Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Last night I was in the mood to make cookies.  It was perfect because my girls lifegroup leader had asked me to bring a dessert and I was more than happy to have a reason to bake.

 

I love baking but always find that I end up indulging too much when I have sweets in the house so I like the opportunity to bake for a special event and tonight was just that ;-)

I ran errands after work and picked up a bag of dark chocolate chips and knew instantly what I wanted to make. - Chewy Oatmeal Cookies!

I didn't have a recipe on hand so I googled "Best Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies" and the following recipe popped up on All-Recipes.  It was really really good! And the girls loved them :-)

Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Original recipe makes 3 1/2 dozen    

Ingredients     

Makes servings USMetricAdjust Recipe (Help)

• 1 cup butter, softened                                                                     
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar                                                                     
• 1/2 cup white sugar                                                                     
• 2 eggs                                                                     
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract     (I added 1 TB more)                                                                
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour                                                                     

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda                                                                     
• 1 teaspoon salt                                                                     
• 3 cups quick-cooking oats                                                                     
• 1 cup chopped walnuts   (I omitted)                                                                  
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips  (I added 1c more)                                                                   

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended. Mix in the quick oats, walnuts, and chocolate chips. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets.
3. Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

 

 

I will definitely be making these again!

Homemade Banana Bread

It's always a good night when your home smells like this!



Source

 Homemade Banana Bread adapted from The Yum Yum Factor. This bread packs three-four huge bananas, eggs/egg whites, oatmeal, white whole wheat flour, cinnamon, sugar, and even greek yogurt.  It's safe to say there is a lot of fiber and protein in it!

 

 

Low Fat Banana Bread Ingredients:

 

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup instant rolled oats
1 tbls canola oil
2 tbls greek  yogurt
1 large egg, beaten
2 medium egg whites, beaten
3 large ripe bananas
4 tsp apple sauce (I used flax seeds as substitute since I didn't have any)
extra oats for sprinkling on top of the loaf

 

Preheat the oven to 350F

Grease and flour a loaf pan and set aside. In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients right through to the oats.

In a smaller bowl, mash the bananas with a potato masher. Add the oil, the apple sauce, the yogurt and the whole egg and mix thoroughly.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well - batter is really thick and still partially dry at this point so don't panic.

In another medium bowl, beat the egg whites to medium stiff peaks with a hand mixer and fold them into the batter.

Pour the batter into  your prepared loaf pan, sprinkle a few tbls of oats over the top and bake until the top is firm to the touch, 45 - 50 minutes (mine baked for 50 minutes).Take it out of the oven and let it cool in the pan for 5 minutes before flipping it out onto a rack for another 10 minutes 

The best part of this recipe is that it is husband approved!

Cake Pops (Semi-Healthy Version)

I made cake pops the other night for my girls life group. They were delicious!

I had been reading tons of recipes online about substituting pumpkin for oil and egg in baked cakes and decided to give it a try. The end result was delicious. The cake balls were decadent and yummy and you could not even taste the pumpkin. I used German chocolate cake mix and1 can of pumpkin.

 

Recipe:
1 Can Pumpkin
I box Chocolate Cake Mix

Mix together one can pumpkin and one box cake mix. Fill cake pop pan 1/2 way full and cover with the other half of the pan. Bake 10 @350. The cake batter should rise out of the hole in the top of each calk pop tin.

Cool completely and put in fridge for 1 hour.
Meanwhile melt white chocolate and dark chocolate separately in the microwave.

Take out the pops from fridge and dip them in chocolate,. allow them to dry on wax paper before serving.

Enjoy! These were a hit with the girls :)

  

Cocoa-Coconut Chili + Chili Cook-Off

Last night was my first time participating in a Chili Cook-off!  I had no idea what type of Chili to bring but knew I wanted to incorporate a unique ingredient.... Coconut!

After some blog reading and recipe searches I found the perfect inspiration on Goodness and Goodies.

Cocoa- Coconut White Bean Chili!

Cocoa-Coconut Chili

Cocoa-Coconut White Bean Chili (with a few of my modifications, adapted from Goodness and Goodies)
My modifications included: MORE Cocoa and MORE Chili powder.

1-1.5 tbsp coconut oil
2 cups sweet onion, diced
1 1/2 cups celery, diced
3/4 cup red or yellow bell peppers, diced
4-6 medium cloves garlic
2 tbsp mild chili powder
2 TB sea salt
1-2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
5 TB Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 cans (28 oz) diced tomatoes (drained)
1 can (14 oz) small white beans (drained)
1 can (14 oz) pinto beans (drained)
1 can (14 oz) kidney beans (drained)
1 can (14 oz) light coconut milk
1/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 cup frozen corn kernels
4-5 TB organic cane sugar

In a large pot on medium heat, add oil, onion, celery, peppers, garlic, salt & pepper, chili powder, cinnamon, and allspice, stir to combine. Cover and cook for 7-9 minutes, stirring occasionally; reduce heat if onions start to burn. When onions start to soften, add cocoa and stir for 1-2 minutes, then add tomatoes, beans, coconut milk, and stir to combine. Increase heat to bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in corn kernels and cane sugar, and cook another 5 minutes to heat through. Remove cover and let liquid reduce if desired. Season to taste with additional salt, pepper, and/or chili powder.  Pour Coconut Flakes on top.

Me and my coconut goodness!

I seriously wanted to drink it with all the creamy cocoa and coconut milk!

AND..... It was Bryan-approved! :-)

In fact Bryan asked me to make a whole pot for just us sometime.  Wow! 

The winners will be announced next week.  Fingers crossed, I'll let you know how it goes!

Today's Workout:

5 mile run at 8min mile pace (yes, this is my morning trend these days haha)

I love getting my workout in first thing in the morning because I have the rest of the day to reap the benefits!  I also like having my evenings to spend with Bryan and friends without feeling guilty for missing out on exercise.  

Questions:

Have you had any unique dishes lately? 

Do you prefer morning or evening workouts?

Are you a coconut fan?