Trail Mix Cookies

A while back Leslie gave me what Lucy and I have dubbed "The Magic Cookbook," because EVERY recipe you make from it is guaranteed to be super-successful (read as absolutely delicious.) We LOVE that cookbook. Well, for my Christmas Miss Lucy outdid herself when she located the new HEALTHY version of this cookbook. We were both so excited to have it....YIPPEE! There is even a recipe for the incredible Tarte Tatin that Leslie makes from the other book, with pears from her own trees. I've spent the last few days snowed in and reading every single recipe. So, why did I choose a cookie recipe as my first thing to try? There are tons of recipes for healthy grains, soups, and stir-fries, but I had to start with COOKIES after pigging out on sweets galore for the past two weeks. Well, they are delicious.

Trail Mix Cookies

1 cup (3 oz. if you weigh instead) old fashioned rolled oats

1/2 cup (2 3/4 oz.) whole wheat flour

1/4 cup (1 1/2 oz.) all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp baking soda

5 TBS unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 large egg

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup (7 oz) packed brown sugar

1/2 cup dried cherries, cranberries, or raisins

1/2 cup unsalted sunflower or pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup peans, walnuts, or almonds, toasted and coarsely chopped

1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk oats, flours, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda together in a bowl.

2. In a large bowl, whisk melted butter, egg, and vanilla together. Stir in sugar until smooth, smearing any remaining clumps of sugar against side of bowl. Stir in the oat mixture until just combined, then stir in cherries, seeds, nuts, and chips.

3. Working with 1 heaping TBS of dough at a time, roll into balls and lay on parchment/pan, spaced 2 inches apart.

4. Bake one sheet at a time, until edges are set and beginning to brown but centers are still soft, puffy, and underdone, 12 to 16 minutes; rotate halfway through baking. NOTE: On my metal baking sheet with parchment, I baked for 8 minutes, rotated, and baked for 5 minutes more. On my Pampered Chef stone bar pan without parchment, I baked for 8 minutes, rotated, and baked for 8 minutes more.

5. Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. NOTE: You should have seen Lucy's face when I brought her a plate of two warm cookies and a glass of milk!

Because lower-fat cookies don't store well, I baked a little more than half the dough and shaped the rest into balls and froze them on a baking sheet, then transferred them to a zip-lock freezer bag labelled: "Trail Mix Cookies #10. Do not thaw. Bake 12-16 minutes at 350."

Don't you love having your own home-made cookie dough in the freezer?

Where there's a will, there's ..... applesauce!

Don't you hate it when you think you have an ingredient, so you don't buy it while you're at the store, then when it's time to make your recipe you don't have it after all. Harrumph. Makes me want to do a Rumpelstiltskin and stomp my feet so hard. But, wait, happy ending after all, just like all those scary, weird fairy tales.

I wanted to make oatmeal muffins with shredded carrots---one of I'm sure a gazillion variations you could make with that oatmeal muffin recipe. But, alas, no applesauce. Too danged hot to think about going back to the store....lots of gala apples and one granny smith in the crisper....hmmmmm, I'll just make a little applesauce. I cored and cut up 2 gala's and 1 granny smith (I didn't peel them cuz I like the peel) into a heavy pot; added 1 TBSP sugar; about 1/2 cup water; tiny pinch of salt; put the lid on and cooked over medium heat for about 15 minutes, just until the apples broke down. I stirred with a wooden spoon a few times while it cooked. After it was done it was still too chunky to put in the muffins, so I used my handy-dandyPampered Chef Mix 'n Masher (the black stick thing in the picture) to mash it up in the pan. This is the little tool that Libby swears every parent must have as soon as a toddler starts to eat any table food----works like a charm, even though it's actually made to break up ground meat when you're browning it.

After I made the muffins I still had more than a cup of applesauce left, so of course I tasted it as I was putting it away. WOW! I forgot how good homemade chunky applesauce tastes, and how satisfying it is to take the 20 minutes to make it. I used to make this for Lucy when she was little, and as soon as I took the taste it made me remember how making that applesauce for her made me feel like I was the best mom in the world. I mean, even though I didn't have a clue of how to be a parent and still don't, anyone who would make homemade applesauce for their child couldn't be all bad, right? Heck, I saw Diane Keaton in Baby Boom at least ten times.

If you're making this for a brand new eater, you'll want to peel the apples and mash it up really good after it cooks, or even puree it. But for a sweet little three-year-old who is so precious and whose Tia misses him so much she can't stand it (but I digress, sorry) chunky applesauce made by his very own mama in 20 minutes will just reinforce that she's the very best mama and he's the very best big brother in the whole world.

Here's a real recipe in case you want to make a bigger batch, from America's Test Kitchen's Family Cookbook.

Old-Fashioned Applesauce

4 pounds Jonagold, Pink Lady, Jonathan, or Macoun apples (8 to 12) cored and cut into 1 1/2 inch chunks

1 cup water, plus extra as needed

1/4 cup sugar, plus extra for seasoning

Pinch salt

1. Combine all ingredients in a large Dutch oven. Cover and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the apples begin to break down, 15 to 20 minutes.

2. Process the cooked apples through a food mill fitted with a medium disk. (Susan's note: huh?) Season with extra sugar or add water to adjust the consistency as needed. Serve warm or cool to room temperature, about 1 hour. Can be refrigerated for up to 1 week.

Susan's note: Just like with apple pies, I recommend that you use a mix of two different kinds of apples when you make this applesauce.

p.s. The muffins turned out really yummy, with 1/2 cup of applesauce and 1+ cup of shredded carrots. Oops, I forgot to add any sugar! Oh, well, they still taste good---all the better if no added sugar.

Oatmeal Muffins

Penny, I think you would like these. And a shout-out to Sharon Baker---these have your name written all over them. Bake them once a week and keep on hand (I store mine in the fridge in a flat Tupperware thing). A great grab-and-go breakfast, especially if you add a dab of peanut butter. Good snack any time. We only have these 3 left, so I'm making another batch tomorrow for the week but instead of the banana I'm going to add 1/2 cup applesauce and grated carrots, so that it's kinda like a carrot cake. I'll be sure to add some fresh nutmeg to that one, in addition to cinnamon spice blend. You could also use a cut up apple....whatever you like. Oooh, Libby, I think they would make a great healthy kids snack, too, since little chubby fingers tend to like self-contained things like muffins they can grab themselves.

But in thinking about what makes it easy for me to just whip up a batch of these whenever I want, it's cuz I have the tools that work and make it so easy. This is not an advertisement for my Pampered Chef business, but these things really make all the difference for me. My muffin-making kit includes a Batter Bowl with lid, Large Scoop (perfect size for muffins--you want them uniform so they all bake at same time), Mix 'n Scraper, and Muffin Pan. This muffin pan is new, and I love it so much. Great for mini meat loaves, my mini quiches, etc. It's professional quality aluminized steel and cooks beautifully, then the clean-up takes 2 seconds at the sink and it's done. In case you're a piglet like me (well, granted, nobody is a piglet quite like me) muffins are built-in portion control for anything you would normally bake like a cake or bread. If you decide you need any of these tools, just holler or go here: www.pamperedchef.biz/susanmurray

Oatmeal Muffins

2 c uncooked oatmeal (old fashioned or quick)
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 c fat free skim milk (or what you want)
2 eggs (or ½ c egg beaters)
1 mashed up banana

1/4 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp ground cinnamon (I use P Chef Cinnamon Spice Blend)
1 tsp Canola Oil

Preheat oven to 350. Spray muffin tin – makes 8-9 large.

Combine wet ingredients. Add dry ingredients. Spray muffin tins, or coat with Pan-Eze. Bake 35-45 minutes (until golden brown)

You can change these muffins up; use 1/2 cup applesauce instead of the banana (probably increase sugar to closer to 1/2 cup if you use unsweetened applesauce); 1 pureed unpeeled apple. Another variation - Along with the applesauce, add 1 small dry package of either vanilla or banana instant sugar free fat free pudding mix. This is also good (I’ve been told) using pumpkin pie filling (unsweet) or just pureed pumpkin in place of the applesauce. Be sure to spice to fit whatever add-in's you're using.

Make ahead, nutritious, low-fat...What more is there?

The night before:

Mix a cup of your favorite yogurt with a half-cup of old-fashioned oatmeal---uncooked. Cover and leave in fridge overnight.

In the morning:

Throw in a handful of your favorite fruit, and maybe even top with a Tablespoonful of crunchy granola.

If you're having or going to a brunch, mix up a bunch of it in your most beautiful trifle bowl. For a 4th of July brunch I put a few blueberries in the bottom of the bowl, used lowfat vanilla yogurt mixed with the oatmeal, sprinkled more blueberries in the middle and then added the rest of the yogurt-oatmeal mixture. I covered the top with strawberries in the very center and blueberries to cover the rest of the top. It was beautiful, red-white-and-blue, and everyone loved it. Too bad it was the day before I started my food blog, or I would have had a picture of it. So, you make it and send me a pic of yours, ok?

For my everyday recipe, I use nonfat plain Greek yogurt and sometimes add a tiny bit of vanilla extract. I'm lazy/late in the morning, so I often cut up half a banana and mix it in the night before. If Lucy hasn't eaten all the blueberries, I love just a sprinkle on top. Between the Greek yogurt and the oatmeal, it's 28g of protein before you ever walk out the door--keeps you nicely filled up until lunch. Sometimes I eat it at night for dessert or a snack. Reminds me of the yogurt parfaits we had in Santa Fe at the market cafe on the Plaza. Enjoy!