Searching for the healthier cookie

I feel as though I am in constant search for that perfect recipe that makes chocolate chip cookies just a wee bit healthier. It's not so much that I'm a health nut or anything along those lines (although, we know I have a tendency to be a bit anal about these things), but it's more that my family (me especially) has zero self-control when it comes to freshly baked cookies at our disposal. In fact, as frightening as it might seem, it's not terribly uncommon for us to devour a batch of freshly baked cookies in a mere couple of days.

There's nothing healthy about eating a dozen or more cookies in one day, but with a healthier recipe, I'm hoping to save our systems from going into a diabetic shock or at least put some level of "goodness" in our bodies. So, I've been searching...and searching...and searching... I keep trying all these different low-fat or alternative recipes using sugar substitutes, vegan approaches, or gluten free ingredients. They are generally edible, or at least we have no issues eating them, but they are just no stand-in for the good 'ol fashioned Toll House recipe from the chocolate chip bag. A cup of butter and heaping amounts of brown and white sugar create the perfect cookie. But seriously... who can eat just ONE perfect cookie?! Not this gal...

I'm happy to report, I think I finally found my recipe! It's made with less than half the sugar (that could easily be substituted with applesauce or other favorites - agave nectar used to be my old standby until I starting reading that it isn't all that great for you), and it's 2 to 1 whole grain to white flour (not the recipe for my gluten free pals). I also added some ground up old fashioned oats to provide some good fiber, protein, and iron to the mix, and some chopped nuts for a little more protein. What I liked most about this recipe is that the cookies are REALLY good, they aren't too terribly sweet, and the grains add a moist consistency that I love. The recipe also leaves room for me to try some other substitutes if I'm really feeling like I need to go healthier.

I found this recipe online, and changed just a few things around based on what I had available in the pantry or my personal taste. It was really fairly easy, so you should absolutely give it a try.

Here's the recipe for my latest attempt at a healthier cookie:

Minutes to Prepare: 30

Minutes to Cook: 15

Number of Servings: 50

Ingredients

2 c. whole wheat flour

1 c. white flour

3 tbsp. ground Old Fashioned Oats

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 c. brown sugar

1/4 c. white sugar (or substitute with your favorite sugar alternative)

2 large or medium eggs (or equivalent amt of egg white)

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 c. water

1/2 c. semisweet or dark chocolate chips (I prefer dark!)

1/4 c. chopped peacons (or other nuts, if preferred)

Directions

Step 1:

Combine all dry ingredients (except for the sugar, nuts & chips) in a large bowl.

Step 2:

Beat the softened butter,sugar and vanilla extract in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the eggs one by one.

Step 3:

Add the dry mixture to the mixer gradually, alternating with the water, until it is all mixed thoroughly.

Step 4:

Add chocolate chips and nuts. Mix in well.

Step 5:

Place in small scoops on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-13 minutes at 350. Let sit on cookie sheet for another 2 minutes, then remove to cooling rack.

NOTE: These cookies "poof" rather than "spread", so you can place them fairly close together on the cookie sheet. If your scoops are the size of a soup spoon or smaller, you should be able to fit 24 on a large baker's half sheet cookie pan.

Makes about 48 cookies, after allowing a little bit of "snitching" from the bowl!

I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

xoxoxoxo

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Seasonal soups for those unseasonably cold days

It's Spargelzeit here in Germany! That means the white asparagus is in season and plentiful at the markets. Spargel is so popular in this part if the world, it is often referred to as "white gold" or "edible ivory".

If you like asparagus, you'll love white asparagus. It's more tender and less bitter than the green variety. I had not yet had the pleasure of trying it, so when we saw it at the market this weekend, we didn't hesitate to buy a bushel.

I really had no clue how best to eat this royal vegetable until Big R informed me that it's often used to make soup. It was a fairly nice day - we did ride our bikes to the market - but it still had that cold chill in the air and it seemed like a perfect night for a warm soup for dinner. To all my friends and family that are experiencing the most bizarre bout of winter weather in the desert in the heart if spring (snow in the Mohave desert in April????)- this one is for you!

Per usual I created my own recipe by fusing together about six or seven different recipes I found online. This was less out of creativity and more due to lack of ingredients. I'm rarely patient enough to wait for another run to the store :) Turns out you can almost always figure out a way to make what you are craving with the items in your kitchen.

Prep time was only about 30 minutes. I let it simmer for a good hour. Once little r was tucked into bed, Big R and I sat down and enjoyed our spargel soup.

It was delicious! It tasted like a potato soup without all the starchiness (or guilt) that goes along with eating it. I didn't realize that asparagus is incredibly good for you. Low in calories and sodium, and packed full of vitamins, fiber, protein, and lots if other goodies. Because of this, I tried to mend together ingredients for this soup that would keep it healthy.

In case you want to make it, and also to help me keep a record of how I made this yummy concoction, here is the recipe:

Spargel Soup for a Cold Spring Day

1 lb. White Asparagus
3 cups chicken/vegetable broth
1 bushel green onions
1/3 c. white wine
1/3 c. skim milk
Pepper
Salt
Olive oil

Cut the asparagus into one inch pieces and toss into a deep soup pot. Chop up green onions, both white and green ends, and add it to the asparagus. Dash olive oil over the veggies and sauté for 5 minutes. Then add a third of the broth (or enough to just cover the veggies), and the wine. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 20 minutes.

Use a food processor, blender, or immersion mixer to purée the asparagus mixture and place back in the soup pot. Stir in the remaining broth and the milk. Keep stirring until it boils. Add a dash of pepper (only a dash), and add salt to taste (I always like using garlic salt for more flavor). Let it simmer to allow the flavors to fuse into a delectable soup.

To serve, add some shredded cheese (Parmesan, cheddar, or any other of your favorite), and chopped chives. Yum!

ENJOY!

Pajama Banana Bread

This whole 12-week challenge has my head reeling. In just over two weeks, I'll be completed with my work-out madness and can resume life back to normal. Whether I get the results I was hoping for or not, it would be wrong to say that the challenge didn't change me in several ways.

Probably the most important change is that I'm much more aware of what I'm eating. It seems this challenge both directly and indirectly taught me about food. Although I gave up calorie counting a little bit ago, I did count my calories and log my food long enough to see the importance of good calories and to understand the critical make-up of food.

It's important for me to feed my family healthy and well-balanced meals. I want little r to grow up making good choices for snacks and not desiring junk food. I realize now that the key to not binging on bad choices and junk is to allow yourself to have things you crave. Turns out the internet is a ridiculously good source of how to make low-fat and healthy meals. (Pinterest is by far my favorite source.)

Yesterday I stumbled across a blog that is definitely going to become one of my favorites very quickly. It's a blogger that specializes in healthy desserts. Not only that, but she is vegan so all of her recipes are simple and contain no dairy. I had a batch of bananas that had gone bad (I'm having the worst luck with bananas here), and I was in the mood to bake something delicious when I found this recipe. http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2011/10/10/fat-free-banana-bread/

This recipe is absolutely DEVINE! Even though I baked it for an hour and a half, the bread was still gooey, but it became more solid as it cooled, which ultimately resulted in a moist and delicious treat. I used blackberries as the additional fruit, and did a mix of gluten free flour and soy flour, and of course, I used her maple syrup alternative. Turns out cooking vegan can be a healthy and yummy choice!

These muffins were exactly what I was craving and the family loves them :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Muffins for things that ail you...

This has not been a good week for our household. The crud continues and little r has gotten the brunt of it this time.  Home again from school, and little r and I needed a seriously pick-me-up. What better way to cure achy pains than the creation of yummy baked goods?!

I'm starting to see now why so many stay-at-home mom's are either in love with food blogs or create blog posts with incredible recipes.  It can be so much fun when you find a wonderful recipe that works for your family, or even better, when you create a perfect combination of yummy-ness by altering recipes or making a creation from whatever is left in your cupboards.  Cooking lost its allure for me when I was working full time.  I think it was because I could never find the power to plan and cook delicious food.  I forgot how much I really enjoy cooking, and it's been fun to explore that during this phase in my life.  Hopefully I can build a bank of easy and good-for-you recipes so that when I eventually go back to working full time, I'll continue to love it.

All that aside, let's get back to making muffins.  I do not bake much.  My sister was always the one that could create those ridiculously good baked breads and cakes.  My specialty tends to be more on the dinner side of things.  But mostly, I haven't been baking much as of late because this 12-week challenge I'm doing doesn't really leave room for tasty morsels.  It's not much fun to bake when you can't eat any of the food that comes out of the oven.

The tough part about our day was that if we were going to bake, we were going to have to do it with whatever was available in the house.  Between the doctor visit and other highly important errands (like renewing my military ID, just a small necessity...), we had no time to buy any potentially needed groceries.  We were also having our friends, Nina and Linus, over for a playdate later in the day, and I needed to come up with something yummy to share.

Jamie Eason, my virtual 12-week challenge coach, has some pretty awesome recipes on her website to help keep food interesting while we are getting in shape.  I've tried many of her creations and most of them are pretty darn tasty.  Her recipe for pumpkin protein bars sound delicious, but I've had a heck of a time getting the recipe just right.  The idea is a good one though, and I've learned quite a bit from her recipe substitutions.  With a fair amount of left over pumpkin spice puree (and the desire to get some much-needed fiber into little r's system), I started doing a search for low-fat pumpkin spice muffins on pinterest (my new favorite obsession). Using my newfound education from Ms. Eason, and my desire to create something tasty yet healthy and good for my daily high protein snacks, I created my own recipe using a combination of different recipes online.  And the end result was fabulous and far too healthy to be so yummy (or keep to myself).

I took my pumpkin puree and added some more spices to it - cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and salt - mixed in some egg whites and a very small amount of brown sugar, egg whites, and substituted maple syrup for the granular sugar or agave nectar.  I'm not sure how many people are aware of how incredibly good for you maple syrup is. It is loaded with vitamins and packed with fiber.  Not only that, but in the 1/2 cup of maple syrup I used for my recipe for the entire batch of muffins, there were less than 200 calories.  Just one of my favorite Vermont tips :)  I was somewhat worried that the syrup would create an odd consistency, but luckily it all worked out well.

For the flour I mixed it up.  I had some gluten free and soy flour in my pantry.  The gluten free keeps the flour from spiking your blood sugar, and the soy flour adds 40% more protein into the muffins.  We'll take it!  If you don't have either of these - because let's face it, what normal human being has this in her pantry - don't fret.  You can use regular whole wheat flour or oat flour (which you can make from scratch by grinding regular cooking oats).  For a little more protein, I put in a couple scoops of my protein shake powder (again, completely optional), and finally, a little baking soda and baking powder.  The final ingredient was folding into the batter two apples that were chopped into small pieces.

What really makes these muffins incredible and addicting though is the topping.  I found a couple of different toppings for streusel and nuts that people had used for their pumpkin muffin recipes.  I ended up making both of them (mostly because I ran out of nuts!).  

The batter comes out pretty hearty, so it's easy to scoop into the muffin pan.  I used an ice cream scoop, and the sizing was perfect.  The topping then went on in a simple dash.  Just a mere 25-30 minutes later, and the muffins were golden, crispy, and perfect to ease the ailments from our week.  Most of them were made with the nut topping so that I could use them as one of my high protein snacks.  The streusel muffins I set aside for the kids and one for Big R knowing those would be especially tasty.

So, here is my recipe.  I hope some of you feel inspired to make them, and that you enjoy these muffins as much as my family has.  And a side note, little r appears to be on his way to being cured - could be the muffins, or could be some of the meds his doctor prescribed.  I'm going with the muffins :)

High Protein Pumpkin Apple Muffins

1 1/4 cup  Pumpkin Pie Mix

2 tbs Brown sugar

1/2 cup Maple Syrup (highly recommend Vermont Maple Syrup!)

2 egg whites

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups peeled, covered and chopped apple (I used 2 whole Gala Apples)

2 cups of whole wheat flour (or 1 cup gluten free flour and 1 cup soy flour)

2 scoops of Protein Powder (I used vanilla) (optional)

2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Streusel Topping

4 tsp Flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp butter

Walnut or Pecan Topping

2/3 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

1 tbs brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F).  Lightly grease the muffin pan(s).  In a large bowl, combine the flours, sugars, spices, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  In a separate bowl mix together the egg, pumpkin, and maple syrup.  Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture; stir to moisten.  Then fold in the chopped apples.  Spoon batter 3/4 full into muffin pan (ice cream scoop is perfect for this).  Sprinkle topping over each muffin.  Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes.  Let cool for 5-10 minutes and then remove from the pan. 

Enjoy :) 

Ratatouille

We've seen the movie "Ratatouille" several dozen times in the past few months, so we thought it would be fun to cook this "peasant dish" to give it a taste.  What better way for me to get in touch with my domestic side.  I've been struggling with the cooking lately, mostly the planning that goes into cooking meals for your family, and this was probably more like the best way to make me run screaming from my new little kitchen.  Big R was so excited about this meal that he took the time to find the perfect recipe.  Of course, he didn't read it other than to glance at the amazing ingredients.  When I opened the email from him, I gulped...seriously?!  I tried putting it off, but the only thing I dislike more than a complicated recipe are letting amazing vegetables go to waste.  Ok, we'll give it a try...

Luckily, little r was quiet as a mouse watching one of his movies while I slaved away in the kitchen.  When Big R got home, he had to get some photographic evidence of my new creation. Mostly I think he was finding it amusing to see me peal the skins off a newly roasted red pepper.  Have you ever done that?!  If you haven't, let me give you a slight tip - don't skimp on the roasting time.  The skins peal much easier if you let them cook longer (a tip I'll be sure to remember if I ever attempt this madness again).  

Three peeled red peppers later, and the piperade (whatever the heck that is!) was finished and placed along the bottom of the pan.

Then the freshly cut veggies were placed in a spiral fashion on top of the piperade (Big R and I had to read the recipe about half a dozen times to figure out exactly how to do the proper spiral, this is where pictures are super helpful and we had not a single one!), the pan was covered with foil, and then had to cook for 2 hours. Yes, 2 freaking hours!  Then uncovered and cooked for another 30 minutes or so.  

Did I mention it was 7:30 p.m. at this point?!  Yeah, this is a good example of what NOT to do. In my true impatient style, I increased the temperature, and cooked it for about 45 minutes while I got little r bathed and tucked into bed.  There is no reason it should take vegetables 2 hours to cook - at least not in THIS house. 

I have to say, it was a pretty darn good meal.  My planning wasn't exactly in high gear that day, so it never occurred to me that some fresh bread from the local bakery would have been the perfect compliment to this dish.  Next time (wait, did I just write that?!).  I didn't have a fancy "offset spatula" to carefully remove the dish and fan it out on the plate in a 90 degree angle (geesh!), but I did my best to keep the portion contained and then carefully added the vinaigrette sauce.  This meal was delish served with our favorite local beers. 

Don't call me a chef, because I'm far from one and this will NEVER be a cooking blog.  If you are truly interested in the recipe, I can email it to you - it is almost as complicated to write it down as it was to follow.  I might be brave and attempt this meal again knowing now what it takes and what would taste awesome with it.  Maybe next time I'll actually cook it for the required time, haha, maybe...