Ja cię kocham…

Holy crap, it’s a blizzard!

I stepped outside and the snow is blowing sideways and the visibility is probably oh, 100 feet.  I took this picture of my deck before the wind kicked in.  We have satellite TV and the only channel we are able to get is Syfy, and the ONE thing that bores me more than no TV is Science Fiction.  Okay, that’s not completely true, Country Music TV would probably do me in.  Sorry country lovers.  Not my thing.

Food on the other hand is totally my thing.

These pancakes were gone in less than 5 minutes.  Hubby and I split them.  We were so hungry that we didn’t even put them on separate plates.  He grabbed the silverware, I grabbed the serving platter filled with pancakes, we crowded at the dining room table and just stuffed our windblown faces.

We managed to squeak in a conversation while we were shoveling in the sweet, fluffy discs of oatmeal and vanilla.  We debated whether or not it actually tasted like an oatmeal cookie.  Honestly, they tasted like regular pancakes to me… the nutmeg and cinnamon were awesome, but I just couldn’t find the oatmeal taste.  Jay told me that they tasted exactly like oatmeal cookies.  Don’t get me wrong, these were VERY good, and I could understand the “cookie” in the title as they were a little sweeter and had a freshness about them that reminded me of a bakery but the oatmeal flavor and texture was lost on me.  I couldn’t find it.  Of course I did omit the raisins from the recipe because nuts and raisins are a deal breaker for me as far as baking is concerned.  Most of you know this about me already.  I just can’t bear them in my sweets, but I’ll be the first to put carrots in my pancakes.  I know, I’m weird.

Maybe they should be called Sugar Cookie Pancakes.   They weren’t overkill on the sweetness, but it was like eating a very fluffy cookie.  Yum!  Perhaps you’ll find the oatmeal in there like Jay did.  Or not.  Quite frankly it doesn’t really matter because they were perfect for being snowed in.  Side note: I think these would be faboo with bananas on top, too.

Oatmeal Cookie Pancakes

Source: Joy the Baker
Serves: 4-6

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
heaping 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
2 Tbs brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
healthy pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
2 cups buttermilk
1 Tbs pure maple syrup
4 Tbs butter, melted and cooled
½ tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup golden raisins (optional)
oil or cooking spray (for cooking)

Directions:

In a large bowl beat eggs. Add buttermilk, butter , maple syrup and vanilla and mix well. Add flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt. Mix well until mostly smooth. Fold in raisins and let batter set for a few minutes.

Heat griddle or pan over medium heat. Add a teaspoon of oil to the pan or spray with cooking spray. You can test to see if the pan is hot enough by adding a few drops of water,  when the drops start to dance its hot enough.

Pour 2 Tablespoons of batter onto the griddle. Cook on the first side until bubbles that form start to pop. You can also gently lift up the pancake to make sure the bottom is not overcooking, if it is the pan may be too hot and you will need to adjust the heat. Flip the pancake over with a spatula and cook until golden brown. Repeat until all the batter is gone. Let cooked pancakes rest on a heat proof plate in a 200 degree F oven until ready to serve.

It’s a party up in here!  This time last year, I posted for the very first time and had no idea what was going to come of this blog.  Little did I know that I would have so many foodie friends (HUNDREDS of you!) and so much support!  Thank you!

And in celebration of Ja cie kocham’s birthday, I’m making chocolate covered pretzels – a boatload of them.   They are festive, easy to make, and I’m probably going to eat them all within a few days.

I’m also going to use this time to recap on some of my favorite recipes of the year:

Breakfast:

Peanut Butter and Banana French Toast – Heaven on a plate.  ‘Nuff said.

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Appetizer:

Crab-Stuffed Mushrooms – What a crowd pleaser!  Make sure to double the recipe because these will be gone in minutes!

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Pizza:

Pear and Blue Cheese Pizza – Wish I would have thought of this one sooner!  Seriously melted in my mouth.  I could have eaten the whole pizza by myself.

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Sandwich:

Grilled Vegetable, Herb, and Goat Cheese Sandwich – Perfect for a picnic and requires no refrigeration!

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Chicken Dish:

North African Grilled Chicken Paillards – Add ethnic flare to your chicken with a few pantry staples!

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Lime Chile Steaks with Pico de Gallo and Homemade Guacamole – Home run dish.  Bursting with flavor and super healthy to boot!

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Vegetarian:

Lemon Chickpea Stir-fry – AMAZING.  Nothing is more gratifying than making a very healthy meal that is so full of flavor.  I had several people ask for the recipe because they loved it so much.

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Pasta:

Linguine with Bacon, Baby Spinach, and Sage – I found this recipe on the back of the pasta box.  Always check the back of boxes for recipes.  They tend to be real winners!

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Side Dish:

Grilled Pineapple with Agave Nectar (or Honey) and Coconut – Elegant, healthy, delicious!

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Cookie:

The best Chocolate Chip Cookies EVER.  They were huge, fat, chewy, and absolutely sinful!

Thank you for spending time with me in my little corner of cyberworld this year.  Here’s to many more years together!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!  Here is a quick peek at the gorgeous table scape courtesy of my beautiful mother, Patti.

Hi, Mom!

My pictures are a little fuzzy and dark because I was making sure to keep an eye on the food.  Post-picture taking, I realized that my lens was covered with steam.  So I apologize for the lack of crisp pictures.  (I am a bit of a perfectionist…)

I am so thrilled to report that dinner was a hit, and I didn’t serve cold macaroni and cheese!  My biggest fear was the timing of all of the food because I didn’t want to serve my loved ones cold ham and crusty macaroni and cheese.  With help from Ma and Papa Zigs, dinner went without a hitch!  Thank you, Ma and Paps!!

Prior to the main meal, I made some “snicky snacks” or as my Polish Poppy used to refer to them as “hordy doors”.  Ja cie kocham, Poppy!!  Miss you.

A cookie display filled with Nigella’s Chocolate Christmas Cookies, shortbread, gingerbread, homemade chocolate covered pretzels, and caramel bites.  I added a little Chocolate Soynut Butter (sadly, I couldn’t find Nutella, but this work just as well) for the shortbread.

Tzatziki made with my Homemade Greek Yogurt served with Crudites lovingly prepared by my sister and Cleanliness is Next to Godliness Food blogger, Emmy.

We also offered piping hot coffee and warmed mulled apple wine.

Here is my hubby, Jay, partaking in the warmed beverage.  Hi, honey!

And here I am just loving life and my 14 year old doggie, Cricket.

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And now for the main course all served on my Nana’s China:

Holiday Glazed Ham prepared by me and Smoked Turkey prepared by Papa Zigs

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Pineapple Filling

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Homemade Scalloped Potatoes made by Mama Zigs

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Simply Baked Macaroni and Cheese

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Cucumber Salad (one of Poppy’s specialties)

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Roasted Carrots and Parsnips with Sage of which I totally forgot to take a picture!

Photo courtesy of www.jewcy.com

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Fresh Cranberry Sauce with Apples and Ginger

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And also – plain green beans for Mom Mom.  She loves her green beans!

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To avoid complete carb-overload, Mom made me a fresh fruit salad.

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And for dessert….

… a semi-homemade ice cream cake!

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Recipes of our Christmas bounty will come in the very near future.   For now, I am going to make a delicious breakfast with the leftovers…

Until we meet again, I again wish you health, wealth, and a big belly from good food!

This Christmas will be the first time that I host a holiday dinner for a large crowd!  Needless to say the past month has been filled with scouring through recipes, testing them out and deciding whether or not they are worthy of a Christmas Feast.  My main struggle is trying to keep things fairly simple while creating an elegance and charm that sets this meal apart from any other weekend.  Simple Elegance.  Hmmmm…

One thing that drives me insane is an overly crowded dinner table FILLED with decorations, serving plates, glasses, butter, jam, and much more!  I am definitely one that enjoys simplicity and a fairly clear table.  (That was a MUST for our wedding -  a beautiful table with room to see the table cloth!)

Our wedding table scape…

I like to have a separate little table for large platters of food to give guests the room to breathe and more importantly room to eat!

This being said… I have to be honest with you.  I’m “hosting” Christmas dinner at my parents’ house.  I know!  After all of this explaining and these pictures… nope, I’m not having dinner here.  My home, as adorable and warm as it is, isn’t suitable for a crowd of 12.  Half of us would have to eat in the living room and the rest in the dining room and kitchen.  I prefer all of us at one table.  My parents’ house can accommodate such a crowd and my need for togetherness.   This doesn’t mean that I don’t like it when family members sit at different tables.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with people eating in the living and dining room at one time.  A lot of the time this is what happens at my house when we have guests over so please don’t think that I frown upon this.  It’s just for this particular meal I have a vision of all of us together because this is the first time in a very, VERY long time that we have so many loved ones gathered at one time.  I can’t wait for there to be too many family members to fit at one table!

Anyway, I really want to introduce to you these cookies from Nigella Lawson.  I just want her British accent and her incredible ability to speak as if she’s reading from a novel.   Nigella is absolutely lovely in every sense of the word.

These cookies are chocolate shortbread cookies.  Amazingly good but easy to dry out.  So keep a close eye on them.

Nigella’s Chocolate Christmas Cookies

Makes 24 cookies

Source: From Nigella Christmas by Nigella Lawson. Also found on Oprah.com

Ingredients:

For cookies:

2 1/4 sticks (18 Tbsp.) soft butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder

Topping:

2 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup boiling water , from a kettle
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Christmas sprinkles

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325° and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl and, when you have a light, soft whipped mixture, beat in the 1/3 cup cocoa powder (sifting if it is lumpy) and, when that’s mixed in, beat in the flour with the baking soda and baking powder. Or just put everything in the processor.

Nigella recommends using vinyl gloves when handling the dough due to its sticky nature.  Personally, I didn’t find it necessary.  Pinch off pieces about 1 tablespoon in size, roll them into balls, then slightly flatten into fat discs as you place them, well spaced, on your cookies sheet.

Bake each batch for 15 minutes; even though the cookies won’t feel as if they’ve had enough time, they will continue to cook as they cool. They will look slightly cracked on top.  Mine never got that crackly appearance but I took them out anyway because I didn’t want to dry them out.  You’re icing them anyway.

Move the cookie sheet to a cold surface and let it sit for 15 minutes before transferring the cookies to a wire rack, with a sheet of newspaper under it (to catch drips while topping them).

To make the topping, put the cocoa powder, confectioners’ sugar, water and vanilla extract into a small saucepan and whisk over a low heat until everything is smoothly combined. Take off the heat for 10 minutes.

When the cookies are cool, drizzle each one with a tablespoonful of chocolate glaze—it will help “glue” the sprinkles on in a minute. Use the back of the spoon to help spread the mixture, though an uneven dribbled look is part of their charm. After you’ve iced 6 cookies, scatter with some of the Christmas sprinkles and continue until all the cookies are topped. If you ice them all before sprinkling, you will find the cocoa “glue” has dried and the sprinkles won’t stick on.

From Nigella Christmas by Nigella Lawson.  Copyright © Nigella Lawson 2008. Photographs Copyright © Lis Parsons 2008. Published by Hyperion. Available wherever books are sold. All Rights Reserved.

“What is a Pawpappy?”, you might ask.   My response is that is that a Pawpappy is a WHO, not a what, and Pawpappy is my dad.  Long, long ago my father decided during an episode of Empty Nest (hello 1990s!) that his grandchildren were to call him Pawdaddy.  Mind you, I was in my pre-teens and teen years in the 1990s.

Then I moved into my twenty-somethings.  My family went on a summer vacation to the beach and heading home from a grocery store, my dad and I saw a restaurant called Pappy’s with a BIG, pink pig as its mascot.  Dad just started dying of laughter, and when I inquired about this hysterical laughter my father decided that his grandkids were to call him Pawpappy.  He also decided that my mom is to be called Popeye – so they would be Popeye and Pawpappy.   And even though this is potentially a “you had to be there” scenario I must share with you that at this moment I have never laughed so hard in my life.  Let me also note that this conversation was 6 or 7 years ago, and my parents still aren’t grandparents.  My mom refuses to accept Popeye as her “grandma” name, but now we all call my dad “Pawpappy”, “Pawpaps”, or “Paps”.   Mom, you know we’re going to end up calling you Popeye

Paps’s birthday was yesterday and in honor of him, I made him his favorite dessert food… or should I say the only dessert that he eats: ginger snaps.  His birthday cake was actually a block of smoked muenster cheese (his favorite and he likes allll cheese) with candles in it.

Happy Birthday, Paps!  We love you!

Homemade Ginger Snaps

Source: For the Love of Cooking
Yields 18-24 cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups of flour (I used unbleached)
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup of brown sugar (I used turbinado sugar or “sugar in the raw”)
1 egg
1 tbsp water
1/4 cup molasses (Mine was unsulphured)
2 tbsp white sugar (again, I used turbinado sugar)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt then set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg then add water and molasses and mix thoroughly. Gently stir the dry mixture into the molasses mixture.

Shape dough into balls then roll them in the two tablespoons of white sugar.  Place the cookies about 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack.

Happy 100th post, Ja cie Kocham!  This blog was started merely for me to keep track of my own recipes.  I’m notorious for cooking something and not being able to find the recipe for future use so this blog was initially meant to serve as a private food diary for me.  Well, that lasted all about a month when my friends and family kept asking to see it.  So I gave in and made my Ja Cie Kocham visible to the public.  And here I am 100 posts deep.

To make this post even more special it happens to fall on my beautiful puppy’s 1st Birthday.

We don’t have children of our own (yet) so Noodles gets all of our energy and love.  We HAD to celebrate her birthday!  What kind of parents would we be if we didn’t?   I know it sounds corny and quite frankly even ridiculous – I have seen those crazy Dog Moms on Oprah and Dr. Phil that treat their dogs like humans and even chew their food for them – but rest assured that we’re not THAT crazy.  We just love any excuse to celebrate.  And yes, we love our Bean!

And Bean loves her Peanut Butter!  (I let her lick the spoon after I was done scooping the peanut butter…)  She also loves getting presents…  she waits patiently… well, as patiently as a birthday puppy can!

When we first got Noodles, she was so little and had lots of black hair.

As you can clearly see in her more recent posts, her dark black hair has turned a whitish-gray.  She’s half Maltese and half Yorkie so I guess the Maltese in her is coming through!

So let’s talk about these dog cookies.

1. They are so simple to make.
2. You can’t screw them up.  It’s impossible.
3. The original recipe CLAIMS to yield 10 “biscuits”, but mysteriously I ended up with 36!
   
4. And you can eat them, too.  They are not sweet at all so I added some chocolate
   

Please note that Noodles is watching Mommy partake in a cookie….

Peanut Butter Banana Doggie Cookies

Source: Allrecipes

Yields A LOT of cookies…

**Feel free to make the cookies really thick to cut back on the amount and to appease your larger doggies.  My dog is little (10 lbs) so I made the cookies thin so she could easily consume them.**

Ingredients:

1 egg
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup mashed banana
1 tablespoon honey
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 egg white, lightly beaten, for brushing

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet.

Stir together the egg, peanut butter, banana, and honey in a medium bowl; blend thoroughly. Stir in the flour and wheat germ; mix well.

Turn dough out onto a floured board and roll to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes with a cookie cutter, place on prepared baking sheet, and brush tops with egg white.

Bake biscuits in preheated oven until dried and golden brown, about 30 minutes, depending on size. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

I am going to start this post with two of my favorite words especially when referring to dessert – LOW CALORIE!

I was sitting at work with my friend Nicole teasing her about looking through Seventeen Magazine when I came across an awesome dessert.  Let me preface this by mentioning that Nicole is 18 years old so reading Seventeen is totally okay.  I just happen to be almost 10 years her senior and haven’t read that magazine in years.  I had to crack some sort of joke )

Anyway, Seventeen was introducing ways for already adorable and skinny-minny girls to achieve their perfect bikini bodies.  At 17, chances are you don’t have THAT much work ahead of you.  As a full-blown matronly woman (yaaaaaaay hips!), I took a vested interest in the desserts that they provided.  I love dessert.  I know I’ve told you this before, but no matter how stuffed I am from dinner, I ALWAYS have room for dessert.  My belly has its own dessert compartment ready to go at all times.  Skipping dessert is not an option for me.  But I am willing to cut corners to make my final and favorite meal of the day more figure friendly.

I’ll be honest with you yet again – I totally forgot about the pudding in mine.  I glanced at the magazine before work and then tried to remember its ingredients afterwards.  I was CLOSE, but I forgot the pudding.  Despite this error, I must say that these little cups are quite tasty.   I’m sure that their consistency will be different WITH the pudding, but I’m not all that concerned!

These little cups are so cute!  I have a bunch stashed in my freezer for when my sweet tooth gets outta control.  I used fat-free cool whip, sugar free strawberry preserves, and reduced fat nilla wafers.  I would have used sugar free pudding had I remembered that part.  Ha.  Cutting all of those corners allows me to guiltlessly enjoy dessert.  And it was GOOD.

Frozen Strawberry Cool Whip Pudding Cups

Source: Seventeen Magazine, June 2009

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

(I chose sugar and fat free items for my cups, but you don’t have to!)

1-2 small sugar-free vanilla pudding snack packs
1 container fat-free cool whip
2 Tbs. sugar-free strawberry preserves
8-10 reduced fat Nilla wafers
8-10 cupcake liners
Sprinkles, optional
Fresh Berries for topping

Directions:

Make room in your freezer.

Place cupcake liners on a plate or cookie sheet (a size that will fit in your freezer).

Place Nilla Wafers at the bottom of each cupcake liner.

In a large bowl, mix pudding, cool whip, and preserves.  Fill cupcake liners with pudding mixture.

Add sprinkles and top with one berry.

Place in the freezer for an hour.

Okay, okay, I know I have been MIA for a while.  I’m sorry.  My life has been filled with other stuff, and I have not have much time to cook, bake, and post.  Please forgive me.  But I will have you know that I planted my first EVER veggie garden filled with bell peppers, cherry and beefsteak tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, and habanero peppers.

Above is a shot of my veggie plants before I planted them.

Here is my strawberry plant.  Since this photo, my strawberries have gotten bigger and brighter!  I’ll have to post more updated photos in a later posting.

And here is my puppy, Noodles.  She has gotten bigger and cuter!  Gotta love her sweet face…

Anyway, back to chewy, gooey cookies.  I know that a lot of you have your secret recipe for chocolate chip cookies, but please trust me that these are worth baking.  Jay and I hosted a Memorial Day BBQ at our house, and everyone asked where I got these cookies.  They were shocked to discover that I made them… in 20 minutes.   )

They are super simple and super awesome!  My sister made a quick run to the store down the street, and they were almost done by the time she got back.  I found this recipe by Googling “best chocolate chip cookies recipe”, and Google did not fail me.  This recipe was reviewed by THOUSANDS of people, which all had raving comments about them.  (Not that I read them all, but they were rated “outstanding”.) What’s not to like about an ENORMOUS, soft, sweet chocolate chip cookie?!  They pair perfectly with a nice, cold glass of milk.  (One of Jay’s favorite things in the whole wide world…)

The Best Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie

Source: Allrecipes.com

Yields: 12-18 cookies  (recipe said 18, but I ended up with 12 cookies somehow!)

Ingredients:

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (or M&Ms)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.

Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended.  Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy.

Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended.

Stir in the chocolate chips/M&Ms by hand using a wooden spoon.

Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets.  Cookies should be about 3 inches apart – at least.

Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

This recipe is a crowd pleaser.  I promise!

You’re probably wondering what on earth I am thinking to put carrots in a cookie.  Quite frankly, I don’t blame you.  It sounds strange.  But if it’s strange, I’m making it.  So long as it doesn’t entail exotic meats... That kind of uniqueness ain’t for me.

Carrots are wonderful because they can be used in savory dishes as well as sweet, baked goods.  If you don’t believe me, check out my Carrot Cake Pancakes with Cream Cheese Spread.  You’ll see what I’m talking about )

These cookies are sweetened with pure maple syrup – no sugar.   Others who have made this cookie say that it’s not sweet enough and add turbinado sugar on top (Sugar in the Raw), but I don’t think it’s necessary.  They are perfectly sweet enough to satisfy your sweet tooth, but subtle enough for everyone to enjoy – including my parents who do not do sugary sweets in any shape or form.

The original recipe found on the 101 Cookbooks foodblog calls for walnuts.

You guessed it.  I omitted them.  I just can’t do it.  )

On a random side note, I would like to share with you an awesome kitchen gadget that I have and LOVE.  It’s a grater, but it’s designed for messy people like me so there is minimal clean up.

See?  It all goes in the container, not the counter and floor!

They come in all different grate sizes.  I used the smallest for the carrots so they wouldn’t be chunky and crunchy in my cookies.

I really enjoy these cookies because they are perfect for those days when you want to bake but you don’t have eggs, butter or milk.  I had one little egg left in the carton.  That’s not enough for most baking recipes.  I had a swig of milk left, which MUST be saved for Jay.  He does not function without his milk in the morning (so cute…).   And I had a ton of butter, but I didn’t feel like using it.  This recipe calls for coconut oil instead, which is quickly becoming a favorite baking staple in my house.  It adds no extra sweetness but leaves a coconutty after taste in your mouth – and it makes your kitchen smell wonderful while it’s baking.  It’s a little expensive, but well worth the investment.

So all you carrot cookie skeptics need to at least try these.  You’ll be pleasantly surprised!  They taste like macaroons!

Carrot Oatmeal Cookies

Source: 101 Cookbooks

Yields: 30 small cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (all-purpose works, too)
1 teaspoon baking powder
scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 cup rolled oats
2/3 cup chopped walnuts (I omitted…)
1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup real maple syrup
1/2 cup unrefined (fragrant) coconut oil, warmed until just melted
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and oats.

I used steel cut oats.  It’s texture is a little different than your typical oatmeal.

Add the nuts and carrots. In a separate smaller bowl use a whisk to combine the maple syrup, coconut oil, and ginger. Add this to the flour mixture and stir until just combined.

Drop onto prepared baking sheets, one level tablespoonful at a time, leaving about 2 inches between each cookie. Bake in the top 1/3 of the oven for 10 – 12 minutes or until the cookies are golden on top and bottom.

My dear friend Nikki and her boyfriend are coming up from Florida to see us today.  Nikki is the girl that I can count on to keep me in line as far as healthy eating goes.

In honor of Nikki and her love for healthy eating, I baked these cookies with her in mind.  Not an ounce of butter was used in this.  I substituted it with coconut oil giving the cookies a rich, coconut undertone.

Natural cane sugar was also used rather than the typical processed and bleached granulated sugar.  And finally, the recipe called for whole wheat pastry flour allowing for a smoother consistency in the dough.  It is also not bleached and enriched like typical all-purpose flour.

I have to say that even though the banana chips gave the cookies a slight crunch, I enjoyed it.  It subtly heightened the coconut flavor.  I did, however, omit the walnuts.  As always, not a fan of walnuts in my baked goods.

It’s probably not a surprise that these healthy treats came from 101 Cookbooks.  If you ever want a healthy version of a favorite meal or treat, this blog will provide you with alternatives.

Double Chips Cookies: Banana and Chocolate

Yields 24 cookies

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour (all-purpose is fine but try to use unbleached, if you can!)
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1/2 cup unrefined coconut oil
1 cup natural cane sugar (or brown sugar)
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2/3 cup banana chips, loosely chopped
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, racks in middle/upper middle. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk together the flour, wheat germ, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the coconut oil and the sugar until it is the consistency of a thick frosting.

Beat in the eggs one at a time, incorporating each fully before adding the next.

Stir in the vanilla. Add the reserved flour mix in two increments, stirring/mixing a bit between each addition (but not too much). By hand, stir in the banana chips and chocolate chips – mix just until everything is evenly distributed.

Drop 1 heaping tablespoon of dough for each cookie onto the prepared baking sheets 2 inches apart and bake for about 7 – 8 minutes, until barely golden on top and bottom.  Do not over bake. I pulled the cookies out of the oven when I thought that they were underdone, and they ended up being perfect!