Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

The BEST Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies EVER

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Butter, softened (2 sticks)
• 3/4 Cup Brown Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Sugar
• 1 Egg
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1 & 1/2 Cup Flour
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 tsp Salt
• 3 Cups Quick Oats
• 1 & 1/2 Cup Chocolate Chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Cream butter and sugars in stand mixer (or with electric hand mixer).
3. Mix in egg and vanilla.
4. In a separate bowl, mix or sift flour, baking soda and salt. Mix into wet ingredients. 
5. Add quick oats one cup at a time. 
6. Add chocolate chips.
7. Scoop small dough balls onto a cookie sheet. 
8. Bake for 10-12 minutes. 
9. Cool on a cooling rack before serving/storing. 

Recipe makes roughly 30 cookies, depending on the size of your scoops of dough.

Note:

>If you use a cookie scoop to shape the cookies, make sure to flatten out the tops of the cookies.  

My Food-tographer husband, Ty, took some awesome pictures of the cookie making process!

I LOVE my Yellow Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer & my Mint Green Kitchen Cart! Both gifts from my hubs!

Sifted Flour, Baking Soda + Salt

Oats

Adding the chocolate chips... you can't have too much chocolate!

All mixed, ready to be scooped into cookies!

The cookie scoop helps make the perfect size cookie

Cooling rack

Because what else do you do while the cookies are in the oven?

Bon Appétit! [Don't mind the Girl Scout Cookies in the background]

 

Ground Turkey Lettuce Wraps

Ground Turkey Lettuce Wraps

Serves 4 | Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 15 min

Ingredients

• 1 large head of Boston Lettuce (or Iceberg lettuce)
• 1 lb. lean ground turkey
• 1 Tbsp Vegetable oil
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 stalk green onion, finely chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 8 oz. can of water chestnuts, diced (drained)
• 1 ripe avocado (optional) 

• 3 Tbsp Soy Sauce (low sodium)
• 2 Tbsp Rice wine vinegar
• 1 Tbsp Sesame seed oil

Directions

1. Prepare your lettuce (doing this first gives it time to air dry after being washed). 
1. Fill a deep bowl with cold tap water.
2. Place the head of lettuce in the water.
3. Remove one layer at a time, letting as much water drip off it before placing it on a towel to dry (I just use a clean dish towel and let them air dry rather than waisting several paper towels)
2. Heat 1/2 Tbsp vegetable oil on med/low in skillet. Add green onion + bell pepper. Sauté on medium for 4-5 min. Remove from skillet and set to the side (store in small container w/ lid to keep it warm, I use a pyrex container). Wipe skillet clean with paper towel. 
3. Heat 1/2 Tbsp. vegetable oil on med/low in skillet. Add ground turkey. Mix the ground ginger + garlic powder into the turkey. Put a lid on the skillet to help brown the meat, stirring occasionally.
4. Once the turkey is fully cooked, add the bell pepper + green onions back into the skillet with the turkey. Add in the diced water chestnuts. 
5. Add the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar + sesame seed oil to the skillet, mixing it in thoroughly with the turkey. Let this simmer on med/low with a lid on for 10 minutes (or until dinner is ready to be plated). 
6. Slice the avocado and serve on top of the lettuce wraps.  

Enjoy! 

Suggested side dish: couscous 

> This recipe allows for 4 people to have 2-3 medium sized wraps. They're pretty filling on their own so this dish doesn't require much on the side.

I created this recipe by adapting two different recipes to Ty's liking + his current pallet (which prefers less spices/flavoring but not being bland ground turkey). The ground ginger and the three ingredients I used to make the sauce worked perfectly together to create a flavorful but not overpowering taste. The sesame seed oil gives it a little bit of a nutty taste and that was Ty's favorite part (made the dish smell delicious too!).

Success = finding/creating another dish using ground turkey that Ty enjoys and is healthy for him!

Homemade Naan

Naan

a slightly leavened bread in a large flat leaf shape

popular in West, Central + South Asia

Ingredients: active dry yeast, sugar, water, egg, greek yogurt,  oil,  salt, flour

Kneading the dough. [Nail polish color: Commander in Chic] 

Forming the dough into a ball before letting it sit for 1 hour to rise.

Ty had fun being my food-tographer :)

My wedding and engagement rings.

Slicing the dough into 8 pieces.

Before rolling each piece out flat.

Bubbling up in the skillet. 

Voila! The final, delicious product! 

The delicious and easy naan recipe that I followed can be found HERE at Budget Bytes. I swapped out the vegetable oil for olive oil in the second batch I made and the naan turned out just as delicious!

Alfredo Spaghetti Squash

Alfredo Spaghetti Squash + Sautéed Veggies

Ingredients:

Medium Spaghetti Squash

Alfredo packet (*look for homemade Alfredo sauce recipe)

1 3/4 C Milk
1 Tbsp Butter (omit butter if desired)

1 T olive oil
1/4 yellow onion, diced
1 C mushrooms, quartered
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
course salt to taste
*could add a little freshly minced garlic for extra flavor

1. Pre-heat oven to 375.
2. Make several small slices in the skin of the squash, place whole squash on rimmed baking sheet.
3. Bake for 45-50 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 30 minutes.
4. While squash is "cooling" prepare Alfredo sauce according to package.
5. Cut veggies + sauté them for 5-7 minutes (we like our veggies on the crunchy side).
6. Cut the squash in half (serrated knife works well). Spoon out the seeds and throw away. Scrape the squash with a fork, creating the "spaghetti".

*I scrape the squash onto the baking sheet that I used to bake the squash so that I can put the "spaghetti" back in the oven for a couple of minutes while I do any final prep or put away extra ingredients before serving. This keeps them from getting cold and even heats them back up a little bit.

Tonight I served this with orange slices on the side for fruit. Meant to serve it with french bread rolls but I forgot and with Ty's current light appetite, they weren't missed.

Bon Appétit!