Colors and Chocolate

These couple weeks have just gotten away from me.  I've been doing a bit of cooking, but no picture taking.  With that said I do have a couple thoughts to share with you today.

I was eating lunch today, which was a plateful of vegetables, including butternut squash.  I found myself wondering at the bright orange color of the squash and admiring it.  I had lots of color on my plate and that was good.  That led me to think about my new watch!  For those of you making fun of me for not being able to make a decision on a watch I wanted a year ago, you should know I decided and have a watch!  I wanted a watch for the outdoors, something sturdy, water resistant, and comfortable for backpacking, skiing, and rowing.  I often do these activities without a watch, but as I learn more about safety and first aid, I think there is a good chance I might want a watch to take a pulse or something.  It was time.  You can see why the beautiful orange squash reminded me of my watch!  I am the happy owner of this basic Momentum Atlas watch.  So far it does seem sturdy.

So let's revisit sugar.   As you know after over a year on the no sugar wagon I fell off and I'm officially blaming the cake decorating class! :)  Even though I'm now giving into ice cream and sweets a bit more, I still don't want to eat unnecessary sugar, it should be worth it - not something I'm eating just because it's in front of me.  Kashi 7 Whole Grain Puffs is one of a handful of cereals I've been able to find without sugar or any sweetener in.  It's cereal, I don't need anything sweet in my cereal!  But I digress, my most recent box had a recipe on the side for Puffs and Pretzels Cereal that I've looked at a few times and I realized it's a great base recipe that can be adjusted based on likes and what's in the cupboard.

Below is the recipe and how I changed it around.  It really is a great way to take care of a sweet craving and enjoy a little chocolate, along with some protein and fiber depending on what you include in the recipe, and there is no cooking involved!

Puffs & Pretzels Haystacks
Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups Kashi Puffs
     1cup shredded coconut
     1 cup broken pretzel sticks
   2/3 cup coarsely chopped almonds
    12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
    1/2 cup smooth natural almond butter

Instructions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cereal, coconut, pretzel pieces and almonds.
2. Place chocolate chips in a small microwave bowl and microwave for 20-second intervals, stirring until melted.
3. Add almond butter for the last 20 seconds, then stir until smooth.
4. Pour melted mixture over cereal mixture and stir until well coated.
5. Drop by heaping tablespoons onto waxed paper.
6. Refrigerate until firm and serve, or store in the refrigerator.

My Haystacks:  I used Kashi Puffs cereal, unsweetened coconut flakes, almonds and peanuts and I mixed it with peanut butter instead of almond butter, because that is what was in my cupboard. 

In my next haystacks, I will use dark chocolate chips and almond butter, in addition I think unsweetened dried cherries and  plain popcorn might be good adds!  What will your haystacks include?

Cookies

Need the title say anything more?  Everyone loves cookies!  Or so my husband would have you believe, and apparently he might be right.

Yesterday our local Kiwanis club, of which I am secretary, had our annual Stars of Tomorrow event.  It is a talent show for our communities youth and one of our main fundraisers.  Every year we sell cookies and water at intermission.  But, we sell cheap store cookies that it pains me to purchase.  This year I offered to make all the cookies for the event.  Wow - a lot of work.   But, woohoo, a huge success - in my humble opinion.

So I wanted to make decorated sugar cookies and for those that needed chocolate, I made regular Chocolate Chip Walnut Oatmeal cookies.  We will focus on the decorated sugar cookies.  First, I needed the right shape and I found the perfect one, a music note!  I cut out cookies in the shape of music notes and stars. 

I used the Basic Rolled Sugar Cookie Dough on Karenscookies.net.   This really is a good tasting, easy to roll out dough.  I've mentioned this site in the past, but it is amazing.  Karen has the best tutorials and recipes.  She is ever so helpful and has nifty things to purchase such as the music note cookie cutter and the adjustable rolling pin, which has fast become my favorite item in my kitchen.    Ok, back to the cookies...

I did the stars all differently, but I decorated the music notes all the same.

And, while they don't look perfect next to each other on the pan ....

When wrapped in clear cellophane and ribbon, they looked great!  Each little package had one star and one music note.

Both types of cookies sold out well before intermission ended, so I vote that while the lines may not have been perfect and I could use practice getting an even layer of glaze on my cookies, this was a success.

Comfort Food

My man is sick.  This means one thing, how can I comfort and take care of him without touching him and getting sick myself?  Ah yes, by cooking.  But the challenge is we don't necessarily have the same comfort food.

I started with the traditional Chicken Soup.  He's really been enjoying the soup.  In making soup, I just use whatever vegetables I have; here we have spinach, onion, celery, carrot, and edamame.... Yes, I know edamame isn't a vegetable!  I actually simmered some organic chicken breasts to get a fresh broth and then I shredded the chicken and added it back in when the noodles were almost done.  I'm not picky about noodles so I used whatever I had which turned out to be some whole wheat spaghetti noodles broken in small pieces.

Next I went for something that is more my comfort food - hey, it's hard watching someone be sick!  Of course, you knew it would entail lots of vegetables, I emptied my vegetable drawer of carrots, asparagus, red cabbage and fennel.  Chopped it in similar size pieces and roasted it.  While that was roasting I cooked some whole wheat spiral noodles.  When they were done I mixed the noodles and vegetables with some Parmesan, salt, and pepper.  Topped it with a some rustic breadcrumbs more Parmesan and olive oil and baked it until golden on the top.  This made for a very comforting dinner for both of us.

Tonight Joe had more soup, while I had beets.  See, Joe was supposed to be traveling today and I had bought beets at Whole Foods last weekend just for tonight.  I fully enjoyed my beets and he fully enjoyed his soup - probably even more so since he got cookies afterward!