Pinterest Challenge: Food Edition 'I Want to Marry You' Cookies

First off, I have to apologize about falling off the face of the blogging world last week.  I have dubbed March as 'the month of sickness' in our home.  I thought I had escaped the worst of it....until last week.  I went down hard with a yucky bug that had me throwing up with a fever, sore throat, headache....PINK EYE (twice)....yeah, yuck. 

However, I am happy to announce that here I am, eight days later, finally feeling better!  And the pink eye is almost gone!  Ahhh I'm so happy I could just hug every one of you. 

Anyway.  I had intended to post this last week, as it was my food challenge from last week, but I literally made them the day before I got sick.....sooooo yeah.

Regardless of that, these bad boys are really good.  They ain't called "I want to marry you cookies" for nothing!  In all seriousness, they may be the most delicious cookie that has ever touched my lips.  Wanna make 'em? 

Here's the recipe, from here:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup uncooked rolled oats
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• Salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 1 cup chocolate chipsIn a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat until melted. Remove from the heat.

Directions: 

Add the dark brown sugar and granulated sugar and stir until sugars are incorporated and smooth. Chill the mixture for 10 minutes.

Remove from the refrigerator and stir in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla.

Add the flour, oats, baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and cinnamon and mix together.

Stir in the white chocolate chips and chocolate chips.

Roll by hand into 24 medium-size balls or use a scoop, and place on a light-colored cookie sheet.

Chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Remove the cookies from the refrigerator and bake for 12 to 14 minutes.

They are so delicious!  You might notice in the pictures below that my hubby did get down on one knee and tried to propose (yes, they are that good and do live up to their name)....but then I reminded him he already put a ring on it almost five years ago!

Another successful Pinterest Challenge!  I've already completed the one for this week (which is pretty cool, if I do say so myself) and will also be back with two MAGH posts later today!  The famiy blog will also be hoppin' later today when I get some posts up about Easter and the hubby's birthday!

Pinterest Challenge: Food Edition

So for this week's pinterest food challenge, I decided to go with some good 'ole homemade bread.  Yum.  I have fond memories of my mom making delicious loaves of homemade bread growing up using a bread machine, but since we don't have one, I had to start from scratch.

The recipe I had 'pinned' (literally like a year ago) was titled 'Miracle Bread' and toted an impressive start to finish time of only one hour! 

It was so delicious!  And so easy.  Here's the recipe (I halved it, because I didn't want to eat wasn't sure what to do with four loaves of bread).

Here's what you'll need:

10 1/2 c. white bread flour
1/2 c. sugar
1 T. salt
3 rounded tablespoons instant yeast
3 T. liquid lecithin (I didn't have lecithin, so I used 1/3 c. oil as per the suggestion in the original recipe)
4 c. hot tap water

Mix dry ingredients. Add lecithin (or oil) and water. Mix for 1 minute and check consistency. If dough is too dry, add a little more water. Dough should be very sticky. Mix for 5 minutes. (Do not add flour to the dough after it has finished mixing.) Spray counter and pans with Pam. Shape loaves, place in pans and cover with a dish towel. Let rise 25 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

I decided I wanted to make whole wheat, which is just a tad bit different: 

For whole wheat bread, use the same recipe only with whole wheat flour; replace one cup of the hot water with applesauce, and add 1 additional tablespoon lecithin.

Note: When making the whole wheat, I added about 1/2 cup extra of hot tap water....my bread dough was way too dry after the addition of the applesauce

And that's it!  One hour, start to finish, and your whole house will smell like homemade bread!  YUM!  Check another pinterest recipe off the list... 

Pinterest Challenge: Food Edition

Raise your hand if you are guilty of letting your mouse do the clickin' when it comes to pinning recipes on pinterest.

Raises hand.

Guilty as charged.

And seriously?  I think I've pinned about 1,000 recipes.  And I've made none of them.  None of them! 

(okay, I've made a few desserts...)

So I decided to mix things up a bit and challenge myself to actually make one of the recipes I've pinned at least once a week.   Hence the title.  It's a food based Pinterest challenge!

The rules of my own little game are simple.  It has to be a recipe I've (a) pinned (b) never made before and (c) is healthy.   And then once it's been made and eaten, I have to post about it! 

I'm pretty excited about this because I have definitely pinned some delicious looking recipes that I can't wait to try out.  I'm also excited because it'll introduce some variety into the old go-to recipes that always seem to creep their way into our weekly dinners. 

And I'm also excited because I made my first Pinterest Challenge dinner tonight!  It was delicious.

I made home cut spicy sweet potato fries and feta stuffed turkey burgers.  Yummm

Let's start with the fries, shall we?
 

The first step is to cut up your sweet potatoes.  We almost always have these on hand because I make them for Blake.  For this recipe, I used two pretty good sized sweet potatoes.  After washing and peeling, you want to slice them into about 1/4 inch wedges.  We like our fries a bit thicker cut, so I'd say mine averaged closer to 1/2 inch wedges.  Personal preference!

Once you've got them all cut, you'll want to preheat your oven to 400 degrees and then combine them in a big mixing bowl with the following ingredients:

1T chili powder
1T cajun seasoning
2 tsp olive oil

Once you've mixed them pretty thoroughly, spread the potatoes out in one layer on a baking sheet.  Pop 'em in your preheated oven and bake for 30-40 minutes or under tender!

See?  So so easy!  These were delicious.  My husband is a lover of all things spicy, and he was raving about these guys.  I think next time I make them I'll cut up a bunch of my sweet potatoes in advance to freeze, and then just dethaw however many I want to make. 

Also, for all you moms, this is a great way to serve sweet potatoes as a finger food to the little humans in your life.  Just save some of the fries to bake up un-seasoned, and they make an absolutely perfect addition to the high chair tray at dinnertime.  They are mushy and soft and dissolve in baby's mouth...but are big enough for them to pick up!  

Once I had those babies in the oven,  I started working on the feta turkey burgers. Here's what you'll need:

1 pound uncooked extra lean ground turkey breast
1 T fresh oregano
1/4 tsp garlic powder
7 Tbsp feta cheese, crumbled
4 hamburger rolls (we used whole wheat)
1 cup lettuce (we didn't have any on hand, so I omitted this)
2/3 sliced red peppers
1 (small) can sliced olives

In a medium bowl, combine your chicken, oregano, garlic powder and feta; divide mixture into four balls and then press them into patties.  Broil patties for about 7 to 8 minutes per side, or until done.  Serve each burger on a bun with lettuce, peppers and olives! 

And you're done!  Dinner on the table in 30 minutes (most of that is just cooking time!) 

It was delicious. 

Adam was pretty excited about this new challenge, because it means some good eatin' for my man. 

Oh, and Blake had some fun adventures at dinner too.  Here's a snapshot of our foray into self-feeding:

 

 That would be avocado all up in his business.  He loved it, and despite how it may appear, some of it even made its way into his mouth!!