Category: Baking

Christmas Cookie Exchange

12/19/2013

One of my favorite parts of being on a break from school is having the time to do things that I love doing. I'm finally getting to a point in my life where I realize that there's no value in sleeping until 10 am on my free days. By the time I'm done checking my e-mail, reading through my Facebook news feed, going through my USA Today news app, reading some blogs, and playing a few rounds of Candy Crush while still in bed, I'm famished and wanting to eat a late breakfast. This delays my workout, so I sit around and watch TV until I don't feel full anymore. Unfortunately, I'm hooked on a TV show on Netflix by this time and don't feel like doing anything except for watching more episodes. So I sit around and watch until I feel hungry again. And the cycle continues. By 4 pm, I'm in state of self-loathing for wasting an entire day, but I still can't get up from the couch and stop watching TV. Then Al comes home and wants dinner, and we watch more TV. Days like this of being a couch potato are fine once in a while if I'm sick or burned out, but doing them too often are just plain depressing.

I was worried that I would do this on my break, but I've been waking up before the sun every morning and getting my workout out of the way so that I could start getting things done. Yesterday, I needed to bake cookies for a cookie exchange that one of my school friends was hosting. I also decided to make a warm spinach and artichoke dip to serve with chips.

I saw a recipe on one of my favorite blogs (Peanut Butter Fingers) for chocolate crinkle cake mix cookies that I was dying to try. All you need is devil's food cake mix, canola oil, eggs, and powdered sugar.

It was very easy to make.

Unfortunately, I left the cookies in the oven for too long. They still looked raw to me after 12 minutes (the instructed baking time), and I let them bake for a few more minutes. I should have known better. I just finished a food science class that had labs and written exams on baking, so I should have realized that the cookies would harden as they cooled. They should have been moist and cake-like, but my finished product was dense and slightly bitter tasting.

I tried heating one in the microwave for 10 seconds, and it tasted a lot better since it was sightly melted. At least I'll know for the next time to follow oven directions.

I didn't have time to buy more ingredients and bake new cookies, so I just hoped that mine were passable and put them in clear gift baggies with dark chocolate M&Ms and tied them closed with white ribbons.

I also put together a quick spinach and artichoke dip using this recipe. I made the following changes: low-fat mayo, low-fat cream cheese (1/3 less fat), and non-fat Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. I served it at the party with tortilla chips, and it was a huge hit. It definitely made up for my hard cake cookies.

I think that cookie exchanges are such a wonderful idea. Erica, the host, provided us with baggies so that we could go around the table and take whichever ones we wanted. It was fun to sample everybody's cookies and take them home with us.

You come with one batch of cookies, and you leave with a variety of them!

The grapes and raspberries were the nutrition-friendly stars of the table. They didn't last very long.

Everything was incredibly good.

We also got to play with some adorable kids. I was never a "kid person", but I love being around them more and more as my friends are having babies.

Soon after I got home with my bags full of cookies, my brother asked me if I could take Libby outside for a walk since he was tied up at work for a few more hours. We currently live a block and a half away from each other, so it's usually not a problem for me to take her outside. His girlfriend helps with Lib mostly, but I'll step in if she's busy. I don't usually mind going over there to see one of the most adorable dogs in the world.

Anyway, Libby didn't greet me at the door when I walked inside his apartment. She'll usually be waiting at the door for me, or she'll come running over to me within a couple of seconds. I called her, and she didn't come. I walked to the back of his place and found her spread out on my brother's bed with her ears back, eyes closed, tail wagging, and the corners of her mouth curled up like she was trying to smile. Maybe she was acting guilty for being on his bed? Anyway, it was so ridiculously adorable. She actually does a doggie smile sometimes where she goes as far as scrunching up her snout and showing her teeth. Aren't dog smiles the cutest?

I took her outside where she pranced around in the snow and then started eating it after she did her business. It was freezing outside, but I still took her to the dog park for about 10 minutes. There were a few dogs there, although she ate snow more than she played with other dogs.

I'm in the suburbs at my parents' house until Sunday. I'm spending quality time with the pups there. Expect some more dog photos soon!

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Aussie Bites

2/6/2012

7 Comments

A few weeks ago, my mom and I came across Aussie Bites while shopping at Costco. We tried them, fell in love with them, bought them, cleared the box, and then went back to Costco two more times unable to find any more of them.

I was very sad for a few days. Then, my adventurous mother realized that she could make them on her own. With a quick internet search, she found the recipe. She baked them, and they taste exactly like the real thing!

Now, it's your turn. You will not be disappointed.

This is what my thumb looks like when I don't take off my polish for weeks!

Aussie Bites (recipe from grouprecipes.com)

2 cups regular or toasted oats
2 cups whole wheat flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 3.5-oz can of coconut (unsweetened)
1/2 cup sunflower kernels
1 cup dried fruit (raisins, dates, figs, cranberries, etc)
1/4 cup honey
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons hot water
1/2 cup flaxseeds (not listed on this recipe, but was in original Aussie Bites recipe)

To make, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Mix the first six ingredients in a bowl. Melt the honey and butter together in the microwave. Mix in the baking soda with hot water, and add butter to the mixture. Pour the butter mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well. Put the ingredients into a mini muffin or cupcake pan, flatten, and place them in the oven for ten minutes (or until golden brown).

This recipe makes about 48 Aussie Bites, but you will not be disappointed. My mom brought them to a Superbowl party last night, and people were flocking around them like vultures. Make these NOW!!!

7 Comments

Sweet Food, Sweet Holiday

9/29/2011

1 Comment

On Rosh Hashanah, we eat a lot of sweet food. After class this afternoon, I came home and helped my mom bake for our guests that were coming over later in the day.

First, we made the kugel. My mom cooked the egg noodles.

She then added all of the necessary mix-ins including cottage cheese, raisins, cinnamon and eggs.

She also added her crunchy corn flake topping (mixed with butter and cinnamon sugar) and then put it all in the oven.

I helped her make a cinnamon apple cake from Cooking Light. She has made it before, and it's always been a hit.

First, we made the cake batter.

We then combined cinnamon and sugar in a bowl.

We mixed half of the cinnamon sugar with a ton of chopped apples.

Then, we added to cinnamon sugar apples to the batter.

We mixed well.

We may have each licked a spatula afterwards.

We put the apple batter in a pan and covered it with the rest of the cinnamon sugar before putting it in the oven.

We thought everything was under control, and then Cody found the perfect pile of animal crap in the back yard for play time. He rolled around in it and came back in the house covered in poop/vomit/something gross. It's beyond imagination to me why dogs do this, but I guess it's one of those things that sets us apart from dogs.

Poor Cody had to get a bath...the day after he got groomed.

All clean now!

It's like nothing ever happened...

Our family arrived about an hour and a half later. We started with appetizers such as gefilte fish,

apples and honey

and challah.

After mingling for a while, we sat down for dinner. We ate brisket,

spinach cheese casserole (made by my grandma, who remembered eggs),

kuggel and also chicken and salad (not pictured).

Dessert was homemade apple cake,

my mom's apple cake

and chocolate coconut cake.

It was a great day for eating! I think I ate my weight in cake batter this afternoon. Geez.

Libby stopped by tonight (and is spending the night here, along with her owner/my brother Jon!).

Rigley also deserves an honorable mention, because she's adorable and was so well behaved tonight. I'd add pictures of Mickey, but he runs away every time I point the camera at him.

Happy, healthy new year!

1 Comment

'Cause I Feel Like Making You Drool

9/14/2011

4 Comments

Oops! I made cookies again.

4 Comments

Call Me "The Cookie Monster"

9/13/2011

0 Comments

Helloooo friends! I'm happy to say that the skunk mess has significantly improved. The house now only slightly smells, and no unpleasant scents came out of my backpack when I opened it in class today.

I now have a new thing to worry about: the wildfires in Minnesota are burning my eyes. That's not something you hear every day, right? When I left my class this afternoon, the sky seemed hazy and it smelled like there was a fire somewhere close to the school. On my way home, I heard on the radio that the smoke from the fires are spreading across the Midwest and are now in northern Illinois. It's bad for allergies, and it's even worse to be outside if you have issues with your lungs. My lungs are fortunately healthy, but the smoke in the air is really irritating my eyes. I may have to switch from my contacts to my glasses for a few days if they don't start to feel better. I realize that there are many worse outcomes from these fires besides my sore eyes, so I'm sorry to complain! Wildfires are so terrible, and I hope they can get it under control before it does even more damage.

Lunch and Cookies

On my way home from school, I got a craving for a Chipotle burrito bowl. My head said no, but my heart said yes. I followed my heart.

I got a veggie burrito bowl with brown rice, grilled veggies, mild salsa (pico de gallo), shredded cheese, guacamole and lettuce. I used to get sour cream, but I now take my food home and add a big spoonful of nonfat Greek yogurt. Maybe my thighs will thank me one day.

Chipotle just started using brown rice (you can choose between brown or white), and it makes me feel better about eating from there. The older I get, the more I love whole grains. They taste heartier, and they are so much better for us.

After I devoured my lunch, I wanted chocolate. I broke into the pantry and opened up a bag of semi sweet chocolate chips. After a small handful, I decided that I wanted to bake chocolate chip cookies. I swear, this has never happened to me in my life. I don't usually crave cookies unless they are in front of me, and I've never baked them by myself. That sounds crazy, but it's true.

I wanted to make something on the healthier side, so I perused the internet for good recipes. I found a great one by Chocolate Covered Katie, who is healthy baking genius (in my own humble opinion). I made her fudge babies before, and I thought they were great.

20 minutes later, I made some tasty cookies with this recipe. I used whole wheat flour and butter (only one tablespoon, and I used "healthy" butter...for what it's worth) instead of vegetable oil (I couldn't find it), but I followed her recipe other than that. I took her advice and pulled them from the oven when they were gooey instead of hard.

My mom was so happy to come home to healthy cookies.

You should really look at Chocolate Covered Katie for good healthy baking ideas. Even if you don't like baking, it's fun to click through and look at her pictures!

Have a great day!

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Fudge Babies

3/14/2011

2 Comments

I am sad to announce that my three-day weekend is coming to a close. I never told you all why we had a day off of work today, did I? It's for a horse race! That's right. Today is the Adelaide Cup, and South Australia (at least Adelaide) gets the day off every year. This would NEVER happen in America, would it? Today is one of those days where I am super proud to live in Australia.

Yesterday, I was all set to do a blog post until I discovered that I couldn't get on my site (Weebly). Weebly must have been making important changes at the time, so I reluctantly had to wait until today.

On Sunday, we woke up, ate breakfast and went to do our weekly grocery shop. I wanted to use up some of the foods in our fridge that were on the verge on going bad.

There was half of a pumpkin sitting in there for about two weeks, and I wanted to use it to make lunch. Now that we have a food processor, I figured that I could make a sweet pumpkin puree and maybe mix it with yogurt. I blended it up as far as it would go and added brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Unfortunately, it was disgusting. Look at the mess I made!

I wasted all of that pumpkin.

After I threw out the pumpkin, I walked to some local shops on Melbourne Street to continue my search for a dress for next weekend. When I still didn't find anything, Al picked me up to take me barbecue shopping.

We also picked up frozen yogurt from The Yoghurt Shop (for lunch). This place is fantastic, and I usually get it on Fridays after sushi. I get the same thing every time- strawberry and mango in the same cup.

Eventually, we DID pick up a barbecue. Alastair has been researching them since we moved in, and we finally have one! We were lucky enough to get a gas bottle from his parents (they had an extra one). Those things can get expensive.

That's the finished product!

While Al put the barbecue together, I cleaned up the pumpkin mess and put the food processor to use again. This time, I was successful.

In the midst of my healthy living blog reading frenzy, I found Chocolate Covered Katie. This girl is a genius when it comes to making healthy (and vegan) baked goods. I decided to whip together her signature Fudge Babies. I've been waiting for a while to make them, and now I finally own a food processor and can!

This recipe involves four ingredients: walnuts, dates, cocoa powder and vanilla extract. You blend them all together and roll them into balls. That is IT. I was shocked to find out that they taste like brownie batter. Unbelievable. Al tried one and was not impressed, but he also never caught on to the wonders of brownie batter and cookie dough. Shameful. Really, though, you should make these! You will be very impressed. I'm sure I'll make more things on Katie's website in the future.

Moving on to dinner, we christened the barbecue with Greek rosemary and garlic sausages.

I also sipped on a Carlton Dry. It's one of my low carb favorites (remember that low carb=light beer).

I don't think I've ever prepared sausages before (thanks to my somewhat vegetarian upbringing), and I laughed when I saw that they were all linked together. I may be an idiot for not knowing that, but I like being amused. I was very amused.

The sausage tasted wonderful, although I felt like I was going to have a heart attack afterwards. I understand why cardiologists don't want people to eat it. I might have to track down some turkey sausage.

Dessert was vanilla ice cream with a fudge baby.

It was like a much healthier brownie sundae.

Today

I didn't take any photos today, but it was very busy. I spent the majority of the day looking for a dress. I finally ended up buying one from a shop on Melbourne street that I looked at yesterday. It's a great dress, but it's too big in the shoulders. I have to get it altered ASAP. If not, I have to do a make-shift alteration using pins and pray that they stay put all night.

I'm really looking forward to a four-day week! I hope all of you had a great weekend.

2 Comments

By an exercise-loving Registered Dietitian

Christmas Cookie Exchange

Aussie Bites

Sweet Food, Sweet Holiday

'Cause I Feel Like Making You Drool

Call Me "The Cookie Monster"

Fudge Babies

ABOUT jennifer Martin, MS, RD, LDN

@thelittlejogger on instagram

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