M&M cookies and baby food

My grandpa's favorite holiday is Valentine's Day. He would always send us Valentines and candy every year. I'm guessing I'm getting too old, because he sent the Valentines and candy to my kids. Either way, it's still a benefit for me, because, darn, Luca's too young to eat M&M's.

I make cookies every week from scratch. I buy the giant bag of chocolate chips, butter, egg beaters... all from Sam's Club and that lasts me about a month or two for supplies. However, I hadn't bought chocolate chips in a while and I knew I was running low. Not to mention, those damn M&Ms were sitting on the counter, taunting me. So what did I do? I substituted them in my cookie recipe.

Note: I am the WORST when it comes to measuring. So sometimes I'm guestimating. I apologize.

Chocolate Chip/M&M Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup egg beaters
1 cup no sugar added applesauce
1 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp ground flax seed
1 tsp baking soda
a dash of salt
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
as many M&Ms or chocolate chips as you prefer

In a mixer, combine all the wet ingredients and mix on high for a minute until well blended. Add brown sugar, flax seed, baking soda, and salt while mixer is on low. If using a table top mixer, add flour slowly until well blended. If using a hand mixer, I'd recommend mixing flour in by hand for less mess. Then add M&Ms or chocolate chips.

Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes. It makes about 3 dozen.

(If you like sweeter cookies, add a tbsp or two of white sugar. I don't usually do this, but I have, and it still tastes good. Also, I add applesauce to my recipe even though I use butter, because flax seed can be drying and the applesauce keeps it soft.)

Here's my philosophy: I'm going to bake cookies. I always do. But instead of just using chocolate chips and then eating those M&Ms in a different sitting, I mixed them and saved myself the torment. Is it a good philosophy? Probably not. But it works for me.

For dinner I made Chicken Tetrazzini.

2 chicken breasts, boiled and cubed
2 cans of cream of chicken soup (I get the 98% fat free kind)
1/2 cup fat free sour cream
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese
garlic powder (add to taste)
2 tbsp ground flax seed (yes, I like my flax seed)
package of frozen peas
whole wheat spaghetti, boiled

Mix all contents in a bowl then place in a greased casserole dish at 350 for 35-45 minutes.

Then, for Luca (since I make all of his baby food from scratch) I took the cooked end product, stuck it in my handy food processor and blended it up nice and fine. I also added some water to make it smooth.

Luca's thought on the food? He loved it. Cleaned the bowl clean and looked for more. I guess I know what he's having for lunch tomorrow!

My only regret is that I didn't do this for Claire. Not only am I saving money by not buying baby food, but I know exactly what is going into the food I make him. Plus, he gets to know my cooking at an early age so hopefully he will skip the finicky I-hate-all-food phase that Claire hit...

Happy baking and cooking!

Blueberries on a wintry day

I finally made it to my bi-monthly Sam's Club trip where I had a list in my hand that was better off being invisible. I'm not quite sure what it is about that place that makes all my ambitions go to hell in a handbasket. I did, however, plan on buying blueberries so that I could try out a new recipe for blueberry muffins. (I got this recipe and only slightly modified it from Simpledailyrecipes.com)

In a word: LOVE. They were delicious.

Here's what you'll need:

3/4 cup low fat milk

1/2 cup no sugar added applesauce

1/4 cup egg beaters

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

3 tsp baking powder (not baking soda)

1 tsp salt

4 tbs ground flax seed

1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Here's what you do:

Preheat your oven to 375 and use Pam to spray the muffin tin.

In a mixer, combine the milk, applesauce and egg beaters. Add the sugar, flax seed and baking powder. On a lower setting, add both flours. By hand, fold in the blueberries and using a spoon, ladle the batter into the muffin tins and bake for 18-20 minutes, depending on your oven.

What I liked best about these muffins is that they're moist enough but they don't crumble apart, which is important when it's given to a two year old who fidgets a lot.

Last year, my husband was convinced that Giant Eagle brand premium chocolate chip cookies were the reason to the Pittsburgh Penguin's success at winning Lord Stanley. He would only eat them on the days that they won. So, this year I decided to make my own cookies. I'm a bit of a control freak, and I like to be in charge of what goes into what I'm eating. No mysteries, here.

The first few batches, well...hmm. Then over the course of 6 months, I've mastered the cookie baking and have even made them healthier. My philosophy is, you're going to eat it anyways, might as well make it healthier.

I recently discovered using applesauce in baking and it made me so excited, it was almost the happiest day of my life. Especially when my sugar loving husband said to me, "These are the best cookies you've ever made, what's your secret?" And I told him, "No white sugar, just applesauce." I will post that recipe here, soon, once I remember it. My other major fault, I don't write things down when they're delicious!