Chocolate-Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Hey all!  I hope you each had a wonderful Christmas holiday with friends and family.  We're recuperating quite well from the travel, food, and bustle of activity.  We were blessed to spend Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas Day with my husband's family enjoying each other's company, opening gifts and eating delicious food.  I have a few recipes from our Christmas breakfast to share with you in the coming weeks, but wanted to share a delicious cookie recipe with you today: Chocolate-Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies.  This recipe is adapted from Ocean Spray's online recipes.

Ingredients:
1 1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cup brown sugar, Splenda
4 large eggs
3 cups old-fashioned oats
3 cups flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon milk
1 5-ounce package dried cranberries
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
1/4 cup milk chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Using a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and mix well.  In a separate bowl, combine oats, flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  Slowly add to butter mixture in several additions, mixing well after each addition.  Finally, add milk and mix well.  Stir in chocolate chips and dried cranberries.

Drop by  rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake for 8-11 minutes or until golden brown.  Then cool on wire rack.

Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

These cookies were a hit at work and at home!  My husband loved them and couldn't be more excited about leftovers from the office!

Coming soon!
Cranberry Clementine Muffins
Breakfast Casserole
Layer Biscuits

Sauteed Bananas

Hello, hello!  So glad the weekend is finally here!  Troy and I spent the evening cleaning the house since tonight was our last free night before we head to San Francisco.  So excited!

After cleaning, I was craving something sweet.  Solution?  Sauteed Bananas.  Yum!

Ingredients:
Bananas, sliced
Cinnamon-Sugar Mixture
Reddi-Whip
Chocolate Chips
Olive Oil

Directions:
Lightly spritz olive oil into heated sautee pan.  Place sliced bananas in pan and sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar mixture.  Sautee for 2-3 minutes.  Transfer to bowl and top with chocolate chips and Reddi-Whip.  Simple, yet delicious!

Coming soon: Slow Cooker Cream-Style Corn

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Banana "Ice Cream"

As I'm sure you've figured out, I love sweets!  But eating ice cream every.single.night is definitely not a healthy option.  How about this: frozen banana?  Ooooh yum!

Ingredients:
Bananas - that's it!

Directions:
Slice bananas into 1/2 inch to inch slices.  Freeze overnight.  Once frozen, put banana into a food processor to puree.  Serve in your favorite ice cream bowl.  For an extra special treat, top with Reddi-whip.  The texture reminds me a little of Dippin' Dots.  Love it!

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hi, everyone!  Hope you had a great weekend!  We've kept things pretty low-key this weekend. We visited my grandparents, did some grocery shopping saw Jurassic Park in Imax 3D and made cookies with our brand new Kitchenaid Mixer.  That's right - our Kitchenaid Mixer.  I seriously have some of the best co-workers.  Ever.  They surprised with me a wonderful bridal shower last week and this wonderful gift.  I.  Love.  It. 

So as a way to thank them for their wondefulness and genoristy, I decided to make delicious Double Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I searched the Hershey's Kitchens website and found Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Chip Cookies.  No changes this time round, just ditched the nuts.
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks margarine, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 package chocolate chips (11.5 oz)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.  Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in a large bowl on medium speed of mixer until creamy.  Add eggs and beat well.  Gradually add flour mixture, beating well.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Drop by teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheets (I used a melon baller to scoop the cookies). 

Bake 8-10 minutes or until set.  Cool slightly, then transfer to a wire cooling rack.  Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

 

(Love the Wilton stackable cookie sheets!)

 

Strawberry Banana Muffins

Oh, muffins, how we love thee.  Seriously.  They are T's favorite thing.  Ever.  Newest muffin recipe: Strawberry Banana Muffins from A Hint of Honey.  Yum, yum!

Ingredients:
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/2 cups strawberries, sliced and diced
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, combine the strawberries and honey.  Set aside. 
In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside. 
In a separate bowl, combine banana, egg, applesauce and vanilla.  Add wet ingredients to the dry until just moistened.  Fold in strawberry mixture. 
Spoon batter into lightly greased muffin tins.  Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes, or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. 
Makes 12 muffins.

Grilled Bananas

I often find that I take waaaaay too many pictures.  While organizing them, I ran across a photo of a fantastic grilling item: bananas.  Seriously, it's like a warm banana split.  Seeing the picture makes me wish summer was here (or maybe its the 30 degree weather). 

All you need are bananas, foil, your choice of toppings and a grill. Make a foil bowl to hold your banana. Cut the banana the long way and add your toppings. Transfer to your heated grill for 10-15 minutes (the banana peel will turn black). Once the banana has been cooked, remove from the grill and transfer to a dish.  Add ice cream, whipped topping, or whatever else you'd like and serve!  So delish!

 

 

Cream Cheese-Yogurt Fruit Dip

Over the weekend, we visited T's aunt and uncle in Oklahoma.  His aunt loves cooking and made a delicious fruit salad that I really wanted to replicate.  She mentioned the dish had both cream cheese and sour cream (say what!?) so I did a quick Google search and found Better Homes and Gardens' recipe using both ingredients.  After reading the BHG recipe and seeing yogurt listed as an alternative to sour cream, I immediately decided to switch it up and try it out.

Ingredients:
1 package cream cheese, 8 ounce, fat free
vanilla Greek yogurt, about 10 ounces
1/4 cup brown sugar, Splenda variety
1 tsp vanilla
1-3 tbsp milk
fresh fruit

Directions:
In a small bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth with electric mixer.  Add yogurt, brown sugar and vanilla and continue to beat.  Add milk until mixture meets desired consistency.  Refrigerate for one hour before serving.  Serve with various fresh fruits.

T and I both were pretty happy with how this turned out.  I don't think I beat the cream cheese enough, but T advises he likes the texture it created.  Also, we opted to add enough milk for the fruit dip to become a sauce to drizzle over our fruit.  Delicious!

Dark Chocolate Cherry Balls

Working a full time job and taking classes at night leaves me constantly on the lookout for quick snack options.  I recently came across a recipe for Dark Chocolate Cherry Energy Bites and thought something similar would be a great go-to when I'm short on time. 

Ingredients:

1 cup oats

1/4 cup honey

1/2 cup Cinnamon Sugar Land O' Lakes

2 handfles dried cherries

1 handful pumpkin seeds

1 handful flax seeds

1 handful dark chocolate morsels

Directions:

Mix all ingredients.  Unfortunately, I don't have a food processor (yet); so with some patience, we used the blender to mix and chop the ingredients.  Once mixed, roll into balls.  Refrigerate.