Snickerdoodle Cookies

Snickerdoodle cookies are not the first type of cookie to come to mind when I think about cookies. But my husband loves them <3 I found a great recipe from The Pinning Mama, which I ended up doubling and slightly changing the amount of the last two ingredients.  One thing I was looking for in a snickerdoodle recipe was that it didn’t call for any cream of tartar. I don’t usually have cream of tartar stocked in my kitchen so I prefer recipes without it. I also prefer chewy over crunchy when it comes to cookies, and this recipe looked like a winner. After tasting the cookies, it is definitely a winner in our house!

Chewy Snickerdoodle Cookies Recipe

Of course you can halve the below recipe, but sometimes it’s nice to give cookies to friends or neighbors, or stash some away in the freezer for another day.

Snickerdoodle Cookies

Ingredients (yields 24-25 big cookies):

  • 6 C. all-purpose flour (remember to spoon the flour into the measuring cup)
  • 3 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 2 C. butter, room temperature (because I didn’t plan in advance to make these cookies, I didn’t randomly have 4 sticks of butter sitting out at room temperature, so I just microwaved the butter for about a minute, until half was melted and half was softened, then let it sit a few minutes.)
  • 2 1/2 C. granulated sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 tsp. vanilla extract (I ran out of vanilla after the first 2 teaspoons so I used 1 tsp. of Maple syrup to replace the last tsp. of vanilla)
  • 1/3 C. granulated sugar
  • 2 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper if desired. (We are out of parchment paper so I just put the cookie dough balls straight onto the cookie sheet and they still turned out beautifully).
  2. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
  3. On a plate, stir together the 1/3 C. sugar and the cinnamon. Set aside. Cinnamon Sugar cookies Cinnamon Sugar Cookies
  4. In a very large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and 2 1/2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. I used a 4-quart mixing bowl and everything barely fit. I managed without making too much of a mess, but would recommend using a larger mixing bowl if you have one. 
  5. Beat in the flour mixture little by little until everything is mixed well.
  6. Scoop the dough using a 1/4 cup measuring cup and roll into cookie dough balls. Roll each cookie dough ball in the cinnamon/sugar mixture and put six of them on the cookie sheet (these are big cookies!)
  7. Bake in preheated oven for about 14-15 minutes. Remove from oven and let settle a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack or plate.

Store your cookies in an airtight container for a few days, or freeze in a freezer-safe airtight container to enjoy later.

*Inspired by THIS recipe.

**If you love chewy cookies, you might like to try CHEWY GINGER COOKIES WITH MOLASSES or CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES. Both of these recipes create tasty, chewy cookies and have ingredients with more nutrients than what you might find in the above Snickerdoodle Cookies recipe 😉

Pineapple Mango Smoothie

Pineapple Mango Smoothie is the perfect Summer treat…cold, creamy and bright! I woke up from a nap this afternoon in a weird funk and feeling way too hot and a smoothie sounded amazing, but we only had green bananas. Thankfully I found Cassie’s Mango Tango Smoothie recipe, which does not call for any banana 🙂 The ingredients get nice and creamy and sweet enough to not have to add any extra sweetener. The pineapple, mango and coconut milk I used all came from Trader Joe’s. We ate/drank this smoothie with a spoon instead of a straw since it was on the thicker side.

Pineapple Mango Smoothie Recipe (makes about 4 (1 Cup) servings):

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 C. frozen mango chunks
  • 3/4 C. frozen pineapple tidbits
  • 1 (13.5 oz) can coconut milk (with the fat)
  • 1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
  • optional, but recommended: chia seeds

Instructions:

  1. Add the mango, pineapple, coconut milk and vanilla to a high-speed blender and blend well until nice and creamy.
  2. Top with a few pinches of chia seeds or stir some chia seeds into the smoothie to serve.

*Inspired by the Mango Tango No Banana Smoothie recipe at wholefully.com.

*You might also like to try 2-Ingredient Orange Julius!

Poorman’s Meal (Depression Era Recipe)

Poorman’s Meal is a delicious recipe shared by Ms. Clara, who lived through the Great Depression. Please click HERE for the video of Ms. Clara making the Poorman’s Meal. This was a fun recipe to make with my kids after we watched the video together. We’ve made this recipe a handful of times and I thought it might be a relevant recipe to post during this quarantine time. The ingredients are inexpensive and have a pretty good shelf life.

Poorman’s Meal

Ingredients (makes about 6 servings):

  • 6 regular sized Russet potatoes, washed peeled and cubed bite-size
  • 1 large yellow or white onion, sliced or chopped
  • some vegetable oil for cooking (about 3 Tbsp. or as needed)
  • optional: about 1/4 C. water
  • 4 hot dogs, cut into bite-sized pieces
  • about 2 Tbsp. salsa (I like using Pace Chunky Mild Salsa)
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

  1. Put the cubed potatoes and the chopped onion in a large frying pan (I used a large cast iron skillet).
  2. Drizzle the cooking oil on top and turn the heat to medium. Let potatoes slowly brown, and mix them around every few minutes so they cook more evenly. If you want to add about 1/4 cup of water to help the potatoes soften, you can.
  3. Once the potatoes are tender to your liking and the onions are cooked, add the bite-sized hot dogs and salsa. Gently mix. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Another tasty, budget-friendly recipe using ingredients that don’t go bad very quickly is Healthy Lentil Soup.

*Inspired by THIS video of Ms. Clara.

Vegetables and Meatballs

My family visited my sister a while back and she graciously whipped up a lovely lunch for us. It was so delicious and came together very quickly. Sauteed Vegetables and Meatballs is an easy and tasty lunch or dinner recipe. You can play with the ingredients. You can use white button mushrooms or the baby bella mushrooms. Green zucchini or yellow squash. Whatever color bell pepper you want. You get the idea 😉

Vegetables and Meatballs

Ingredients:

  • about 1 Tbsp. avocado oil
  • 1 large green bell pepper, sliced
  • 10 oz sliced mushrooms
  • 2 medium yellow squashes (or green zucchini), sliced
  • 1 lb. (precooked) Italian style meatballs.
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

  1. Heat a large skillet to medium-high heat. Swirl the avocado oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Add the sliced bell pepper and saute for about two minutes. If the meatballs are frozen, you can put them in the microwave for 2-3 minutes to thaw them out now.
  2. Add the mushrooms and saute for another 2-3 minutes.
  3. Add the thawed meatballs and the sliced yellow squash. Saute for about 7-10 minutes, or until the vegetables are all cooked and meatballs are warmed through their centers.
  4. Add salt and pepper to taste, if desired.

Serve a slice of buttered sourdough toast on the side, or serve the veggies and meatballs over warm rice.

*Inspired by Maple

*You might also enjoy QUICK SLOPPY JOES.

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies

These gluten free peanut butter cookies are soft and chewy and so, so delicious. Oh, and not only are they gluten free, but they are egg free and dairy free as well!

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients (makes about 32 cookies):

Instructions:

  1. In a medium mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients and mix with a fork.
  2. Add peanut butter, applesauce,vanilla and molasses. Mix well. Taste the dough and you can add a tiny sprinkle or pinch of salt if you want them a little saltier.

    Missing the molasses here. You really don’t need molasses, but the molasses just adds an extra bit of flavor and chewiness
  3. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.
  4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Roll dough into balls ( about 1 Tbsp. round) and bake on cookie sheet in preheated oven for about 6 minutes. The cookies should spread on their own while baking, so don’t worry about flattening them beforehand. 
  5. Remove from oven and let the cookies sit on the cookie sheet for about 5 more minutes to finish cooking. Transfer to a plate or wire cooling rack to finish cooling.

*Inspired by THIS recipe.

 

Healthy Berry Dumplings

Busy Dad here, and with the cold weather coming on I looked for delicious and easy breakfast recipes, that would also warm the house! I settled on some delicious berry dumplings that are cooked solely on the stovetop.

You’re going to need:

  • 1 lb mixed berries (if you go the frozen berry route, I suggest mixing in some fresh cut strawberries, which is what I did)
  • 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
  • 3 tablespoons of sugar (2 for one part and 1 for another; the berries are already pretty sweet so I cut this way down)
  • 1 cup flour (I did half whole wheat and half all-purpose flour to make it a bit more healthy- you could also try doing all whole wheat dumplings!)
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk (or what I did was use 1 tablespoon of lemon with 1 cup of milk and let sit for ~10 minutes)
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Now, on to the creation part!

  1. Using a medium-sized pan or skillet, cook the berries, lemon juice, 2 tablespoons sugar, and 1/4 cup water using medium heat. Do this until most of the water has burned away, which took me about 15 minutes. Stir every minute or two, or more as needed. 
  2. Between stirs, get a medium sized bowl and whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and 1 tablespoon of sugar
  3. Once that is mixed together, add the melted butter and buttermilk (don’t forget to stir the berries in the pan!)
  4. Stir until you have a dough; it shouldn’t take very long to do, so don’t stir too much.
  5. Spoon 4 to 8 dollops of dough over the berries in the pan. I suggest you do twice as many dollops as there are people eating, so you can all have seconds! 
  6. Combine the cinnamon with 1 teaspoon of sugar, and sprinkle over the dough
  7. Cover the pan tightly with foil, and cook over medium-low until the dumplings are cooked. You can tell by poking the dumplings and seeing if they’re mostly solid or dry on top, about 15 minutes. 
  8. Spoon into bowls and add whipped cream for a sweet topping!

The family loved it, and it was pretty easy to do. No oven involved, but gave the family a warm, healthy start to the day.

Hope you try and enjoy the berry dumpling recipe!

With credit to this recipe for help!

Cucumber Salad

Cucumber Salad makes a refreshing side dish. The main ingredients are cucumbers, tomatoes and red onion. Our garden (aka “Jungle”) is filled with tomato plants this Summer! I planted a few, but we think most of them came up from the compost we put in the garden bed. Those tomatoes have been a welcomed surprise 😀

The dressing for this salad is made from extra virgin olive oil, apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper. Simple and healthy.

You can serve the cucumber salad without refrigerating beforehand, but the flavors will blend more if you refrigerate it for a few hours before serving.

Cucumber Salad

Ingredients (makes about 4 servings):

  • 4 small Persian cucumbers, sliced
  • about 15 grape or cherry tomatoes, quartered
  • 2-3 Tbsp. chopped red onion
  • 2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil (THIS is the kind I used, but it’s much less expensive if you get it straight from Trader Joe’s)
  • 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
  • about 1/8 or 1/16 tsp. salt
  • about 1/8 or 1/16 tsp. black pepper

Instructions:

  1. In a bowl, mix ingredients together with a spoon.
  2. Cover and refrigerate for a few hours before serving.
  3. Mix with a spoon one more time before serving.

We ate this cucumber salad with salmon and rice. It was a tasty meal!

You might also like Romaine and Avocado Salad or Broccoli Salad as side dishes!

*Inspired by Olivia

Roasted Chicken and Vegetables

This Roasted Chicken and Vegetables recipe cooked up so beautifully! It was hard to believe the chicken was cooked thoroughly, but still moist, and the vegetables were just the right texture, with just the right amount of char. All this in just 15 minutes. Two baking sheets covered in colorful deliciousness and nutritiousness 🙂 

We cooked some white Jasmine rice right before popping the chicken and veggies in the oven so it was still warm when the chicken and vegetables were ready to eat.

Roasted Chicken and Vegetables

Ingredients (makes about 10-12 servings):

  • Florets from 1 medium head of broccoli
  • 1/2 a large head of cauliflower, cut into sizes similar to the broccoli florets
  • 1 medium zucchini, chopped into large bite-sized pieces
  • 2 bell peppers (we used one yellow and one orange), chopped into bite-sized pieces
  • 1/2 of a medium red onion, chopped
  • 2  medium tomatoes, cut into large bite-sized pieces (or about 1 C. cherry tomatoes, sliced in half)
  • about 1 lb (we used 1.12 lbs) fresh chicken breast tenders, cut into bite-sized pieces
  • 4 Tbsp. light olive oil, divided
  • 2 tsp. coarse kosher salt, divided
  • 1 tsp. black pepper, divided
  • 3 tsp. Italian Seasoning, divided
  • 1 tsp. paprika, divided

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. and line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. Put half the vegetables and half the chicken on each baking sheet.
  3. Drizzle 2 Tbsp. of olive oil on each pile of chicken and veggies. Sprinkle 1 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. pepper, 1 1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning and 1/2 tsp Paprika on each pile of vegetables and chicken. Use two spoons to toss together to spread the oil and seasonings. 
  4. Bake in preheated oven for 15-17 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through and vegetables are slightly charred.
  5. Serve the roasted chicken and vegetables over warm rice or pasta. 

*Inspired by THIS recipe.

*For other delicious Summery dinners, try Korean Beef Bowls or Pancit Canton Noodles.

Korean Beef Bowl (Ground Beef Teriyaki)

Have you ever tried a Korean beef bowl? My family recently went to a Japanese festival where they served “Beef Teriyaki bowls”. We thought they were delicious and very kid-friendly. As I scoured the internet for Beef Teriyaki bowl recipes, I was able to find more recipes for “Korean beef bowls”, which looked very similar to the beef teriyaki bowls we had tried.

This is such a tasty dish, and very easy to make. Pretty much you combine a few ingredients for a sauce, brown some ground beef, add the sauce, and serve over hot rice. I was tempted to throw in vegetables like mushrooms or broccoli, but decided to keep this recipe simple. Of course, you could add mushrooms, broccoli or other veggies if you want 🙂 We ended up roasting some baby bok choy in the oven, which turned out okay, but not good enough to post that recipe, haha! But you could roast vegetables in the oven to eat as a side dish or just throw in some chopped veggies while browning the meat and let them cook with the meat.

Korean Beef Bowl (Ground Beef Teriyaki)

Ingredients (makes about 4 servings):

  • 1 lb. lean ground beef (or venison)
  • about 1 Tbsp. light olive oil if needed
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/4 C. brown sugar, packed
  • 1/4 C. Reduced Sodium Soy Sauce
  • 2 tsp. sesame oil
  • 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
  • 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
  • 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
  • 2 C. hot cooked rice (we used white Jasmine rice but it would probably also be great with brown rice or a medium grain rice)
  • optional: chopped green onions to sprinkle on top
  • optional: sesame seeds to sprinkle on top (totally forgot to add these and the beef bowl still tasted amazing)

Instructions:

  1. Heat a skillet to medium heat. Add a little olive oil and swirl it around the pan gently. Add ground beef and break it up into small bits as it cooks. When about half of the ground beef is brown and the other half is still pink, add the minced garlic.   Continue cooking and browning the beef until done. Turn the heat to low.
  2. In a small (cereal-sized) bowl, stir together the brown sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, ground ginger, black pepper and crushed red pepper flakes. Pour over the ground beef and simmer for about 3 minutes. 
  3. Grab some kitchen scissors and head outside to your green onion garden with your kids to snip a few onions, chop them up, and sprinkle them on the food 🙂 

Serve the beef over hot rice, topped with chopped green onions and sesame seeds if desired.

*Inspired by THIS recipe.

**Two other Asian inspired recipes you might enjoy are ONIGIRI and PANCIT CANTON NOODLES.

Avocado Snack (Quick, Healthy and Vegan)

I hope you love this avocado snack as much as I do! Just two ingredients. The only tricky part is making sure you use your avocado at the right time. It needs to be ripe/somewhat soft on the inside so you can easily scoop it with a spoon, but you also don’t want it over-ripe with brown spots on the inside.

HERE is a great resource to help you know how to pick out the perfect ready-to-eat avocado.

As far as roasted and salted sunflower seeds, THESE are the kind I usually have stocked in my house, but I get them from the shelves at Trader Joe’s for about $2 for a pound. The roasted and salted sunflower seeds add such a lovely flavor to the avocado. They go so well together. 

This avocado snack has a good amount of protein and good-for-you fats. Many snacks out there are often nutritionally empty treats. Sugar in different forms and flavors. Usually high in carbs and fillers. And I’m definitely guilty of this, especially since my kids are asked to bring dry snacks to school each day. Haha, my kids aren’t big fans of dehydrated broccoli 😉  After school, weekends and holidays are great opportunities to serve healthier, nutritionally dense and still delicious snacks. Like avocado with sunflower seeds…

Avocado Snack (Quick, Healthy and Vegan)

Ingredients (makes 2 servings):

Instructions:

  1. Rinse and dry avocado. Use a knife to cut it in half lengthwise, going around the seed. Gently twist the the two parts of the avocado in opposite directions as you slowly pull them apart. Use a spoon to remove the seed.
  2. Fill the “bowl” of each avocado half with sunflower seeds. Serve with a spoon and enjoy those toasted seeds and creamy avocado.

*Inspired by Alissa

**Another high in protein and good-for-you fats snack to add to your repertoire is Almond Butter Vegan Freezer Fudge (which I actually do sometimes pack in my kids’ lunches). Definitely worth a try!