Whole Grain Rice Salad

I missed last year's cherry season.  I don't know how it happened, but it came and went before I even realized it had happened.  This year I overcompensated with a mixed flat of sweet and sour cherries.  What I did with them is another post for another day, but I set aside a few to make the Whole Grain Rice Salad from Super Natural Every Day.

I had to make a few adjustments based on what I had on hand.  There was no baby spinach, but there was... either Swiss chard or beet greens, I can't even be sure.  Pecans had to take the place of walnuts, which I didn't have.  I opted for feta over goat cheese, and for the all-important grain base, I chose wild rice.  The salad was fine, but honestly, not exciting to me.  I can't exactly place why.  I'm sure, though, that it wasn't the dressing.  I had some of the leftover dressing on a green salad, and it made that green salad worth eating.  I'm not typically a fan, but the cherry dressing was such a unique flavor, it seemed to make it worthwhile.

So the bottom line here is that I can't judge too harshly having made so many substitutions, but it's unlikely that I'll try this salad again.  The dressing, however, is one I'll come back to.

Fig and Walnut Biscotti

For our annual Cookie Exchange, I chose to make Fig and Walnut Biscotti.  They are super easy, aside from that you have to bake them twice, and addicting.  The flavor combination packs a big punch with orange zest, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.  They have a pleasant crunch level with figgy soft spots.  I made a quadruple batch (based on the linked recipe - technically it was double the original recipe) and I had to make a second batch before Christmas, because I ate them all!  I can see this becoming one of those recipes that I always make and become somewhat "known for."

Apple Crisp

A few weeks ago we went apple picking.  My mom and sister made pie and my dad eats like 20 Stayman Winesap apples a day because he is a crazy person.  I, on the other hand, ate a few each week, but that's about it.  I had intended to can applesauce and/or apple butter, but things don't always materialize the way I want them to, so I had a bunch of apples that really needed to be used.  I decided I wanted to make an apple crisp, and a fairly healthy one at that.  I got this recipe from Clean Food.  Pretty basic stuff here, with a cookie-like topping made of oats.  I followed the recipe pretty closely, though I subbed applesauce for the oil as I always do in baking.  I honestly never notice the difference.  I was supposed to cover it with foil, but didn't have any, so the topping did get a little overcooked.  It actually worked out really well for reheating, because the topping softened up to be more like a cookie.  The filling seemed watery, but thickened up as it cooled.  When you have a lot of apples to use up, you're not looking for a complicated recipe - this worked out really well for me.

Lemony Ravioli with Baby Broccoli, Onions, and Walnuts

Here's one that I made up myself :)  Orange-striped ravioli, filled with asparagus and Gruyere, plus sliced onions and baby broccoli florets and stems sautéed with garlic, topped with toasted walnuts and a lemon-olive oil dressing.

Sweet Roasted Winter Vegetables

This was inspired by a recipe in the NY Times.  I did not measure anything out, but I trimmed and halved a few handfuls of Brussels sprouts and tossed them with a Granny Smith apple, cut in large chunks, and some larger-sized butternut squash cubes I had in the freezer.  I tossed them all with olive oil, salt and pepper, and a tiny drizzle of maple syrup.  I sprinkled some walnuts on top before tossing it in the oven.

I served it with chicken braised in my home-canned peach rum sauce with about 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper, based on this recipe.  I did not like it that much, and it was very un-photogenic, so I don't have a picture of that.

Orange, Coconut and Currant "Grain-ola"

I've been meaning to make granola lately.  I wanted to make some to give as a holiday gift, but finals and my infinite illness cancelled those plans.  Since I'm going on vacation next week and need to bring some snacks, I decided to do a test run of a new (to me) granola recipe from Super Natural Cooking.

The recipe gives you a few options, so for this (half) batch I went with walnuts and currants.  It came out very tasty.  I've eaten some plain and also with plain yogurt.  I look forward to trying other variations as well, particularly what's suggested in the recipe (I didn't have some of the suggested ingredients).  I like that the recipe uses coconut oil because I have a lot of that and it's set to expire next month.  It seems like it would travel well, too.  I thought it was a little strange roasting dried fruit, but it worked out fine.  You can do that or add it in after.  A perfect granola recipe requires many tries to find, so I'll be experimenting in the near future.

Espresso Banana Muffins

I've been sick for the past week.  Horribly sick.  I haven't cooked ANYTHING all week.  We've eaten a lot of random takeout and a few things from the freezer, or simple stuff like pasta.  I've been dying to cook something, but still don't have all my energy back.  We had a whole bunch of bananas going brown on the counter, so I wanted to bake something with them.  It was between these Espresso Banana Muffins from Super Natural Cooking and the Moosewood brownies on the 101 Cookbooks website - both use espresso powder, which I got for Christmas and really wanted to use.  The muffins won (obviously).

The flavor profile is genius, but the texture is not for me.  That being said, I made some adjustments, so maybe I ruined them.  Or maybe they are just like that.  I only had sweetened french vanilla yogurt, so I reduced the sugar and vanilla to 1/2 cup and 1/2 tsp.  I'd like to try it the right way next time, and maybe add baking soda to see if I can get them to rise more.

See you in 2011!  :)

Crunchy Slaw Salad

We've still got some cabbage to use up from my last CSA pickup.  (There's also some turnips, rutabaga, and sweet potatoes, and some parsley and cilantro that are holding up very nicely.)  The cabbage soup used half a head, and we used the other half for this Crunchy Slaw Salad from Super Natural Cooking.  It was part of a meal that used something from the freezer, something leftover, something that's produce, and something on the counter that needed to be used up.

The something from the freezer was my Orange Cauliflower and Butternut Squash Soup.  I think it thinned out a bit.  (However, this whole moving soup to the fridge, spooning some chunks out, and putting it back in the freezer is working out really well.  I wasn't eating any soup for a while because I thought I'd have to finish the whole 2 or 4 cups, but that apparently isn't the case.)  The something leftover was the marinated onions used in the "Classic" Grilled Cheese sandwich we had a few days ago.  The something produce was, obviously, the cabbage, but we also had some questionable apples on the counter.  I took the firmest one and had to toss the rest.  :(  And finally, the something on the counter was the delicious bread I got from Panera for those same grilled cheese sandwiches.  (I want to note also for my own future reference that I omitted the cream from the cabbage salad dressing.)

So we were left with a very nice meal: an orange vegetable soup, a cabbage slaw with some apple shreds and walnuts, and a nice slab of bread toasted in the oven with Gruyere and marinated onions.

I'm enjoying the challenge of trying to use food from the freezer.  I made a breakfast polenta with some defrosted raspberries to sweeten it up.  It was a nice breakfast but not a "recipe" worth sharing.  Something that is, though: a helpful holiday cookie guide :)

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving 2010 was cooked for only 7 people, so we didn't go too overboard.  It was a lot less stressful this way.  We had no appetizers to worry about, either.

Pumpkin and Feta Muffins

These are first because they are the coolest thing we made.  I got the recipe from 101 Cookbooks a few weeks ago and they were the first thing on my Thanksgiving recipe list.  I followed the directions exactly and got excellent results.  The only thing to note was that we ended up with 18 muffins instead of 12, but that's certainly nothing to complain about.

Golden-Crusted Brussels Sprouts

When my sister got wind of the menu (the day before Thanksgiving, of course) she greeted me with: "Can we PUHLEEEAAASE make a DIFFERENT VEGETABLE?!?!"  Right after these were cooked, I saw her stick her hand right in the skillet to try one - and of course she loved it.  Super simple, and the caramelized edges were the best part.  This is another recipe from 101 Cookbooks.

Lemon-Barley Stuffing

This recipe from the New York Times was kind of a wild card, but it worked out in the end.  The mushrooms shrunk into ribbons when roasted, and I thought there wouldn't be enough lemon, but it shined right through.  The chive butter was fun to make and pretty much made the dish.  This is where I gained a deeper knowledge of where the line lies between browned and burned.  Note to self: more liquid next time, trust your instincts.

Sandra Lee's Turkey

Well, of course there was a turkey.  This one had butter massaged into it.  I never liked turkey before, and I still only ate a very small bit of it, but it was very good.  This picture is gross.  (Thanks to Haley for the photo.)

Mashed Potatoes

Yuck.  That's all I have to say about that.  This is a picture of what later became mashed potatoes.  There's no finished picture because there's nothing pretty about mashed potatoes.  (Thanks to Haley for the photo.)

Garden Vegetable and Potato Lyonnaise

I've got these giant rutabagas sitting in my fridge, plus a few turnips, and I've never had these things before, of course, so I had no idea what we could do with them.  I found this recipe through the "look inside" feature of Amazon - it's in Homegrown Pure and Simple by Michael Nischan.  Naturally, Amazon wouldn't let me look at the second page, but I found an adapted version online and used it to sort of wing it, and it turned out alright.  The strong flavors weren't appreciated by all, but I finally got to try a bunch of things through this dish.

Pumpkin Cornbread

When we were little, my dad used to make us biscuits.  Of course, they came from a box, but I had to remind him to channel those times from the past when my mom asked him to help us by making the cornbread.  This alone was the most hectic time of the day, as he insisted on lining up each ingredient, did not know the difference between liquid and dry measures, and refused to stop whisking even when I said he was finished.  Then we ended up having to bake it in the microwave (it makes sense if you've seen my mom's space-age microwave) and since we're all too short to see the top it got a bit toasted.  Fortunately, it tasted fantastic.  This was another New York Times recipe.  (Thanks to Haley for these photos.)

Winter Green Salad with Sugared Walnuts, 

Crispy Pears and Pomegranate Vinaigrette

I made this last year, but did a different candied walnut.  Though we had to make some substitutions, these walnuts were delicious.  Everyone kept walking by them and snatching a few - we're lucky we had any left for the salad.  The vinaigrette was my favorite part.  This recipe is from Clean Food.

"Best-Ever" Apple Pie

Haley made her famous apple pie with lattice crust.  It's the best-ever apple pie!  This particular pie contained a variety of apples known as "whatever we had lying around."

Spice-Kissed Pumpkin Pie

This pumpkin pie recipe is from 101 Cookbooks.  It features a special spice blend and a hazelnut paste between the filling and the graham-cracker crust.  Delicious.

Pumpkin and Ginger Scones

These were not for Thanksgiving, in particular, but they were there when I arrived to cook on Thanksgiving, and they were delicious.  I liked them plain, but they were very good with Haley's cinnamon glaze.

Pasta with Cauliflower, Walnuts and Feta

 
I got two large heads of cauliflower from my final CSA pickup, but I didn't want to make another cauliflower soup.  I searched my favorite blogs and found a recipe for Pasta with Cauliflower, Walnuts, and Feta.  I've finally got my pasta stash under control, so I don't feel so obligated to use up the many cheap varieties and save the fancier ones.  This recipe called for a strong flavor from the pasta, so I reached for a spelt rotini, which stood up quite well to the cauliflower and feta.  The walnuts added a nutty crunch - I only wish there were more of them.  The salty feta went perfectly with the sauteed onions and cauliflower.  I was happy that the cauliflower had both flavor and crunch thanks to the sauteeing rather than boiling.  This was a nice change of pace for all that soup (don't worry, I still love soup) and it reheated nicely for a weekday lunch.

This was easy enough for a weeknight, though there is a bit of work breaking down the cauliflower and slicing the onion - that could be done in advance.  One recommendation I would make is to ignore the white wine vinegar in the ingredients - go with all lemon juice.  The white wine vinegar soaked in quickly and left almost a chemical-y taste, at least compared to the lemon juice.  I can certainly see this appearing on my table again in the near future.

UPDATE (11/26/2010): Here's a picture of this dish the second time I made it (earlier this week).  I used a small-batch artisanal local whole wheat pasta and purple cauliflower and skipped the vinegar in favor of more lemon juice.  Delicious.

No-Bake Cheesecake

When I came across this cheesecake recipe, I immediately thought of the peach rum sauce I canned several weeks ago.  Although the recipe says to top the cake with blueberries, I covered it with my peach rum sauce instead, and it was delicious!  I made it for a picnic, and although it doesn't look quite that good, it does taste delicious.

I adjusted the original recipe slightly by adding 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar to the cheesecake mixture.  Although this didn't make it really sweet, I found that it took away the savory/cheesy flavor and made it feel more like a dessert.  The peach rum sauce contributed the extra sweetness it needed (although berries would be fine too) - if you're thinking of using something similar, I used about 8 ounces of the sauce.  The crust is the one thing I might adjust next time - I thought it needed just a bit more butter to help hold it together better and not fall apart.

Walnut Miso Noodles

Sometimes we have to make something quick and painless for dinner.  I just got a container of miso the other day (I was finally able to find it at Whole Foods - it was in the refrigerated section near the fake meats.  Who knew?) so we decided to try the Walnut Miso Noodles on 101 Cookbooks.  We opted for soba instead of whole wheat (next time, I wouldn't) and rinsed the noodles under cold water (finally, we follow the directions... for the wrong recipe - next time, I wouldn't).  We used some sauteed swiss chard (with stems), edamame and toasted walnuts for some veg and crunch - pretty good choices.

The dressing was good.  I would make this again, but have it warm instead, and with whole wheat noodles instead of soba.  The easy substitution of veg makes this a great use-up-what's-in-the-fridge weeknight dish.

Arugula Pesto, Two Ways

With all the arugula we got from our CSA this year, I had a few opportunities to make arugula pesto.  I tried a few different recipes from various sources.  (They are listed in the order I made them, not by preference.)

The first recipe I tried was one from my mom's new seasonal Cooking Light book.  (The recipe happens to be available online, here.)  This particular recipe uses pine nuts and Parmesan cheese.  Because I freeze my pesto, I exclude the cheese and just add it in when I actually use it - it freezes better that way.  The recipe also calls for lemon juice.  We tried it with regular pasta as well as ravioli.  It was good, but I wasn't blown away.

Next, I tried a recipe from the Williams-Sonoma book, New Flavors for Vegetables.  The recipe is for sauteed yellow pear tomatoes with arugula pesto and feta, but I made just the pesto since the tomatoes are not yet in season.  This pesto excludes cheese, because it's meant to be served with feta, and adds basil leaves.  Here, walnuts are used instead of pine nuts, and the zest of the lemon is used instead of the juice.  (I think I added a little splash of juice anyway, as I was multiplying the recipe and didn't have enough lemon zest.)  I tried this pesto only with a spoon, not in an actual dish (so far) but it was delicious and I liked it much more than the first recipe I tried.  I look forward to making the sauteed tomato recipe as intended.

Walnut-Dried Cherry Bars

I can't believe I haven't posted about the Walnut-Dried Cherry Bars in Ellie Kreiger's book So Easy.  I make these all the time.  It's painful for me when I take the last one out of the freezer.  They are perfect for before or after a workout, or for breakfast, or for an afternoon snack when you are craving something sweet and baked.

I have been meaning to mess around with these.  I want to try reversing the flavors - instead of dried cherries with apricot preserves, I want to try dried apricots with cherry preserves.  But I like it too much to mess with it like that.  If there are none left in the freezer, I can't bring myself to do it.

Today I finally tried something at least a little different.  I did not feel like removing everything in the refrigerator to get to my whole wheat flour, which is also almost gone, so I reached for something else instead.  Near the front of the shelf was the multigrain flour mix I made from Kim Boyce's book Good to the Grain.  I have been substituting this in many places in an attempt to make things more interesting.  It worked out great in the oatmeal sandwich bread, and it lightened that up a bit, so I thought it would be good here.  Lucky for me, it was great.  I always have to eat one of these, because I make them when I am already craving them, so I got to try it with the multigrain flour and it came out really well.  It was lighter than the whole wheat but didn't stand out too much in taste.

If you like to take snacks with you to work, school, etc. this is a perfect recipe for transportation.  I wrap mine in wax paper, then store them in ziplock bags in the freezer.  I grab one before I leave the house and when I reach for it 2 hours later it's completely defrosted.

As I mentioned above, I'd like to try reversing the flavor combination, but I would also like to try some completely different flavors as well.  Any suggestions?

Thanksgiving 2009

I had fun cooking for Thanksgiving with my mom. It took days (literally) and was gobbled up in about 30 minutes (literally) but everything came out pretty great. Here is a little photo tour through our menu... unfortunately I didn't get pictures of everything, but I'll try to describe it all.

Appetizers

Bacon-Wrapped Water Chestnuts: I thought these would be gross - I hate water chestnuts. But between the bacon fat and the globs of honey, they softened up a lot and were really flavorful. There is no real recipe for this - just wrap water chestnuts with bacon, pop in a toothpick, and pile on the honey.





In addition to this, we also had brie with dried cranberries, walnuts, and thyme. I think some more stuff was out, but nothing too fancy.

Salad

Winter Green Salad with Sugared Walnuts, Crispy Pears and Pomegranate Vinaigrette: This is from Clean Food. The dressing was a huge success... it was made from pomegranate juice, a little balsamic vinegar, zesty honey mustard... delicious. I didn't use the sugared walnuts recipe from Clean Food because I had to make them for the stuffing anyway (see below), and that recipe was much easier. The tough part here was getting the pomegranate arils out of the fruit. Also check out my sweet Vera Bradley apron!

Main Course

Ham and Turkey: No pictures of the turkey, but here is the ham being slathered in brown sugar. There was some other stuff involved, but I don't know what. All I have to say is... yummm!







Sage, Walnut, and Dried Fig Stuffing: This is a 101 Cookbooks recipe, which I was so excited to make. As I mentioned earlier, I made the sugared walnuts (egg whites, sugar and salt) and used them also in the salad. I was so excited to have vegetarian stuffing with no meat in it! And although it was pretty dry (Mom even added extra liquid) it still tasted good. I would add more liquid next time though.




Wild Rice with Apples: This recipe is from Cooking Light - if not October 2009, another fall issue for this year. I was so excited to make this. It takes a long time though, and so I had to get dressed while I was waiting to bring it to a boil. I asked my mom to turn it down to a simmer after it boiled. A looong time later, I realized that she had turned it all the way up instead. Oops! There was no liquid left but it was completely uncooked. I managed to salvage it by adding a ton of extra liquid and cooking it much longer. Fortunately it turned out really good. It was a really interesting side dish and fit well with the holiday - the sauteed Pink Lady apples were so good.

We also had the typical sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce.

Desserts

Best-Ever Apple Pie: This is from a cookbook of my mom's - I forget the title, but it is actually quite interesting. I read it while I was supposed to be helping with the cooking. This woman traveled to farms all over the country to collect recipes. A lot of them are kind of disgusting (using ingredients like lard, etc.) but some are really cool. There are also sidebars about stuff like avocado farming, for example. Haley did most of this by herself - I helped a little though.

Tofu Pumpkin Pie with Gingersnap Crust: Another Clean Food recipe, but not as much of a hit. There was some flavor here that just wasn't really great, but it was OK. The gingersnap crust was very good though.







Mini Sweet Potato Tarts: Mom made these after she overcooked the sweet potato. I ended up taking over and scooping the stuff into all of the cups and putting on the sweet pecan mixture. I didn't try one of these (I don't like sweet potatoes, I will have to try them again someday) but they looked pretty good.

Orange and Oat Scones

I don't typically make the currently featured recipe on 101 Cookbooks because I rarely have time to do it, but I couldn't pass up these Orange and Oat Scones. And I am so glad I took the time to make them, because they are SO good!!!

I hate the pastries at Starbucks because they are so full of sugar. These scones are so lightly sweetened, and the oats and whole wheat fill your stomach. The orange zest was the perfect addition to this - the slight flavor from the zest was amazing.

These were so simple and easy to make. I actually found afterwards that I accidentally used only half the amount of butter - but they still came out delicious! This also made them substantially healthier. I also skipped the currants - just not something I had on hand and I wasn't too sure if I really wanted them in there. Dried cranberries might be a really nice substitute for the currants. The walnuts lent a little extra texture in there too.


This recipe inspired me a little and I tried a little twist by using frozen blueberries and no orange zest or nuts. Aside from turning a little green on the outside, these came out great too, although the moisture from the blueberries (and their frozen-ness) changed the texture, so they were more cake-like rather than crumbly like a good scone should be. However, they reminded me a lot of the Blueberry Oat Cakes from Jamba Juice which I have been trying to find a recipe for forever - so if you like those, I would recommend this variation.

I would like to make these again... they might make a good Christmas gift, actually. I think it would work well to make and freeze the dough, then bake off a few as needed.

Apple Walnut Muffins

All day today, I had this terrible urge to bake. I think it had something to do with the fact that my stockpile of frozen muffins is long gone. I had a few things in mind that I wanted to make. Some took too long, others I was missing just one or two ingredients for. Still others were just not what I was looking for (even though I didn't know what I was looking for). I got more and more antsy when I had a sudden breakthrough.

I wanted something that wasn't already spelled out for me on paper. I wanted to make a muffin, and I wanted some ideas of what should go in it. I turned to How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, and I found exactly what I needed - an adaptable muffin recipe. Mark Bittman is my hero, for real. I am no scientist, so I can't just go throwing things together in the kitchen and expect them to turn into a muffin. I used his basic muffin recipe and changed it around to satisfy my desires.


Ingredients:
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/4 cup turbinado sugar
1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt
3 tsp baking powder
3 Tbsp melted butter
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and grated
1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped

Directions: Bake in muffin cups at 400* until you stick in a toothpick and it comes out clean.

The resulting muffin was like a light, delicate cake. If you are looking for a cupcake, look elsewhere. It was almost like a biscuit or a slightly sweet bread. The apple strands were visible, but underrepresented flavor-wise. What a fascinating recipe this was... I can't stop thinking of variations. Different types of flour, different spices, different nuts and maybe fruits. Here, I will stick to some of the variations I would like to make using the apple/walnut flavor profile.
- Mini-muffins = tea cakes!
- Add spices (Pampered Chef Cinnamon Plus spice blend?)
- More/different types of apple
- Grating with the skins on (particularly some deep red ones)
- Brown sugar... muscovado in particular
- Natural sweeteners (honey, agave nectar)
- Rolled oats

Mini Carrot Cake Bites

Edited: 10/28/2009. Photo added! :)


This is another one of my Pampered Chef recipes from the Season's Best Fall/Winter 2009. This is one I plan to make for at least one of my upcoming shows. I made these for my birthday the other day to bring in to work, and they were a huge hit - it has been requested that I make them again. (Not requested that I share the recipe... just that I actually make more of them myself and bring them for everyone to eat!)

An important caution: regular cake mix is 18 oz. This recipe calls for 9 oz. That means if you use an entire 18oz box (...mom) your cakes will come out dry and tasting like yellow cake instead of carrot cake. Also, adding extra carrots might sound fun, but it is hard enough to mix so I would stick close to the required amount.

This is another recipe that I would just love to make-over to be more healthy but it's not too easy. Although the Cool Whip in the filling makes me cringe, the recipe has no butter, unlike literally EVERY other cream cheese frosting recipe I found online. Plus, it has carrots in it. So it could be worse!

Peach and Fig Crisp

For my birthday, my mom got me a book called Clean Food. I love reading cookbooks, which is kind of weird. It makes sense to me because I like TV shows but not movies, and I like magazines more than books. I like cookbooks because I can read one recipe at a time if I want. I don't have to remember a plot next time I pick up the book, and I'm not obligated to go back to it later. I also use my cookbooks as a reference when I have something that I have to use (or just really want to use) without any idea what I'm going to do with it.

I had fresh figs from my Nonna and I wanted to make something with them. My mom and sister are perfectly satisfied just eating them right out of the tupperware, but I wanted to MAKE something with them. We were going over Ken's for his birthday and I thought I should bring a dessert. Looking through all my books, I found nothing for fresh figs and I was getting frustrated. I don't like to use the internet for recipes too often, because I can't connect with and develop a trusting relationship with the internet the way I can with a cookbook (and sort of the author). So I finally came across ONE fresh fig recipe in Clean Food. Finally. I was relieved. And lucky for me, it sounded REALLY good - Peach, Fig and Bourbon Crisp.

It turned out not to be too "crisp," but it was tasty. I had a fun time explaining agave nectar to the victims of this experiment (I wouldn't allow it to be counted as a dessert option until I tasted it to make sure it wasn't horrendous) and it turned out to be a pretty big hit. Next time I will try harder to find better peaches (although it is the middle of October, so I shouldn't be looking for peaches at all) but I can't wait to make this again - next year, maybe.

Unfortunately, my camera battery is dead and I cannot find the charger for the life of me, so there is no picture of this little masterpiece. Maybe next year :)

Nutty Oatmeal Cookies

As our dessert, Haley and I wanted to make oatmeal cookies. To keep it healthier, I used the recipe for Nutty Oatmeal Cookies in Food Matters. We both HATE oatmeal raisin cookies, so we left out the fruit altogether and opted for walnuts and chocolate chips.

I used white whole wheat flour in place of 1/2 of the flour and it worked out just fine. I might try 100% white whole wheat flour next time. The stuff is great. It is admittedly heavier than AP flour but it seems to work for me. I might also try oat flour, and I might also try some of the vegan variations.


The cookie turned out delicious. It is moist and chewy just like an oatmeal cookie should be. Looking back, I was a little too generous with the chocolate chips, so I will probably use less next time. Ken thought it tasted "healthy" and wanted me to make the ones I used to make, but I will definitely be making these again. I also popped some in the freezer for another day - maybe I will bring one with lunch when school starts.