Three Ingredient Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

As usual, I was wasting time on Pinterest when I stumbled upon this three ingredient chocolate chip recipe. I immediately dropped everything I was doing to make them. As much as I like cooking, I get so excited whenever I hear the words "quick", "easy" and "healthy". 

They are  WAY better than I expected and I will be making them whenever I have a sweet craving. My plan was to east just one and freeze the rest for later... and instead I ate half the batch. Thank god for Zumba today. 

yummm.. look at these delectable, warm, misshapen cookies. I promise they taste way better than they look.

PS.... my kitchen smells amazing right now... 

Prep Time ~8 minutes
Cook Time ~15-20 minutes
Makes 8 cookies

Ingredients

• 2 really ripe bananas
• 1 cup quick oats
• ~1/4 cup chocolate chips
• splash of vanilla
• dash of pumpkin spice
• sprinkle of salt 
• Optional: walnuts, pecans, dried cranberries, raisins

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. Mash up the bananas, I used a potato masher and left very few chunks.
3. Thoroughly mix in the rest of the ingredients. 
4. Very important to prep your cookie sheet with a baking mat, wax paper or oil.
5. Drop the cookie dough in 8 approximately even circles on your cookie sheet.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the top and edges are golden brown.

Enjoy! 

Note: I did not use a baking sheet, oil, or wax paper and I had a fun time scrubbing the mess of my pan afterwards - so don't skip this! 

Anchors Away

I love everything preppy and can't think of anything preppier than anchors and riding boots. So begins my love affair with this outfit that I probably have on repeat way too often in numerous combinations. I love the silkiness of this Cynthia Rowley top that I scored a major deal on at TJMaxx! I usually pair with gold accessories, whether its a gold chain link bracelet and necklace or gold earrings.

I love these similar items- since mine were purchased a while ago! 

Anchor tops: similar, similar

Navy Blue tops: similar, similar, similar, 

Gold bracelets: similar, similar, similar, similar

Green pants: similar, similar

Brown boots (these are the exact ones I'm wearing and I love that they come in wide width, so comfortable for my huge feet): exact

Sicilian Baked Eggs

Recreating my Favorite Brunch Food

The Smith was one of my absolute favorite brunch spots in New York City. With its lively atmosphere, bright skylights (the Midtown location) and free drinks with Sunday brunch, I couldn't help taking every new visitor I had to the city there. 

After many visits, I've managed to try almost everything on the brunch menu  and my favorites are the decadent Vanilla Bean French Toast, rich Glazed Donuts with warm chocolate dip, and my absolute favorite - the savory Sicilian Baked Eggs. I love the beautiful combination of the spicy tomato sauce with the slightly runny poached eggs and burrata cheese. With the spinach and artichokes, I feel so much "healthier" eating this than any other item on the brunch menu. 

I decided to try my hand at making a simple version at home. I wanted to make something quick and easy. The great thing about this recipe is you can approximate and make a lot of adjustments to your liking! For the vegetables I've used fresh/frozen spinach, asparagus, mushrooms, onions, peppers or basically anything I have on hand. In today's version I've used frozen spinach and minced garlic. I use cottage cheese instead of burrata because its low fat and high protein! I've made this recipe so many times now for brunch and everyone in my family has loved it! 

Prep Time ~10 minutes
Cook Time ~20 minutes
Makes 1 serving

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
• ~1 cup jarred tomato pasta sauce (I used Tomato Basil sauce)
• ~3/4 teaspoon minced garlic
• 3 teaspoons cottage cheese
• 1/4 cup frozen spinach
• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
• 2 eggs
• sprinkle of salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat with 1 teaspoon of olive oil. Add the minced garlic and sautee for ~1 minute until it becomes fragrant and starts to become transparent.
2. In a separate bowl mix the pasta sauce and chili powder. 
3. Quickly defrost the spinach for ~30 seconds and add to the skillet. This is when you can add any other vegetables you like. Stir-fry everything until the vegetables look cooked through. 
4. Spread the vegetables in the pan and pour the tomato sauce evenly over to cover the surface area of pan. 
5. Immediately make two small ditches in the sauce with the back of a spoon and crack your eggs into them. Drop teaspoons of the cottage cheese around the eggs in the sauce. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. 
6. Reduce the heat to simmer and cover with a lid. It will take about 10 minutes for the eggs to poach.

Enjoy! 

This Summer's Travel Adventures - Intro

Drumroll please... My first blog post! 

This summer I had the good fortune to go on a two-week trip to South America with my brother and a good friend. It was an incredible trip and my first time in South America. We managed to cram a lot into our trip which meant an inordinate amount of time spent on planes. We flew from NYC to Buenos Aires, then we went to Iguazu Falls, Argentina; Lima, Peru; Cusco, Peru; Machu Picchu; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Since it's the Southern hemisphere, when it's summer here it's winter there and we were not nearly as prepared as we should have been. We were under the impression that their winter would be like winter in Miami and this is simply not the case!  Though it was comical to see local people in marshmallow puffer jackets in 60 degree weather, definitely pack more than just a fleece and a sweater as I had done!

Individual posts about each city to come! 

And just to tickle your palates for the coming posts... 

The view of Buenos Aires at night from our hotel room

Iguazu Falls 

Machu Picchu

About me!

Hi! I'm Asha. I'm glad you could join me as I share some of my journey and things I love! 

I got the idea for the name for this blog years ago when my brother sent me this music video for a song called A Brimful of Asha by a British band called Cornershop (below)
It had my name in it and I think it sums up perfectly what I want to do with this blog. 

Years ago, I discovered Pinterest and besides being the biggest distraction in my life, it inspired a lot of my current interests such as Style and Cooking. I also wanted a way to document and remember a lot of the fun things that I am up to so I included sections on Travel and my Daily Life, which will have restaurant and book reviews, crafts, fitness and whatever else pops into my head!

I hope you'll stick around!