Iced Whole Wheat Pumpkin Cookies

This is a very traditional recipe that I slightly modified. Not the healthiest because of the sugar, but I'm going to mess around with honey until I get a healthier and tasty cookie:

• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup Earth Balance (or regular butter, if you wish)
• Sugar...the recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups white sugar, but I used less than a cup of dark brown
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree (just regular- not the kind that has junk mixed in)
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the glaze...

• 2 cups confectioners sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened soy milk (or cows milk- whatever you have)
• 1 tablespoon melted Earth Balance (or butter)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used lemon and almond combined because I ran out of vanilla and it tasted better)

Preheat oven to 350. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup butter and sugar. Add pumpkin, egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients by half amounts. Drop on cookie sheet by the tablespoon and flatten slightly.

Bake for 15-18 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies then drizzle glaze with a fork. **I put the icing into a Ziploc bag and pipped it onto the cookies and only used half. The cookies don't need all that additional sugar added to them...in my anti-sugar opinion.**

To make glaze: Combine confectioners sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed to achieve drizzling consistency.

Share and enjoy!

Happy Meals

I personally don't understand why parents reward/bribe their children with Happy Meals or candy. What about a trip to the park or something other than food? What really sucks is that nuggets are served to school kids in combination with the other delightfully sickening items such as, pizza, hot dogs, waffles, spaghetti, french toast sticks and fried chicken! Ever think about the behavioral challenges when students are stuffed full of processed garbage?

In the February 2010 issue of Men's Health, David Zinczenko writes:

"You’d think that a breaded lump of chicken would be pretty simple. Mostly, it would contain bread and chicken. But the McNugget and its peers at other fast-food restaurants are much more complicated creatures than that.

The “meat” in the McNugget alone contains seven ingredients, some of which are made up of yet more ingredients. (Nope, it’s not just chicken. It’s also such nonchicken-related stuff as water, wheat starch, dextrose, safflower oil, and sodium phosphates.) The “meat” also contains something called “autolyzed yeast extract.” Then add another 20 ingredients that make up the breading, and you have the industrial chemical—I mean, fast-food meal—called the McNugget. Still, McDonald’s is practically all-natural compared to Wendy’s Chicken Nuggets, with 30 ingredients, and Burger King Chicken Fries, with a whopping 35 ingredients."

That's all for now. I was hesitant to post this because I know a bunch of people who let their kids eat this "stuff". Don't take it personally- it's my opinion and I'm not judging. Sheesh.

Pizza Flavored Hummus

Such a lame picture, I know.

This creation might make me famous. Oh wait, Tribe already has this product. I saw Tribe Pizza Flavored hummus in the store today for $3.99 and I told Maximus, "dude, I can totally make this." He replied with, "Yeah!" We came home from the store, he went down for a nap and I got to work.

It turned out SO GOOD. It literally tastes like pizza. It's a better craving "fix" than pizza- it's creamy and it won't make you feel like crap after devouring a load of it.

• can of Chickpeas
• 1/3 cup tahini
• 1 lemon
• roasted red peppers (half jar)
• 2 garlic cloves
• salt and pepper
• a glug of Muir Glenn pizza sauce (haha, this is where I cheated)
  
• oregano
• basil
• paprika
• a squirt of tomato paste to bind it a bit

Blitz it all up and let it chill. Try it.

Dark Chocolate Cookies Sweetened BY CARROTS!!!

I like to play with food when Maximus takes long naps. This afternoon I made dark chocolate cookies but I wanted to mess around with sweeteners. I don't know how carrots popped into my head, but I pureed a bunch in my processor and strained them. Here's what I did:

• heaping cup of quinoa flour mixed with whole wheat (maybe half and half- heavier on the quinoa)
• dark chocolate cocoa- I never measure, I'm sorry, but maybe a heavy 1/4 cup?
  
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• bit of salt

Just like any old cookie recipe- mix those in a separate bowl.

• 1 stick Earth Balance (vegan butter stuff) softened
  
• molasses- I dunked a spoon in twice
  
• carrot juice and pulp
• 1 second pour vanilla extract
• 2 egg whites

In two or three portions, combine the dry with the wet ingredients. Then add some dark chocolate and white chocolate chips (I know, horrible for you- I used them sparingly) Bake at 350 until they're done. Makes 12.

I stood by the oven until they were done expecting them to totally suck. But guess what? They didn't suck at all! I even did a little "happy dance" whilst chewing my cookie! Cha-ching!

Baahahaha!

I've decided pumping my kid full of wheat grass, garlic and blue green algae once a week is good parenting. Maximus loves this stuff:

Dude, I get all excited when I realize what Maximus is ingesting: apples, mangos, pineapples, bananas, kiwis, SPIRULINA, BROCCOLI, SPINACH, BARLEY GRASS, PARSLEY, GINGER ROOT, BLUE GREEN ALGAE, ODORLESS GARLIC. Yes! Yes! Yes! Cheers!

How We Eat Tuna Salad

I just realized I posted a similar recipe a few weeks ago...sorry.
I don't like mayonnaise on too many things- especially tuna. Yuck. Jesse has a disgusting love for Miracle Whip and I won't even touch that stuff. And all the crap that's in mayo and Miracle Whip makes my skin crawl. So when we eat albacore tuna, we mix it with extra virgin olive oil, sundried tomatoes, sea salt & pepper, olives and avocados. The taste is loads better and so are the good fats. Have a nice day.

Baked Tofu

I buy baked tofu from Open Harvest all the time. I LOVE IT. I made baked tofu for the first time in my life and I ROCKED IT! Jesse and I had some last night at "Hippie Dinner" and Jesse couldn't get over how much he liked it. I looked at several recipes online and didn't love a particular one, so I started experimenting. I mean, you can't really screw up a soy marinade. Then I had the brilliant idea of WRITING DOWN what I used as I was doing it instead of trying to remember. Play with all the ingredients until you get a balance you like. I went a little overboard with the chili paste and I'm not the biggest fan of spicy food, but Jesse and Maximus digged it.
Before you marinate it for 20 or so minutes, press it.

I baked it at 400 degrees for um...maybe 45 minutes? Maybe less? I turned the pieces a few times too.

Then I made Jesse a sandwich and Maximus ate 2 whole pieces of baked tofu heaven alone. I'm telling you, don't be all, "eww, it's tofu and I've made up my mind tofu is gross because I've never tasted it" because you suck. Just shut up and try it.