Overloaded Oatmeal Cookies

Do you want to know a secret? 

Okay, it's not really that exciting but here goes: 

Before this recipe, I had never hand made oatmeal raisin cookies. 

Looking back on my life, I can't exactly blame myself.

 I have avoided oats in almost every form up until this last year or so.

 Let's just say that being forced to eat oatmeal left some bad memories and leave it at that.

One look at this recipe on the back of the Raisnets bag and I knew I had to make them.

Of course, I needed some way to justify the caloric monsters so I made some of them "jumbo" sized

to give to my dad for his birthday this past week. 

I made the rest of them smaller and surprisingly, there are still some in the kitchen.

These cookies are really, really tasty. 

Writing this blog is really making me want to go get one and a glass of chocolate milk.

Must. Resist. Temptation.

What you'll need:

• 1.25 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup coconut oil
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• 3 cups oats
• 1 bag of Raisinets - I used dark chocolate
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

What you'll do:

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Combine first 4 ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
3. Cream butter, sugars and vanilla. Add in eggs one at a time.
4. Gradually beat in flour mix.
5. Stir in oats, Raisinets and walnuts.
6. Drop cookie dough onto baking sheets according to your preferred size.
7. Bake for 9-11 minutes, cool on sheets for 2 minutes and then transfer to wire wracks to cool completely.

There you have it folks, a seriously delicious recipe for Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.

If you need to justify making them, just tell yourself that they're okay because they have 

wheat flour instead of white, coconut oil instead of butter and that oats are good for you!

Happy baking!

Lauren

Tis the Season...FOR PUMPKIN!

Well friends, it's here: Pumpkin-flavored everything season. I'm not going to lie, I actually get a little annoyed when the pumpkin posts start to take over my Pinterest feed because pumpkin is available ALL YEAR LONG. Yep, I'm not kidding, you can find it in the baking goods isle at any grocery store. I use a can of pumpkin in my chili and I make chili year round, so believe me. 

Regardless, I am a sucker for pumpkin. It's so gosh darn tasty and real pumpkin is a great source of potassium! I say real pumpkin because today's recipe, Pumpkin Nutella Puppy Chow, doesn't use real pumpkin puree but pumpkin flavored Hershey's Kisses. Which I just learned were a thing this fall. Apparently there are also some kind of caramel apple kisses, but I have yet to see these. 

I'm sure we all know how addicting puppy chow is, and this recipe is no different. I found it really, really hard to stay away from the bowl but thankfully so did everyone else! It was perfect for the tailgate I took it to and everyone seemed to love it! 

What you'll need:

• 8 cups Chex-like cereal - Fiber One actually works well!
• 1 cup Pumpkin Spice Hershey Kisses
• 1/2 cup Nutella
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice - I'm pretty sure I used more, I just kinda dumped it in.
• large brown paper bag 

What you'll do:

1. Unwrap your kisses and add them to a small sauce pot. As you melt them on low add the Nutella. Stir frequently until the mixture is combined.

2. Put your cereal in the paper bag and pour the Nutella mixture on top. Fold the bag shut and shake it to combine.

3. Open the bag, add the powdered sugar, close the bag and shake once more. Make sure you get a little crazy as to ensure total sugar coverage.

4. Open the bag, add the pumpkin pie spice, close the bag and shake one more time.

5. Spread the chow on some wax paper and allow it to harden. Try to resist the urge to eat it all right then.


So there you have it my friends, my first pumpkin post of the season! You better believe there will be more! Hopefully they'll be healthier than this, but no promises!

Lauren

Clean Eating Italian Baked Ziti

Pasta is a great food for feeding a crowd, or in my case, feeding to college aged guys for more than one meal. Personally I don't make pasta all that often because it tends to pack the calories for a small portion size. I'm one of those people that would rather eat four or five small servings, low calorie foods than one serving of a high calorie food. But that's just me. All that being said, when I do eat pasta, I like it with sauce! We could get into the whole deal of my roommate that would happily just eat plain noodles, but ain't nobody got time for that!

Unfortunately, sauces also tend to pack in the calories due largely to fats(cream sauces), sugars and sodium. That's what makes this "clean eating" recipe awesome! You get to sweeten and flavor the sauce yourself so you control just how much of those culinary villains go in your dish in the first place! Don't be scared by the label "clean eating" and think that the recipe will be to challenging or require obscure ingredients. This recipe was quite the opposite on both accounts! I hope you enjoy it!

 What you'll need:

• 1 box whole wheat penne pasta
• 1 pound lean, ground turkey 
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 Tbsp each garlic and onion powder
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup water
• 15 oz canned tomato sauce
• 1 cup parmesan cheese - I grated mine myself!

What you'll do:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.

2. While pasta is cooking, cook the turkey in the olive oil.

3. Combine the remaining ingredients in a large bowl.

4. Add the cooked pasta & meat to the sauce and mix well.

5. Transfer mixture to a baking dish and top with cheese.

6. Bake at 350F until the cheese is melted, about 15-20 minutes. 

Pre-oven shot!

Post-oven shot!

Lauren

The best crust ever! Oh, and some pretty good cheesecake too.

So, Matt's birthday was the 3rd. 

Yep, I've been trying to find time to post this blog for over a week now. 

I'm too gosh darn busy.

 Anywho...along with the awesome t-shirts I got him, which he LOVED,

 I also offered to make him any dessert he wanted.

Any dessert. 

Yep, out of all the desserts in the world he could have picked from,

he chose a plain, New York Style Cheesecake.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE CHEESECAKE.

But, he said he wanted it plain. 

That is just no fun. 

So, determined to do something unique to it, I turned to the crust.

 If you ask me, the crust has the power to ruin a dessert.

Consider pie for example, to me a good piece of pie has a warm, flaky crust underneath it.

 And have you ever had ice cream with pie crust pieces in it? DE-LIC-IOUS.

 So why can't a graham cracker crust be held to such standards?

 Naturally I went to Pinterest and searched "best crust ever".

 This recipe was the first one I followed and I'm pretty pleased that I did.

I actually doubled the recipe because I prefer my cheesecake

to have crust going up the sides as well as underneath it. 

What you'll need: 

• 1.5 cups crushed graham crackers
• 1/4 cup milk powder
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1/2 stick of butter, melted
• 1/4 cup heavy cream

What you'll do:

1. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well. 
2. Whisk butter and cream together until smooth. 
3. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix until everything is evenly incorporated. 
4. Bake at 325 for ~13 minutes. Allow to cool while making the cheesecake you desire.

Baked and cooling.

My cheesecake got rave reviews by both Matt and his parents.

Although that could have been because it had 2.5 pounds of cream cheese in it...

You can visit here to get the recipe I followed. 

Although I believe New York Style is a standard recipe so if you Google'd it you would most likely be fine.

Tubing on his birthday!

Lauren

Chicken Bacon Ranch Garbage Bread

So, the internet here really hates us. Seriously. I have tried to blog about this meal every night since I made it but no...that is apparently not allowed. 

Moving on, I seriously outdid myself this time. The original inspiration for this meal was not that appealing to me. Reason #1, I don't like buffalo chicken. It's just too hot for me. Reason #2, "Garbage Bread" is just not an appealing name. Upon looking at the ingredients needed I quickly realized that I could turn this into Chicken Bacon Ranch Garbage Bread and that my friends is just what I did.

Let me tell you, it was delicious. A bit heavy on the cheese but no so much that it was bad. I'll definitely be making this again, and again, and again.

What you'll need:

• 2 boneless chicken breasts - I didn't pay attention and used 4 and that was way too much...
• 1 tsp-1tbsp olive oil
• 1 pizza dough - I used store bought and let it sit out while I prepared everything else
• 8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese - I used fat free & next time I'm using 4 oz
• 3 oz shredded cheddar - next time I'm using 4 oz
• 2/3 cup ranch dressing - I used yogurt based
• 3 strips bacon

What you'll do:

1. Pre-heat the oven to the temperature specified on your pizza dough. Roll the dough out onto a baking sheet to allow it to come to room temperature.
2. While heating the oil in a skillet, dice the chicken breast to bite-size pieces. Cook chicken completely and then allow to cool. 
3. Fry your bacon and then set it aside to cool. Once cooled, break it into small pieces.
4. Using a spatula, spread the ranch dressing onto the pizza dough leaving a one inch border. 
5. Add the chicken and bacon and then top with the cheeses. 
6. Begin to roll up the dough into a log. Be sure to tuck the ends initially to prevent any leakage. 



Lots of extra chicken...

7. Bake according to the directions on your pizza dough. I followed the instructions for "softer crust" but feel free to go with your preference. 

Mmm....gooey! 

This was really good, and my eyes were way to big for my stomach! I couldn't even finish the small section I cut for myself, or my veggies! I am definitely going to be making this again! Hopefully by the next time I can come up with a better name. Suggestions?







Lauren