Coconut-Cranberry-Walnut EVERYTHING

Um, yes, please.

I've been on a total Coconut-Cranberry-Walnut trip lately.

It all started with those Coconut Cupcakes.

That was the catalyst.

I needed shredded coconut for the cupcakes and then, once I got a taste of the coconutty goodness, I was a woman possessed.

I had to find every recipe ever that had coconut.

First, it started with a craving for oatmeal cookies - definitely a healthier alternative to cupcakes. (Which, by the way, were donated to our apartment complex's main office. Perhaps they will turn a blind eye if any dead bodies show up mysteriously in our apartment...)

But not just oatmeal cookies.

Oh, no.

I needed coconut oatmeal cookies.

But why make boring coconut oatmeal cookies when I found this recipe for coconut cranberry walnut oatmeal cookies.

I read through the recipe and saw that it made 66 cookies - what the hell! Talk about excessive. I like oatmeal cookies, but not that much. And after the cupcake shenanigans, I was not keen on baking up way too much and then killing myself trying to find a home for all of my creations that was not my stomach.

I halved the recipe and made these:

They were incredibly easy to make and very easy on my pantry.

1/2 cup shredded coconut, 1/2 cup dried cranberries, 1/2 cup walnuts - the measurements were so even, my kind of recipe.

Combine with all the other oatmeal cookie ingredient necessities and bask in the messy, sticky glory you have created. Then bake.

They made a perfect Blogger breakfast for me this morning.

I started with three but jumped the gun before I took the picture - notice the crumbs everywhere as a result of my ravenous eating, haha.

I sent the boyfriend off to med school this morning with a bag of oatmeal cookies to pass around to his friends.

Dear god, I'm turning into his mother.

But apparently his classmates enjoyed the cookies, and we were left with a reasonable amount to eat at home.

I was sad, though, after my cookie breakfast.

Why, I thought to myself, can't I eat this for breakfast everyday?

Because, I remembered, you are on a diet and the only cookies that are for breakfast is Cookie Crisp which looks like a rather sub-par cereal, to be perfectly honest.

I then set out looking for a recipe for muffins.

Just muffins.

Then I began stumbling on recipe after recipe for Morning Glory Muffins.

Perhaps I grew up under a rock, in a cave, off the grid, away from societal graces, but I had never heard of Morning Glory Muffins.

All I knew was this:

Every recipe I came across included coconut, cranberries or raisins, and walnuts.

Holy --- !

I had found it!

The grail!

And she shall turn cookies into muffins, and thus it was written.

I used this recipe and modified it oh so slightly.

I substituted half of the sugar for brown sugar, because, let's face it, the world is just better with brown sugar.

And I substituted the apple for more shredded carrot because GODDAMN, I like shredding carrots.

5 shredded carrots and 2 shredded fingers

Not hardly, honey.

I just don't keep apples on hand.

Apples and braces are not exactly the best of friends.

I added in the 1/2 cup of shredded coconut, 1/2 cup of dried cranberries, and 1/2 cup of walnuts. Oooh, it's like there's parallelism or something!

Then I remembered that there is more to muffins than just that...

Created the batter and BAM!

12 pre-born muffins were made.

Put the "buns" in the "oven" (why is oven in quotes... they literally were put in the oven) and bake!

And the muffin babies were born.

I haven't tried them yet, they're still cooling. And, from my Morning Glory Muffin research, they are apparently better the next day after the flavors have "melded". How classy.

I will definitely be eating ones of these for breakfast tomorrow, though. And I don't plan on giving any of these away!

Bon appétit,

Gabriella