It sure SMELLS like Christmas...

...and it isn't pine or mistletoe! But rather.......COOKIES!!!

Today I made SEVEN varieties of sweets -- some healthy, some not so healthy, but all are delicious! 214 cookies + 16 brownies later I am pooped and my house smells like the December issue of Taste of Homes looks.

Try to keep up for some holiday treat delights...

Hint of Mint Munchies

compliments of Cassie at A Pinch of This and A Dash of That

Makes 3 dozen 2-inch cookies

Ingredients:
1 bag Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookie Mix

3/4 C Andes Creme de Menthe chips

Directions:

1)Preheat oven to 375 F
2)Mix together cookie mix and ingredients listed on package. Once well mixed, add in the 3/4 cup of creme de menthe.
3)Drop cookie dough by rounded Tbsp onto a ungreased cookie sheet or a cookie sheet covered in tinfoil/parchment paper.
4)Bake each batch for 9 to 11 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned.

Peppermint Oatmeal Crunchies

compliments of Cassie at A Pinch of This and A Dash of That

Makes 3 dozen 2-inch cookies

Ingredients:
1 bag Betty Crocker oatmeal cookie mix+ingredients listed on mix
3/4 cup Andes Peppermint Crunch chips

Directions:
1)Preheat oven to 375 F
2)Mix together cookie mix and ingredients listed on package. Once well mixed, add in the 3/4 cup of peppermint chips.
3)Drop cookie dough by rounded Tbsp onto a ungreased cookie sheet or a cookie sheet covered in tinfoil/parchment paper.
4)Bake each batch for 9 to 11 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned.

Christmas Chocolate Cheers 

compliments of Cassie at A Pinch of This and A Dash of That

 Note: I could NOT (for the life of me) find Holiday Kissables, so I settled for Holiday M&M's. Also, I used Betty Crocker Peanut Butter Cookie Mix instead of the chocolate mix the recipe called for*.

Ingredients:
1 bag Betty Crocker Peanut Butter cookie mix*
1/3 c. (canola) oil
2 eggs
1 tub of chocolate frosting
1 bag of Hershey's Christmas Kissables

Directions:
1)Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, combine cake mix, oil and eggs; stir with spoon until thoroughly moistened. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
2) Bake at 375°F. for 6 to 8 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 1 minute, then press your thumb into the center of each cookie. After that remove from cookie sheets.
3)Spoon some frosting into a pastry bag or a zip loc and snip the end. Pipe frosting into the indent of the cookie and top with 3 Kissables!!

A trick with the Christmas Chocolate Cheers is to use a Ziplock as a frosting gun...

Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, and Pecan Cookies 

Yield: 3 dozen (serving size: 1 cookie) 

Ingredients:

1 1/4  cups  all-purpose flour (about 5 1/2 ounces) 

1  cup  regular oats 

3/4  teaspoon  baking powder 

1/2  teaspoon  baking soda 

1/2  teaspoon  salt 

3/4  cup  granulated sugar 

1/2  cup  packed brown sugar 

1/3  cup  butter, softened 

1 1/2  teaspoons  vanilla extract 

1  large egg 

1/4  cup  chopped pecans, toasted 

1/4  cup  semisweet chocolate minichips

Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (through salt), stirring with a whisk; set aside.

Place sugars and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add vanilla and egg; beat until blended. Gradually add flour mixture, beating at low speed just until combined. Stir in pecans and minichips. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or until edges of cookies are lightly browned. Cool on pans 2 minutes. Remove cookies from pans; cool on wire racks.

Calories: 81 (33% from fat); Fat: 3g (sat 1.4g,mono 1g,poly 0.3g) ; Protein: 1.1g; Carbohydrate: 12.9g; Fiber: 0.5g; Cholesterol: 10mg; Sodium: 76mg; Calcium: 12mg

Source: Julianna Grimes and Ann Taylor Pittman, Cooking Light, DECEMBER 2007

Peppermint Cheesecake Brownies
I colored the cheesecake batter with red food coloring -- about 3 drops for a festive flare!

Yield: 16 servings (serving size: 1 bar)

Cheesecake batter:
1  (8-ounce) block 1/3-less-fat cream cheese
1/3  cup  granulated sugar
1/4  teaspoon  peppermint extract
1  large egg
1  large egg white
1  tablespoon  all-purpose flour

Brownie batter:
4.5  ounces  all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
1/2  cup  unsweetened cocoa
1/2  teaspoon  salt
1 1/2  cups  packed brown sugar
1/4  cup  canola oil
1/4  cup  buttermilk
2  teaspoons  vanilla extract
2  large egg whites
1  large egg 
Cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. To prepare cheesecake batter, place cheese in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Add granulated sugar and peppermint extract; beat well. Add 1 egg and 1 egg white; beat well. Add 1 tablespoon flour; beat mixture just until blended.

3. To prepare brownie batter, weigh or lightly spoon 4.5 ounces (about 1 cup) flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine 4.5 ounces flour, cocoa, and salt in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Combine brown sugar, oil, buttermilk, vanilla, 2 egg whites, and 1 egg in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium-high speed until well blended. Add flour mixture to brown sugar mixture; beat at low speed just until blended.

4. Reserve 1/2 cup of brownie batter. Pour remaining batter into a 9-inch square baking pan coated with cooking spray. Carefully pour cheesecake batter over top; spread evenly to edges. Dot cheesecake batter with reserved brownie batter. Swirl top two layers of batters together using the tip of a knife. Bake at 350° for 26 minutes or until top is set. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

Calories: 213 (32% from fat); Fat: 7.5g (sat 2.6g,mono 2.3g,poly 1.1g); Protein: 4.4g; Carbohydrate: 32.3; gFiber: 0.7g; Cholesterol: 37mg; Sodium: 169mg; Calcium: 32mg

Source: Kathy Farrell-Kingsley, Cooking Light, DECEMBER 2008

Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies

2/3 c butter, softened
2/3 c firmly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 ½ c old fashioned oats
1 ½ c all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 (6 oz) package dried cranberries
2/3 c white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, mixing well. Combine oats, flour, baking soda, and salt in a separate mixing bowl.

Add to butter mixture in several additions, mixing well after each addition. Stir in dried cranberries and white chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack. Makes about 2 ½ dozen cookies.

Source: Weight Watchers (online forum) 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Yield: 3 dozen (serving size: 1 cookie)

1  cup  granulated sugar
1  cup  packed brown sugar
1/2  cup  creamy peanut butter
1/4  cup  water
1/4  cup  canola oil
2  teaspoons  vanilla extract
2  large egg whites
1  large egg
12  ounces  all-purpose flour (about 2 2/3 cups)
1  teaspoon  baking powder
1  teaspoon  baking soda
1/2  teaspoon  salt
2/3  cup  semisweet chocolate minichips

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Combine first 8 ingredients in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth.

3. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl; stir with a whisk. Add flour mixture to peanut butter mixture, stirring just until combined. Stir in minichips. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart on 2 baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

Calories: 128 (32% from fat); Fat: 4.5g (sat 1.1g,mono 2.2g,poly 1g); Protein: 2.3g; Carbohydrate: 20.5g; Fiber: 0.6g; Cholesterol: 6mg; Sodium: 106mg; Calcium: 16mg

Source: Kathy Farrell-Kingsley, Cooking Light, DECEMBER 2008

And only 3 hours later...my friends are the lucky recipients of THESE:

Tins filled with...

cookies! Obvi..

I taste tested all of the cookies (and brownies) and they are ALL really good! 

If I had to choose a favorite it would have to be the Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I must fess up -- my morning started off on a bad note...forgetting to eat breakfast before I set out for a day of power shopping. Around 10 I gave in to a bad, bad guilty pleasure: McDonald's Sausage Egg McMuffin. 450 calories and 85% of my daily value of saturated fat later...I completed my shopping spree successfully. In my defense, I get fast food a handful of time in a calendar year, and typically it is because of instances like this morning.

Question: How often do you eat fast food? What is your "favorite" fast food restaurant (if you had to choose one)?

Husby and I are off to my work Christmas party! Hope everyone's having a wonderful weekend!

Tomorrow...the LD on this KOMBACHA everyone in blogland is yappin' about!!

Julie & Julia

This movie is a must see, especially if you love food. And even more especially if you love blogs. My sister-in-law and I went to see it yesterday afternoon and just adored it. While the ending is unexpected (that's not a spoiler, promise!), the movie itself is a complete delight.

The movie blends two true stories of the famous Julia Child, and Julie, a typical, "average Jane" New Yorker. Julie decides to stick to a task: making 524 recipes in 365 days from Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". In order to track her progress and be held accountable, Julie blogs on this endeavor with the encouragement of her saint of a husband.

Together, with Julia's cookbook and lots of butter, Julie makes her inadequate city kitchen produce magic. She and her husband enjoy delicious French meals...some being better than others. Throughout several meltdowns and several matrimonial trials and tribulations, Julie completes her mission of cooking her way through Julia's cookbook over the course of the year.

I must also note that Julie's blog becomes daily reading material for blog-readers nationwide. And she, too, gets giddy over knowing her blog brings people smiles, laughs, and a heightened level of food and cooking knowledge. One day she had nearly 40 comments from people...people she didn't even know, she explained excitedly! That's a huge accomplishment for a blogger - Go Julie!

Anyways. The movie left me thinking that I, myself, could benefit from some of Julie's cooking drive. Hubby would appreciate it, too. While pounds of butter will NOT be involved, it's always important to keep things fun and exciting at the dinner table. While Mark and I enjoy our staples: spaghetti, tofu pad thai, chili, salmon and tilapia on the grill, jambalaya, burgers, faux fried chicken, etc...I think we would both enjoy trying some new, healthy recipes.

So, in honor of Julie & Julia, I commit to trying at least one new recipe a month and I will tell my blog followers all about it. Count on the recipe being posted, too...if it turns out well, that is.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Buttttttttttter up!

The name of this post sounds similar to "batter up" which reminds me...Cubs pummeled the Cards yesterday. Hoping for a similar outcome after today's game.

Anyways...butter. Butter is the topic of discussion this morning while I enjoy my morning ritual: cappuccino and blogging. And as husband sweats away playing Punch Out on Wii while Lily the bulldog sun bathes in 103 degree Oklahoma heat. Freaks..

As I opened my Journal of the American Dietetic Association this month, I found an eye-catching page devoted to the "Big FAT Truth": butter. Butter is certainly one of those confusing aisles we enter at our local grocery stores. The health claims, the rumored dangers of margarine vs. butter...and the list goes on. So, what is the deal with butter?

Simply put, soft spreads have 70% less saturated fat than butter, no cholesterol, and "no" trans fats per serving*. These spreads are made with healthy plant oils including soybean and canola which are loaded with our near-and-dear mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids providing desired heart-healthy protection [1].

And by now you should be thinking, "That's great and all...but which soft spread do I grab?". Those listed in the ADA Journal included: I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, Country Crock, Promise, and Brummel & Brown made with Natural Yogurt [1]. These would all be better choices the next time you're butter browsing...but possibly not the best.

Let's delve a little deeper. If you visit Smart Balance's website, the first thing you read is, "Partially hydrogenated means trans fat"...and, right they are. That phrase on the ingredient list tells us consumers that there was a hydrogenation process in production. And that process is what puts trans fats into foods such as butter spreads, as trans fats do not naturally occur in the foods. Trans fat is way worse than saturated fat, even. It raises our bad cholesterol, lowers our good cholesterol, contributes to diabetes, and is linked to heart disease [2].

If you're really interested in trans fats (which you should be), more information can be found here: The Truth About Trans Fats. A seemingly innocent 2% increase in trans fat consumption can increase risk of cardiovascular disease by 23%. That's only 40 calories or 4 extra grams of trans fat a day. Can't say I didn't warn you!

In summary: no butter is "good butter". It's a high-calorie condiment with fat and should be used sparingly. Taste your food before buttering it up, and purchase products wisely. Read labels and stay informed: 0.48 + 0.48 + 0.47 + 0.45 + 0.46 (or 5 servings of "trans fat free" products) exceeds the recommended daily amount of trans fat.

* Products containing up to 0.49 grams of trans fat are not required to be put on food labels. Ahhhh!

[1]. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Big FAT Truth. Eat Right. July 2009 edition.
[2]. The Truth About Trans Fat. The Facts.