Oat-y, Chunky Nutella Cookies. MMMMMmmm!

This batter=so good!

Ok, so I know this blog is supposed to be about healthy food, but I admit it, my sweet tooth is ridiculous. I'm not going to lie to you, I like to bake, I love dessert, and if it's not chocolate, I usually feel like it's not worth it. So while I may include recipes for sweets on this blog I will try to make them as healthy as possible by including whole wheat flour, peanut butter in place of large amounts of regular butter because although it's still fatty, peanut butter at least it has more nutritional value than butter.

When it comes to cookies, I like them chunky and chocolate-y so here you go:

Oat-y, Chunky Nutella Cookies

1/3 c. Nutella
1/4 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. butter spread (we recommend using a brand that doesn't have hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils such as Smart Balance or Country Crock)

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 c. packed brown sugar

3/4 c. white sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 c. strong prepared coffee, cooled
2 eggs
1 3/4 c. whole wheat flour

1 c. chunky stuff (I used 1/3 c. each of semisweet chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and chopped almonds, but you could use whatever you want to chunk-ify them. Any kind of chopped nut or dried friut would be good!)

2 c. oats

Preheat oven to 375F.

In a large bowl combine Nutella, peanut butter, and butter and beat until combined. Add salt, both sugars, baking powder, and baking soda beat again until combined. Add vanilla, coffee, and eggs beating again until combined. Add flour in 3 or 4 batches. Beat just until incorporated after each addition. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl frequently. Stir in the oats and "chunky stuff."



Drop by rounded teaspoonful onto greased cookie sheets and bake at 375 for 9-11 minutes. I let them cool on the pan just for a minute or two and then transfer them to some parchment paper on the counter.



Note: These cookies were freakin' good, but the batter was a little runny. (Bare with me, I'm relatively new at this whole creating recipes thing). As always, I'll make them again, and update the recipe as I improve on it. For now, if you follow this recipe you will have some very delicious, but slightly flat and extremely soft and gooey cookies. So moral of the runn-y batter story, be careful to space them out on the pan because otherwise it might turn out as one big cookie (be real though, would that really be so bad?)

Baked Turkey Meatballs and Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Spinach, Sage Sauce

Ground turkey is one of our favorite things around here. You can do so much with ground beef and (shocker) you can use ground turkey in pretty much all of the same ways. If you get really lean ground turkey, it can be better for you than ground beef, and as long as you make sure you have enough moisture and seasonings, it can be just as moist and flavorful as ground beef.

I've heard a lot of rumors about sweet potatoes being much better for you than regular potatoes. See CSPI's nutritional ratings for vegetables here. Sweet potatoes are wayy way up there! So instead of making regular potato gnocchi for dinner I opted for more nutritional sweet potato gnocchi. In my recipes for dinner last night, I used sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes, ground turkey instead of ground beef, and whole wheat bread and flour instead of store-bought bread crumbs, white bread or all-purpose flour whenever possible to try and make these recipes more healthy. We had Baked Turkey Meatballs and Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Spinach, Sage Sauce for dinner last night, and it turned out super yummy!

Disclaimer: The meatballs had too much moisture in them so when they I pulled them out of the oven it looked kind of like meatball quiche because the egg/moisture firmed up, filling the pan around the meatballs. We just cut the meatballs out, at them, and they were still delicious! I'm going to try to perfect this recipe soon and see if I can make it turn out prettier, but feel free to try it anyway if you're looking for something yummy and aren't afraid to cut your meatballs out in the pan. Or, if you want to, feel free to play around with proportions/ingredients and make them better. (I would recommend cutting down on the milk or adding more bread). Let me know if you do so I can share in the deliciousness too please!

What you need

For the meatballs

(makes about 30-35 pretty big meatballs)

3 lbs lean ground turkey

3 slices whole wheat bread (crust removed)

1 cup milk

a splash of Worcestershire sauce

3 eggs

3 large cloves of garlic

2 tbsp parsley flakes

salt to taste (I used about a tsp)

pepper (I used about 2 tsp but I like stuff really spicy)

crushed red pepper to taste (I used about a tsp)

nonstick spray

For the gnocchi

2 large sweet potatoes (should equal about 2 c. when peeled and mashed)

1/2 c. low-fat ricotta cheese

2 Tbsp low-fat or fat-free cream cheese (softened)

1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour

All-purpose flour for the counter

To taste: salt (I did about 1 tsp), pepper (2 tsp), cinnamon (1 Tbsp), nutmeg (1 tsp). Feel free to experiment with these proportions based on how much spice you like.

For the sauce

1/2 c. olive oil

1 cup thawed, frozen spinach or fresh spinach that has been cooked and wilted down

1 tbsp sage seasoning

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tbsp cream cheese

A few handfuls of Parmesan cheese

What you do

For the meatballs

Preheat oven to 375F. Lightly spray a large cookie sheet with nonstick cookie spray.

Break up bread slices with your hands (pieces should be small, about 1/2 inch square-ish) and put them in the bottom of a medium bowl. Pour the milk over bread pieces and allow them to soak for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile in a large bowl, combine all the other ingredients. After 5 minutes(ish) pour bread/milk mixture in with everything else. Mix well with your hands until combined.

See what I mean about the moisture/egg filling the pan? I promise they still tasted good.

Form the mixture into balls about 1 1/2 inches thick. Put the meatballs on the cookie sheet and bake until golden brown (when they look ready I usually taste one. Just to make sure...) I let them bake for about 35-40 minutes. But I would just watch them when you think they are getting close. I haven't made this enough to have it down to a science.

For the gnocchi

Cook the sweet potatoes. You can bake them, boil them, whatever your preference. I microwaved them just to save time. Google "how to [insert cooking method of choice] a sweet potato" and you should be able to come up with instructions for how to cook them.

While they're cooking, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Once the sweet potatoes are cooked, allow to cool slightly so you can handle them, then cut them in half, scoop flesh into a medium-sized bowl, discard skins, and mash flesh. (hahaha. that sounds gross).

To the sweet potato mash add the ricotta cheese, softened cream cheese and spices. Mix well. Add the whole wheat flour. You may only need 1 1/4 c. of the flour, but keep the rest. If the mixture is really mushy add the last 1/4 c. Flour your counter top with all-purpose flour. (You could use whole wheat flour to roll them, but I think it makes the gnocchi taste too grainy).

Turn the dough out onto the floured surface. Divide into sections (it doesn't really matter how many sections you have). Roll each section into a 1 inch rope. Cut the rope into 1 inch segments. Each of these individual 1 inch squares is your gnocchi. (If you don't like the square look, you can roll each gnocchi in your hand to make it more rounded and rectangle-ish. You could also roll them over a fork to give them some fancy ridges.)

Line them up on a large plate of baking sheet and when you have enough to cover half the bottom of your pot, drop them into the boiling water. When the gnocchi float, they are done (mine took about 4-6 minutes). Continue with the other batches when the first batch is done. When all batches are done, cover with the sauce and serve. MMMMM...

For the sauce

Heat oil, spinach, nutmeg, and sage in a sauce pan (or microwave haha) until hot. Stir in cream cheese and parmesan cheese and continue cooking just until cooked through and slightly creamy. Pour over gnocchi and serve.

First Non-Class Mandated Blog Post EVER!

Back when I was a PR student at UGA (Ok sure, I graduated less than 6 months ago) I had to keep a blog for some of my classes, but all my entries were about PR "issues," and to be honest, I was never thrilled to write in it.

But recently I’ve been on this major blog kick. For the past few weeks, I've been blog-stalking left and right. People I know as well as people I don’t know but the people I know, know. Are you with me? (Don't lie to me, you do it on Facebook all the time.) I don’t stay long on blogs that are just about people’s day-to-day lives. “Today, I walked the dog…” Hmm...thrilling. But when I find a blog that has fun useful information, i.e. recipes, D.I.Y. projects, new ideas that I would never have though of by myself, I camp out. So I decided to jump on the bandwagon. 

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t like to cook. I started with the basics when I was younger: grilled cheese, canned soup, mac n’ cheese (from a box of course). That evolved into cooking pasta but adding meat, spices, and veggies to store-bought pasta sauce. That evolved into making up my own recipes. Ever since Austin and I got married in July, I’ve been trying my hand at creating my own recipes more often. Most of the time I look at an existing recipe for inspiration and then take out ingredients, add other ingredients, etc until I feel like it's my own. 

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says "Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit who lives within you, whom you have received [as a gift] from God? You are not your own, you were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for, made His own]. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body." (This exact wording came from the Amplified version which has recently become one of our favorite translations of the bible. Not only is the wording understandable, but it also provides a more direct translation from the original Greek in parentheses. SCHWEET! Check it out. Marinate in Paul's intended meaning here. Being God's temple means to be "the very sanctuary" of Holy Spirit. What? So good it's crazy...)

Anyway...No matter what translation you read, one thing is clear from these two versions: because we are believers, Holy Spirit resides within us, our entire beings belong to the Lord not to us, and we are commanded to honor him with our bodies. Not an option. Austin and I try to eat healthy to be good stewards of what's entrusted to us (our bodies) because of this 1 Cor 6:20 command, but also because we have more energy and feel better when we eat things that are good for us. Plus Austin is a Nutrition major so he learns just how not good for you those not good for you foods really are and flat out refuses to eat certain things (hydrogenated and partially-hydrogenated oils).

So much "health food" is super expensive and tastes like cardboard: bland and boring. Well this just won't do for us, because we're on a newlywed budget (read: we are poor), and we actually like to enjoy our food (read: cardboard=yuck). My theory is eating should be healthy, cheap, and exciting. I'm betting a lot of you are like me. You want it all from your food. Thus, my desire to food-blog was born. I'm hoping this blog will be good for you because I'll give you some recipes from my arsenal that'll help you cook healthy, delicious food that won't break the bank or take all your time to prepare. I'm hoping this blog will be good for us as it'll challenge me to keep the coming up with new recipes (and Austin will get to eat them.) :-)

So I'll blogging probably mostly about food with some cool D.I.Y. ideas sprinkled in, and Austin will be blogging probably mostly about life in general. I’m jumping in with both feet, and Austin is along for the ride. I would love to say I'll blog often, but I’m not going to commit to writing every day or even every week cause being boxed in by that type of comittment is just not really my style.

If any of our posts bless you please comment and let us know. If you try any of the recipes and like them, please comment and let us know. If you have any suggestions, please comment and let us know.

Here goes nothin'!