PB oatmeal cookies - part 2

I said I'd get back to this recipe with some tweaks... and I did. Now this makes 24 cookies, delicious as before. I'm addicted to these things, no joke. Love love love. Perfect snack time food.

PB Oatmeal Chocolate Chippers
recipe by ::steph chows::
makes 24 cookies

In a medium bowl whisk together and set aside
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1.5 cups old fashion oats
1 tsp baking soda
dash of salt

In a large bowl beat together
1/3 cup smooth peanutbutter
2 tbs smart balance (or butter of choice)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup splenda (or use 1/3 cup white sugar)
then beat in 2 eggs and 1 tsp vanilla

Mix dry into wet, then add 3/4 cup chocolate chips

Using your hands (time to get dirty!) form into tablespoon size balls and then smoosh flat onto a greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 in a preheated oven for 12-15 minutes. Remove and let cool.

What's your go to snack time food?

Tweet

Your email will never be displayed publicly, so don't be scared to comment! :) Oh and make sure you type in your blog link so I can click over to you! There is a spot you can type it in.

PB Oatmeal Chocolate Chippers

These need a warning label... a label stating that you might just eat all the dough and not bake any of these... a warning that once you do manage to get some in the oven, when they come out they will disappear in mere minutes. These things are dangerous!!!


I was daydreaming about snack time at work yesterday... oh come now I know you do it too. And somehow I got peanut butter oatmeal cookies into my head... and then my brain added in some chocolate chips for good measure... I started jotting down a rough layout for the recipe and knew I'd be making them as soon as I walked into the door... ok fine I did manage to make dinner first.. (shrimp, broccoli, onions, mushrooms, udon noodles, in a tahini and soy spicy sauce... sorry inhaled it, no pictures) but THEN I made these.


Any guesses on what I have for snack time today?? Yup, not these, because they are already gone... maybe I should make some more tonight...


PB Oatmeal Chocolate Chippers
recipe by ::steph chows::
makes 18 cookies (need to revisit this to get the number up to 24)

In a medium bowl whisk together and set aside
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1.5 cups old fashion oats
1 tsp baking soda
dash of salt

In a large bowl beat together
1/3 cup smooth peanutbutter
2 tbs smart balance (or butter of choice)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup splenda (or use 1/3 cup white sugar)
then beat in 1 egg and 1 tsp vanilla

Mix dry into wet, then add 3/4 cup chocolate chips

Using your hands (time to get dirty!) form into large balls and then smoosh flat onto a greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 in a preheated oven for 12-15 minutes. Remove and let cool.


Do baked goods disappear quickly around your house? Are you good and only let yourself eat a few at a time? Or do you eat them all in one big sitting?

Tweet

Your email will never be displayed publicly, so don't be scared to comment! :) Oh and make sure you type in your blog link so I can click over to you! There is a spot you can type it in.

Maple Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

A few weeks ago my boss walked into my office and said "hey want to go see the lion king? I've got 4 tickets and I can't go anymore" ummm YES!!! My coworker, her boyfriend, another friend and myself found ourselves sitting in the 5th row in total amazement just hours later. (John was invited but he politely declined wanting to go - silly man) It was memorizing, the choreography, the costumes! And grown up Simba was a hottie! (bonus points since he was shirtless the whole time)... what? is that wrong to say? Can't a girl appreciate some man meat? Have you ever been? You would have thought he was hot too.

Anyway.... to thank my boss I made him a batch of Maple Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. And they were amazing!! Crisp on the outside with a nice chew in the middle these things are not on the healthy list. No sir, these are on the butter and sugar list.

Remember how I went to Trout Brook Sugarhouse a few weeks ago for a 24x24? While there I picked up a bag of their pancake mix and a cookie recipe. (both created by the son of the owner). The cookies they had out to sample were delicious so I knew I wanted to buy some of the pancake mix so I could make them up too. (The raisin addition was all me... I know I'm just so inventive sometimes I can't help it...)

Maple Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
recipe by Trout Brook Sugarhouse
Makes 2 dozen

1 stick butter (1/2 cup) softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbs maple syrup
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1.5 cups Trout Brook Peter's Pancake mix (ingredient lists includes: flour, oats, oat flour, molasses powder, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, natural flavor)
1/2 cup raisins (my addition)

Beat together butter and sugar, add in vanilla maple syrup and egg. Slowly mix in pancake mix and fold in raisins. Drop tablespoonfuls of dough onto a greased cookie sheet and bake in a preheated oven at 350 for 10-15 minutes.

Your email will never be displayed publicly, so don't be scared to comment! :)

Oatmeal Choc Chip Cookies

Warning: these are NOT HEALTHY. So don't go trying to justify, "oh they have oats in them, that makes them healthy" cause these bad boys are nothing close to healthy. Taken directly from the back of the nestle chocolate chip bag I made these for the insulation crew that was at our house last week.

Oh no! The insulation guy wasted away since he didn't eat enough cookies!! Where did he go?

Is it just me or are we in a constant state of construction/fixing up at my house? I know I know the "joys" of home ownership right? I think that' just bull if you ask me... I bought a house that was in "move in condition" so said that crafty shark like real estate agent (not ours, ours was freakin awesome). But that woman selling the house... oooo I just get mad thinking about her. Is that bad? Want to know what is bad, the fact that when I see said lady's picture on signs in front of other houses I want to stop my car and draw a mustache and glasses on her (yes I'm 12 years old). Admit it, you would laugh if you went past a house with a picture drawn on like that.

Ok enough with the nasty, back to the sweet delicious cookies! The guys who actually do the installation of stuff aren't making that big check you hand over to them unfortunately. Plus they were there all day crawling around in the attic fixing holes and blowing in insulation all over the place. Now who can say no to baking those hard working guys a batch of cookies? Certainly not me, plus well fed happy workers do a much better job than cranky hungry ones :) Don't you agree?

Noname cookies - Raja Oaties

nice looking dish huh?
disclaimer: cookies may appear bigger due to tiny tiny plates. this cookie is only about 2 inches wide.

So I need your help naming these cookies... because I have no clue what to call them! That makes them hard to offer to someone...

Hey you want a... ummm... weird cookie? You see it has tahini in it... and cashew butter... oh and it's sweetened with agave.

*starring at me like I have 2 heads*

No really, they are super tasty! They have oats in them too! You've heard of oats right?? Come on just try one! Oh and they are vegan too?? Ok still not selling you huh?

I don't think I'd have half as much of an issue if they had a cool name... so I'm taking suggestions! And they are just so darn tasty! I want everyone to try them! And the people who did try them, all like them! Yeah John wouldn't try one... that bum ;) Whatever he's missing out!

I wanted to make cashew butter cookies but realized I didn't have much left in the jar, so I started looking around to see what other butters/pastes I had. The flavor combo came out delicious!


Raja Oaties
by steph chows
makes 12 cookies

Beat together
3 Tbs tahini
1.5 Tbs cashew butter
1/4 cup agave nectar

In another bowl stir together
1.5 cups old fashion oats
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon

Add dry to wet, then stir in
1/4 to 1/2 cup rum soaked raisins (mmmm rum) or you know... you don't have to soak them in rum :D

I was already baking 2 types of cookies so all my cookie trays were being used... so I just made these in cupcake tins... come on perfect circles!

Scoop into 12 greased muffin tins. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.


So what should I call these!?

UPDATE:
thanks everyone for the name suggestions!! the noname cookies are now known as Raja Oaties!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I like to think a cookie must be pretty darn good if you get requests for more of them less than a week later from the first time you baked them. I baked a batch of these Oatmeal Raisin cookies for John's neighbor who loaned me a hand ax. You see... I have one... for camping, you know for chopping fire wood. But I couldn't find it anywhere. So I walked across the street to visit Augie and to see if he had one. The man drives a Subaru... that in my mind means he must be a camper... and therefore has a hand ax on hand! I know I know stereotypes... anyway (I was right!) and when I baked the batch for him I put a few aside to bring over to John's parents (they love random baked goodies from me). Well this past weekend when I asked John's dad what he wanted for his birthday (which was yesterday) he said "some of those cookies you made last weekend!" So that's what he got. :)

Oh what's that? You want to know why I needed an ax? Well you see there was this massive bush that was overtaking part of John's house, we tag teamed it and he cut all the branches off and then I got to attack the base... I think I had a little too much fun with the ax since multiple people who where walking by stopped to say hello and see what I was up to :) I got a great arm workout too!


Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
makes 24 large cookies Recipe from gahhh can't remember the name of the cookbook and it's at John's I'll update to let you know!

Beat sugars and softened butter in a bowl.
1/2 cup white sugar (or use 1/2 cup splenda)
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tbs butter (softened)

Then add these and beat until incorporated:
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup apple sauce

In a separate bowl mix these:
1 cup whole wheat flour (she used AP flour)
1 tsp cinnamon (my addition)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
dash salt
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbs oats (old fashion kind)

Mix dry into wet until just barley incorporated. Then gently mix in:
1/2 cup raisins

Scoop onto a silicon lined baking sheet (2 inches apart these bad boys spread like crazy) and bake at 375 for about 10 minutes

I'm a carboholic

Hello my name is Stephanie... and yes, I am a carboholic. Really now, how do you say no to a nice hot, right of the oven, slice of bread??? I'd like to see you try!!

This is the recipe I mentioned last week that I saw and made all in the same day. Full day of work, hour long spinning class with Brian the beast (seriously he's insane, I LOVE the class, and if he catches you talking to your neighbor he starts yelling about how if you have enough energy to talk... you aint working hard enough... ahh Brian love it), then it was home to make this bread... it just sounded so good! I couldn't resist.


I have one of the big kitchen aids, the 5 quart "heavy duty" kind... and this recipe made it jump around a bit... it's a BEAST of a ball of dough.


I mean look at it once it was done, it's about to jump ship!!

The recipe comes from Sugarlaws and there were a few questions I had while following her recipe... my comments in red italics.

mmmmm Perfect hot out of the oven, or toasted with a little butter the next day. This bread has a dense but not too heavy crumb. Even my boss who normally shys away from my healthy cooking I bring in liked it :)

Oatmeal Wheat Bread
recipe from Sugarlaws

3 cups whole wheat flour
3 cups bread flour
2 cups warm water (i'm assuming you use 1/4 cup for the proof and then the remaining 1 3/4 for the actual dough part....)
1 packet yeast (2 1/4 tsp if you are using a jar of yeast, or 1 cake fresh yeast)
1/2 cup instant oats, plus additional oatmeal for sprinkling on the loaf (I used whole oats instead of instant)
1/2 cup water (use this to make the oatmeal... I used a little more eyeballing it)
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt (I used 1.5 tsp)

Proof the yeast in 1/4 cup of water (I warmed the water to 110 degrees first) with 1 tsp of sugar. At the same time, microwave the oatmeal grains and water until oatmeal has absorbed the water, about 30 seconds to 1 minute (since I used whole rolled oats, I microwaved mine with a little more water for 3 minutes). When the yeast and water turns milky/creamy, mix it with the flour, the oatmeal, the rest of the water and salt and knead for about 10 minutes (took less time with the kitchen aid). If dough is too sticky, add a little bit of flour to make it easier to knead. Place the dough in a greased bowl and allow it to rise for 90 minutes, or until doubled in size. Punch down the dough, knead it again briefly, and place it in a greased pan for baking (she didn't mention what size pan, I used a normal size loaf pan and then a smaller loaf pan since there was too much for one loaf).

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees, and allow the dough to rise for an additional 45 minutes, or until it rises to the size you want. Sprinkle some additional oats on the top of the loaf. Bake for 25 minutes, allow to cool, and slice.

Can't you just smell the yeast proofing? Question for you. Do you LIKE or DISLIKE the smell of proofing yeast? I love it!! Which is ironic in a way since it reminds me of beer and I'm not a huge beer fan...

Roasted Banana Muffins

I don't know about you, but I've heard from a bunch of different places about roasting bananas before using them in baked goods... I always thought this sounded good but it wasn't until this weekend I realized just how much I was missing out!! I stuck the bananas on a cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes... they came out black and gross looking but once you peeled back the skin the insides were a nice vibrant yellow and so super soft. They smelled AMAZING and I couldn't wait for them to cool to start adding things in. (Make sure you let them cool a little though, otherwise you'll have scrambled cooked egg in your muffins... ewwwww)

The weekend was full of all types of baking, pancakes (recipe to come later this week), pumpkin cinnamon buns, poose cookies, and then finally roasted banana muffins. I'm not sure where I exactly came up with the recipe, I basically made it up as I went and (amazingly) wrote measurements down as I went along. Add a little bit of this a little bit of that... They came out of the oven steaming, so inviting, just asking to be devoured... oh, and they were.


John even proclaimed they were the best thing I had come up with to date! Pretty impressive statement if you ask me :) So they have his stamp of approval :) We sat and happily munched on these throughout the course of the night, and John told me this morning that amazingly some of them actually survived the night! And amazing feat if you ask me :) You see the recipe only made 12... next time I will be doubling this for certain.

Roasted Banana Muffins
created by me
makes 12

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup old fashion oats (take them and pulverize in a food processor)
2 tsp baking powder
dash salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3 small to medium roasted bananas (how to: below)
2 Tbs splenda blend (or just use more honey to taste and leave this out)
1.5- 2 Tbs Honey
1 egg
1/4 cup skim milk

ROAST whole bananas by placing on a cookie sheet, roast in 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes (until they are black), cool until you are able to handle them without burning yourself.

WHISK flour, pulverized oats, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl.

PEEL bananas and place into a large bowl, stir in sugar & honey, beat in egg.

ADD dry ingredients a little at a time to wet, alternating adding in skim milk a little at a time, ending with milk.

POUR into greased muffin tins and bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

Try not to chow them all in one sitting... it's hard not to though :)

Ithaca and Spicy Oatmeal Crisps

So as you may know John and I went to Ithaca last week. Lots of hiking, chowing, reading, some more chowing, and some more hiking... Here are some highlights!

I don't know why I like this picture so much but I totally do haha

bzzzzz

We were very lucky to have a friend loan us her house while we were there all week! Gretchen and Mike got married a little while back and now Gretchen lives in Rochester with him... which means her house that she is selling in Ithaca was open for us to crash! She has such an adorable house and it was a pleasure to stay there! She also gave us a ton of places to go try out... I'll totally write about them later in case anyone is planning a trip there!

As a thank you I wanted to bake them something so here is what I baked tonight! It's a spicy version of an old favorite. The batter is so good even before it's cooked... I totally licked the bowl clean and then later while walking past a mirror realized I had left some of the cookie dough on my face... oh yes I'm just so classy! :D


Spicy Oatmeal Crisps

Ingredients
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon grated whole nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (optional- but so good try it!)
dash teaspoon salt
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter or stick margarine, softened
2.5 onces (one small container) of Gerber prune puree baby food
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 cup regular oats
Cooking spray

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 8 ingredients (flour through salt) in a medium bowl. Beat sugar, butter, prune puree and vanilla in a large bowl with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add egg; beat well. Stir in flour mixture and oats.

Drop by level tablespoons 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or until crisp. Cool on pan 2 to 3 minutes or until firm. Remove cookies from pan; cool on wire racks.

These cookies spread like mad, so don't let them get too close to each other or they will end up smooching while they bake! Smooching cookies so scandalous! I totally put mine too close... most of them were making out by the end of the baking session. Must have been HOT in that oven! :D

Chow!

Operation Baking gals! What I sent

Alright! I am so excited about this operation baking gals, it is such a great idea. I have my package for Jason all done up and ready to mail out to Iraq today! The first cookie that I thought of were ANZAC biscuits (they really are cookies though), it stands for Australian New Zealand Army Core. The story goes that people would ship them to the troops since they don't spoil easy and travel well... so hopefully these make it to Jason without any issues!

I actually got this recipe from cooking light, but they are super stick to your teeth sweet and totally addicting! I made a double batch of these but then used a larger scoop instead of a level tablespoon to make big cookies!

mmmmm so chewy and tasty

Anzac Biscuits
Ingredients
1 cup regular oats
1 cup all-purpose flour (or whole wheat)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup shredded sweetened coconut
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons water
1/4 cup stick margarine or butter, melted
2 tablespoons golden cane syrup (such as Lyle's) or light-colored corn syrup
Cooking spray

Preparation
Preheat oven to 325°.
Combine first 5 ingredients in a bowl. Add water, margarine, and syrup; stir well. Drop by level tablespoons 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Bake at 325° for 12 minutes or until almost set. Remove from oven; let stand 2 to 3 minutes or until firm. Remove from pans; cool completely on wire racks.

2 dozen (serving size: 1 cookie)

Nutritional Information
CALORIES 98(27% from fat); FAT 2.9g (sat 1g,mono 0.9g,poly 0.7g); IRON 0.6mg; CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 11mg; CARBOHYDRATE 17.3g; SODIUM 59mg; PROTEIN 1.2g; FIBER 0.6g

The flat rate post office box is seriously huge so I realized I'd need more cookies to fill it up! So next I baked a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, they were supposed to be oatmeal raisin but I forgot I didn't have any raisins in the house.. woops! That's ok I'm sure Jason will be happy with the chocolate! :D


Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup applesauce (unsweetened)
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (or whole wheat)
1 1/2 cups regular oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon apple pie spice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°.

Beat sugar and butter at medium speed of a mixer until well-blended (about 5 minutes). Add applesauce and egg; beat well. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, oats, soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture; beat at low speed until well-blended. Stir in chocolate chips, and vanilla. Using 3 level tablespoons per cookie, drop dough 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray; flatten slightly. Bake at 350° for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove cookies from pans; cool on wire racks.

Both of these cookies came out great! I packed them all up in zip lock bags with some paper towels to absorb any moisture and squeezed out all the air. I packed them all up along with some packs of gum (you can always use gum!) and used pages of Men's Journal as packing materials (reading material! haha). Jason I hope you love the cookies and it helps you and your buddies feel a little bit of home out there. Thank you so much for all you are doing!

Susan you are doing an amazing thing with Operation Baking Gals and I can't wait to do this again.

Lots of love!
::steph chows::

Chow!

Update: Package is in the mail!!! :D!

Creamy Oatmeal

My coworkers make fun of me for many things, but one thing they love to make fun of me for is how I'm constantly eating. I'm a six "small" (ok they aren't' all really small...) meals a day kinda gal. I've been known to stop mid workout for a little snack to get my blood sugar back up. Don't get me wrong I eat plenty I'm not anorexic or anything like that (just ask anyone who has seen me eat hehe). But as the title of this page says... I like to chow! This is another John recipe that I thought he was a weirdo for but is now a staple in my diet :) I eat this everyday around 4 or 4:30 about an hour before I head to the gym. It keeps me fueled through my workout so I can last until dinner time around 7 or 730. It's super simple and healthy.

Creamy Oatmeal
1/2 cup dry oats
1 cup water
8 oz container fat free yogurt (i like wegmans fruit on the bottom fat free cherry vanilla YUM)

Place oats and water in a bowl, microwave for 2 minutes.
Remove and stir yogurt into cooked oats.
Enjoy!

A quick and easy 200 calorie snack filled with 4 grams of fiber and 12 grams of protein.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies - vegan friendly

So it was SugarB's birthday last week and his favorite cookies are Oatmeal Raisin so I HAD to make him some :) John wasn't too excited though since these involve no chocolate which means he wants nothing to do with them haha. I've used a few different recipes for him in the past but I wanted to try a new one I saw over at Bitter Sweet. I changed it up a little and I think they turned out great! For the original recipe click here.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1 1/4 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
1 Cup Rolled Oats
1 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
1 Tablespoon Maple Syrup
2 Tbs Splenda Blend (she uses 1/4 cup sugar)
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
1/2 Cup pumpkin puree (canned or fresh) (she used a 1/2 mashed banana)
1/2 Cup Raisins
1/4 Cup Soymilk (or if you don't care about being vegan skim milk works fine too)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together your dry ingredients (flour, oats, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon). Slowly add in the maple syrup, sugar, vanilla, milk, and pumpkin. It will be a somewhat dry batter so that you can roll balls in your palms and then flatten them on the cookie sheet. If it’s still too dry to do so, you can always add some extra milk until you’re happy with the consistency. Place on a silicon mat onto your baking sheet. The cookies don't really spread so however you shape them is what they will look like coming out of the oven.

Bake 8-10 minutes.

Makes about 2 dozen.

Enjoy!

Poose Cookies (the best healthy chocolate chip cookies ever)

No joke I have made these every week for John since we started dating. He doesn't eat cookies but these are the exception because they aren't bad for you :) They are a staple in his house and can always be found... except when he eats them all before the weekend comes... that is a sad week indeed. (and sometimes requires an extra batch being made to last till the weekend) hehe


Poose Cookies

ingredients
1.5 cups King Arthur whole wheat flour
1 cup Quaker oats
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbs Splenda brown sugar blend
2 Tbs Splenda sugar blend
1 package (7 ounces) Gerber Prunes with Apples baby food (NOT plums and apples) (contains 2 – 3.5oz containers)
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 large egg plus 2 egg whites
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
1.25 cups semisweet chocolate chips
.25 cup walnuts (optional)
pam cooking spray

instructions
preheat oven to 350
In a small bowl whisk together flour, oats, and baking soda. Set aside.
In a large bowl stir together splenda brown sugar and splenda sugar blend, stir in applesauce and prunes with apples containers.
Beat in egg.
Stir in vanilla. (if you want add a little more, mom always said a little extra vanilla never hurt anyone!)
Gradually stir flour mixture into wet mixture. Adding 1/2 cup at a time and stirring until incorporated.
Once flour mixture is almost incorporated, fold in chocolate chips and walnuts.
Drop heaping tablespoons onto a silicon baking pad on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 10-15 minutes or until browned and cooked through. Will vary with oven used.

Serve warm or for a summer treat transfer into the freezer and eat frozen a few hours later!

(to make these even healthier, take out some of the chocolate chips and sub in dried fruit and nuts - delicious)