Tuesday Treats: Ooey Gooey Chocolaty Goodness or No Bake Cookies

So Today's treat is a classic. No Bake cookies are easy to make and are wonderful when it's hot because you don't need to turn on the oven. They are also a great way to satisfy a chocolate craving. I like my chocolate plain, so these do not have peanut butter (if you do like peanut butter in your cookies, add 1/2 cup peanut butter and reduce the oats to 3-1/4 cups).

These take me back to my early days in college (about 7-8 years ago). My roommates and I at the time would make these a lot. We even tried to justify them as a complete meal (with all the basic food groups except fruit - of course this was with the OLD food guide.) Ok, so we stretched it a bit, but here's basically how it went: Grains: easy, the oats; Dairy: milk; Proteins: Peanut Butter (I don't think they shared my view of unadulterated chocolate); Oils & Sugar: margarine (we were poor college students, butter was out of the question) and sugar; here's the point where it went silly (and we all knew it): the last ingredient is vanilla, vanilla is made from vanilla beans, beans are a vegetable, hence it has that food group (by that same logic it could have been another protien). The real problem with the vanilla was that we used imitation vanilla (like I said, poor college students) so there was no basis for the argument. It was still fun to rationalize the rapid consumption of a whole pan of these. I don't think they lasted more than 24 hours in our apartment. Those were good times.

No Bake Cookies

In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, melt one cube butter (1/2 cup). Add 2 cups sugar and 1/2 cup milk. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Add 3 Tbsp Special Dark baking cooca and 3 Tbs regular baking cocoa and a pinch of salt.

Bring to a boil. Let boil for 2-3 minutes.

Remove from heat and add 1 tsp vanilla (if you wanted to use peanut butter you would add 1/2 cup with the vanilla.) Then stir in 3-1/2 cups quick cooking oats (reduce to 3-1/4 cups if using peanut butter).

Drop by tablespoonfuls onto wax paper. As you can see I just put the wax paper directly onto my counter. You can also use it to line cookie sheets if you would prefer.

Wait about 1/2 hour until they set up. Or just eat a few after they cool off enough so they won't burn your mouth. The other important step is to cool off the spoon you were using. That was my spoon in the bottom of this picture...

Once it cools off enough, lick the spoon clean. Very important step, do not leave this step out. If you are not a spoon licker, then hopefully someone in your family is. It will make their day!

Enjoy!

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Meals - August 10-16

My recipes this week were inspired by our friends giving us zucchini and cilantro (the exceptions being baked potatoes and chicken fajita pizza). The baked potatoes were because we needed to go grocery shopping and I didn't have enough energy on Tuesday to go - I think my baby was going through a growth spurt. Is it me, or do growth spurts make all moms really exhausted?

I used the cilantro as a garnish for the Stir-Fried Thai Chicken Salad and also in the Fresh Salsa. I don't know why but this Fresh Salsa makes me happy, it is so good! Every time I make it, we always have quesadillas. That's just how it works in our house. We also have tortilla chips... After all there are only 2 of us and it makes 4 cups of salsa. I could cut the recipe in half, but why? ;)

I am going to include photos of the finished dish this week, so please let me know if this is something you would like to see continue in the future.

So here's what we had last week:
Monday:
Zucchini Boats

Tuesday:
Baked Potatoes

Wednesday:
Stir-Fried Thai Chicken Salad

Thursday:
Stir-Fried Thai Chicken Salad

Friday:
Chicken Fajita Pizza Recipe for Pizza Crust.

Saturday:
Chicken Fajita Pizza

Sunday:
Quesadillas made with Fresh Salsa

Let me know what recipe you want to see posted on Wednesday - vote on the right side of the blog.

Foodless Friday: Birds

So my husband and I love to go birdwatching. In fact our first date was going birdwatching at a nature preserve. Back then we were both just learning, in fact, it took us about 20 minutes to identify an American Coot (granted we never saw its feet - that would have been a huge give away). Thankfully we're a bit more skillful now. We're not experts by any stretch of the imagination, but we can identify most of the birds we see if they hang around long enough! The length of time depends on the features of the bird. It also helps to have a digital camera. We bought one with the money we were given for our college graduation (we graduated the same semester). It has a 12x optical zoom, which helps us when the birds are farther away. In fact, this bird:
we were able to identify because of this picture. We zoomed in and saw the yellow eye and by that were able to find out it was a Brown Thrasher. It also helped to have a still image because this bird spent most of its time hidden in the bush.

When we go to the zoo, we ALWAYS go to the Aviaries. They are so fun. We love being able to look for birds and see what exotic birds that the zoo has. We thought it would be fun to have our own little bird room in our house. Until we learned about the Migratory Bird Act. We could still do it, but the birds we wanted to have in it, we really can't. Ah well, such is life. We'll just have to go to the zoo more often. We'll appreciate it more!

So our last trip to the zoo, we saw some great birds in their tropical aviary. Here are a few of the birds we were able to get shots of.We took our 4 month old with us, and he had a great time. Here he is as a penguin...
He actually did very well, but ended up falling asleep in the aviary (which was our last stop). Here he is after the aviary:
Isn't he just adorable? He has a 2 foot wing span - just so you know...

So one of the reasons I like birding is because it helps me to see that there really is so much diversity in the world and even in one type of animal. I also like it because it is like solving a mystery each time we go. We scope out clues, body shape, beak shape, habitat, behavior, movement, songs, coloration, etc and use those clues to help identify what the bird is.

So next time you see a bird, look just a little bit longer at it just for me. ;0)

Think Thursday: Peanut Butter and Banana Bites

In an effort to try to eat more calories (lactating), while remaining healthy and having a quick and easy item to snack on, I have come up with Peanut Butter and Banana Bites. These are easy to make and can be eaten while nursing a baby, both are a plus! I really like peanut butter and bananas, but I really think the wheat germ adds to this simple snack.


What you'll need:
1 banana
Peanut Butter (about 5 tsp)
wheat germ (about 1/2 tsp)

Slice the banana into coins, top with about a half a tsp of peanut butter per coin. Sprinkle wheat germ on top. I use about 1/16 tsp of wheat germ per coin.

Enjoy with a cold glass of milk.

Lemon-Herb Pork Loin Chops

So this was the last of our 8 lb pork loin! I was going to use these to make Cuban Pork chops a few weeks ago when we had Cuban Black Beans and Rice (before I started blogging about food) but ended up not using them (obviously). I thought I would try something different. I found a lemon-basil marinate recipe (it basically used lemonade and basil). I tweaked it a bit (okay a lot) and I actually rather enjoyed the flavor of these. I decided to rename these Lemon-Herb Pork Loin Chops.

Lemon-Herb Pork Loin Chops

Marinate two pork loin chops in 1/4 cup lemon juice, 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar, 1 tbsp basil, 1/2 tsp thyme, 1/2 tsp oregano, and 1/8 tsp pepper. I marinated them for 4 hours, but longer would be better so it can soak up the flavor.

Cook until meat thermometer reads 160°F. I used a Foreman grill, but would suggest using a double broiler (cook for about 10 minutes per side) or a grill.

Enjoy! I served mine with a baby lettuce and apple salad with a mixture of balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.

Poll Results

In a 5 to 4 win, Lemon Herb Pork Loin Chops wins the poll. Look for it tomorrow afternoon!

My husband thinks that all those who voted for the BBQ Chicken Tortilla pizza have great taste in food!

Tuedsay Treats: Lime-Coconut cookies

Welcome to Tuesday Treats... I almost feel deceptive having this as my first post, because really my absolute favorite desserts have chocolate in them. These have no hint of chocolaty goodness but they are delicious. I ran across the idea using a sugar cookie mix, but since I never buy them, I had to come up with the proper proportions. This is what resulted. I must say that this recipe was the first attempt at making them and I am somewhat proud that they turned out so well. The whole reason I found this idea is that I was looking to use up two limes that I had bought and not used. I also had some coconut that needed using, so it was perfect.

I will warn you that you should use finely shredded lime peel or else you will have funny green strips in your cookies. Seriously, my husband stopped eating his cookie to make sure it wasn't a bug or some other thing that didn't belong in a cookie. I used my julienne peeler = BAD IDEA. So do yourself and anyone who may eat these a favor and make sure the peel is very finely shredded or ground. Do yourself another favor and don't eat them all in 2 days.

Lime-Coconut Cookies

In a medium or large mixing bowl, beat 2 cups granulated sugar and 1/2 cup butter with electric mixer on medium speed.

add an egg

1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup milk

and 3.5 cups flour.

Next add 1 cup coconut, 1 Tbsp lime peel and 4 Tbsp lime juice. Mix until blended.

On cookie sheet, drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are browned. Do not cook until the cookie turns brown, just until the edges turn a golden brown

or a little darker (both of these batches turned out just great - however I did like the first where they weren't so dark.)

Enjoy! Just don't eat the whole batch in two days like I did. That's not entirely true, I sent some to work with my husband.

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