I finished up my leadership clinical rotation yesterday. To celebrate, I made some delicious cookies and took them up to the unit for everyone. I had found this recipe on Pinterest a while back, and was eager to try it out. I'm so glad I did! These cookies are fantastic. Big. Chewy. Goodness. I got about 78 out of the recipe. You could probably get a few more, but I have this problem with just eating the cookie dough... I left some for the family, but the ones I took to the hospital were gone by 1400. Apparently everyone thought they were pretty tasty. This is a really easy recipe, that could easily be made in to thirds. I actually ended up having to divide the batter in half before adding the coconut, pecans, and chocolate chips because there was too much for the KitchenAid stand mixer to handle. This recipe was featured on Good Morning America, although I snagged the recipe from Christmas-Cookies.com. Enjoy!
Laura Bush's Cowboy Cookies
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 TBSP baking powder
1 TBSP baking soda
1 TBSP ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups butter (at room temperature)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 TBSP vanilla
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups sweetened flake coconut
2 cups chopped pecans
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together; set aside. Beat butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Gradually beat in sugars. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each. Beat in vanilla. Stir in flour mixture until combined. Add oats, coconut, chocolate chips, and pecans. For larger cookies, drop 1/4 cup dough on ungreased baking sheets, spacing 3" apart. Bake for 17-19 minutes, until edges are lightly browned; rotate sheets halfway through. For smaller cookies (what I did), use 2 TBSP dough for each; bake for 15ish minutes. Move to a cooling rack.
These are also good warm with a little bit of peanut butter!
I was super excited when I found this on Pinterest a couple of weeks ago. I'm always up for an easy, protein-packed breakfast. I really like that I can make this once and have breakfast for 6 days. It's also pretty yummy, unless you do not like spinach. This is what I ended up making on Friday night...or really early Saturday morning...when I could not sleep. The original recipe is from Whole Foods. I changed it a little, using mozzarella instead of Romano or Parmesan. The caloric value will change depended on what kind of cheese and milk you use, but mine turns out to be around 219 calories with 16 grams of protein per serving.
Quinoa & Spinach Egg Bake
Ingredients:
1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
8 eggs
1 1/4 cups milk (I used fat-free organic)
1 TBSP chopped garlic
1 tsp chopped thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 cups packed baby spinach, roughly chopped
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (I recommend shredding your own)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use a non-stick cooking spray to grease an 8x8 pan.
Whisk everything but the spinach and cheese together in a bowl; stir in spinach. Pour mixture into prepared 8x8 dish. Gently jiggle so the quinoa falls to the bottom. Cover with foil and bake until egg is set, about 45 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes. Enjoy!
I feel so blessed to have been able to spend last evening with the wonderful women of Gamma Rho. It's been rough not getting to see anyone outside of nursing school and not getting to do anything non-nursing school related...especially Spring Sing. Anyways, our fabulous Chaplin organized a mini retreat for this evening, and it was a blast! It was so good getting to see so many of my sisters. Great games. Great crafts. Great songs. Great devotional. And, of course, great food. As a senior, I was suppose to bring a "healthy" snack. I didn't want to do just a fruit or veggie tray. I wanted to be a little more creative. I hunted around and found a good looking recipe from Chex. (Definitely maybe not as healthy as an apple, but surely better [for you] than cake.) I was actually surprised by how well it turned out. It was definitely a hit. Several gals wanted the recipe, so here it is...more here is what I did:
Honey-Ginger Trail Mix
(Chex Ginger-Honey Crunch)
Ingredients:
6 cups Honey Nut Chex cereal
1 cup dried banana chips (I didn't actually put any in because the grocery store didn't have any to buy when I was there...but I bet they add a nice touch)
1 cup unblanched whole almonds
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries or dried pineapple (I did a 1/2 cup of each)
Directions:
In a large microwave bowl, mix cereal, banana chips and almonds.
In a 2-cup microwavable measuring cup, microwave butter, brown sugar, honey and ginger until mixture is boiling; stir. Pour over cereal mixture; stir. Microwave for 1 minute; stir (repeat this step 3 more times).
Stir in coconut, cranberries and/or pineapple (I cut my pineapple tidbits into quarters).
Spread onto jelly roll pan (lined with wax paper) to cool. Power cool in the fridge, if you want.
Store in an airtight container...if there's any left!
For some reason I am not sleeping tonight, which is always fantastic...said no one ever! I'm not sure if it's the 1-hour rest period I had in the middle of the afternoon or the fact that I apparently put the "energy" variety of Crystal Light in my water that I took to the retreat...maybe a combination of the two. On the plus side, I have breakfast made for the next 6 days (post coming soon), the kitchen is cleaned up, and I have fresh sheets and towels. I really wanted to workout, but I have a feeling that the people who live below me would not appreciate me doing Plyocide right now. I thought about working on taxes, but that seems a little ambitious. Oh, well. Maybe a movie? Or smell the new Scentsy fragrances again? That's always fun. Well, I'm off to find something else to do! Happy Saturday!
