right), which said they were doing a biking fundraiser(which is awesome!). However, I did feel SO bad for them as they started their bike in the middle on a torrential downpour since I was cold enough inside my car, I couldn't imagine what it was like to be biking in it.

 :)

xoxo Bethany

organizing-how fun

I actually like being able to organize things. The big question is how long it actually stays organized for. Isn't that with everyone? (Please agree with me)

Anyways, a while ago I took a shopping trip to IKEA. My friend and I went and the whole time we were dreaming of our future homes and how we would decorate them. What a FUN way to spend a day.

While I was there I picked up some fold-it-yourself cardboard boxes. Once I saw them I instantly knew what I would be using them for-my overstuffed, unorganized, hard to find anything craft/scrapbook boxes that I currently have. While my two ALDO boot boxes have been good to me, it was time to let them go. I wanted to have one nice box where all my stuff could be held!

I went and bought some cheap plastic containers to help organize my things better, but wasn't really sure how I was going to put everything together. While I started cleaning out my boxes I found some ribbon and thought up a little DIY project. Look what I came up with!

I think they look much cuter and less like a food storage container. About those old boxes of mine...want to see what they looked like?

 Pretty unorganized hey?
Instead of just having a big rectangle box filled with my things, I wanted to create some divisions to separate everything. I came up with this:

I used my old boxes by cutting and hot-gluing them together and fitting them ever so nicely inside the box. ( I know it's a little hard to distinguish the regular box from my additions)

After sorting through my stuff and organizing it all, I put my new box together!

 

 Isn't it just amazing? I love the separations. One side for paper, one for cards and the rest for the containers (which hold stick-ons, ribbon, markers, pens etc).

xoxo Bethany.

Sticky Keys and Banana Bread

Banana bread is one of my weaknesses. I love it.  There are many yummy recipes out there and I recently took the time to find my own. Luckily, it worked and it will now be my permanent recipe!

A lot of the recipes I use are online, and I never really bother in printing them off to use (just because I never think of that until later) Therefore, ingredients such as flour and sugar find their way into my keyboard as I go back and look at the recipe. This is a side note, but at my work we have tills which have these plastic coverings that protect the keys from getting dirty (genius). Obviously, this is an amazing invention and I think it should be made for keyboards, particularly for this instance( I'm guessing that there is something like this out there, but for now, I will use my current invention). I put saran wrap over my keyboard-so simple and effective!

So, for the banana bread...First thing to do is gather the ingredients! I forgot to show it in this picture, but I also put in some cinnamon for extra flavor.

 Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
Put the bananas, sugar and flour together in a bowl and mash, mash, mash!

Next, add eggs and mix again! Doesn't it look appetizing?...

After all these lovely ingredients are melded together, some dry stuff needs to be added! There is a lot of sugar in this recipe (sugar = yummy), but next time I'm going to try to add a little less or use some apple sauce instead. Next, mix it all together and it should look a little something like this after. Maybe a little less like scrambled eggs..

Lastly,  add some sour cream, vanilla and cinnamon (if you so desire) to the bowl and mix it all together. yummmmy. After this is done, pour the mixture into two greased pans (I used Pam to grease mine).

At this point you can either put them straight in the oven, or add some goodies to the top! I like to put chopped up walnuts and some chocolate chips for a little something-something. Unfortunately, my cupboard was out of walnuts, so chocolate chips gone solo it was!

Bake at 325 for 55 minutes, or until the middle comes clean! It'll look a little something like this:

 YUM! Let it cool a bit (if you can wait that long), slice up, serve and enjoy!
 
 Banana Bread-recipe adapted from Tasty Kitchen


 2 whole bananas
1-3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter (melted)
3 whole eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
Dash of salt
3 tablespoons sour cream, heaping
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Walnuts, chocolate chips (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Grease 2 loaf pans. (I just used Pam)
3. Mash bananas, sugar & melted butter together.
4. Add eggs and mix
5. Add dry ingredients and mix.
6. Add sour cream, vanilla and cinnamon
7. Evenly pour the mixture between the two loaf pans
8. Sprinkle walnuts/chocolate chips on top (if desired)
9. Bake at 325 for 55 minutes.

Enjoy!
xoxo