Fall Spice Oatmeal Cookies

I love autumn. The spell of burning leaves. This crispness of the morning air. The amazing colors. And the delicious tastes of cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and ginger that are so prevalent this time of year. Thus was born my Fall Spice Oatmeal Cookies that I took to work a couple weeks ago (yes, it's taken me a while to get around to blogging this! lol) I used the same base recipe as my Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies, but I added some spices to the dough and added pumpkin spice chips, cinnamon chips, and chopped crystalized ginger. These are warm and spicy and aromatic and absolutely delicious! When my daughter tried the first one of the batch she said that they tasted like fall. If you love fall and fall tastes too, then you really should try this!

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp all spice
1/4 tsp clove
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3 cups oats
12 ounces Pumpkin Spice Chips
6 ounces Cinnamon Chips
1/2 cup chopped crystallized ginger

Combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, all spice, clove, and nutmeg in a bowl and whisk together. Crystallized ginger is pretty potent, so chop it into pretty small pieces. 

Beat together butter and sugars until creamy.

Add eggs and vanilla extract, and blend until combined.

Add flour mixture, and blend until incorporated. 

Mix in the oatmeal, pumpkin spice chips, cinnamon chips and crystallized ginger.

Heap by rounded teaspoon full, or medium cookie scoop if you have one, onto parchment lined cookie baking sheet.

Bake cookies at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 9-12 minutes until cookies begin to turn golden brown. Cookies will continue to cook and set after being removed from the oven, so do not overcook. Allow cookies to rest on the pan for 3-5 minutes, and then remove to a wire rack to completely cool.

Spicy Chicken Wrap

I love spicy food. I think peppers make most meals better. Not only do the spices and peppers make this meal delicious, but it's pretty healthy too. As it's prepared below this is how a wrap stacks up: 267 calories; 9.7 grams fat; 88.7 mg cholesterol; 19.9 carbs; 35 grams protein. I like to cook up 3 or 4 chicken breasts, slice them and then eat on it all week.

1-2 lbs Chicken (I prefer breast, but use your preference)
Olive oil
salt
pepper
garlic powder
paprika
cumin
Adobo seasoning
pepper spices (cayenne, chipotle, or any kind you prefer)
Xtreme Wellness Spinach and Herb Tortillas
Quesadilla cheese (or your preferred cheese)
Salsa Verde
Romaine lettuce (thinly sliced)

Clean and prep the chicken. Salt, pepper and apply the spices the each side of each piece of chicken. Apply the amount of spice that matches your tastebuds. Start with a light coating on each side.

Heat up a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet. Cook chicken on each side several minutes until browned. If your chicken pieces are thinner, ensure that the chicken is cooked through and stop here.

If the chicken pieces are thick, foil line a pan, and after browning the chicken on each side, bake in the oven 10-15 minutes until it is cooked through. Let chicken cool 10 minutes or so and then slice thinly. Prepare the wrap by adding 3-4 ounces of chicken, an ounce of cheese, a tablespoon or two of salsa verde, and an ounce of your favorite lettuce. Roll up and enjoy!

Maple Cinnamon Pumpkin Spice Cookies

I love autumn... the beautiful colors, the amazing smells, that crisp cool touch to the morning air. It's such a wonderful time of the year. Now that we are officially into autumn and tomorrow is October 1, I thought I would make a cookie to honor this time of year. Enter Maple Cinnamon Pumpkin Spice Cookies. Upon tasting the cookie, my daughter said that it tasted like fall in a cookie. I used my Triple Chocolate Cranberry Cookies recipe but  altered it. If you love this time of year, you are going to want to give these cookies a chance. The chips are part of Nestle Toll House's seasonal chips, and they are wonderful!

1 cup butter or margarine

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/4 cups dark or light brown sugar

1 Tbsp vanilla

2 eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
sprinkle of pumpkin spice (optional)

12 ounces Nestle maple chips

12 ounces Nestle pumpkin spice chips

3-6 ounces cinnamon chips

1 cup pecans pieces

In a small bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and pumpkin spice; set aside. 

In large bowl or stand mixer, beat butter and sugars until smooth.

Add vanilla and eggs and mix. Scrape down sides and ensure it is mixed well. 

Add flour mixture, and stir until combined. 

Add chips and pecans and mix until incorporated.

Drop by rounded teaspoon onto baking sheet. 

Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Cool on tray and then transfer to cooling rack.

Pesto Chicken with Tomatoes and Asparagus

I was looking for healthier, high protein recipes and came across this gem on Pinterest: One Pan Pesto Chicken and Veggies. I added the garlic to the original recipe, and I also recommend using the sundries tomato oil to cook the chicken for added flavor. In checking the recipe ingredients, 6 oz of chicken and veggies has 329 calories, 31.6 g protein, 17.1 g fat, and 15 g carbs. If you are sparing with the pesto, you should be able to lower the fat and carbs. No matter what, everyone who has tried this dish has loved it. It also reheats pretty well when I take it to work for lunch, which I count as a win! There is so much flavor in the dinner, and it is pretty easy to make, two more wins in my book. You're going to want to try this recipe.

2 Tbsp olive oil
1-1.25 pound chicken thigh or breast meat, boneless and skinless, sliced into strips
1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes drained of oil, chopped
1 pound asparagus ends trimmed, cut in half, if large
1/4 cup basil pesto
1 cup cherry tomatoes yellow and red, halved

4-6 cloves of garlic, minced (or use jarred minced garlic)

Salt and pepper to taste

Slice tomatoes in half; cut ends off of asparagus; and chop sun dried tomatoes.

Slice chicken into large pieces.

Salt and pepper generously to taste.

Heat large skillet on medium-high heat, add 2 tablespoons olive oil (you can use some of the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes for additional flavor). Add chicken and add half of chopped sun-dried tomatoes.

Cook everything 5-10 minutes, flipping chicken a couple of times, until the chicken is completely cooked through.

Remove the chicken and sun-dried from the skillet, leaving oil in.

Add asparagus, seasoned generously with salt and remaining half of sun-dried tomatoes.  

Reduce heat to medium and cook about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook several more minutes until the asparagus is cooked through. I cook just until the asparagus is fork tender.

Remove asparagus to serving plate. Add chicken back to the skillet, add pesto, stir to coat on low-medium heat until chicken is reheated, 1 or 2 minutes, and pesto is dispersed. 

Add tomatoes and cook for a couple of minutes; remove skillet from heat.

Serve chicken, tomatoes, and asparagus, and watch your family gobble it up!

Bulgogi

Being an Army brat, I had the pleasure of many new experiences and becoming friends with a diverse group of people while growing up. My first best friend ever I met in Germany in the 1980s while in elementary school. Gina and I did everything together and stayed at each other's houses often. I made my nachos for her, and her mother, a Korean native, introduced me to many foods I'd never tried before. Gina and I reconnected in adulthood and remain friends to this day. For Thanksgiving 2016, Gina and her daughter came to visit me and my family. We had so much fun reminiscing and allowing our daughters the chance to get to know one another. One of my favorite activities was the cooking we did together... just like old times. I made Gina several dishes she had not tried before, and Gina made me bulgogi. Have you ever had bulgogi? It's a Korean dish made of thin, marinated slices of beef or pork grilled on a barbecue or on a stove-top griddle. It is also often stir-fried in a pan in home cooking. Sirloin, rib eye or brisket are frequently used cuts of beef for the dish. This dish was so delicious, and both my daughter and I loved it. This is Gina's recipe that she shared with me. You have to try this!

4 lbs rump roast (ask the store to shave it as thinly as possible)
1 entire bulb of garlic finely chopped
2 bunches of green onions sliced thin
2 large yellow onions chopped
3 green (red, yellow or orange) bell peppers chopped
4 large carrots finely peeled and sliced or a bag of julienne pre-cut matchstix size
1/2 cup of white sugar
1 entire bottle of low sodium soy sauce
1/2 bottle of sesame seed oil

2 Tbsp of fresh diced ginger or use the purée in a tube

1 Tbsp of black pepper

Start by chopping and prepping the bell pepper, onion, green onion, and carrots and garlic, if you're chopping those. I chose to use jarred garlic and the matchstix carrots.

Add the soy sauce and sesame oil to the meat.

Add the garlic, ginger, and sugar and mix into the meat.

Add the carrots, bell peppers, onion, and green onion and mix all of it together by hand (put on latex gloves) and be sure to separate the slices of meat to get all the flavors mixed in it.

Let it marinate for 30 minutes to overnight. The 4 lbs of meat will make enough to feed 6 people two times. I chose to bag and freeze mine. I got four quart-size freezer bags full of bulgogi, which feed my daughter and me twice. Be sure to freeze them flat. It's easier to store, and they thaws quicker. 

If you are pulling it out of the freezer, be sure to pull it the night before and thaw in fridge. When ready to cook, fry in a frying pan or wok on high heat. No extra oil is needed. At first it will be very liquidy... just continue to cook until some of the moisture cooks down.

Serve over jasmine rice and enjoy the aromatic, delicious yumminess!

Caramel Cake

There are a few desserts that I just completely associate with the South. Chess pie, banana pudding, and caramel cake are a few of those desserts. Personally, I can live without banana pudding, although I have to make it for my mom and grandpa every now and then, but I can definitely get with the program for a slice of chess pie or caramel cake. Caramel cake is a truly decadent, rich, amazing dessert, and if you've never had a piece, then you definitely are missing out. Just be sure to take any diabetes medication before you bite into a slice, because it is so sweet and rich. This recipe I found on Pinterest for Southern Caramel Cake makes a moist, tender crumb cake and a beautifully whipped, smooth, crazy rich and sweet caramel frosting. You should make this cake for your next potluck... your friends, coworkers, family, or church will thank you.

For the Cake:

3 cups cake flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) of unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Caramel icing, recipes below
3/4 cup of finely chopped toasted pecans, or whole pecan halves, optional

For the Caramel Icing:

2 cups of granulated sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
2 tablespoons of white corn syrup
1/2 cup of buttermilk
1/2 cup of vegetable shortening
1/2 cup of unsalted butter
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Have everything at room temperature. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray the bottoms of three 9-inch cake pans with cooking spray. Cut rounds of parchment paper to place into the bottoms of each pan and grease or flour the pan and paper, or spray with Baker's Joy; set aside. In a large bowl, sift together the cake flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

With a mixer, cream the butter first on medium speed, then add the sugar a little at a time, beating well for about 6 minutes total. 

Reduce the speed to low and add the eggs, one at a time, mixing each in before adding the next one. 

Start adding the flour and alternate adding in the flour and the milk, starting with the flour and ending with the flour. 

Add the vanilla and mix well.

Equally divide the batter among the three pans and level the batter. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes back clean, shifting the pans around halfway through. Don't overcook it or it will be dry, so check at about 20 minutes. 

Cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

For the icing, combine all ingredients except vanilla in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until it reaches the desired caramel color. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Use a hand held mixer to beat it until it cools and becomes thick enough to spread. Spread thinly on each layer, on the top and along the sides. Sprinkle the nuts on top before icing sets, or decorate the top and sides with whole pecan halves.