Thursday, January 6, 2011

Healthier Chocolate Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies


I made these terrific little cookies. And shhh! They don't use any butter, margarine, oil or shortening. I thought there was a problem with the recipe, but I made them anyway. And.... they are fabulous! They were a little different to work with, but they are just awesome! And so GOOD FOR YOU!

HEALTHIER CHOCOLATE OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

2/3 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar (white sugar is fine here as well)
1 cup oats (I used quick oats, but old fashioned is fine too)
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup corn syrup (I might try honey here)
1/8 cup chocolate chips (dark is the best for you, but I had milk chocolate)

Mix together the flour, sugar, oats, cocoa and baking powder. Stir well to combine.

Mix together the egg, vanilla, syrup and stir to mix. Add to the dry ingredients. Mix well. It will be very dry and crumbly. Just stir and stir with a sturdy spoon -like a wooden spoon.

Add in chocolate chips - or press them into the top of the cookie after you pat them on the cookie sheet.

Scoop out into balls (like a golf ball) and then place on sprayed cookie sheet.

Flatten down a little with your hand. Like little fat cookies.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 12 minutes. Cool 2-4 minutes and remove from cookie sheet.

Makes a very small recipe. Like about 18 cookies.

Making homemade bread for sandwiches


I've always wanted to make my own homemade sandwich bread. (My picture quality is terrible but the bread is just PERFECT!) I have searched and searched for the perfect recipe for everyday sandwich bread and always the bread I make is either too heavy, too moist, or too MUCH! But, I made one this weekend that is so perfect. I don't know if this works the "old fashioned" way. I have a bread machine and so since the directions said to use a bread machine, that is what I did. However, I only use my bread machine for making the dough. After the dough setting completes, I take it from there and bake it in a regular loaf pan in the real oven.

Its great! Very soft! In fact, I let it cool completely and still had to slice it with an electric knife. Picture trying to slice a loaf of Wonder Bread with a knife. That's what I'm talking about!

Here's the recipe with exact instructions on how I did it. Worked like a charm and we had this for our favorite, peanut butter and apricot preserve sandwiches. Yum!

Follow the directions exactly. It is terrific. You will never have to buy bread again.





White Sandwich Bread
1 cup warm water (hot but no hurt - should feel like hot bath water)
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 1/2 teaspoon yeast (1 packet)
1/4 cup oil
3 cups AP flour or bread flour (I have substituted a cup of the flour with 1 cup whole wheat flour and it makes a delicious light wheat bread, which is pictured)
1 1/2 teaspoon salt

• In a 2 cup measuring cup, measure the very warm water (1 cup), stir in yeast and sugar. Set a timer for 10 minutes. It will start bubbling and at the end of 10 minutes, will look like a big glass of root beer with a tall soft, frothy foam on top. Add the oil and then dump in the pan of the bread machine.

• Next add your flour and top with the salt. (I realize your bread machine may say to do this in a different order, but do it this way and you will have a perfect loaf.)

• Set your bread machine to the dough setting.

• And the end of this cycle (when it is "ready"), then dump the dough on a floured surface (I use a dinner plate with a little flour dumped on there). Knead with floured hands a couple of times - like 5 times. Form into a loaf. Spray or grease your loaf pan. Place dough inside. I then sprayed my loaf with Pam to it didn't dry out. Let rise 1 hour or until it rises up out of the loaf pan by an inch or so.

• Preheat your oven completely before putting the loaf in -to 350 degrees.

• Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes or until golden brown. (check at 20 minutes).

• Let it sit in the pan about 5 minutes. Then, carefully (because the loaf is so soft) take it out of the pan and let it cool on a cooling rack. Let it cool completely and then slice using an electric knife or large surrogated knife.

It makes great sandwiches, grilled cheese, peanut butter. Probably would make great hamburger and hotdog buns as well.

I'm sharing this recipe at The Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap.

January Menu Log

I can never seem to make a menu plan as a "plan". So, I decided I would make a menu journal. Then, next January I can at least see what we had this January. We have daughter #1 living at home with us right now (she moved home over the summer),so between she and Big Daddy, its nearly impossible to please them both by cooking the same thing. Sometimes, I end up making a combination dinner. That means I take one meat and cook it two ways, suiting both of them. Daughter #2 and I are more flexible. We like pretty much everything. But,then with that being said, we don't like repetitive meals (like hubby and daughter #1), so I probably do way more cooking than most folks. But, we're happy and that's all that matters, right?

JANUARY 2010 Menu Log
Main Dish/Supper
Homemade Stir Fry / Steak & gravy with a micro potato
BFF Chili / frozen pizza
HM spaghetti sauce, cole slaw, and garlic toast
Crockpot Chicken and Biscuits
Baked "Fried Fish", oven fried seasoned shoestring fries, HM corn muffins, stewed tomatoes, and pinto beans (oink-oink)
Tacos with HM flour tortillas, layer dip, and leftover pinto beans (from the fish dinner)
Crockpot pulled pork with homemade tangy BBQ sauce, homemade BM hamburger buns, hashbrown casserole, and Mom's Thickened Corn
Welcome Home Lisa Roast Dinner at Grandma's. I took sweet tea and Schoolhouse Dinner Rolls
Best Goulash Ever

Breads
BM White Sandwich Bread
BM Light Wheat Sandwich Bread

BM Pita Bread

Breakfast items
Perfect Granola
Homemade Yogurt
Homemade packets of oatmeal (bulk recipe I keep in an oatmeal container). I got this recipe from a favorite blog-Mommy's Kitchen

Desserts/Cookies/Snacks
Healthy Chocolate Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Hillbilly Housewife Plain Yellow Cake (I added a box of lemon jello powder) and glazed with a powdered sugar/lemon juice glaze.)