Peanut Butter Brownies

Two weekends in a row of baking and I have to say I feel really charged! I also watched Moana, caught up to Riverdale and fit in an early morning walk with my dad. All in all, I'd say I had a pretty amazing weekend. Work is pretty full on, but relatively OK compared to some busier periods we've had in the past two years.

Anyway, funny thing is... I started baking again when I definitely need to cut back and get fit again. I kind of let myself go in the past two years, and am paying for it with my slipped disc. So maybe I should feature some healthy, clean eating type recipes on here, huh? We'll see... it's good enough I'm getting round to doing this. I always told myself it's all about self discipline - the health, managing my work, etc - but it's really a lot easier to say than do.

Anyway, here's a really quick recipe that will give you a BIG payoff even if you only allow yourself half a bite.

Peanut Butter Brownies

• 250g dark chocolate
• 250g butter
• 2 cups light brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1. Preheat the oven to 175C, and line an 8x8 inch baking tin
2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler, then remove from the heat and beat in the sugar. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition.
3. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder and fold until just combined. Pour the batter in the tin, then drop the peanut butter evenly across the surface. Swirl the peanut butter around with a butter knife, then bake for 60 minutes

Marriage and Meal Plans

R and I have been married for just about 5 months now, and I've got a massive blog post waiting to be finished on the actual wedding festivities (all about Malaysian-Muslim wedding customs and stuff), but I'm just trying to find time to sit down on a weekend afternoon and write, edit and the such.

So while I'm still very new to the marriage game, and have much to learn on living with another person whose emotions are not only affected but also affect mine, I do have a few early learning points. I'm not gonna share them here cos I don't feel I've earned the right to speak with any authority on the matter, though to be fair, I'm sure everyone has a different experience. The main thing I've learned really is that being with someone all the time doesn't mean not having time for yourself. I think R and I have been quite good at balancing ourselves so far, like we can be in the same room, on the same sofa, but still be doing our own things... just together. I like that.

Anyway, the purpose of this post was not to just muse about marriage, but rather to apologise to any readers and friends who keep asking me to post new recipes. I'm sure most of you have realised by now that I've shifted to doing a lot more savoury recipes since I moved into my own place last year; I also have less time to bake sweets and more need to cook actual meals for myself - and now, R. So it's a damned good thing I love cooking as much as I do.

So I'm just here to let you guys know that starting this week, I'm going to do weekly meal plans for 3 reasons:

1. To plan my food intake (I seriously need to lose weight, dudes, I've put on 10kg since I started this job)
2. To manage my own time better (quick meals for heavy work days, and full 3 course meals for easy peasy days)
3. To minimise waste (better grocery planning means I buy less crap at the supermarkets and I waste less precious food every week cos I didn't use them)

I'll try to take good pics as we trot along, and will post meal plans, recipes and grocery lists when I can. I'm also really looking forward to doing this as I'm in need of a new personal project. 

x Nabs