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!
Peanut Butter. Chocolate. Cake. Three of my most favorite things in one seriously scrumptious dessert! I have been dying to make this since I located it on Pinterest last month. Fortunately, there was a birthday in the family this weekend. Perfect occasion for such a cake. In all honesty, the only thing I could think about during classes on Friday was that I was going to finally make this cake... Disclaimer: this cake is HORRIBLE for you. Super delicious. But you might want to have some extra insulin and antilipidemics handy. Kidding...kind of. Definitely get in some P90X or something once or twice BEFORE eating it. But really, this is the BEST tasting worst thing you can eat. Definitely worth it. Even the brother who doesn't like peanut butter, poor unfortunate child, ate this cake up. I would recommend making this for a crowd so you're not munching on leftovers :)
The recipe is from Tara at Smells Like Home. I thought about maybe making some healthier substitutions, but, really, with a cake like this, what's the point? There's just not a great way to do it. You can, however, control the quality of the ingredients that go in (i.e. natural/organic). Don't get too natural with the peanut butter though! JIF or Skippy Natural (creamy) are fine, but don't use anything that separates. That would be no good. Also, I only had 9" cake pans...so if that's you too, just know that you'll have a wider, shorter cake and will need to adjust the baking time. Click on the link above to get the recipe for this sweet thing!
Here's one I've been meaning to put up for a long time! I made these yummy muffins towards the end of Christmas break. I took a recipe I found (my mom's mom's) for pumpkin bread. Then, I totally messed it up (eliminated the sugar, all-purpose flour, shortening, and water). I really had no idea how they would turn out. The batter was pretty good, which is always a good sign. They smelled good while they were baking, another good sign. When I finally tried one, I was impressed. I was kind of hoping that the brother would think they tasted too healthy, so then I would have leftovers to take to school...but no. He didn't even noticed. He loved them. The mother loved them too. Definitely a success for replacing processed ingredients with more natural ones!
Pumpkin Muffins
Ingredients:
1 cup honey (local)
4 eggs
1/3 cup all-natural applesauce*
2 cups all-natural canned pumpkin
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon (I probably added a little extra)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Grease or line a 12-cup muffin pan.
Mix honey, eggs and pumpkin
Add in dry ingredients and mix
*Add applesauce until the right moisture is achieved
Divide batter into muffin cups
Bake for...15-20 minutes or until done.
I think that's about right! It's been awhile since I made them... and of course I didn't exactly write everything down.
I've had this quinoa for quite some time. I've wanted to eat it. But, the thing with quinoa is that it seems like it takes forever to cook, and I don't have time for that! Last night, I decided to take a study break and I cooked ALL of the quinoa I had (a little over 2 cups dry). I then divided it up in 1/2 cup servings to freeze and be handy. I left one out for breakfast this morning. I had it with half an avocado and a fried egg. Sprinkled with a dash of sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. Delicious! It was the perfect post-workout power breakfast!
I guess it has already been 10 whole days since I hit 22! I can't say it's a real life changer...although for some reason I feel much older. Oh, well. I got lucky this year, and I had the day off clinical. Score! I enjoyed my day thoroughly. I started it off with strength and abs. Then did some Kenpo-X. And wrapped up the afternoon with some X2-Yoga. Oh, and I slept-in until like 0800. It was fantastic. Felt SO good. I realize that's not most people's ideal way to spend a birthday, but it certainly was for me.
For dinner, I went out with the family to Capers Mediterranean Buffet & Bistro in NW OKC. I always like to pick someplace we've never been before. I've kind of been on a Greek and Mediterranean food kick since last year, when we went to Zorba's. So I hunted high and low on Urbanspoon until I found something that looked good. There were a few more casual Mediterranean food places, but not very many "nice" ones. Oklahoma is a little low on Mediterranean cuisine choices. I was kind of skeptical because I generally don't do buffets. However, I was pretty impressed. The gyro meat was by far the best I've ever had. EVER. There was a great selection of salads. They had some of my Mediterranean favorites--dolma and falafel. Bottom line: there was lots of tasty stuff. I definitely recommend it!
We went back to the father's house for cake. I found out a couple of days ago that the mother was actually going to bake me some kind of white chocolate raspberry cake, but she got distracted shopping for presents and ran out of time. SO, I ended up with white cake with butter cream frosting from Target...and I really can't complain. It's one of my weaknesses. I love Target cake. It's horrible. I don't even want to talk about the ingredient list. But it's so good.
Well, I'm sure that I really should get back to studying. I had a test yesterday, but there's another one tomorrow. That will be 3 since school started on the 7th. Story of my life. 84 days 'til graduation!
