How Martha Failed Me And More Contents Of My Cookie Jar

It happened again .

The cookie jar's contents are wanning already . Sigh.

Rather than put away the clean dishes ( or wash the newly dirty ones ) or get showered and dressed , I did what a reasonable person in such a situation would do.

I went to Martha Stewart's website, knowing she'd solve my quandry.

But Martha, MY Martha , failed me this time. There was not a recipe that fit my requirements :

- A soft oatmeal cookie

-No nuts or fruit.

-Maybe chocolate chips

-Classic

What I found was a list of recipes containing oat bran , cranberries and apricots . Walnuts too. Oh Martha, I had to stray but you left me little choice.

The Joy Of Baking has an awesome Oatmeal Cookie recipe that I only slightly had to alter . They were easy enough to make , smell amazing , and well ,just look .

See.

They are love.

And so is she .

I Have Nothing To Report. WAIT . Bacon

I have nothing of note to report. I 've been a slack food photographer despite my wealth of free time lately. I am making an effort though .

To make up for it there was ...

Bacon.

Thick sliced CANADIAN bacon . Not this stuff parading about resembling the offspring of sliced ham and peameal .



There were potatoes


Washed sliced and layered in a dish with loads of butter ,onions, mrs dash and garlic.

Baked forever and a day . Mmm.



There were battered mushrooms and zuchinni.

Soo good , even if they are nothing like the bar food variety .




Of course there was also Lily.





While at the cottage Lily found that the best spot for stick eating ever is underneath the deck . She's too funny :)

What are the top five things you ate lately?

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Dog Cookie Recipe AKA Love My Dog Too Much

As any reader of my blog knows, I love my dog.

Perhaps too much . I don't have any kids , although most of my friends do , so she is like my child at this point.

My bf makes fun of me but I am very concerned about what she eats .
I won't deprive her cookies but I always read the ingredients and have no problem paying 10-20 dollars for a small bag of cookies or treats for her if they are made of whole ingredients.

That can get pricey when your dog is being rewarded for training milestones so I went in search of a recipe.

Peanut Butter Lover Dog Cookies

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 plain oats ( I used bob's organic )

1/2 cup oil ( I used mostly flax and a dash of sunflower)

2 eggs ( I used PC's Omega )

3-4 tbsp of peanut butter ( I used maranathas natural unsalted. Ingredients read : Peanuts )

1/2 cup of water

Mix wet ingredients. Sift dry ingredients together and form a large dough ball.

Roll out onto lightly floured surface . Cut into shapes.

Cook at 400 for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cover tray with a kitchen tool until cooled.

This hardens them

Upon removal from oven and while baking , they look greasy as hell. Bubbling! But after setting they are not greasy at all and harden like regular dog biscuits.

But does the dog like them?

I think so .

Sad Smoothie

This face is the reason I just got back from a 3 mile dash of a walk on the creek path .

So pitiful Lily .

Rather than fix myself up at my vanity when I came back , I threw some laundry in, threw some consumables together and am now throwing this blog together :)

Yesterday there were veggies.
Wait.
When are there not veggies?

On my CSN bamboo cutting board, leftover chopped onions from Taco night , broccoli, carrot and some dirty mushrooms.

.

Choppe and cleaned and slightly softened them in a skillet with some sunflower oil . I added a bit of chicken broth , fat free cream cheese and some pre cooked bow tie pasta.

Yum.

I love dishes that are filling and delicious but don't leave me feeling bloated and heavy . Especially in this heat.

After the dash, I thought a smoothie was in order. Thought being the key word here people.

Whole Food Vega Smoothie Mix ( I used probably 1 tbsp of the package)

Maranatha's Organic Smooth Peanut Butter ( 1 tbsp) YEY for my fav peanut butter being back in stock .

1/4 cup of 2 % Milk

1 frozen and unpictured banana

1/4 cup of chopped strawberries also unpictured

couple handfuls of baby spinach

I was surprised that what appeared to be about 1/4 of a blender full , filled up my sbux cup and a club glass.

I was also surprised that while this mix tasted amazing it made me feel very phelm-y . Perhaps it was the milk or combo of milk AND banana . I couldn't drink more than the club glass .



Ready to gnaw off my hand at this point, I grabbed the quickest thing . A cheddar and herb bagel from Superstore's bakery section, and smeared half of it with herb and garlic cream cheese.

I paired it with a homemade iced coffee in yet another starbucks cup ( I have all the cute ones ) because I need fuel and it's too hot for, hot coffee.

What's your favorite smoothie mix ?

What items do you hate in your smoothie ?

Puppy and Dinner

As usual I'm not sure where I left off so I'll go with the contents of my camera card.

Pizza happened on Thursday night.

I was lazy and when I even mention take out , the bf takes pizza delivery and runs with it.

These are the remains of 2 pizzas.

Mine had double cheese and bacon.

His had every vegetable known to man kind.

I slept horribly Thursday night. Woke up to rainy mopey weather . The only saviour was that it was Friday and my bf was off, so he took me to class

Got out of class early , came home and fell asleep.

The result of a nap, was breakfast for dinner.

The above plate is the boyfriends.

Toad in the hole x 2 ( the little circles are the cut out bread )

Bacon

Hashbrowns

My plate :

French toast w/ cinnamon and real maple syrup

Bit of hashbrowns

Bacon!


I slept amazing last night and woke up to this happy girl.

The sun was right on her,hence the odd lighting .

Last night was the first night this puppy didn't sleep in her locked kennel ( it could fit a camel so don't feel bad for her ) .

We decided to see how she would be if we just left her sleeping on her blanket in the living room last night .

She was fine . We woke up to her sleeping on the couch !

Perched on some pillows ( excuse the laptop cord ) and daddy was nice enough to put a blanket on her. Lily adores blankets and feeling confined ( by her own accord).

Aww i love when she makes this almost bashful face. I wish the lighting wasn't so tho.

Such a hard life.

Had to get in on the cuddles.


Went grocery shopping this afternooon and after making some spectacular unpictured sandwiches , I made these.

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies !

I bought a very large bunch of bananas at the grocery store today and had a few less than yellow ones on the counter and an abundance in the fridge, so I wanted to bake something to lessen the stash.

Unforuntately this recipe only used 1 banana, fortuntely they are delicious.

You can find the recipe here.

The only modifications I made were to use I Cant Believe Its Not Butter Light in place of butter and I doubt I used as many chocolate chips as the recipe called for.

The dough is very thin and not like normal cookie recipes. Do not fret. The baking soda and baking powder take care of it . So don't be tempted to add more flour.

So good!

What have you had for dinner lately?

Week of Veggies

This week in vegetables.

Stuffer mushrooms sliced into veggie messes.

Corn on the cob . :(


For some reason I found that taking pictures of mushrooms was very enjoyable. So many angles and perspectives of these fun guys.

Greens !!!

Broccoli crowns specifically. Of course, chucked into another easy yet delicious veggie mess.

My lovely bamboo cutting board .

Veggies messes pre, mushrooms and broccoli .
Basically , carrots, onion, garlic, celery and zuchinni.

Easy wraps made the minute I get home from class.
PC's Organic Spring Mix , PC's Maple Smoked Turkey Breast, Hellmann's Half the Fat Mayo and sliced mozzerella.

A cute Lily on the way back from the vet. She's a little " special " here ;)

And no those aren't her ribs! those are wrinkles!!

Random pictures out the car window on the drive back from the vet.

It was beautiful.

Sometimes pictures say so much more than paragraphs upon paragraphs.

News:

Fat Swap!

Galaxy Granola is trying to eliminate 10,000 lbs of fat from consumers diets, in 90 days . There are so many ways you can take part and win prizes! Visit their website for details and look for a Fat Swap post in this space soon!

Ooh and all this weekend CSNstores will take an extra 5 % off your order!

-A

Bamboo and Larabar Review

Aww. Lily in the morning.

I am not a morning person. Even a little bit , but this makes me want to get out of bed .

She is just so mellow,cuddly and cute in the morning.

What I do not love is her appreciation for tennis balls. She looooves them. She has a million other toys but is content destroying a tennis ball bit by bit. She usually kills it in a day and when she doesn't kill it she spends her time pushing it under couches and crevices and then crying for us to get it back out. Hate tennis balls.

What I did not hate , was this Larabar.

Shocking , I know . Considering I hated the other three Larabars I tried I really didn't have high hopes for this one.

I googled reviews before unwrapping and Tina's review convinced me.

It really does taste like a macaroon!

Other things I do not hate , include these awesome Bamboo Cutting Boards I was gifted with from CSN stores to review.

I used to think that my knifes sucked but after using these boards, I realized it was the plastic ( or whatever material it was made of , not wood of any kind and defintely not bamboo) that was making chopping and cutting difficult.

These made prepping spinach , amongst many other things since I recieved them , a breeze.

And the best part, well maybe second best part, EASY to clean . They do not stain or absorb very much . Warm water, a bit of soap and you're done.

Thanks CSNstores.