My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

I know how I like my chocolate chip cookies - like Grandma's. Soft and chewy and chippity and perfect. But my chocolate chip cookies don't taste like Grandmas. I usually get one of two results: 1 - Doughy, cakey blobs, or 2 - completely flat crunchy cookies that I have to cut apart before removing from the sheet. Grandma must have a secret ingredient (love?).

Anyway, when I feel like making cookies I don't make chocolate chip. Until today. These cookies from Joan at Allrecipes are just the way I like them. They are not traditional chocolate chip cookies, but they are delicious and chocolatey and peanut buttery. And isn't that what everyone really wants?

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oat Cookies (or in Joan's words, Outrageous CC Cookies)

1 stick butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter (use natural!)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup oats
1 cup semisweets

Cream butter and sugars, add peanut butter, vanilla, and egg and mix well. Mix flour, baking soda and salt separately, then add to wet ingredients. Stir in oats and chocolate chips. Roll into 1 inch balls and place on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. A plus with these cookies is that they are quite filling due to the peanut butter and the oats. Two or three and I don't want any more (that's rare!), at least not for an hour or so.... Happy eating!

Helpful Hint: If you want cookies, but don't want to spend hours in a hot kitchen rolling cookies, you can mix up the dough, make just one sheet (or however many) and freeze the rest of the dough. Just double wrap it in Saran Wrap and it will keep for quite a while (not that it ever lasts very long in our house...). To use later, defrost in the refrigerator, or slice while frozen and cook a minute or so longer (but watch it carefully). I like doing this because I can control how many cookies are available to us at one time. And, of course, the next time I want cookies, I don't have to dirty any bowls or do any mixing!

Weekly Menu Planner

Monday: Red Beans & Rice - this was on the menu last week and it didn't happen. It did happen tonight, however. I thought it was okay, but several factors (I roughly cut the recipe in half, but didn't measure very carefully; I used turkey polska kielbasa; I did it on the stove top instead of the crock pot) made it not as good as it could be. It's worth another try, though.

Tuesday: Chicken Tortilla Soup using the leftovers of last week's chicken tacos - another recipe I just wasn't wild about, but I'm optimistic about the soup.

Wednesday: Lasagna. From a box. From the freezer. Requested by the hubby and I am not about to buy lasagna noodles, ground beef, ricotta, cottage cheese, tomatoes, whatever else goes in lasagna and spend all afternoon cooking it. Some things are not worth cooking in my book (although I usually don't complain when other people cook them...).

Thursday: Baked chicken drumsticks with a corn flake coating, along with some vegetable sides.

Friday: Stir fry - this will be one of those weeks when I throw together whatever's in the freezer. I know we have pork, zucchini pieces, red pepper, carrots, snap peas.

Saturday: Turkey burgers. I don't know what possessed me to buy extra lean turkey burgers a few weeks ago, but I did, and they are in the freezer, and they do not taste good. But we will top them with bacon and avocado and be grateful we have food on our plates.

Sunday: Something in the crock pot. Probably Spicy Pintos unless I think of something more toothsome (Definition 1, if you please). Any ideas?

What are you having for dinner this week?

Recipe Review: Pineapple Pork Stir Fry

We tried this stir-fry from Taste of Home for dinner tonight and I'm glad we did. Overall, I would give it 4 out of 5 stars. The mixture of vegetables was nice - I cut three carrots into thin strips and used a bag of frozen broccoli and cauliflower, half of a small onion (what was in the fridge) and the pineapple. I liked the sauce in that it wasn't too sweet, but Preston commented on how he preferred the sweetness of the sweet and sour pork recipe below. That being said, however, the sauce was a little spicy for my taste. Next time, I will probably just add a shake of cayenne pepper. Plus, I will probably only use about half of the sauce mixture. I don't like to drown my stir-frys in sauce, although a plus is that the sauce made the brown rice I served it with more palatable (I prefer brown rice, but hubby hasn't quite converted yet). I wasn't quite sure about the soaking the pork in the cornstarch mixture - I don't know that it really did much except make a mess on the bottom of the pan. Next time, I will probably skip that step. But, there will be a next time, so I consider it a success.

Just a note on stir-frying in general. I don't always follow a recipe - sometimes I just throw whatever vegetables are around and whatever protein is around together and serve it over rice. I also don't always make a sauce - sometimes I just want to taste the food as it is, although like I mentioned earlier, if you are trying to get used to the taste of brown rice or don't like vegetables, a sauce can help add a different flavor.

So, get your woks ready and try this one soon. It's a keeper!

Weekly Menu Planner

Our computer was out of service for quite a while, so this blog got put on the back burner (pun intended). But I plan to start posting here regularly again, most likely for my own eyes only, but I'm okay with that.

Here is our meal plan for this week, with links to specific recipes where possible. I am only posting dinner because we usually have oatmeal or something equally simple for breakfast and lunch is usually leftovers or sandwiches.

Monday: Fish, sweet potatoes, spinach

Tuesday: We will be out of town and will have dinner out

Wednesday: Pineapple Pork Stir-Fry - I will definitely report back on this stir-fry recipe.

Thursday: Spaghetti Carbonara - excited to see how this turns out and is received

Friday: Red Beans 'n Rice - We have a bunch of half bags of beans sitting in the cupboard, so I am devising a plan to rid us of them. Plus, I've been wanting to try this.

Saturday: Crock-pot Chicken Tacos

Sunday: Ham, Sweet Potatoes, Roasted Asparagus

I also have a sweet bread recipe to try out sometime this week. What are you having for dinner this week?