Brown Butter Nutella Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

So far, so good - I am posting again after only a week! No applause necessary friends. It feels good to be back into the blog world. I was telling a friend today how time consuming blogging can be. Although it is tough to make time to post, it is worth it! Time for hobbies is hard living life as a teacher. There are so many things I want to do, but I have no idea when to do it! I'm sure many of you are thinking "Yeah right, teachers get weekends off and tons of breaks!" True to some degree, but at least a few hours of every weekend is spent lesson planning or preparing something for my classroom. Usually, any extra time I have on the weekends is spent trying to have fun outside of the house or relaxing as much as possible to rejuvenate for the upcoming work week. My weekends seem to fly by faster and faster. Where does the time go?

I have found myself missing having a true hobby. Seems lately all I can manage to do is work and wedding plan. When I first started this blog, I was cooking and baking so often that Ryan and I were putting on weight as a result. However, my new plan is to make things and bring leftovers to work. That way, my hobby can live on without my jeans losing the ability to buckle! Speaking of jeans buckling, we went to the Florida State Fair yesterday and ate our weight in food. Here is what we enjoyed in no particular order:

• Honey Bunches of Oats fried chicken on a stick
• Bacon wrapped tator tots
• Steak tips with mushrooms, peppers, and onions
• Buttermilk corn dog
• Fried PB n' J on a stick
• Fried Oreos
• Chocolate dipped bacon
• Krispy Kreme doughnut burger
• Mac n' cheese burger
• Peach sweet tea

P.S - The sweet tea at the fair is my all time favorite. I wait a year for this stuff! You can see in the below picture that I'm not playing. We do it by the jug, and refilled many times throughout the day.

Thank the lord 3 of us split everything while at the fair and we did not eat all of this on our own. I managed to not gain weight yesterday. However, I'd be willing to bet that my cholesterol is at max-capacity. You would think I'd be in the gym right now after that bad of a binge, right? Wrong. Here I sit, melting into my couch with a glass of sweet tea. I have managed to lose 5lbs simply from dieting and eating small portions in the past 2 weeks, but I am pretty far off from my wedding dress goal. In a perfect world, I want to lose about 20lbs total. It would help if I could motivate myself to work out regularly...or once a week even. The problem is that I drive too far for work to wake up and workout in the morning (I'd be getting up at 4am, no thanks.) By the time I get home from work, I'm so exhausted that I just want to relax. First world problems, I know. I really need to get it together, we are paying too much for wedding pictures for me to feel gross in them! Ryan and I have made a promise to workout together 5 days a week starting tomorrow, so hopefully that helps. Our engagement session is 3 weeks away - we are getting close! 

Valentine's day was a success even with my classroom reaching an all time sugar high. I came home to a doorway full of Valentine's day decor, a sweet card, and my favorite flowers followed with a sushi dinner. We decided to keep it low-key this year because we are saving for the wedding. As of the 18th, our wedding is 8 months away. It will be here before we know it. Our 2 year anniversary is on the 19th, I can't believe how fast the time has flown by in our relationship!

The past weekend was a stressful one. During my lunch break at work on Friday while scanning through Facebook, I found out my step dad was in ICU and undergoing emergency surgery. I was truly panicked, so I left and headed to the hospital to find out what was going on. He suffered 2 blood clots in his leg and a few small embolisms in his lungs. Thank God he caught it early enough and went to the hospital. It was a very scary time, and it was hard to see him hooked up to machines. I am just so blessed and thankful that prayers were answered and everything turned out to be okay. The surgery successfully removed the clots and the doctors believe he will be just fine.

Although things have been somewhat crazed lately, I still managed to make some sinfully delicious chocolate chip cookies. As if the chocolate chip part wasn't enough, they are stuffed with Nutella. Yes, for real.

Brown Butter Nutella Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt

Recipe adapted from Thebitesizedbaker

2¼ cup all-purpose flour

1¼ teaspoons baking soda

¼ teaspoon of salt

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter

1¼ cup packed dark brown sugar

¼ cup granulated sugar

1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon plain greek yogurt

½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

½  cup milk chocolate chips

1 jar of Nutella, chilled in refrigerator

Course sea salt for sprinkling

In a large bowl mix flour, baking soda, and salt until combined. In a saucepan over medium heat, brown butter and set aside to cool. (How to brown butter)

In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Mix in egg, yolk, vanilla, and yogurt until incorporated. Gradually add the dry ingredients until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

Place cookie dough in the refrigerator for 2 hours to let the flavors meld together.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Roll 1½ tablespoons of dough and flatten the dough to make a flat circle. Place 1 teaspoon of chilled Nutella in the middle then place another flat circle of cookie dough on top. Crimp edges to seal.

Place dough balls on cookie sheet, 2 inches apart and bake 9-11 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Sprinkle with sea salt and let cool on wire racks.