Tag Archives: healthy

Pumpkin Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

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What does one do when they fall down?

Get back up,

put on a cute outfit…

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20111103-101823.jpgIn this case, healthy(ish), pumpkin dark chocolate chip cookies!

I said I’d be a cookie monster forever, but I didn’t say I would give up on being healthy. Pumpkin in cookies = healthy cookies, right?)

You can enjoy a couple of these cookies because they really aren’t that bad for you. I cut the sugar in half from the original recipe and added a little extra pumpkin. I accidentally omitted the salt, which makes them unintentionally healthier, but also makes them more scone/muffin like the next day. I definitely didn’t notice the lack of salt when they were fresh out of the oven, warm, aromatic and flush with oozy dark chocolate chips :)

After eating a few of these cuties I knew there was no way they would survive a weekend in my apartment. So, implemented the divide and conquer the temptation strategy: 1 large bag for Ted ‘s office, 1 medium bag for my office and a small tupperware to keep at home. 20111103-103045.jpg

Unpacking with these babies as fuel will be a piece of cake. (I promise I’ll stop soon ;) ) There may be some pumpkin beer involved as well. When I unpack I do it right.
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Adapted from George Duran’s Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 can pumpkin puree
  • 2 cups flour: 1 cup regular + 1 cup white whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 teaspoons baking soda
  • 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
  • 1/2 bag Hershey’s dark chocolate chips (or get really chippy! have fun kids.)

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick spray or line them with parchment paper.

Using a mixer, beat the butter until smooth, then beat in the sugars and egg. Add vanilla and pumpkin!

In a large bowl combine remaining dry ingredients. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the mixer. If the dough seems a little dry feel free to add some extra pumpkin.

Drop the cookie dough by rounded tablespoons onto the sprayed cookie sheet or parchment paper. Please note these cookies did not spread at all. If you want more uniform and flatter cookies i suggest using a scooper and/or molding them to the shape/density you want for the final product.

Bake for 12 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges and immediately remove to wire cookie racks to cool. Allow to cool for 2 minutes before chomping in.

Question of the day: What do you do when you need an immediate pick me up?

A good workout ALWAYS makes me feel good, but in a pinch actually styling my hair and putting on a cute outfit really does wonders.

Eating Isn’t Very Chanel

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I’ve been eating a lot of peanut m&ms and chocolate chips lately. Maybe it’s the stress of moving, maybe it’s the general stress of my job or maybe it’s just fall season and I’m feeling happy and festive. (It probably doesn’t help that I keep a stack of quarters in my desk for the m&m machine across the hall and an open bag of Hershey’s special dark chips on my kitchen counter.)

I want to be healthier. I’m not just going to wish, I’m going to do. I’m cutting back on junk and kicking up my workouts. My 10K is over, Law Firm Fit Club is almost over, and it’s up to me to keep challenging the strong, healthy woman who deserves so much happiness.

Where to find motivation? Helloooooo, Pinterest.

I love the Pinterest fitness board and regularly update my own version, called Healthy, Happy and Totally Kick @ss. Yesterday, I came across a really disturbing pin that I now can’t find for the life of me. It was a beautiful, very thin, morose looking model with the phrase “Eating Isn’t Very Chanel” written over the image. Think about that for a second. Then think about why someone would put that on a fitness pin board. Are you sad too?

Pinterest is such an amazing place. People are finding and sharing things that make life beautiful, fun and worth living. It’s a place to find inspiration to live the life you imagined. Starvation is the opposite of living.

If you want to be envied, be confident.

If you want to feel beautiful, get fit.

If you want to be happy, live healthy.

Here are some better pins, in my opinion :)

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You Know You Want Some Chocolate Chip Cookies

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It started with these:

Whatever could I possibly do with these giant chocolate chips I keep in my fridge? I munch on a few here and there and decided they needed to be taken away from me put to better use.  As you may recall, I’ve had some healthy baking snafus lately. Luckily, Katie at Chocolate Covered Katie is the master of sinful deserts that are deceptively healthy.You can find Katie’s recipe here, but my variation produced a softer, more oaty cookie that I promise is still super yummy. (I ate three out of the oven!)

Ingredients

Dry:

  • 1/3 + 1/4 oat flour
  • 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1/4 + 1/8 tsp baking soda
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 2 tbs turbinado sugar (or use regular brown)
  • 1 tbs white sugar

Wet:

  • 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3.5 tbs skim milk (I’m trying to use up a quart of milk I bought for Sunday night corn bread.)
  • 1.5 tbs melted earth balance
Mix ins:
  • Chocolate chips
  • Mini peanut butter chips
  • Whatever your heart desires/whatever is laying around your kitchen

Directions

Preheat oven to 375. Combine dry ingredients, then mix in wet. Scoop on to ungreased cookie sheet and bake for about 12 minutes, or until edges are golden brown. Immediately remove from sheet and cool on wire rack.

I didn’t have oat flour and spelt flour (a Katie recommended substitute) seemed dangerous given my baking past. Then I remembered: (1) I recently purchased whole wheat pastry flour and (2) I could MAKE oat flour with my amazing food processor!

Add oats to food processor. Press the “on” button and then the “food process” button. (Tricky, right?) Watch in awe.
In less than two minutes you have oat flour!Add wet ingredients. There didn’t appear to be sufficient dough so I added the pastry flour, some more milk, a little extra baking soda and vanilla. (The ingredient list above includes all adjustments I made at this stage.)Back to those little chippers. I was so eager to get my mitts on them I didn’t bother to change out of my lawyer lady work clothes :) Truth: pb chips make the world a better place. And cookies yummier.I the recipe yielded just enough cookie dough for me, Ted and a few special people to get some chocolate chippers. This is perfect because I cannot be trusted around cookies in the morning or when I come home from work. Basically, whenever they are in my house and so am I.Hello, gorgeous. About 12 minutes later, it was meet the chocolate chippers time!These cookies made the perfect home for my giant chocolate chips.
Happy almost Friday friends!

Mushroom Barley Risotto with Caramelized Onions

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Good morning!

In case you were wondering what that delicious pb coconut butter banana concoction looked like…

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And it was heavenly. I had no idea that refrigeration would turn the coconut butter clumps into almost solid, candy-like crumbles. Great surprise :)

As with yesterday, this morning I dragged my butt to the gym with just 30 minutes to rock it. Feeling extra tired, the mission was simply to move for all 30 minutes, regardless of exertion. However, I am always amazed by what I can accomplish if only I begin. (In the gym, but also in life. Corny, but absolutely true.)

Run: 30 minutes, 3.2 miles, zero incline, just a couple of sprints thrown in. A sorry one minute of stretching before a gallop home.

Smoothie: The Best Smoothie Yet!
Stats: 1 cup water, 2 sm papaya halves, 1 lrg frozen banana, 4 smll super ripe strawberries, 1/3 cup frozen raspberries, 2 baby carrots, 4 lrg kale leaves, 4 sm broccoli florets, sm handful spinach, 1 1/2 TBS chia seeds, splash of plain almond milk, looong honey drizzle.

Verdict: Delicious! Well blended, the goods became a truly unappealing brown color (hence, no picture), but it was the most delicious smoothie in recent memory! Despite all those fruits and veggies, I was still hungry. I topped breakfast off with a super toasted (read: slightly burnt) slice of Ezekiel 4:9 bread with a schmear of almond butter, half a sliced banana and a drizzle of honey. (Are you sensing a theme? When not acting like the Cookie Monster, you can call me Winnie the Pooh.) Not as exciting as Tara Stiles’s version, but it hit the spot nonetheless.

Why I was so tired this morning:

A little out of order, but trust me, you won’t regret sticking around for this :)

I got out of work later than one would hope, but early enough to turn the barley I cooked Sunday night into Mushroom Barley Risotto with Caramelized Onions (hereinafter referred to as MBRwCO). Once I got going and also realized I had a stocked fridge from my weekend produce binge I decided it was perfect time to make roasted eggplant babaganoosh and asparagus spears.

Friends, my kitchen is painfully small. I cannot cook one dish, let alone three, without getting things everywhere and placing bowls of ingredients on my coffee table and, sometimes, the floor.

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Yes, at the end of a long day I like to enjoy a glass of red wine while cooking.20110810-104749.jpg

But these pretty babies begged to be roasted, so I obliged.

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The barley was pre-made Sunday because I naively believed I could make the MBRwCO and Veggie Burgers in one evening. (After tasting both dishes I’m really glad this superhuman feat was not accomplished because if it had been, I would still be on my floor in a food coma with a tower of dishes in the sink.)

Let me just say this: the MBRwCO is the very best thing i have ever created, food or otherwise. I added extra rosemary and enough earth balance so the idea that this was a VEGAN dish was mind bending. The asparagus were crisp, freshly peppered and basking in organic lemon juice glory. They were perfect to dip in the warm roasted babaganoosh, or chomp into for a refreshing break from the seductively aromatic, rich, and comforting Mushroom Barley Risotto with Caramelized Onions.

I’ll let the pictures say the rest.

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Life is good.