Chocolate Chunk Cookies (A.k.a milk sponges)

Its that time again, time to work 12 hour shifts don our chem gear and exercise exercise exercise.  It's always a long week when we have to do an exercise on base.  It means working a week straight playing "war games"  basically to keep us trained in situations we might face in a deployed environment. But it does become exhausting on the 3rd or 4th day working a 12 hour shift wearing a flak vest and chem. gear that weigh up to 50 lbs. plus sucking plastic for hours literally sucks lol and by sucking plastic I mean wearing a chem. mask.

At home my poor dog Ardie suffers as well, working such long hours there's barley anytime to shower him with attention.  Same goes for the hubby, since we are working separate shifts I go to work 6am to 6pm and he goes in at 6pm- to 6am. So our paths don't cross the whole week.  Means dinner for one, which means making a sandwich or take out. No biggy though its part of the job and its just a week and soon enough we go back to our regular shifts.

So why the cookies when I should be sleeping. Well it is a weekend and even though I'm working I gotta have my sweets, also I like taking goodies to work to help lift everyones morale during a exercise week and this batch makes a massive amount of cookies.

These cookies are diffidently worth losing just a wee bit of sleep over, they are the best milk sponges I have ever had. I've been using this recipe for years and the pudding mix always helps make the cookies more fluffy and cake like which makes it the perfect chocolate chip cookie to dunk in milk.


Chocolate Chunk Cookies
From Debbi Borsick All recipes.com 
Yields about 72 cookies
Bake Time: 12 Minutes

Ingredients
4 1/2 Cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 Cups softened butter
1 1/2 Cups packed brown sugar
1/2 Cup white sugar
2 (3.4 ounce) Package of instant vanilla pudding (or any flavor you like)
4 eggs
2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
4 Cups chocolate chunks

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F
In a large bowl shift together the flour and baking soda and set aside
In a electric mixer cream together the butter, brown and white sugar. Once combined mix in the instant pudding mix, blend well.  Add your eggs and vanilla and mix till combined. Blend in the flour mixture and once fully mixed in add your chocolate chunks. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto a ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake for 12 minutes and cool on a wire rack.

Make sure you have some milk ready ;)

Banana Bread made w/ Coconut Oil

So today was just one of those days that didn't work out with grocery shopping. I had a wonderful idea to recreate my all time favorite sandwich from a cafe back in Anchorage.

I thought about it all day at work and once 1600 rolled around and we were dismissed from our flight chief I went straight to the commissary, didn't even change out of my uniform. I pulled into the parking lot and retreat starts playing over the sound system on base. Once the national anthem was done playing I exited my car (fyi you cannot walk/drive when the national anthem is playing on base).  

I find the first ingredient right off the bat, kalamata olives.  I thought hey I’m off to a good start.  I headed over to the deli section to retrieve my goat cheese and was extremely disappointed to find that the shipment hadn’t arrived yet :( sad faced I walked away not completely defeated yet.  I figured I would gather everything else I needed and wait for Thursday to arrive and pick up the cheese. So I go to the small shelve that is suppose to have pesto sitting there waiting for me and nothing! Gone poof, again waiting on shipment. Fine! I will make my own pesto, nope... out of basil in the produce aisle. hmpf I give up.

 I finally admitted defeat and resumed grocery shopping. Not all was a waste today, my banana's decided they were going to ripe overnight (literally) and I needed to use them right away. I hate throwing out food, especially produce and veggies, their not cheap in Japan.  

By the way this Banana Bread is delicious! I used coconut oil instead of butter and it came out extremely light and moist. Diffidently made up for the unsuccessful grocery trip. 

Banana Bread

Adapted my nana's recipe

Yields: 2 mini loafs or one regular sized 9x5 loaf pan

Time: mini loafs 45 Min  Regular 55-65 Min

Ingredients

1 1/4 Flour

1/2 teaspoon Baking soda

1/8 teaspoon Salt

1/2 teaspoon ground Cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground Nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground Ginger

1/2 cup packed Brown sugar

2 ripe Banana's

1 Egg

1/3 Cup Coconut Oil (the consistency is like shortening or butter)

1/2 teaspoon Vanilla

2 Tablespoons Almond Milk

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F

Grease your loaf pan(s) with cooking spray

In a medium bowl combine your flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger and whisk.  In a small bowl mash your bananas and set aside

In another small bowl cream together coconut oil and brown sugar, add your egg and vanilla. Stir in your mashed banana's and mix until combined. Take the wet mixture and combined with the dry mixture. Stir until just moisten, add in your almond milk to help combined the wet and dry together. Pour batter into loaf pan(s).  I used mini loaf pans and baked for 45 minutes until tooth picked inserted came out clean. If using a 9x5 pan bake for 55-65 minutes and insert a toothpick to see if it comes out clean.

The Ultimate Cookies & Cream Cupcake

Starting on Thursday I like to take a poll at work and find out what kind of cupcake I should make on the weekend that I will eventually bring in on Monday to share with everyone.

Oreo's were the chosen ingredient this week.  I didn't want to make just a regular Oreo cupcake, if I was going to use Oreo's I wanted to go over the top.  I wanted Oreo in the batter, Oreo in the frosting and something Oreo stuffed in the middle of the cupcake.

On my lunch break at work I love to drool over food blogs, it's amazing how many are out there.  I found this awesome blog called Love From the Oven and she had the brillant idea of using Oreos mashed together with cream cheese and made into a truffel to place in the middle of the batter.
Now I had all my components for the ultimate cookies & cream cupcake :)

If you are an Oreo lover then this cupcake is for you!

The Ultimate Cookies & Cream Cupcake

For the cake portion Adapted From Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications 2012

Bake Time: 19 Minutes

Yields: 30 Cupcakes

Ingredients 

3/4 Cup Butter 

3 Eggs

2 1/2 Cups Flour

2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 Cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 Cups Almond Milk

3/4 Cup crushed Oreos (using a food processor is the easiest way for me)

Oreo Truffel Filling

From Love from the Oven

Ingredients

12 Oreo's 

2 oz Cream Cheese

* Use a food processor to grind up oreos and then combine by hand with the cream cheese until fully mixed and formed into a big ball. 

Directions

Let your eggs and butter sit at room temperature for at least 45 min. 

Preheat oven to 350 F and line a two cupcake tins with cupcake liners.
In a medium bowl mix your dry ingredients together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. 

In a electric mixer on medium high beat the butter for 30 seconds and add your sugar until combined and looks light and fluffy about 2 min. Beat in your eggs one at a time until fully combined.  Alternately add you flour mixture and almond milk to the batter until just combined. Fold in the oreos with a spoon or spatula.
To fill your cupcake liners add a small scoop of batter into a liner and take a tablespoon of truffel from your oreo ball and roll it into a ball and place on top of the batter. Scoop in more batter until 3/4 full and bake for 19 Min. Let cool on a wire rack.

Oreo Butter Frosting
Adapted From Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications 2012

Ingredients

1 Cup butter at room temp for at least 45 min. 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (clear if you want the frosting bright white)

8 Cups powdered sugar

1/4 Cups whipping cream 

2-3 Tablespoons extra whipping cream to help thin out the frosting

3/4 Cups crushed Oreo (using a food processor is the easiest way for me)

Directions

Using a electric mixer beat the butter on  medium high for 30 seconds. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla and dash of salt.

Mix until combined.  Gradually add 4 cups powdered sugar until combined.  Add 1/4 cup whipping cream and 4 more cups of powdered sugar and beat until combined.  Add 2 to 3 more tablespoons of whipping cream until the frosting is smooth and fluffy and at the pipping consistency your want. Add in 3/4 cup crushed oreo and stir until fully combined with frosting.

German Chocolate Cake Rice Krispy Treats

Okay I know Rice Kripsy treats isn't much of a recipe, nothing to ooh and awe over but I needed something sweet. I gotta have my fix, you know it being Saturday and my cheat day and all.  I have a very good excuse to put my plans for an ultimate cupcake on the back burner till tomorrow. SUN! the weather was a.m.a.z.i.n.g today, Just gorgeous outside. So tomorrow I will have to wait for my ultimate cupcake because today was all about soaking up some vitamin D.
There is a fun ingredient in these Rice Krispy treats, it's all about the marshmallows I found at the commissary. I picked up some german chocolate cake flavored marshmallows that are coated in coconut and have been drooling to use them forever. So whats easier for a sweet tooth fix then whipping up Rice Krispy treats in under 15 minutes.

German Chocolate Cake Rice Krispy Treats

By Oishii Treats

Time: 15 Minutes

Ingredients

1/4 Cup Butter

1 Bag of german chocolate cake marshmallows 

1 Cup mini marshmallows

5 Cups rice crispy cereal 

Directions

grease a 9x13 pan with cooking spray.

On the stove top on low to medium heat melt the butter and marshmallows in a large pot. once melted add you cereal and combined until fully mixed.  Pour into greased pan and using a big sheet of wax paper push down the rice krispy mixture until even. 

Drink your veggies!

Who here has a bad habit about remembering to take their vitamins and eating their greens? It's okay to speak up we all can't be good all the time. To tell you the truth I have a bad habit about not taking my vitamins and I tell myself all the time to eat more leafy greens, though my plate is oddly missing them.  I like salads but I also like dressing and tend to use more then the recommended serving, so that healthy low cal salad  isn't so healthy and low cal anymore.
The easiest and tastiest way I found for me to eat my greens and take my vitamins is by making a smoothie. Super easy super fast and you can take it on the go.  I like to make them for breakfast, there's so many different variations of delicious smoothies you can make you won't get bored during the week.

Vitamin Packed Smoothie

By Oishii Treats

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 Ripe banana

1 Cup frozen mixed berries

1 4oz container of plain greek yogurt

1/2 Cup spinach

1 Cup Kale (3 big leafs with the ribs removed)

1/2 scoop of vanilla whey protein

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

Put all ingredients into a blender and mix well.  

When I first made this I thought I'd have to add some agave or honey, but this smoothie is surprisingly sweet enough without it. The ripe banana and berries really help hide the kale and spinach taste, if you don't want to drink a salad but still get the benefits of one ;) Plus here is the nutritional data on my smoothie. I found a website that can take all your ingredients in your recipe and come up with the nutritional information. Happy slurping 

Here are the main facts.

Calories per serving 197
Total Fat 2g
Total Sat 0g
Sodium 154mg
Cholesterol 24mg
Carbs 34g
Fiber 6g
Sugar 19g
Protein 14g
Vitamin A 135% Vitamin C 111% Calcium 24% Iron 7%
not to mention the probiotics you get from the yogurt :)