Cookies Galore! Funfetti Cookies

Stefanie's cookies brought back all those birthday parties where I wasn't worried about eating half the cake! Who knew that you could make cookies with Funfetti Cake Mix?!


Ingredients
1 (18.9-oz.) pkg. Pillsbury® Moist Supreme® Funfetti® Cake Mix
1/3 cup oil
2 eggs
1/2 (15.6-oz.) can Pillsbury® Creamy Supreme® Funfetti® Vanilla Frosting

Directions
1. Heat oven to 375°F.
2. In large bowl, combine cake mix, oil, and eggs: stir with spoon until thoroughly moistened.
3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; place 2 inches apart on ungreased cooki sheets. With bottom of glass dipped in flour, flatten to 1/4-inch thickness.
4. Bake at 375°F for 6 to 8 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets.
5. Spread frosting over warm cookies. Immediately sprinkle each with candy bits from frosting.
6. Let frosting set before storing. Store in tightly covered container.

Cookies Galore! Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Catie made some delicious cookies that combine everything you would want in a holiday cookie: peanut butter, chocolate chips and oatmeal!

She got her recipe from Martha Stewart Living.

Ingredients

Makes about 6 dozen.

• 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups salted whole peanuts
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir together oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.
2. Put sugars, butter, and peanut butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Mix in eggs and vanilla.
3. Reduce speed to low. Add oat mixture, and mix until just combined. Mix in peanuts and chocolate chips.
4. Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop, drop balls of dough 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
5. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until golden brown and just set, 13 to 15 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 2 days.

Cookies Galore!

Yay for cookies and the holiday season! This is the first of hopefully 11 different recipes (combined into a smaller amount of posts for lazy readers). I will "highlight" (you'll see what that means) each cookie and give its recipe! I hope you enjoy and have fun with your holiday baking!

Official

This is an official blogger promise.

I will write at least one post every 48 hours.

Really! I promise this time! I can't guarantee that every post will be extraordinarily interesting but there will at least be one.

I'm about to write a series of posts- inspired by my favorite style maven- Miss Kate! The series was a request from another loyal reader about "How to Stock Your Kitchen". I immediately thought this was a great idea- but does she mean with utensils and gadgets? spices and long term staples? pots and pans? Well, why not answer all of the above! Therefore, you will soon be embarking on an adventure into my wild mind (and the world of internet research that I will perform to write this post) so I hope you find it useful!

In an additional note, my friends at work (which include my muses from the above paragraph) decided to do a holiday cookie exchange. I will be asking for the recipes from each of them and posting them on here for your enjoyment!

Awesome Salad Dressing with Pan-Roasted Garlic

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_75379,00.html

Delicious dressing- that's all I have to say!

10 gloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 hearts Romaine lettuce
Grated romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano In a small skillet, combine the garlic cloves and the oil. Over a low heat, caramelize the garlic until browned and soft, about 20 minutes.

Transfer garlic cloves to a blender or food processor. Add the vinegar and mustard. Blend until smooth. With the motor running, slowly pour in the reserved garlic oil. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Chop the lettuce into bite-sized pieces and put in a large salad bowl. Pour the dressing over the lettuce and toss to coat. Sprinkle some grated cheese on top and serve immediately.

Overeating is for suckers, suckers and girls...

What person doesn't overeat at some point? Whether you do it to relieve stress, make you happy, or because you are plain old bored, we all do it! Sometimes it comes to a point where it is completely unhealthy and is related to binge eating and bulmia.

I'm not talking about that (though it is a very important topic). I'm discussing "normal" overeating. You walk into the kitchen, grab a bag of chips, sit down with it in front of America's Next Top Model, and an hour later... oops! All gone! Where'd it go? Did I just eat an entire bag of chips? No... the boyfriend had a few... but the grease and salt on my hands is a sure sign that I had well over my fair share. This happens to me very often, which takes a toll, not only on my poor tummy (where all the fat congregates) but on my grocery bill. It almost seems like someone hypnotized me so I forget what I'm doing every time I eat a snack...

I came across this article on the Weight Watchers website which reminded me- there is something I can do about my little (multi-chip) problem. This resulted in more searching the internet for other ways to beat the chip bag. I like the ideas from WebMd- no distractions, smaller portions and knowing when you're full. I also found another article about different reasons people overeat and how to beat it. It suggests solutions for everything from boredom to feeling overwhelmed to daily habits.

Feel free to comment about your own overeating- or about how you looked at the questions that help determine if you are an overeater on Overeaters Anonymous and you qualify for therapy... (join the club!)

These are some of those foods that disappear really fast in my house...

Rosemary and Lemon Chicken Dinner

DELICIOUS! We've made this twice and it has been our favorite meal to make and eat! The chicken has turned out very tasty and tender and especially good because we went out of our way to buy fresh rosemary for this meal (from the Farmer's Market), and it was worth it!

Recipe for Lemon-Rosemary Chicken:

Yield: 4 servings

• 2 medium-size lemons
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary or 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 4 small skinless, boneless chicken-breast halves (1 pound) *(we used breast tenders- they were frozen from costco, we pulled them out the day before to defrost)
  

1. From 1 lemon, grate enough peel to equal 2 teaspoons. Thinly slice half of second lemon; reserve slices for garnish. Squeeze juice from remaining 3 lemon halves into small bowl. Stir in lemon peel, rosemary, olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic.

2. Spray heavy skillet-grill or 12-inch skillet with nonstick cooking spray. Heat skillet over medium-high heat until very hot.

3. Meanwhile, toss chicken-breast halves with lemon-juice mixture.

4. Place chicken-breast halves in hot skillet; cook 5 minutes, brushing with remaining lemon-juice mixture in bowl. Turn chicken over and cook 5 minutes longer until juices run clear when thickest part of chicken breast is pierced with a knife. Garnish with lemon slices.

This meal is pretty quick (as long as you put the baked potatoes in the oven well in advance). I rubbed the potato with olive oil and sea salt before putting it in the oven at 350/375 for an hour. Meanwhile, I made the peas and chicken and a butter for the inside of the potato. I melted Smart Balance butter (gotta save my cholesterol!) and threw some rosemary in!

I really recommend this so let me know if you make it and how it turns out for you!

Olive Oil

Oh how I love tomato, basil and mozzarella with drizzled olive oil over the top! This picture shows no cheese because we didn't have any at the time, but our little appetizer was still delicious. I also love how olive oil is very healthy for you.

That's all I have to say about that for now. I have a bunch of posts backed up so I'm trying to get them out a little quicker!

Wine Country

My parents came to visit and we headed up to Napa to drink some wine. The thing is... I didn't like wine at the time. I know it has great health benefits, but it just made me cringe at the taste. However, when I went to wine country, I found that I actually liked some of it. I'm not surprised; I like the expensive stuff!

We only hit 4 places because we got up there late but that was enough wine for me- hey, I was the driver!

Beringer: Pretty grounds, great wine- my favorite Chardonnay, really great servers, 3 tastings for $5
V. Sattui: Had a deli, wine was ok (cheap tasting but not a lot of wine- we also had a coupon), server was not very nice though!
Robert Mondavi: Gorgeous grounds (picture above with the statue), you can wander around them with your wine tasting ($10 for 2 almost full glasses)

Domaine Chandon: Made me love champagne! $15? for 4 tastings- well worth it!

Farmer's Market

I love the San Francisco Farmer's Market. Well... I haven't been to another farmer's market so I can't really compare! It is also a little too expensive for me to go every week but I love to wander around and taste samples of 3 dollar peaches! Here's an article on how to eat green and has recipes too!

I also like to go and pick out things that catch my eye and build a meal around that. Following this post, you'll see the fragrant (and cheap!) rosemary I bought at the market in a meal that has become my favorite meal ever! Here is an article about using seasonal vegetables and fruits in your meals (Savor the Season).

Welcome back to me!

Well. I've been away for quite some time. First there were visitors (=no cooking and definitely no time), then apartment hunting (= no time) and then of course came the moving.

So, although there are boxes all over the floor and I'm not sure where half of my kitchen supplies are, I'm starting up again and I will be much more diligent this time! My friend Jean decided to have a "craft day" at her apartment and since all my scrapbooking materials are packed away still...here comes a post!

Since I obviously haven't cooked anything with the move, here are some sites I find useful/good/interesting.

Hungry Girl: I used this website when I was on Weight Watchers. It has lot of good tips for low fat/low cal foods. You do have to pay attention because it doesn't really take health risks such as cholesterol/sodium into account when recommending foods. It is written by a regular female who has been keeping an eye out for things like this for you and me!

Food Network (Healthy Eating section especially): Food Network in general may not have all healthy eating (any of Paula Dean's stuff that she loads with butter!) but there is a special section for people looking for something that won't clog the arteries. There are tips and articles about what types of food are healthy and in season and what nutrients are needed and where to get them.

Simply Recipes: This is a blog that somehow is lucky enough to be a widgit on iGoogle! She (and her family) try every recipe before she posts one. They aren't all perfectly healthy but she organizes her old posts by types of food including a section on vegetarian recipes and low carb recipes. Otherwise, you'll just have to sort through by hand! Also, she has a monsterous list of other food blogs to refer to for other ideas.


I think I'll stop there- I'll post more every once and a while! I'll leave you with a final article about 6 Superfoods! Thanks for reading along!

Peanut Asian Sauce Chicken Lettuce Wraps

So I'm still getting used to taking pictures of food... it is definitely harder than I thought! This is a little concoction that I pulled together, which of course means I didn't measure any of the ingredients! My dad always told me this was the sign of a good chef, but it is also the sign of a bad blogger of recipes! I have a good estimate here though, and of course, taste the sauce before you use it to make sure it is to your liking. I will probably make this again soon and add a comment if it comes out different- please also add your comments if you make it!

Ingredients:
~1 pound of chicken (I used frozen chicken tenderloins from Costco- cheap and very quick to make)
~1 head of romaine lettuce
~3 large tablespoons of peanut butter (can be fat-free to increase health value!)
~3 tablespoons of soy sauce
~1 teaspoon sesame oil
~2 cloves of minced garlic
~2 teaspoons of rice vinegar
~2 tablespoons of cooking sherry
~1 cup dry minute brown rice

1) Cook chicken through.
Meanwhile...
2) Start making the minute brown rice according to directions (mine takes 10 minutes).
3) Make the sauce in medium size bowl: add peanut butter, soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, rice vinegar, and sherry and whisk together.
4) When chicken is done, put hot chicken in bowl with sauce and mix it up while cutting into pieces.
5) Wash and dry full romaine lettuce leaves
6) Arrange lettuce on plate, put some brown rice on and the chicken on top of that-- so simple!

Serves 2 (with a little leftover, but we also had a side of veggies)

Please enjoy this quick and delicious meal!

Welcome

This is my first post on my new blog about (mostly!) healthy eating. As a on and off dieter- including Weight Watchers twice- I was constantly trying to find recipes that were both delicious and on my diet without spending a fortune on recipe books. As a 20-something always on the go, I like my meals to be quick in both preparation and cooking time, but still homemade. This site will combine recipes I found from books/the web/friends, and recipes I've tweaked or made up on my own. Of course, they will all be taste-tested by yours truly! I hope you can find something on here you like! Thanks for visiting (and thanks to all my friends who helped me think up a name for the blog- especially Kate, since this name is her idea!)