SRC: Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

It's that time again, time for another Secret Recipe Club post!  It's always so much fun browsing my assigned blog to find a fabulous recipe to make.  It's also challenging as there are SO many great recipes to choose from!  This month was no exception.  I was privileged to have the blog My Catholic Kitchen.

Beautiful Veronica resides in Virginia, and I've enjoyed getting to know her through reading many of her posts.  I can see her and I have alot in common.  Be sure to visit her blog, you will be inspired.

I chose Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies, and oh my are they delicious!!  My friend Keyti said they were the best cookies she ever had.  I lost count of how many she ate, but obviously they were a hit.  I thought they were perfect for that chocolate craving.  Does anyone else get that or is it just me?  :-)

So here we go with the recipe:


1 1/2 cups all purpose flour**
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable shortening (I used butter)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup oats
1 cup coarsely chopped Ghiradelli dark chocolate (I used semi-sweet chips, just what I had)
1 cup chopped walnuts  (I omitted)

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.

Cream the shortening and the two sugars together in a mixer.  Add the eggs and vanilla and mix again.  Next add your  flour mixture, and mix until combined.  Add the oats and again mix to combine.  Fold in chocolate.  

Drop cookies on a baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.  

Yummy!!

I want one right now.  But I put half my batch in the freezer to take to a gathering next week.  Can I wait?  ugh, I just don't know, they are sooo good!

Be sure to let me know what you think! 

Blessings,

Chellie

**I found I needed to add an additional 1/2 cup flour.  My cookies were flattening out way too much, so the extra flour helped hold it together.  I recommend baking just one cookie first.

Tropical Green Smoothie

I have been on a no sugar challenge, inspired by Tiffany at The Gracious Pantry.  I had been thinking a lot about cutting my sugar out, but honestly, I just didn't want to.  I don't eat a tremendous amount of sweets, but I was feeling quite bloated, and was finally inspired to maybe try and break the addiction I had.  I'm talking NO sugar here, no sweetners, no natural sugars, such as honey, maple syrup, or stevia, no artificial sweetners (even worse than sugar), nada, nothing.  You can read up on her guidelines on her website.  You are allowed sugar that is in fruit, as a matter of fact, you are to have 3 servings of fruit a day.

I was not up to 30 days when I first came across this.  So I decided, one day.  Just one day without any sugar.  Do you know how hard that is?  Sugar, or some form, is in just about everything!!  Even tomato sauce, even some meats!  Even my home made bread has sugar in it.  But, I was successful for one day, so I decided to do another day, and another, and so on.  I looked at this challenge one day at a time and it made it so much more manageable.  I figured, I did it one day, I can do it another.  And you know what?  It's been 3 weeks!  A couple of my sweet craving satisfiers, were Aveda Tea, and the following Smoothie.  The Tea is sweet, but it has absolutely no sugar in it, so that was in place of my coffee, which I just can't drink without flavored creamer!!  I found many recipe's at The Gracious Pantry for smoothies.  This one is inspired from Tiffany's Pineapple breezes recipe.  This is another 'loose' recipe, but I really don't think you can mess it up.  Loose just means I am totally guessing at my measurements here, so change them to your liking.  :-)

Also, this ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT taste like spinach.  I promise you!  I have even had some tasters and they really can't tell except by the color.  It is so good, and it satisfied my sweet tooth!  I hope you'll give it a try and let me know what you think.

1/2 cup pineapple chunks (in 100% juice)
1/4 cup of the pineapple juice
1/2 cup plain nonfat greek yogurt
1/4-1/2 cup of milk (kind of depends on how thick or thin you like it)
1 frozen banana (It doesn't have to be frozen, but this will help it be cold without diluting it with ice.  Make sure you peel and slice your banana before freezing it)
2 tbs peanut butter
2 tbs ground flaxseed meal
1-2 tbs unsweetened coconut
1-2 cups spinach (I promise you will not taste it!)

Throw it all in the blender.  I use the 'puree' button on my blender and I let it go at least 1 minute to 1 1/2 minutes.  I don't really care for spinach pieces in my smoothie, it's supposed to be smooth, right?!

My results of this no sugar challenge?  No afternoon grogginess, you know when you can't stop yawning?  And, my pants are kind of big (please no eye rolls from the people that know me-haha), I've had alot more energy and am enjoying my food more.  :-)

Serves 1-2.  Enjoy!  Be sure to let me know if you try it and what you think.  :-)

Blessings,
Chellie

SRC: Cheesy & Gooey Eggplant Bake

It's time for another Secret Recipe Club post!  This month, I was assigned Josie's Kitchen.  What I love about Josie's blog is it's Dominican Republic/Latin influence.  I love trying recipe's that I know are authentic cuisine, not americanized.  :-)  She has lots of great food, but I landed on Cheesy & Gooey Eggplant Bake.  We are big fans of eggplant, but I don't have too many ways I serve it.  So I was excited to find a new recipe. It was really delicious!!  I did make a couple of changes due to what I had on hand and I note those in the ingredient list.
Make sure you stop by her blog and show some love.  Thanks Josie for a fantastic recipe and another way to serve eggplant!  :-)

Ingredients:
1 medium eggplant
1 garlic clove, crushed and diced
1 medium white onion, diced
1 1/2 cups heavy cream (I used whole milk)
1 tbs oregano
1 tsp nutmeg
3 tbs butter, seperated
salt and pepper to taste
shredded mozzarella and cheddar cheese (I also used a hunk of goat cheese)

Preheat the oven to 300.

Peel and cut the eggplant into chunks.  Season with salt and pepper.  Melt 1 tbs of butter and cook the eggplant on medium heat, covered, for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. You may need to add some water if the eggplant is sticking (I did do this).

Meanwhile, melt another tablespoon of butter and cook the onion until soft and transparent.  Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Then add the heavy cream and cook uncovered on low heat.

Grease a baking dish with the remaining butter, and add the eggplant.  Add the oregano and the nutmeg to the cream.  (this is where I added some goat cheese as well and let it melt.)

Sprinkle the eggplant with some cheese and then poor the cream over top.  Add more cheese if you like. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.  Once it's finished baking, let it rest before serving.

I used the left overs over pasta the next day.  2 Great dishes out of 1!!

Thanks for stopping by!  Be sure to visit The Secret Recipe Club for more great recipes.

Blessings,
Chellie

Bird's Nest

Here's a fun Easter treat I made with the kids.  This was so easy and quite tasty!  You can decide which eggs you want to use as there are lots of choices.  The recipe calls for cadbury mini eggs, I bought those, but they were not pastel colored.  I also bought some peanut butter filled eggs.  I liked the color of those much better.  They tasted good too, but I am a fan of dark chocolate, and that's what the cadbury eggs are.
You can see both reflected in the photos.
I found this recipe on the curvy carrot.

Ingredients:
cooking spray, for greasing the pan
muffin tin
6 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate chips
6 ounces of butterscotch chips
1 cup creamy peanut butter
6 ounces of chow mein noodles
36 mini eggs

Melt the chocolate and butterscotch chips in the microwave in a microwave safe bowl.  Use 30 second increments, stirring after each one, until all the chips are melted.

Add your peanut butter and stir until it's mixed well.

Carefully add the chow mein noodles, and gently stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until all of them are coated well.

Fill your muffin tin with the mixture and mold them slightly so there is a well in the center.

Chill until hardened, about an hour or so.  Remove the nests from the tin.  I used a butter knife to kind of pop them out.  Then you can add your eggs (you could also use jelly beans).

Tropical Chicken Tacos

These were incredible!  We eat tacos or some form of mexican food at least once a week.  This was a great twist on our usuals.  The recipe comes from Clean Eating Magazine, so not only is it delicious, but it's good for you!  I did improvise the recipe in some places simply because I didn't have everything in the house, and it turned out great.  I will post the original recipe and note my changes as I go.

Ingredients for tacos:
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1/2 cup low fat coconut milk
1/4 cup minced red onion
3 tbs minced pineapple
1 tsp ancho chile powder (I used regular chile powder)
1/4 tsp sale
1/4 tsp pepper
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 tsp safflower oil (I used olive)
12 6 inch corn tortillas warmed (I used flour)

Coconut pineapple salsa:
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced (I used some orange bell pepper, but it lacked 'kick')
3 cups cubed pineapple
1 loosely packed cup fresh cilantro, chopped
(I also added some finely chopped cucumber)
1/4 cup minced red onion
1/4 cup toasted unsweetened coconut
1/8 tsp salt

1.  In a large mixing bowl or zip lock bag, combine jalapeno, milk, onion, 3 tbs pineapple, chile powder, 1/4 tsp salt and black pepper.  Add chicken and marinate at room temperature for up to 30 minutes, or overnight in the refrigerator.  Chicken should not marinate for more than 8 hours.

2.  Meanwhile, prepare salsa.  In a mixing bowl, combine salsa ingredients.  cover and refrigerate until needed.

3.  Heat grill or a grill pan and brush with oil.  ( I did these on the grill).  Remove chicken from marinade and grill until cooked through.  Slice chicken into thin strips and divide among the tortillas, then add your salsa.  We added avacado too!  YUM!

Sun-dried Tomato Stuffed Burgers

This loaded burger was bursting with flavor!  It didn't need much in the way of dressing it up, but it really depends on your tastes.
This is a really 'loose' recipe, meaning I didn't measure much more of an estimation.

1/2 cup goat cheese
3 Tbs sun dried tomatoes (packed in oil) chopped
1 Tbs basil
2 lb. ground beef
4 cloves garlic
salt and pepper to taste

1.  Mix the cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and basil together.

2.  In a separate bowl mix your ground beef, garlic, salt and pepper together.

3.  Divide your beef mixture into 8 equal sections.  Take one section, split it in half, and form one half into a thin patty.  Put some of your cheese mixture on top, then form the other half of the beef into a patty and place on top, sealing the edges well.

4.  Grill to perfection, top with your favorite toppings and enjoy!

St. Patricks Day Mystery Diner Part 2

Finally, I'm posting about our wonderful celebration!  I've just been too busy soaking up the sun, running the household.  :D  If you missed Part 1 or our Mystery Dinner, you can see it here.
So, we had our lovely friends The Lubberts over for dinner.  They were great sports and totally up for our Mystery Dinner.  A good time was had by all.

Here's my daughter, all decked out in her green.  She was even wearing green corduroy pants--and it was 80 degrees here in Mi.

also very excited about her stick-on earrings.

Originally, it was just going to be for my family, but when we added our friends, I changed a few of my ideas really just to make it easy on myself.  You'll notice some changes here from my Part 1 post.  Things have to be ready to serve up, so, I did prepare some things in advance (and prepared easy things)

Here's what we had:

Shamrock Shake

Leprechaun Pie (recipe here)

Pot of Gold (spoon bread--recipe here)

Taste a Rainbow

Emerald Isle (recipe here)

U-Pick Clover (sour cream cookie recipe here)

Irish Kiss (napkin)

Blarney Stone (fork)

St. Pat's Sword (knife)

Digging for Gold (Spoon)

As you can see, some of the menu items are your utensils.  This keeps it really interesting!  

Here's our Menu's:

The first thing we do is fill out our menus.  You'll want each person to keep a copy and give a copy to the chef.  All the fun names are listed and 3 courses.  We all eat 1 course at a time, then I serve up the next, and so on.  

If you would like a copy of the menus for next year, or just to adapt for your own mystery dinner, please visit my connect page and send me an email, and I will gladly email it out to you.  

I hope you find a reason to celebrate today!