Oatmeal Cookies

Does anything smell better than oatmeal cookies baking in the oven? I made oatmeal cookies for the girls over the weekend. I wrapped them up and stuck them in the freezer so that they can come home to cookies and milk all week. I just take out a couple an hour or so before they get home and they are as fresh as the day I baked them. I did put a healthy spin on the cookies, though. Can't help myself!

You will need:

1 cup Smart Balance, melted
1/4 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
3 cups old-fashioned oats (not quick cooking)
1 small box raisins (optional)



Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and line a few cookie sheets with parchment.

Soften your butter for cakes, melt it for cookies. So, add your melted butter and both sugars to a mixing bowl.



Mix until the batter starts to lighten in color.



Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition. Then mix in the vanilla.



Next add your flours, baking soda, and cinnamon.



Mix together and then add the oats. Mix again. The dough will be a bit stiff, but not dry. If you find it is very dry add a tablespoon of milk.



Now is the time to add your raisins. Or, if you have one kid who likes them and one who does not, now is the time to split your dough into halves and add the raisins to just one half. You can omit this step altogether if you aren't a raisin fan. Me, I don't care one way or the other. I'm an equal opportunity cookie eater. :)



I use a heaping soup spoon to measure out the cookies and get 9 per sheet.



Bake for 12-14 minutes and then allow them to set on the cookie sheets for 2 minutes before removing.






Warm oatmeal cookies. Mmmmmmmm. Perfect on a cold day or a warm day or even a hot day! If you haven't tried baking cookies at 325 yet, please try it with this recipe. I never, never bake cookies at any higher temp. It makes a world of difference!!




Most oatmeal cookie recipes call for a full cup of white sugar in addition to the full cup of brown. I found these cookies to be perfectly sweet (with or without raisins) without all that extra white sugar. In fact, I think you could leave out the white sugar altogether as long as you use a full cup of brown sugar. (You could also substitute a cup of white sugar mixed with a tablespoon of molasses if you don't have any brown sugar.) I think the whole wheat flour gives the cookies just a hint of a nutty flavor.

Enjoy!

Healthier "Fried" Chicken Fingers

If you have kids you know they all adore chicken tenders/fingers/nuggets, but it's hard to let them indulge when you know how bad the fried part of the dish is for them. I have a solution! It's simple, cheap, and incredibly tasty. In fact, my whole family thinks this recipe is tastier than fried chicken fingers because it is not at all greasy or heavy tasting from the oil. These chicken fingers are also great for parties and picnics. And they are absolutely fabulous the next day, cold from the fridge.

You will need:

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (cut into thirds or fourths)
1 cup whole wheat flour (King Arthur!)
1 egg
1 T water
4T Smart Balance
seasoning salt
garlic powder/salt
************
1 cookie sheet with sides (jelly roll pan)
2 bowls or dishes (one for the egg, one for the flour)



Line your cookie sheet with foil and drop 2 T of the Smart Balance (or butter) on top. Place in your oven while it preheats to 400 degrees. The butter will be melted and ready to come out of the oven before it is completely preheated.



In one bowl, mix the egg, water, and seasonings. I like to add the seasoning to the egg mixture because it adheres to the chicken better. The flavor can get lost when you add it to the flour. Add seasoning salt and garlic salt to taste. I just shook them a couple of times each.



Mix together.



Add your flour to the second bowl. Pie plates work great for the egg and flour mixes, too.



Brush the Smart Balance all over the cookie sheet.



Set up a little station-- chicken, then egg, then flour, then cookie sheet. Dip each chicken tender into the egg mixture and make sure it is coated completely.



After the chicken is coated with egg, dredge it in the flour and coat evenly.



Then place it onto your buttered cookie sheet. Repeat until all chicken is coated and on the cookie sheet.



Don't be alarmed if your fingers look like this when you are finished:



Don't worry, it washed right off! :)

Melt the remaining Smart Balance (2T) and drizzle it over the chicken. Then put the sheet in the oven and bake at 400 for 20 minutes.



The chicken comes out crispy and tender.





The tenders don't stick to the foil at all. Comes off clean, coasting intact.



So yummy!! Kids will lap them up and parents can feel good about these tenders having no oil, no skin, and no white flour. The whole wheat adds a subtle, nutty flavor, but otherwise I promise you and your kids will not notice a difference.



I served them to the monkeys with green beans and half a baked potato topped with just a touch of shredded cheddar and low fat sour cream. They cleaned their plates!



Enjoy!!

Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls

I love that this recipe uses whole wheat, but still tastes light and tender like a white bread roll. And is there anything better than a dinner roll? Okay, cake, but bread is awesome. Goose and I tease all the time that we could live on bread and water and be perfectly happy. From the time you put the yeast in the water to sit until the rolls come out of the oven is about a two and a half hour process. Not a quick bread, but totally worth it.

You will need:

1 cup less 2T warm water
1 package yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1T butter, melted
1 egg
1 cup plus 2T whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
*****************
2T melted butter




Dissolve yeast in the warm water with a tsp of the sugar. Let stand for 10 minutes or until creamy.



Mix together the rest of the sugar, salt, the 1T of melted butter, egg, and whole wheat flour in your mixer bowl. (Use the dough attachment.) Add the yeast mixture and mix.





Add the white flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. At this point you can turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8 minutes or keep it in the mixer and mix at a medium speed for about 6 minutes. Watch it and periodically pull the dough off of the dough hook.



Form the dough into a ball...



Take the dough out of the bowl, oil the bowl lightly, and then put the dough back into it, turning lightly to coat. Cover with a damp cloth and let it rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.





Punch down the dough, cover, and let it rise until doubled again, about 30 minutes. Punch it down again and divide the dough into 8 large balls. Put the balls onto a lightly greased parchment covered cookie sheet.



Let rise, uncovered, in a warm place for 40 minutes or until doubled.



Bake at 400 degrees for 12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and brush with the melted 2T of butter.







Oh, man. I have to make these again soon! It is worth turning on the oven in this suffocating heat for these babies. They taste even better than they look, too. Okay, one more picture.



Enjoy!

Healthier Banana Bread

Bananas ripen so quickly here in Florida. We seem to get only three days before I have to put them in the fridge to stop them from ripening further. And then a lot of times we forget about them. I blame my fridge--I hate it and complain about it daily. It's one of those horrid side-by-side things, but it was brand spanking new when we moved into this house 5 years ago and I can't justify replacing it just because it has space issues. The side-by-side fridges are deep but narrow making it impossible to find anything because everything is shoved to the back and covered by what's in front. So I end up buying doubles and triples of products and...I could go on and on. I. Hate. My. Fridge. But I love banana bread, which I make often because, well, see above. I've tried to healthy-up the recipe since we eat so much of it.

You will need:

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter (Smart Balance!!)
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs (or egg substitute)
4 overripe bananas
cinnamon (to taste)
one loaf pan



In a small bowl, combine flours, baking soda, and salt--set aside. In a large bowl, mash the bananas. I use my Kitchen Aid stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Add butter and applesauce and mix together. (I made this recipe with cinnamon applesauce once because we were out of unsweetened and it was really good, so any applesauce will do.)



Add sugar and cinnamon, mix, then add eggs one at a time. I don't measure cinnamon in my recipes, I just shake it out until it looks right. Add to your taste, but I suggest about a tsp or so.



Now gently add your flours and stir. You can use a spatula or wooden spoon for this step if you are worried about overmixing. Stir until just combined--you don't want your bread to be tough.





Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for 55-60 minutes or until center is baked.





If you are worried that your oven temperature is not accurate then bake this bread at 325 until the center is baked. A common complaint about quick breads is that the centers are still raw while the sides are overdone, which is most often caused by an oven that is too hot. If it happens, you can tent some foil over the top until the center is done. Another cause of a raw middle is a pan that is too small. Make sure your loaf pan is large enough--if you are unsure, make 2! A crack down the middle of the bread is perfectly normal.


Let cool for 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack and then turn out.



Banana bread is better is wrapped overnight and eaten the next day. But who does that?? We love our banana bread hot from the oven and smothered in butter.



To add a punch of extra flavor try adding 1 tsp of banana extract. I do that sometimes (when I'm not out of extract). I love it with or without!



One final note: the more whole wheat you use, the drier the bread. White flour keeps bread moist and tender. If you insist on using all whole wheat, up your fat in the recipe (at least 2 more T butter). Your bread will be denser and much less tender, but still tasty!

Enjoy!!

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