Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I started this post last week (during sugar week), but life got in the way as usual and I just now found it.  My mother would say "it's a good thing your head is attached or you'd surely lose it."  Yep, Mom, you are right again!



The recipe made close to 40 mini cookies, but
by the next morning, this is all that remained.  Like any good
mother, I hid them and ate the rest sneaking them one by one.



Oatmeal raisin cookies are my absolute most favorite cookie, and my favorite of all oatmeal raisin cookies is Smitten Kitchen's version.

The recipe goes like this (with my modifications in red)

1/2 cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) butter, softened
2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed 1/3 cup evaporated cane juice

2 tsp. molasses
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour 3/4 cup whole white wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt (I often use a half teaspoon, but I like more salt in my baked goods)
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional) I skipped these because I cannot get those daycare kids to like walnuts.

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

Cream together the wet ingredients.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, soda, cinnamon and salt.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet and when well incorporated, fold in the oats, raisins and walnuts if you get to use them.

Bake 10-12 minutes on a prepared cookie sheet (either greased or lined with parchment paper).  Allow to sit for a couple minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

I was worried that there wouldn't be enough sugar, but much to my delight, they were still awesome and everyone loved them.  No one said a word about them not being sweet enough.  Why have a been waiting so long to do this.

Week 38: Rice

With the switch to whole wheat flour, I tried to switch everything to whole grains and succeeded for the most part.  I parted ways with my Minute Rice, which always came out wonderfully fluffy and bought 10 pounds of brown rice.  Well, there must be a serious learning curve with brown rice because I always had one of two results.  Either the rice was crunchy despite the liquid being absorbed or the liquid was absorbed and I had a mushy glob of starch substance.  Neither was really appetizing, as my family so lovingly pointed out. :(

I had kind of given up on rice.  I made a decent chicken Rice-A-Roni knock off.  The flavor was spot-on, but the texture of the rice was an issue.  Due to some unforeseen circumstances, we've found ourselves on the short end of money lately and I asked for help on my favorite forum to come up with ways to use that brown rice (as I still had several pounds left).  Michelle from Recipes from Michelle's Kitchen, came to my rescue when I mentioned that I had trouble getting my rice to be done and not sticky.  Here is her recipe.

IT IS BAKED!  Who knew?  My first time I had a little trouble because I couldn't get a tight seal on my baking dish, so the liquid evaporated and my rice still wasn't done.  Now, I use my oven safe skillet with tight fitting lid and it works like a charm.  Over the past two weeks I've come up with several ways to use this baked rice in all my dishes.  Here are a few.



Green rice with meatloaf and steamed broccoli



Green Rice, aka cheesy broccoli rice-Bake plain rice and when it is done, add cheese sauce and chopped broccoli.  Return to oven for a few minutes to heat through.  It was awesome the first night, but it didn't reheat well, so I will mess with the recipe a bit more.

Chicken Rice-A-Roni-Add seasonings to rice and cook in chicken broth instead of water.  I served this with homemade chicken nuggets, but it would also be good to chop up some leftover chicken and stir it in.

Spanish Rice-I've done this two ways and my preferred method is to make plain rice and let it cool.  I did a double batch and stuck half in the fridge until I was ready to use it.  Saute onions and minced garlic in a small amount of butter or oil until translucent.  Add 1/2 cup or more salsa (I personally prefer black bean and corn) to the skillet and warm through.  Add rice and stir salsa mix throughout.  Heat through.  You can top with shredded cheese and sour cream.  That's what we did with the leftovers and it was delish!

Tuna and Rice Casserole, like tuna noodle casserole only rice.  I make the same sauce as for the noodle version (only now I don't use cans, I use the pouch tuna).  Pour it over the baked rice and stir.  I grated some parmesan over the top and the daycare kids happily scarfed it down, even my son who cannot stand rice.  Wonders never cease!

Fried Rice-a wonderful way to use leftover rice.  Chop onions and a bit of garlic and saute in oil.  Add peas and carrots (I use frozen) and heat through.  Add rice in and stir it all up.  Scrape the rice to the side of the pan and scramble 2 eggs on the empty side.  When the eggs are about 2/3 cooked, stir them into the rice.  Add soy sauce to taste.  It was by far the best fried rice I've ever made (Minute Rice days included!).

On the menu for tonight is stuffed pepper cup casserole.  I tried it earlier in the crockpot and it was ok, but now that I've got the rice thing solved, I want to try again!  I'll post a picture tomorrow.

Project Lunch Box

I'm linking up with Project Lunch Box, part of the Family Fresh Cooking Blog.  They have tons of ideas for packing lunches and are winding up an EasyLunchBoxes giveaway.  I can always use more of those containers!
Here's the link.

Week 37: Sugar

I didn't post this week's challenge yesterday because I still hadn't come to terms with it.  But, since it's the big elephant in my healthy eating closet, I might as well address it.  It's sugar (hanging my head in shame)!  For months, my family's sugar consumption has been in the back of my mind.  For the most part I shrugged it off by saying that we didn't eat THAT much sugar.  Besides, we do so well on so many things, I really don't need to monitor our sugar intake that closely. 

Sadly, Saturday morning the facts were staring me in the face.  I dumped the last of our sugar bucket into the canister.  You may remember when I made my first bulk purchase.  I went back to check the date.  It was March 12th that I bought 50 pounds of evaporated cane juice.  So, in slightly more than 6 months, my family (and daycare kids) have consumed 50 pounds of sugar.  Eek!  Of course that doesn't include the already prepared foods we buy whether they be bags of tortilla chips, a candy bar or the dozen donuts that my husband will dive 20 miles for at 5:30 in the morning just for his "fix."

Just the thought of consuming 50 pounds of sugar makes me nauseous.  I was so distraught about it that I brought it up to Hubby.  He said, "Well that's only 10 pounds each."  Yeah, no help there.  Since Saturday, I've been thinking of ways to reduce our sugar intake.  I don't plan to eliminate it completely because I value my marriage and I know full well that sweet tea ranks higher than me any day.  Even if it's not gone completely, there are a number of things I can do and I think most are things that my family won't notice (I find that those are the best changes.).

1. Whatever the amount of sugar is in a recipe (or the amount I use), cut it in half.
2. Use maple syrup and honey where applicable.
3. Make/eat fewer sweets.
4. Incorporate whatever sweets we are eating into the meal, rather than eating them separately, ie. a muffin with a scrambled egg for breakfast rather than a bowl of ice cream before bed.

This week I'll be experimenting with a few "sweet treats" recipes and I'll be making those with less sugar.  Reviews will follow.

Tortillas

Last night it was as if the clouds parted, a choir of angels descended and began singing, "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!  She did it.  Made tortillas!  Hallelujah!!!"  Ok, I might be exaggerating a tad, but seriously my quest for decent from scratch tortillas has been a multi-year quest.  It has finally come to an end.

I have tried several recipes and while they were all tasty, I hadn't found "the one."  Most of the time, I couldn't get them rolled thin enough and they ended up being more like flatbread than a tortilla.  I posted my problem on the kitchen forum on Diaperswappers a while back and Nikki offered her recipe.  It was super simple, required no special ingredients, was whole wheat... what more could I ask?  Tortilla making has been on my "to do" list for a while and last night I finally got around to making them.  The dough mixed up very easily, and rolled out really well.  I don't think I had my skillet hot enough for the first couple tortillas, but once I got going it was super easy.  While I had one cooking in the skillet, I rolled  the second and so on.   Once I was finished, I made myself a bean and cheese quesadilla that was so yummy.  It was just refried beans, cheese and tortilla.  Please do keep in mind that it was nearing 9 pm and I still hadn't eaten, so that could've been part of the reason it was soooo good.

I bagged those bad boys up in a Ziploc bag and into the refrigerator they went.  I was a bit worried this morning when I pulled them out and there was condensation all over the bag (oops, didn't let them cool completely), but when I got them in the pan this morning for sausage, egg and cheese quesadillas, they crisped up nicely.  I also had a little extra spaghetti meat from earlier this week and thought, "Heck, why not?"  So I made up some egg, meat and cheese burritos.  Now, it's not something I would have every day, it wasn't half bad.  I added extra cheese and we all know that cheese makes everything better!

So, without further adieu, I present my tortilla recipe (and Nikki's and anyone else who might have decided to try it)!  LOL

2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. oil (I used EVOO)
2/3 cup warm water

I placed the flour and salt in my food processor and gave it a quick whirl to combine it.  Then I drizzled in the oil, followed by the water.  The dough was slightly sticky when I pulled it out of the processor, but a quick dusting of the counter and kneading it a couple of times, it became very workable.  I rolled it into a ball, placed it in a bowl, covered it with a towel and let it sit on the back of the stove for 20 minutes. 

When the 20 minutes was up, I scooped the dough out of the dough and kneaded it a few times.  Then I separated the dough into equal portions.  I even went so far as to weigh the dough and divide it into 11 equal portions (but you definitely don't have to do that)!  Roll each portion into a ball and place on a plate, cover and let rest for 20 minutes.  I just threw them together in a pile on a salad plate and well they REALLY stuck together.  In the future, I will be sure that the dough balls don't touch.

OK, 20 minutes is up and you are ready for some tortilla making.  Let your ungreased skillet get hot, and by hot, I don't mean warm, been there done that!  Take a ball of dough out and on a lightly floured surface roll it out to a 6-8 inch circle.  I didn't need to flour the counter, they weren't sticking so I skipped that part.  Also, my tortillas weren't really circles, but I figure  practice makes perfect on that.

Lay the tortilla in the skillet and grab another piece of dough to roll out while you count to 20.  Flip the tortilla in the skillet, continue rolling and count to 20 again.  Remove the tortilla from the skillet and place on a plate and cover with a towel.  Place the tortilla you've been rolling into the skillet and start all over.  Toward the end, my skillet was hot enough that it only took 15 seconds to adequately cook a side, so I was speed rolling to keep up, but all of them managed to get done and I didn't burn any (surprise, surprise)!

McGriddles Knock-off

I can't say that I've ever had one of those McDonald's McGriddle sandwiches since I'm a Dollar Menu kind of gal, but the idea of a pancake sandwich has always appealed to me.  This morning when I was making mini pancakes, I was struck with the urge to experiment.  Wow, am I glad I did!

I altered my regular pancake recipe a bit and came up with this.

1 cup whole white wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. maple syrup
1 cup milk (if I'm doing dairy free, I use rice milk, but today I used regular whole milk)
2 eggs
1/2 cup of pork sausage, already browned and drained

I measure the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and then measure out the wet ingredients. I have a measuring cup with graduated measurements, so I use the 2 cup one and add the milk then eyeball the maple syrup (2 tablespoons is 1/8 of a cup or halfway between 1 and 1 1/4 cup if I'm using my measuring cup. :) ).  Then, I add the eggs and whisk it around to break up the yolks before dumping all of the wet ingredients into the dry.  Whisk until everything is pretty well combined.  If you have a few lumps, don't worry about it.  Fold the sausage into the batter.  I suggest using something besides your whisk or you'll end up with sausage pieces stuck in the middle of the whisk.  I know this happens yet I do it every time!  Sometimes, I am a seriously slow learner!.

Get your griddle or skillet hot.  I have a cheapy one, so at 250 degrees, mine will burn the first batch but undercook the second.  Then I have to turn it up to 300.  So, use whatever temperature works for you (or read the directions if you are REALLY aren't sure-I try to limit that to emergency situations only though).  Using a 1/4 cup measuring device, I have a scoop, ladle out the batter on to the griddle.  You can do as many as will fit in your space.  When bubbles start to form on the top, pop and stay open, the pancakes are ready to flip.  Depending on how much sausage was in each pancake, I noticed that some didn't get the number of bubbles they usually do, so then I watched the edges of the pancake and flipped it when the edge was golden brown and started to lift away from the griddle.  Cook the second side 3-4 minutes or until it is golden brown as well.  This time I made half a batch and it made 6 four inch pancakes, so I'm guessing that a regular batch would make 12-at least that's what one would think.

While the pancakes are cooking, I cooked my egg for the middle of my sandwich.  I found a bowl that was the relatively the same size as the pancakes and generously sprayed it with olive oil spray.  Then I cracked one egg in the bowl, added a bit of salt and pepper and whisked it all together with a fork.  The bowl went into the microwave and 1 minute later I had a perfect circular egg "patty" for my pancake sandwich.  I grated some cheddar cheese on top of the egg and returned it to the microwave for 10 seconds and then left it in there while my pancakes finished cooking.  When the pancakes were finished, I scooped the cheese covered egg out of the bowl and placed it on the bottom pancake.  I topped it with a second and voila-a McGriddle. 

I think it tasted wonderful.  The only thing I am wondering about is if in the actual McDonald's sandwich, the pancakes are crisp on the outside.  Mine were a little spongy, like pancakes are.  But, I'm thinking that if I were to freeze them and then toast the pancakes to thaw instead of microwaving them, that it would crisp them up nicely.  Whatever the case, I thought it was yummy.  I froze enough for 2 more sandwiches and I hope to get the girls to try it out before school tomorrow.  I'll update with their feedback.

Chocolate Zucchini Cookies

I've decided (out of necessity) to cook mostly from the pantry this week and next week too, if I can pull it off.  So, as snacktime was looming, I was desperately trying to come up with something new and exciting (with ingredients already on hand) to eat.  I located a zucchini in the back of the fridge that needed to be used and I know the kids wanted cookies-they always want cookies.  A hunt on allrecipes.com was on!  Right away I came up with this recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Cookies.  After reading through the reviews, I came up with my own version.



1/2 cup coconut oil
2 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. molasses
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/4 cups whole white wheat flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup of chocolate chips

Mix the wet ingredients.  Mix the dry.  Add the dry to the wet and then fold in the zucchini and chocolate chips.  Now, if you use my method, you will just dump it all together and mix it up.  I find that it still turns out fine.  I probably didn't use a full cup of chocolate chips, I just dumped the last chips out of two bags and then chopped up the lone semi-sweet baking chocolate block that I've have for eons.  It was more than enough.

The dough was really dry and crumbly due to the coconut oil solidifying when I added the flour from the freezer.  I just kept folding in the zucchini and eventually the moisture of the zucchini prevailed and I had a nice dough-almost too moist even.

Bake 8-10 minutes in an oven preheated to 350 degrees.  I used a tablespoon scoop and the recipe made about 55 cookies.  It was enough for 3 each for all of the daycare kids and my kids and they will go in lunches tomorrow and I'll still have some to freeze for a picnic lunch on Saturday.  Pretty cool in my opinion.

The kids loved them and even complained when I cut them off at three cookies each.  This recipe if for sure a keeper!