Virtual Running Date No. 24: Small victories and dessert

Good morning, Crushers!

Do you ever have a day where you feel like you didn't do much? If we were on a virtual running date today, I would tell you how it's important to count all the small victories when you're having a blah day. For instance, since I'm teaching a class this semester, I have to get to work really early on the non-class days to carpool with Steve and make up my hours. On these days, I want to give myself a high five if my clothes all match and I get makeup on my face before 8 a.m. Never mind that I was putting mascara on at my desk...

This weekend wasn't a terribly busy weekend, and I'm glad. We needed some time to just mellow out. Friday night we stayed home (didn't have to tape a game/scout), ate dinner, and watched TV. I'm pretty sure I didn't move very far from the couch except to do the dishes. High five - the dishes got done!

Saturday we got up and ran part of the Ice Age Trail in the Holy Hill segment to find a boardwalk/bridge that Steve wanted to check out. We didn't realize what treacherous hills and overgrowth would hinder us. High five - I didn't totally wipe out after hitting that rock.

We also got to do a few things around the house, Steve helped my parents take some stuff to the dump and I celebrated the bride-to-be, Jenny, with some friends at her low-key bachelorette party. We went to this Arte Wine and Painting Studio where you can either take classes, use instructions or paint freestyle. High five - I didn't get any paint on my clothes!

It's supposed to be "The Wisdom Tree", but ended up looking more like a candy tree.

Sunday, we went to church where we had the most beautiful Unity Sunday (where we only have one service for everyone in the school gym). The bell choir played (high five - I didn't miss a note except the one I purposely skip), the choirs sang, the Chinese outreach choir sang in Chinese, no one fainted from heat, the microphones worked and over 500 people praised God. HIGH FIVE!

Although the Packers didn't win (Steve says there are 6 plays that either make or break a game), we watched the game, ate Greek burgers stuffed in pita pockets (delish!), and made a dessert with just enough ingredients that neither of us had to go to the grocery store for. High five!

Overall it was a pretty great weekend. We got so much done, even if it was just the little things.

Oatmeal Chocolate Raisin Bars:
(adapted from Chocolate Chip Bars from the Entenmann's Big Book of Baking)
Oat mix:
1 cup flour
1 cup quick cooking oats
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup (one stick) butter, softened to almost melted (about 20 seconds in the microwave)

Filling:
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup raisins
1 cup chocolate chips

Gear you'll need: A big bowl, a 13x9 pan (greased), a big spoon, can opener, measuring cups and spoons

Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the butter in the big bowl and pop it in the microwave for about 20 seconds. Using the butter wrapper, grease your baking pan. Take the bowl out of the microwave and add the flour, sugar and oats. Mix until it has the consistency of wet sand and oats. Press all but 1/2 cup of the oat mix into the bottom of the pan using your hands.

Oat Crust

Rinse out the big bowl (why make another bowl dirty?) and mix all of the filling ingredients together. Pour that on top of the oat crust and spread it out. Sprinkle the saved oat mix over that. Bake in the oven for 25-ish minutes (I think mine turned out to be about 28 minutes because I didn't hear the timer go off right away). Let it cool for at least 20-30 minutes before slicing into bars or it'll stick to the knife and make a mess.

Note: the original recipe called for chopped nuts, but we didn't have any, nor are we chopped nuts kind of people. It also says to spread the sweetened condensed milk out before topping with the chocolate chips, but I misread the directions. It turns out fine if you stir everything together!

Enjoy!

I don't want to be right - Breakfast style

Hi Crushers,

Last night after using lots of coupons and thinking we were saving all this money by working ahead on Christmas gifts, my car got rear-ended with me in the driver's seat and my mom in the passenger's seat. Hello new bumper and deductible. Goodbye all the money I just saved.

Argh.

Obviously, I'm very glad that no one was hurt and that we weren't pushed into oncoming traffic. Being a little sore is the max of our injuries. There is a lot to be thankful for here.

However, the being annoyed part hasn't gone away yet. I got to work today after dropping my husband off (carpools are awesome!) at the school where he teaches, and sat down at my desk. I keep a big old canister of oatmeal at my desk for a nutritious breakfast since I usually fly out of the house before eating. Well, today that plain oatmeal didn't sound so appealing. It needed something. Think, think think... Time to dig around in my lunchbox for some inspiration.

My husband packed my lunch for me last night while I was dealing with the police and the (uninsured, license-less) young man that hit my car. He made me a very nice lunch including several dark chocolate Hersey Kisses (R). Yet, another reason why I love him!

*Click* goes the light bulb over my head.

Oatmeal + one Hersey Kiss + a spoonful of natural peanut butter that I keep in my desk for afternoon apples or celery snacks = GONE!

That was awesome, so I had to share it. Next time, if I lack the chocolate, I'm totally chopping up some apples.

Office breakfast deliciousness...

Hard Workin' Oven

Last night, I made two things: Jalapeño Roll Ups and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies. Both were "Man Cave" approved by my husband and his friends during their card night! I figured I might as well make both in one night so I didn’t have to fire up the oven more than once. Technically though, it’s electric, so there’s no actual fire involved. Details, schmeetails...

First, I made the Jalapeño Roll Ups based on this recipe from Sally's blog, My Homemade Life. The only thing that I did differently was use jalapeños from a jar. I had to slice them myself, but that was easy. Just remember DO NOT rub your eyes or any part of your face unless you scrub your hands really well first. Otherwise, PAIN WILL HAPPEN. Your eyes will burn like heck and your face will itch.

Other than the different jalapeños, I pretty much followed the recipe. The only problem was that I made them really fat, so I only got 16 appetizers out of one tube instead of 32. Not sure how she cut these or if I just rolled them the wrong direction. I’m pretty sure it was that I rolled them the short way and not the long way. Whoops!

You should head over to Sally’s blog for the recipe. She did it the right way, so you should probably learn from her on this one. Plus, she’s got a really fun math explanation for how to slice things. Brilliant and simple! She also has the funniest "Man Cave" explanation here. I'll just share a few pictures from my adventures:

Here's the filling. It would probably be a good dip if you melted it, too.

I think I rolled it the wrong direction...

Pre-baking roll-ups.
I couldn't get a picture of them after because the guys ate them so quick!

Now before I start writing about these great pumpkin cookies I made, please note the following:
DO NOT use the same spatula/flipper, cookie sheets or bowls unless you clean them thoroughly between recipes. I know this probably goes without saying, but I don’t know if you’re like me and think, “Hey, that spatula only got used for 30 seconds to move some crescent rolls on to a plate.” Remember that it got used with jalapeños, and you don’t want that spicy flavor to touch sweet cookies. That would confuse the heck out of your taste buds. Just wash them, OK?

So, about those amazing cookies that I found thanks to Christi’s blog Love From the Oven… 

She was extra super healthy and used white wheat flour. I used all-purpose flour. I couldn’t find pumpkin pie spice in my cupboard at 9 p.m., but I did find apple pie spice. Don’t ask why I always seem to bake late at night, but I think it’s nice to fall asleep to a great smelling house. That, and I never seem to get around to baking until late. Meh. I’m a busy person.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling!)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (or the healthy stuff like Christi used)
• 3 cups of rolled oats (note: old fashioned oats are the same thing)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (break up the clumps)
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp cinnamon (feel free to use more if you want)
• 2 tsp apple pie spice (Christi used pumpkin pie spice)
• One regular sized bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Note: Christi also suggests using mix-ins like pecans, walnuts or raisins. I’d like to add dried cranberries or mini M&M’s to that list, too.

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Get all of your ingredients out and ready to go. You might also want to get your cookie baking sheets out, as well.

In a mixing bowl combine pumpkin, eggs and vanilla until well combined. I love that this recipe uses a WHOLE can of pumpkin puree so that I don’t have a random half of a can leftover to use in who-knows-what.

Pumpkin goodness (AKA the wet ingredients)

In a separate bowl, combine flour, oats, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, spices and chocolate chips. Combine wet and dry ingredients until mixed. The cookie dough will be VERY thick. Unless you have a stand mixer, just use a strong spoon and some muscle. I think I could have worn down another hand mixer with these cookies.

Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheets about 2" apart. All I did was take a regular cereal spoonful of the dough and pushed it off the spoon with my fingers. It made a nice little round drop cookie. If you want, flatten the cookie dough slightly with a fork. It was great to know ahead of time that these won’t spread out much, so I could fit 15 cookies on each cookie sheet (3 rows x 5 columns).

I already made 30 cookies and had all of this dough left to use!
Can't you tell how it'll make nice chunky cookies?

Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly browned. It's best to remove them from the cookie sheet quickly after baking to prevent them from sticking to the sheet.

Now, Christi said that this makes 36 cookies. I don’t know if I just made smaller cookies or what, but I got 75 cookies out of this recipe! This was a fortunate happening because these cookies are for my husband’s football team’s pizza party. These cookies will be no match for 30 teenage boys. 

The end result. Soooooo gooooood...

What I especially love about these cookies is that they are not only easy and delicious and made my kitchen smell A-MAZING, but they are actually pretty good for you. From the ingredients, you can see that there isn’t any butter or oil and it’s got whole grain oats, so you kind of get the idea that they’re healthy. Then I found this great website where you punch in all your ingredients and it spits out the nutritional facts. It says that these cookies are about 110 calories for two of them. How great is that? Delicious and healthy-ish!

Enjoy and please share your favorite pumpkin cookies or jalapeño appetizers in the comments!