Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with sweet potato

Since I have had a surplus of baby food these days-with Lila not eating as much as I anticipated. (she enjoys table food better, I don't blame her either) I've been trying to find ways to sneak it into our dinners, desserts...or just about whatever I can! I put a jar of creamed corn in our chicken noodle soup the other night. (you couldn't even tell!) I think it just made it have a richer flavor. Well I searched sweet potato cookie recipes on google and found a yummy chocolate chip oatmeal cookie with sweet potato. Aaron said they were some of the best cookies he's ever had! Because they stay moist, he hates hard cookies. So here is the recipe if you care to try them yourself. It calls for 1/4 cup of pureed sweet potato. In my case I just added 1 jar of baby food sweet potato, which is 4 oz., which is fairly close if not exactly 1/4 cup. Give them a try, you can't go wrong with cookies!

http://bakingbites.com/2009/10/sweet-potato-oatmeal-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Holly and Lila enjoyed them. We ate about half the dozen before they could even cool off!

(Holly I think was sneaking Lila bites while I was putting more dough on the pan, cause when I came back she had chocolate all over her face:)

RR Download #9 for 2010

Slow-Cooker Asian Pepper Steak

Easy and tasty

John and I thought it was really good and different.

Jess and Mia said uh..., it was ok.

The bean sprouts, cilantro and lime on top at the end is good, it needed a

little bit of a crunch. We put everything but the peppers in the crock pot at 11

before church. When we got home we added the peppers and cooked for a couple

hours more. Then our peppers weren't quite as soggy, I like mine a little more

tender crisp. Use brown rice to go with it.

We served it up with some steamed broccoli and I had a spaghetti squash to cook

which we had on the side. The next night I used the leftover spaghetti squash with a

new batch of the sauce from the baked shells recipe it was very good.

Anyways thats whats been for dinner at our house!

Ingredients

• 3 pounds beef sirloin
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch, for dusting meat
• 3 cloves garlic, grated or finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons ginger, grated
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 3 red bell peppers, sliced
• 3 yellow bell peppers, sliced
• 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
• 4 tablespoons brown sugar
• 3/4 cup soy sauce
• Ground black pepper, to taste
• 2 cups rice
• Topper:
• 2 cups bean sprouts
• 1 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
• 2 limes

Yields: Serves 6-8

Preparation

In a large skillet, sear the meat in some EVOO until nice and brown on both sides. Remove the steak to a cutting board and slice the steak into 1-inch thick strips.

Place the sliced steak into the crock-pot bowl, then dust the meat with cornstarch and mix the meat around until there is no more visible cornstarch.

Add the remaining ingredients except for the topper ingredients to the crock-pot, then place a lid on top and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 hours.

When you are ready to serve, get a medium bowl, mix the topper ingredients and place a portion of the mixture on top of each portion of Asian Pepper Steak. This will add pop of freshness and texture.

Serve on top of cooked rice.

RR #1 DOWNLOAD OF 2010

BAKED SHELLS CASSEROLE (yes Rochelle you would like it to)

We almost forgot to take a photo.

First impression was "YUMO" as RR would say. The sauce was great, I loved the

homemade taste. We used our canned tomatoes from last summer and chopped

them in the quisinart I wished I would have made extra to save for something else.

All the flavors were good use all the different seasonings it makes it taste great.

We used half wheat shells half regular don't use to many or it won't be saucy enough.

We also used fresh spinach chopped up and then microwaved for a few minutes.

You can omit the wine also, we did and just put a little extra broth. Also start early

enough to let your sauce reduce, we didn't so we ended having dinner at 7:30 ish-

late for us.

Ingredients

• 5 tablespoons EVOO – Extra Virgin Olive Oil, divided
• 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped, divided
• 1 large or 2 small to medium onions, finely chopped, divided
• 1 small carrot, finely chopped or grated
• Salt and pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons oregano or marjoram, half a palmful
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, 1/3 palmful
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed by pressing under flat of your knife
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme, 5 to 6 sprigs
• 1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup dry white or red wine
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 2 28-ounce cans Italian crushed tomatoes
• 1 pound medium or large shell pasta (not extra-large stuffing shells)
• 2 boxes frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and wrung dry in clean towel
• Freshly grated nutmeg, about 1/4 teaspoon
• 2 cups fresh ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, plus some to pass at table
• 2 large egg yolks, lightly beaten

• Yields: Serves 4-6

  Preparation

  In a large pot, heat 3 tablespoons EVOO, 3 turns of the pan, over medium heat. Add 4 cloves of chopped garlic, 3/4 of finely chopped onion and the carrot. Season with salt, pepper, oregano or marjoram, red pepper flakes, fennel seeds and thyme, and gently sauté 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add in parsley, stir, then add wine and reduce a minute. Add stock and tomatoes, bring sauce up to a bubble and reduce heat to simmer. Simmer sauce 45 minutes.

  After sauce has been simmering for 30 minutes, preheat oven to 375˚F.

  Bring a pot of water to a boil for the pasta. Salt water and cook pasta 5 minutes.

  While pasta water comes to a boil, heat remaining 2 tablespoons EVOO in a small skillet over medium heat. Add remaining garlic and onion and sauté to soften, 5 minutes. Add spinach, pulling it apart and separating it as you add it to pan. Stir to combine well and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Turn off heat.

  Drain undercooked pasta and return it to the hot pot. Add spinach mixture to pot along with ricotta and grated Parm. Stir to combine, adjust salt and pepper then add eggs and stir.

  Pour a thin layer of marinara sauce into the bottom of a casserole dish. Fill dish with pasta then top with another thin layer of red sauce. Save remaining sauce to pass at table. Bake 30 minutes until bubbly.

  Serve casserole directly from casserole dish, passing extra sauce and cheese at the table.

Rachael Ray's Top Ten

We watched RR top ten downloaded recipes for 2010 show and decided to

try and make them and give our <:expert:> opinion. We didn't do them in

order necessarily. She has a lot of chicken ones. Well I bought everything

I needed at the store. I bought teriyaki sauce and soy sauce and I put my chicken

in a zip-loc bag and poured my sauce in and then looked at the other bottle and

realized that I had put the soy sauce in instead of the teriyaki sauce. Oh well now

what? Well I decided to go with it and added some crushed garlic and grated ginger

into the bag. We soaked it overnight and cooked it the next day and they were

very well marinated. We also changed our sides we had sweet potato fries and a

green salad to go with it. All was good and everyone liked it. We also found out that

Broccolini is not Broccoli its a green vegetable similar but with small florets and

long, thin stalks a cross between broccoli and Kai-lan, Chinese broccoli.

But really the chicken was nothing sauce and chicken how hard is that? (#3downloaded?)

Here's her recipe

TERIYAKI CHICKEN LEGS

Garbanzo green salad
Sweet Potato Fries

8 Chicken Leg drummers

1 1/2 cups, 12 oz., teriyaki sauce

Coarse black pepper

3 Tbl. sesame seeds

1 cup rice

1 cup chicken stock

3/4 cup water

3 Tbl. vegetable oil divided

1 bunch broccolini, trimmed and cut into 3" pieces

salt

1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced

1 bunch scallions, shredded on an angle

2 large cloves garlic, very thinly sliced

1 inch ginger, grated or minced

Yields: Serves 4

Preparation

Place chicken drummers in a resealable plastic bag with the teriyaki sauce and let marinate 4 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 400˚F.

Place a cooling rack over a baking sheet and arrange chicken legs on it. Season chicken liberally with coarse black pepper.

Cover chicken legs with foil and roast 20 minutes. Turn legs and roast 10 minutes more. Remove foil and roast an additional 5-8 minutes to darken and crisp. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

While the chicken cooks, bring stock and water with 1 tablespoon vegetable oil to a boil over high heat. Add rice and stir, bring back up to a boil then reduce heat and cover pot. Simmer 18 minutes then fluff with fork.

While chicken roasts the last 10 minutes, bring a few inches of salted water to a boil. Add the broccolini and blanch 2-3 minutes, then drain.

Heat remaining 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a large skillet. When oil is hot, add blanched broccolini, peppers and scallions. Stir-fry 2 minutes, add garlic and ginger, and stir-fry 1 minute more.

Serve chicken legs with stir-fried veggies and rice alongside

Stefani's GRANOLA COOKIES

Set your timer or yours might get a little overdone like Mariah's did

Makes a lot of cookies 4 dozen or so. Bake at 350 for 8-10 min

Mix and set aside

3 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. salt

Cream

2 cups shortening (can use part unsalted butter)

2 cups brown sugar

2 cups white sugar(we used 1 1/2 and it was fine)

add and mix well

4 eggs(we used 2 whole and 2 egg whites)

4 tsp. vanilla

add

6 cups oatmeal granola

2 cups choco chips

and whatever else you want Stefani added chopped dates once, and

we didn't have dates so we added prunes that we put thru the food processor.

They were yummy.

french bread in 5 minutes a day

6 1/2 cups of flour (can be part wheat)

3 cups water

1 1/2 TBL. yeast

1 TBL. salt

Bake 450 for 30 min

mix water yeast in bowl add 1 cup flour and salt then add the rest of the flour.

no need to use a mixer just mix in bowl with a wooden spoon you may need to

mix the last bit with your hands. Dough will be sticky, you also don't need to

knead the dough just mix and put a lid on it that doesn't fit tight (that just sits

on it) let the dough sit on the counter for 2 hrs. it will rise and then flatten out.

After the 2 hrs you can use it or store it in the refrigerator and use within 5 days.

(if you go over 2 hrs its ok it won't hurt it)

If your ready to use it dust the top of the dough with a handful of flour.

Take a chunk of dough about the size of a large grapefruit and quickly form a ball

by stretching the top over and tucking it in the bottom underneath. you may need a

little flour. I sit the ball on a pizza peel that is dusted with cornmeal or you can let

it raise on a cookie sheet with a little cornmeal. let it raise for 30-40 min about

double make a couple of slashes on top with a serrated knife right before put it in.

get your oven nice and hot and bake it for 30 min at 450 till light brown.

One more thing while the oven is heating up place a metal pan (I use the bottom of a

broiler pan) in the oven on the top rack so it gets nice and hot as soon as you put your bread in

quickly add 1 cup of water in the hot pan and shut the door to create steam. This helps make a crusty outside to the bread.

If you refrigerate it then dust the dough and take your chunk off and make your ball.

you need to let it rest on the counter a little longer because the dough is cold maybe

an hour.

So everyday you can take a chunk off and make a round loaf of bread or you can use it to make

a pizza just let the dough rest and warm up to room temp if cold then roll it out.

I usually double or triple the batch and use it all week I stick mine out in my addition room that is cold like a fridge in the winter.

good-luck its good and worth it.