Vegas Day One – Part Two
Medically reviewed by Christiana George Updated Date: December 14, 2022
Following our after dinner walk, my husband and I became hungry. We decided to try another restaurant at Aria. We chose Barmasa for some sushi. The entrance looked intimate and welcoming, but when we walked it was quite the opposite. The restaurant floor was huge and industrial looking. Not quite what we were looking for, but we were already being seated. Looking at the menu made our wallets cringe in pain. But we held our heads up high and ordered anyway. The husband ordered a beef sushi ( I don’t recall which one) as well as Creamy miso tofu with Avocado rolls.
I ordered three pieces if sushi. I remember one was salmon, the other two I don’t remember. I would have feasted on m
+ore, but the prices were ridiculous. I must say, though the sushi was absolutely divine. It was extremely fresh. I read that they fly the fish in from Japan on a daily basis. My husband wasn’t so keen on the beef. A little too rare for him, so I ate it. He did enjoy the tofu and avocado rolls. Overall, the food was great, but the prices were not so great.
Of course, the Sweet Chick that I am, I needed to have an after dinner sweet. Well wouldn’t you know, they have a Jean-Philippe Patisserie right inside our hotel. Fancy that. I love Jean-Philippe. We used to get some treats at the one in the Bellagio Resort/Casino. And they have a really cool chocolate fountain there. It is under glass, so I can’t jump in and go swimming, but pretty to look at and drool. Anyway, the husband was in the mood for gelato. I chose one scoop chocolate and one scoop oreo cookie. Mmmmmm. It was so creamy good.
The shop area of the patisserie was all decorated for fall. There were all sorts of Halloween goodies and the colors of the decorations were so bright and colorful. As I read the little sign, I found that most of the decorations were made of chocolate. I thought this was incredible. The details were phenomenal. This was a great end to our first evening in the City of Sin.
After a little bit of gambling, it was time to head
off to bed and catch up with some sleep. My body is not used to staying up so late and with the time difference, I was really exhausted. A big difference from our first few trips to Vegas when we stayed up all night and slept all day. That was pre-kids and when my body was a lot younger. Ta Ta for now.
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Pumpkin Soynut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
I can’t believe it is November already. There are only seven more weeks until Christmas. I suppose I should get a move on my Christmas shopping. Every year I say I am going to start early and every year I am running around last minute. There is so much to do. Oh well, I guess I will just eat another cookie to deal with the stress. These bite size cookies don’t taste fattening and they have some healthy attributes like pumpkin and soynut butter, so maybe I will have two.
I wanted to make pumpkin and peanut butter cookies, but I didn’t want to have to pull out the Epi Pen for my two year old son. And since he loves cookies and I am a nice mom (most of the time), I used soynut butter instead. Every time he sees me baking he circles me saying “mmm, nom, nom” until I give him a treat. Sometimes I barely get my goods out of the oven and he is there with his goofy grin. Apparently he inherited my sweet tooth.
The first time I made these I didn’t add the pumpkin pie spice. The cookies were still tasty, but lacking some extra punch. So when I made the second batch, I added 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice and that added just the right amount of flavor boost to make these special.
I really did enjoy the soynut butter flavor in these. You can definitely change it to peanut butter if you want, but for those with peanut allergies like my son, the soynut butter works great.
I also like that these cookies don’t flatten out. They stay fluffy and light. I adapted this recipe from my Maple Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cookies recipe.
Pumpkin Soynut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
by The Sweet Chick
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Keywords: bake dessert snack nut-free pumpkin chocolate chips soynut butter cookie
Ingredients (40 cookies)
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin spice
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup soynut butter
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350º F.
In a stand mixer add butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla. Beat on low until well mixed and texture is smooth.
In a separate bowl combine flour, spice, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Stir until all is well blended.
Then slowly add dry mixture to the wet mixture and beat on low until it becomes a dough like consistency.
Then add the pumpkin puree, and soynut butter and give it a good mixing.
Finally, add the chocolate chips and mix until they are evenly distributed throughout the dough.
Using a spoon or cookie scoop, drop by tablespoon or so onto a greased cookie sheet leaving 2 inches between each dough ball.
Bake for 15 minutes or until the tops are slightly golden. Remove from the oven and wait 5 minutes, then remove from cookie sheet and place on cooling rack until completely cooled.
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