Spoon fork glow?!

I have never done any sort of recipe feature on the blog, but I have found two recipes that I adore so much I feel compelled to share.  Before I dive into them I would like to make a few things clear.  

1. I am not a great cook.
2. I am beyond a picky eater.
3. My husband refers to my kitchen stints as "tornadoes" - leaving a destructive path in my wake.
4. I am not good at meals - I am an appetizer, side dish, snack or dessert gal.  
5. I am not a true recipe follower - I invent, I cook/bake on a whim resulting in many, many substitutions. This can be problematic if the result is good, as I have a hard time recalling what it was that I added (case in point - Peanut Butter & Honey Chocolate Chip Cookie incident of 2009). 

Now that we have these important details out of the way, let's get started.  Recipe #1 comes from Angela of Oh She Glows and Green Monster Smoothie fame.  She is a vegan blogger who shares her moments of culinary brilliance with the online world.  I am in no way a vegan, but I can appreciate her healthy approach to eating and have turned to her for healthy snack ideas.  I have been known to make a Green Monster myself on occasion!  My current fave of hers are her No Bake Peppermint Patty Bars.  True to form, each time I make these I never have the exact ingredients on-hand, so I have been improvising.  The latest adaptation to this recipe is listed below, I will not go into detailed instructions as Angela does a fabulous job of outlining it for you:

Base

• 2 cups rolled oats, put through the food processor until it becomes a flour
• 1 cup mixed nuts (no oil, no salt)
• 5 tbsp cocoa 
• 2 tbsp coconut sugar (this is lower on the glycemic index, however, I recommend pulsing it through a coffee grinder so it blends better)
• 2 tbsp any milk you have on-hand
• 5 tbsp pure maple syrup
• Dump in some dark chocolate chips, however many you feel is appropriate

Chocolate Topping

• 2 Lindt Dark chocolate bars (I use 70%)
• 1 hunk of coconut oil
• 1-2 top-fulls of pure almond extract
• Dollop of cashew or peanut butter
• Flaked, unsweetened coconut

For Recipe #2 we will turn to the duo at spoon fork bacon. This blog features luscious recipes and beautiful photography.  Many of their recipes are an indulgence, for example, today's Chocolate Chip Bacon & Orange Kissed Pancakes - what is not to love about this combination?!  I have, however, convinced myself that their Cheesy Quinoa Cakes are a healthy choice - if you forget about the oil. 

 And, of course, given my statement above, I made some slight adjustments to these babies.  See below for the details and check out their website for the instructions.  

• 2 cups cooked quinoa 
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella
• 3 tablespoons all purpose flour (sometimes 4 depending on how much quinoa I have)
• A bunch of parsley, chopped finely
• 2 chopped green onions
• ½ celery stalk, chopped finely
• A large amount of garlic (I use a large soup-spoon from our weekly jar of food processor garlic)
• 1 egg
• Sprinkle of sea salt

I hope you enjoy!  I would love to hear about your favourite food bloggers and the recipes.  Feel free to share in the comments section below.