Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

Last Thursday I mentioned that Daniel had requested a two-week moratorium on desserts at our house {we are both attempting to lost about 7% of our current body weight}. Anyways, I agreed and our house has been basically dessert free.

Last night this backfired on Daniel as he was craving something sweet – even if it was just a handful of chocolate chips. No dice. When I ran out of goodies, I didn't add them to the grocery list because of the moratorium. We even ran out of our frozen yogurt.

So after dinner, Daniel tried to make a bargain with me: Change a diaper or go to Walmart to pick up frozen yogurt {or even better drive the 20 minutes across town for DQ}. If we were going to do a family outing, I was fine with getting out, but I didn't really want to go out by myself. And since Daniel didn't want to get out, we were at a bit of an impasse.

Instead I went downstairs to see what was in our pantry and what recipe might work with the ingredients I happened to have on hand. We ended up with Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies for dessert. The perfect thing to satisfy our sweet tooth.

 Nutrition Information from CalorieCount

These cookies were a great excuse to use my new KitchenAid Stand Mixer {I have had it for a couple of months, but haven't had a chance to blog about it}. Daniel insisted I get the heavy duty one because the motor was a better quality {i.e. no plastic parts} and the bowl was much bigger {I guess he thinks I might need to be able to whip up batter for 48 cupcakes in one setting}. I do like it. My only complaint is that the crank to lift the bowl up to the mixer cranks opposite of what I would expect. But with time, I am sure that I will get used to it.

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

Recipe Adapted from Smells Like Home

Ingredients

3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
8 tbsp butter
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter {I used natural}
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup quick-cooking oats

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir together with a fork to blend.  

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, peanut butter and sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.  

Blend in the egg and vanilla extract.  

Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed just until incorporated.  

Stir in the oats until evenly blended.

Use a tablespoon to drop the dough on the cookie sheets, a couple inches apart.  

Bake for 10 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through.  

The cookies should be light golden brown and slightly puffed.  

Let cool on the baking sheet 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cook completely. 

You should get about 2 dozen cookies from this recipe.

Pancakes with Grammy

My niece is something else. She is almost three and pure joy to be around. When we were in Nashville for a family visit last week, I had the opportunity to help Izzy and my mom {Grammy} make pancakes.

Miss Izzy has reached the "I can do it" stage and insists on being in the middle of everything. She wanted to scoop out the flour and pour the flour into the bowl and stir.

We managed to compromise with Grammy scooping out the flour, Izzy dumping it in the bowl and me helping her to stir.

She actually did really well.

For some reason, while we were stirring together, I started making a sound like electric beaters {or a toy car} "Brrrrrrrrrrrr." I guess I am gearing up for making lots of noises when Jack gets bigger.

Of course Izzy is a little mimic so she made the "Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr" sound and thought it was hilarious. 

The pancakes were delicious – and there was minimal mess to clean up. So glad to get to spend some quality time with family. I can't wait until the boys {Jack and his cousin, Levi} are big enough to join in on the fun.

Spaghetti Sauce, Used Three Ways

This past week I experimented with being creative with meals. I started out by making a homemade spaghetti sauce that we ate with whole wheat spaghetti and a side salad {original recipe was from A Recipe A Day}.

The next day I used the sauce to make sloppy joes.

Finally I used the sauce to make stuffed shells.

We also managed to get a couple of days worth of leftovers for lunches {I made a half recipe of the sauce and it provided us with 10 different servings}. This worked out beautifully as we didn't have to have true repeat meals and we saved money by not making completely new dishes each night.

Pin It: Completed Projects

Over the last couple of weeks I wrapped up two projects. One was a Crayon Monogram "J" for Jack's nursery {if you remember, I made an "L" a few weeks ago for my nephew}.

The other thing is that I finally finished knitting Jack's baby blanket. My sister informed me that it is actually a "throw" as baby blankets are 2'x3' and my blanket is a bit bigger. On second thought, it is perfect for me to snuggle under... maybe I should just keep it for myself!

I have several new ideas for projects to start on this week.

Homemade Bread Gone Wrong

What bread should look like... {image via}

 

Occasionally the recipes that I make flop – remember my comment about ALWAYS burning granola? I just don't post those pictures on Facebook or my blog...

Most of the time {like 97.54%*} I am a pretty good cook, baker, chef, whatever. I enjoy being in the kitchen and trying new recipes. I have spent countless hours working on making good food. I think enjoying what you do and spending a lot of time doing it goes a long way in how recipes turn out.

So. Yesterday. I attempted to make homemade bread. I thought I had found a fool-proof recipe. It had great tips on proofing the yeast. Yeah. It didn't work out so great. The dough didn't rise. I thought I would cook it anyway. It came out like a hard brick of dough. It didn't even make my house smell good. 

Cue disappointment.

I suppose that, like with all things, this bread making thing is going to take practice. I really want my house to smell like fresh bread. I really want to take a loaf out of the oven and smother butter on it so that it melts and absorbs into the grain. I am sure that I can do it. But for now, bread is definitely not something I am good at making.

*Don't ask where I got my percentage on how often I make good things. It is a random number I chose to reflect that I generally make good things. There is no actual math that supports this arbitrary percentage.

I would walk 500 miles (February Recap)

I ended the month of January with a measly 4.5 miles. February was a little better at 6.6 miles {all run}. That brings me to 11.1 for the year. I have a mighty long way to go before I hit 500. I am hoping the warm weather continues and I can clock some longer runs. The good news is that I am building on my endurance and am up to 2.2 miles of continuous running.

Coming back from being pregnant, I am pretty happy with my current ability to run 2+ miles at a time.

Some thoughts on jogging with a stroller...

It is a lot more difficult that running without one. The biggest challenge for me is running hills {my least favorite thing}. I have a bad habit of leaning on my stroller. This makes me hunch, which makes my back fatigue more quickly. I have discussed possible stroller modifications with my husband {who happens to be an engineer}. My idea is to add bicycle handle bar extensions. Daniel thought this was a great idea.

This is the kind of handle bar extension on my mountain bike. Image found here.

Strollers are nice in that I have plenty of places to store any extras that I need to carry... keys, iPod, phone, water, etc.

I get a lot of interest from strangers when I am running with a stroller on the local high school cross country course. I have actually had two different men stop me to comment on how impressed they are that I am out with a stroller. I am just glad that I can get out and exercise and that Jack is such a content little guy.

I am not exactly on track to make it to 500 miles, but you never know how the rest of the year will play out. Hopefully I can keep increasing my weekly mileage and make some headway on this lofty goal of mine. 

4.38 miles in January >> 6.66 miles in February

Thursday Things (Random, March 2012)

Daniel has requested that I don't make desserts for two weeks. Not because he doesn't love them, but because we need a break from chocolate overload. I made the Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie n’ Oreo Fudge Brownie Bars again last weekend. They were amazing, but we obviously need a break from chocolate. At least our waist lines do.

*The picture above was taken by my sister. The little ramekin and little glass of milk were for my mom. We were cracking up because everyone else's portions were huge.

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My immediate family got together this past weekend. We have grown from 5 to 10 over the last 10 years. Hard to believe.

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Recently I was running low on cloth diapers, so I stuck Jack in disposables {size 2, eek!} and I felt like he was naked! I can't believe how big my little boy is getting.

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I finally finished the baby blanket I have been knitting for Jack. It only took me 3+months to complete. So glad to have finished my first big knitting project.