Oatmeal/Chocolate Cookies Recipe

Gosh, i have been remiss in the recipe department lately! That is mostly due to the nature of what i've been eating lately: the last of the garden lettuce/spinach/fava beans in big, delicious, balanced dinner salads every night. People look at my funny when i say i eat salad for dinner - as the main course. They clearly have not had one of my salads. They're as big as my head and leave me full and satisfied until morning and usually have a pretty decent amount of protein in the form of nuts, seeds, beans and corn, or fish/chicken.

Anyhoo - last night i whipped together some delicious tilapia and sweet potato oven fries, but as with most last minute dinners i just threw togehter things i knew would go together well and consumed heartily - no proportions noted in which to share with you to use. Most of my dinners are like this "miranda glops"  or  other one dish sort of meals that contain mysterious and wonderful things. I made the hubby's fish into two fish burgers, and mine was a delightfully steaming plate full of two fillets and caramelized onions. Yum! Sweet potato fries are so easy and quick to pull together too, and go great with lots of things.  The basics:

• Wash potatoes well
• cut in half, in half again, and slice into fairly evenly sliced 'fries' about 1/4 inch thick or less
• Spray baking sheet with nonstick
• Scatter the pieces of potato and spray with nonstick (you can also toss in a bowl with olive oil)
• Coat with seasonings: salt, pepper, chilly powder, cayenne, garlic, paprika whatever you want!
• Flip and repeat
• Stick in the oven at about 400 and bake until a good sizzle and squish when touched (about 20 minutes). Flip a few times during that time. I also increased the tempt to 425 for about 10 minutes to add a little more crisp

But today i'm going to try something i rarely if ever do: bake cookies. I have a new neighbor, and i like to welcome new neighbors. He's a young 20 something guy who works at a gym, i figure he can afford to eat a few cookies, and the husband would be happy to have cookies baked when he comes home, i'm sure.  I'll whip together something kind of healthy/naughty and see what happens. I'd like to throw coconut into this recipe, but some people don't like coconut (!) so i don't want to risk alienating the dude. I have an old recipe i used to bake known as "Real F***in' Good Cookies."  They are made with hazelnut flour, dark chocolate and golden raisons. They are to die for and they're almost vegan. I think i'll try and mix that recipe with oatmeal cookies and add some cocoa powder and see what happens! Here's what i came up with (TOTAL EXPERIMENT!):

• 1 cup oats
• 1 cup flour  all purpose/white whole wheat
• 1 cup ground almonds and pecans
• -1/4 cup rapadura + good squirt of agave nectar
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp salt
• cinnamon
• 1 Tablespoon cocoa powder
• dash vanilla
• 3 Tablespoons milk
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• Bake 350 11-12 minutes

Upon tasting the batter: not sweet or salty enough.
I added some coconut to the second batch which seemed to brighten the taste somewhat.
These could really use chopped dates, golden raisons, chocolate chips: SOMEthing. But i had none of those things, so they remain not quite sweet or salty enough. I added a pinch more sugar and agave and the cookies turned out dense little balls of something. Woudlnt' really call them cookies. Rather doughy. Miranda cookies i guess. I honestly thought the oil of the ground nuts would make them moister. I think they're pretty tasty though. I think if i did this again i'd double the cocoa powder, or better yet use melted bakers chocolate. That would help with the moisture as well.

All in all, not a bad outcome. They're doughy cookies, which is fine. Good for an after lunch sweet without too much whamo sugar. Might make awesome ice cream sandwiches if they were bigger... hmmmmmmmmmmmm ice cream saaaaandwiiiiiiiiiich.

Have a great weekend!

Happy Healthy Banana Muffins with Dates

Oh man. I just ate one straight out of the oven with butter. I'm having a hard time not going back in the kitchen and stealing all of them!
In my Belly!
Now!

Resist, Miranda.

Anyhoo - I had a cup of sprouted grain flour i ground the other day, 3 bananas and some dates - the logical next step: Muffins! Sugar free and fat free muffins!
(ps, i made these guys on Thursday but am posting it Saturday - make some for this weekend's brunch - you'll love them fresh from the oven or as dessert later in the day, and they take sooo little time to prepare - you can have them baking while cooking up the eggs!)

I found this great recipe online. And changed it up just a bit to work with the ingredients i had on hand:

• 2 1/2 ripe bananas
• 5 or so dates, pitted
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon plus 4 dashes pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp soda
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 1/2 cup flour (i used one cup freshly ground flour from sprouted red wheat plus 1/2 cup unbleached white whole wheat flour)
• 1/3 cup homemade applesauce

1. Mash bananas, add chopped dates
2. Add cinnamon and egg- slightly scrambled
3. Add applesauce and mix in
4. Mix dry ingredients together on top of wet, stir in until well combined
5. Bake in muffin tins at 375 degrees for 20 minutes

They turned out perfectly! Moist. Flavorful. A little crunchy here and there due to my unevenly ground flour. Delicious with a little bloblet of homemade butter. These are mostly destined for the husband's stomach while at work on on his way.... but i think i'll be saving a few more for myself. So delicious, and completely unsinful. I'll be making these again.

I just love baking with no sugar or oil and having the results be as delicious and decadent as something more naughty.
What's your favorite "healthy" baked good recipe?

Pumpkin Bread, a Less Evil Version

I looooove pumpkin bread! But i REALLY love the sinful form. I will not allow that deliciousness in my house, however unless i'm surrounded by all my sisters or at least one of my 3 dads. So i altered a recipe from my mom and came up with a loaf that's yummy and cakey and buoyant without being sodden with oil. I cooked down a million apples this fall just for the purpose of baking and subbing oil with applesauce, and so i shall! Turned out great:

• 3 cups flour
• Less than 2 cups sugar (go lean and mix half white/brown)
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp clove
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg (i was out of this and added a few dashes of pumpkin pie spice instead)
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 16 oz (2 cups) Pumpkin, i used home cooked/pureed pumpkin that was mixed with some raw milk whey
• 2/3 cup oil - i used all applesauce instead of the oil
• 3 eggs slightly beaten - i added one simply because my ladies' eggs are so small
• I also added about a 1/2 cup of pecans
  

1. Preheat 350
   
2. Mix together flour and next 6 ingredients
3. Add the wet ingredients and mix until just blended
4. Do not overmix!
5. Pour batter into two 9x5 pans, or in my case a 9x5 pan and two little pans. Fill pans about half way, dough will rise
   
6. Bake for 1 hour, let cool 10 minutes and remove from pan

I occasionally run into a bit of egg white or applesauce, but it doesn't bother me! Quite tastey and so far has been enjoyed by all. It's not super sweet, and it could maybe be a little spicier.
To be naughty serve with a little margarine or Smart Balance on top. Yummmmmm.