Laura Cookies

My friend Laura had the Dishin' Diva's (our freezer meal club) over for a meeting the other night, and she served the best oatmeal cookies I've ever had! Some of our kids were over and they were a hit with both the adults and the kids. Needless to say we all asked for the recipe. The original title is "Gary's Famous Oatmeal Cookies", and her mom is pretty famous for making these in her hometown. With in the week of her sending out the recipe all 5 of us had made them. Ainsley, who was one of the kids over that night, remembered them and coined them "Laura Cookies" for our household. We did a slight variation in the recipe, we substituted ground oatmeal for the whole wheat flour. This recipe makes about 7-9 dozen, but they freeze really well and don't loose any of their flavor when they thaw. They are good straight out of the freezer too.

Enjoy!

Laura Cookies

1 lbs of butter (room temperature)

1 & 1/2 cup brown sugar

1 pkg vanilla instant pudding

4 large eggs

2 & 1/2 cups ground oatmeal* or whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking soda

7 cups oatmeal

1 bag semi sweet chocolate chips (2 cups)

Preheat the oven to 360 degrees. Layer all the ingredients in to a big bowl and mix with an electric mixer, until it has the consistency of coo

kie dough. Bake on non-greased baking sheet for 9 minutes. Let cool on the pan for a couple minutes before moving to a cooling rack.

* to make ground oatmeal just grind regular rolled oats in a food processor or magic bullet until the consistency of flour.

Kale Pasta

The days are getting longer and warmer, and I find myself pushing back dinner time later everyday. The kids are outside soaking up all the vitamin D they've been deprived of all winter, and quite frankly I'm in no hurry to get inside and start dinner either. So as the dinner time has been pushed from 6 to 7-7:30, I realize that in order to maximize my time outside as well, I will need basic, healthy, no prep dinners that can be done in close to 15 minutes. We eat a lot of pasta in our household, since it's one of the only ways that I can get the kids to eat a well rounded meal. Put a vegetable on Colin's plate and he won't touch it, put it in a pasta and its eaten. Here's one of our favorites this time of year:

Kale Pasta

1 pkg of whole wheat linguine

1 bunch of kale, coarsely chopped

Olive oil

1 avocado chopped

4 eggs whisked

cilantro chopped

salt and pepper

Cook the noodles according to the package. In a large skillet heat a little olive oil to med-high and add the kale, cook till wilted and remove. Put the cooked noodles in the skillet and add the eggs stir quickly till done and add the kale back in. Stir all together and remove to a bowl and add the cilantro and avocado and toss, salt and pepper as needed.

Guacamole Recipe

Guacamole has always been a favorite of mine, and ever since not eating meat and less dairy I think my body craves it constantly! I had made it a couple times, but mostly used store bought because I needed it in a pinch. A while ago I was invited to a party and was going to bring guacamole, and definitely not store bought, so the week before I played around with some different ingredients, and this is the one that stuck. Matt tolerates guacamole, but does not appreciate it the way I do, but when I added the tomatillos, he devoured it almost as fast as I did. My favorite way to enjoy this treat is with banana chips, but is also amazing with rice, beans and salsa, and of course with blue corn chips! The recipe is from when I brought it to a party so down scale if needed

Guacamole

8 avocados

2 tomatillos

1 small jalapeño pepper seeded and diced very small

1/2 cup red onion diced

lime juice from 2-3 limes

salt

Scoop out avocado flesh into a large bowl, add all other ingredients and mash up!

I leave about 2-3 avocado pits in with it to help it from turning brown, remove them before serving.

Vegan Chili

Much requested recipe, so I'll just post it and add a picture the next time I make it.

1 green pepper diced

1 onion chopped

3 cups carrots chopped

5 cloves garlic (or less)

olive oil (2-3 times around the pot)

2-3 tbs chili powder

1 tbs cumin

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp all spice

1 pkg tempeh

4 cans beans rinsed(I use chili, kidney and black)

2 large cans of tomatoes

Heat oil over high heat, add onion, garlic, carrots and pepper and saute' for about 5 min. Add all the spices and stir well. Add your tempeh and let it brown a little bit by chopping it up like hamburger. Add all the beans and tomatoes.

Bring chili to a boil. Turn down the heat and let chili simmer, covered, for about 30 min to an hour.

Enjoy!

Of course you can substitute the tempeh for hamburger, chicken or turkey if you want meat.

This makes alot!!!! but as we all know chili is one of the greatest left over foods!

Butternut squash soup

I've been craving butternut squash stew...a very meaty, creamy stew. Instead of trying to recreate a vegan version of that I decided to just attempt a basic butternut squash soup. It turned out great!!! Of course both times I've made it I've altered the ingredients quantities, but here is the recipe(give or take).

Butternut Squash Soup

2 Butternut Squash

Pure Maple syrup

Earth Balance (vegan buttery spread)

Sea salt

Vegetable broth

Soy creamer

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut the squash in half and scoop out seeds. Put about 1 teaspoon of earth balance, 1 teaspoon (or table spoon depending on the size of the squash), and a pinch of sea salt in each squash, and bake till tender; about an hour.

Scoop the flesh of the squash in to a big soup pot, and cover with vegetable broth(about 4 cups), stir well and bring to a boil.

If you want to puree the soup do it now in a food processor or even hand mixer. Put back in the pot and stir well. Add about 3/4 of a cup of soy creamer. Heat throughly and enjoy!

Of course if you do not want to make this a vegan soup just use real butter and real creamer!