Misca, mousca...

I was sitting with one of my favorite little toddlers during rest time. While everyone else snoozed we discussed my currently chipping blue nail polish with multi-colored confetti glitter layered on top.

"Oh no! It's falling off!" She exclaimed.
"I know! It's ok though. Now I can put something else on. What color should I paint them next?"
"...MICKEY MOUSE!" with such certainty.

So far Delia has said they are both "beautiful mama" and also that they look like "spiderwebs" which is kind of a mixed review. 

Pumpkin Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Illness hit our house HARD these last few weeks. And with colds comes dehydration and carb heavy diets. And with dehydration and carb heavy diets in toddlers comes... Well it's mostly what doesn't come that's the issue. So in an attempt to add a little extra fiber into Delia's diet while still making sure its yummy enough to crave when you're not feeling 100% we made these cookies.

Pumpkin Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies

adapted from this recipe 

• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups quick oats
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/3 cups packed light-brown sugar
• 1/3 cup truvia baking blend
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin puree (I added a little extra to compensate for the whole wheat flower drying them out a bit)
• 1 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Combine butter and sugar until smooth

2. Mix in pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla

3. In a separate bowl mix together dry ingredients

4. Mix dry ingredients in with the wet. 

5. Add the oats and chocolate chips in and fold in with a spatula.

6. Scoop about a tablespoon on a parchment lined sheet. I pressed them down with a fork to keep them more cookie consistency. 

7. Bake at 350 for about 10 min

They still turn out a bit cakey but that seems to happen to me every time I use pumpkin in a recipe. Still yummy and hopefully they do the trick for little bellies. 

*Edit* they totally do the trick :D

Healthy Chocolate Chip Muffins

Chocolate chocolate chip muffins are BIG winners in this house. Sometimes it's nice when things you want to eat aren't things that are terrible for you...

• 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 cup Truvia baking blend
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 large egg whites (or 1 large egg)
• 3/4 cup plain yogurt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips, plus a few more for sprinkling on top

You mix the wet ingredients. Mix the dry ingredients with a whisk to break up any clumps. Blend the wet and the dry but don't over mix. 

I used a greased 6 large muffin tin and Baked @ 400 for 15 min 

Amazingly Simple Nutella Cookies

If you've been anywhere near the Food and Drinks tab on Pinterest you've probably seen this recipe about a trillion times. It could not be easier and makes me feel slightly less bad about my eating habits than eating the Nutella off a spoon like I usually do.

I buy my Nutella and BJs so I had the industrial size jar in my cabinet, so I figured why not make a double batch (the fact that the first round out of the oven didn't even make it to the cooling rack confirmed this as an awesome idea).

2 cups Nutella
2 eggs
2 cups flour
*the original recipe calls for a half cup of sugar, or 1 full cup in this case. But as someone with a pretty wicked sweet tooth I can tell you it's totally unnecessary

Mix all the ingredients together. I rolled mine into about 1 inch balls and pressed them with a fork. I baked them at 325 for 7 minutes ( the original recipe calls for 350 for 5-6 min but my oven runs pretty hot).

These ended up so delicious with these fudge centers. Im sure if they ever had the chance to cool they'd be pretty yummy then too.

Coconut Rice Pudding

One of the many cravings I've been having lately is for the rice pudding my Grandma Frances used to make. Though I hesitate to call what she made pudding, it was more like sweet rice floating in a creamy soup. Now of course my grandma never really wrote down her recipes so I've got to come up with a version all my own. I had an open container of coconut milk, so that's where we started.

Coconut Rice Pudding
2 cups coconut milk
2 cups water
1 cup arborio rice
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tsp nutmeg

Combine the milk, water, and rice and bring to a boil in a covered saucepan. Reduce the heat and let the liquid cook down.

Remove the pan from the heat and add the vanilla, brown sugar, and nutmeg.

If you're like me (and I suspect Delia) you won't want to wait and will want to eat this while its still warm. It's very yummy this way, but its even more amazing once it has chilled in the fridge for an hour or two.

Improvisation Smoothie

The smoothie itself isn't exactly that innovative, but the fact that I was really craving bananas and my blender was incapacitated led to a little creative problem solving. Fortunately my trusty mini-prep food processor was beckoning from the shelf. It can't handle liquids all that well so I had to retool my original milk-heavy smoothie plan. But in the end its hitting the spot and giving baby Delia a nice protein boost for our closing shift at work.

2 very ripe bananas
2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup nonfat plain greek yogurt

As you'll notice from the picture the mini processor can't exactly handle chopping ice either, so I just threw a few cubes in to pulse it around and cool down the mixture.

Babies Are Not Fruit