Banana-Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm fully aware that this has been the spring/summer of oatmeal cookie variations for me.  Why?  Well, oatmeal is inexpensive, adds a bit of healthiness (or perceived healthiness?), and it makes for a cookie that is a COOKIE.  By that I mean, you feel like you actually just ate a cookie, so it is harder to mindlessly inhale a bunch.  This is a good thing when pandemic baking.  

Also--and this is probably the most important--most oatmeal cookie doughs seem to taste better if they are let to sit (refrigerated or even frozen) before you bake them.  On the one hand, this means planning in advance.  On the other hand: then you can have fresh baked cookies whenever you want them, in whatever quantity you need/want.  One deliciously warm cookie as a treat on a particularly bad day?  Don't mind if I do!

The original version of this recipe didn't call for chocolate chips and the cookies were completely respectable, tasty cookies.  (The smidge of clove is actually really good in them, so don't skip that unless you are totally out or...like...really hate cloves.)  

But then I got to thinking about what might make them even better.  Nuts would be the typical choice, but they can be divisive.  And might that seem kind of just like banana bread in cookie form?  So I decided to go with chocolate chips.  That was good, but mini chocolate chips were even better when I tried them instead!  

This recipe is a good one for using up spotted bananas, especially if you don't feel like making bread/muffins.  The banana flavor really comes through, too, so don't do these if you aren't actually a banana fan!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened 

1 cup packed brown sugar (dark or light)

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup mashed bananas*

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp ground cloves

2 tsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt

3 cups old fashioned oats

2 cups mini chocolate chips, or whatever looks about good to you (2 cups was maybe 3/4 of a bag, but you could use anywhere from a half to a full bag.)

* This was more than 2 of the bananas I had on hand, but less than 3 bananas.  Bananas vary wildly in size, y'all.

Directions:

1. Mix together butter, sugars, egg, vanilla, and mashed bananas.  (I used a hand mixer, just to get it all creamy)
2. Add flour, cinnamon, baking soda, cloves, cornstarch, and salt, and mix together
3. Stir in oats and chocolate chips. (Do this by hand)
4. Cover and refrigerate dough for a few hours to overnight (No freezer at this point.  We'll get to that later!)

To bake immediately:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Prepare baking sheet by lining with parchment paper or aluminum foil
3. Spoon out tablespoons of dough, make them round-ish and then flatten slightly into disks.
4. Space 2 inches apart on cookie sheet, as they will spread some
5. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until set and edges turn golden
6. Cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes, then remove to finish cooling

To freeze and bake later:

1. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper (don't use foil for this freezing part, it can get stuck to the cookies)
2. Make dough disks as above, but put as close together as possible
3. Put second layer of parchment and dough discs
4. Place cookie sheet in freezer overnight
5. Separate disks with parchment paper and store in freezer in ziploc-type bag/bags
6. Thaw and bake as above, or bake straight from frozen for a couple of extra minutes.   

Peanut Sauce

This recipe is based on a Local Crate box that I got several months ago.  What annoys me about them is that they don't tell you how much of each ingredient you are getting, so you can't recreate the recipe easily later on by yourself.  Boo!

Instead of giving up, though, I eye-balled what they gave me in my box.  And then experimented.  I like this combo, but it is very rich and makes for a sauce-y, big serving.  You could use the same amount of sauce for more food, cut the ingredients, etc.  

The key seems to be 2 parts peanut butter to 1 part rice vinegar to 1 part soy sauce.  Then add garlic and other flavors for depth.  And be careful if you add the ginger--a little bit goes a long way and I had one bowl that was very, very ginger-forward!

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp. Peanut Butter
• 1 Tbsp. Rice Vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. Soy Sauce
• 1+ tsp. minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp. (or to taste) sambal oelek (or other hot sauce type thing)
• 1/4 tsp (or to taste) fresh ginger (do not use powdered! I have some in a squeezy jar that works nicely)
• water, as needed to thin sauce

Directions:

1. Add peanut butter to a bowl and heat in microwave for 30 seconds or so, warm enough to get softened to be puddle-y or a bit runny, and easy to stir.
   
2. Add all ingredients except water and stir together
   
   
3. Stir in a bit of water if you think the sauce is too thick.
4. Stir in cooked noodles (rice noodles or just spaghetti noodles both work fine),veggies, and protein.  (pictured here is steam-in-bag vegetable mix, cut up Morning Star Farms chix pattie, and some unsalted roasted peanuts).   
   
     

 

Creamy Pumpkin-Alfredo Pasta Sauce

Some people love PSL season (Pumpkin Spice Latte--and it is apparently coming up soon!).  I like the cinnamon and nutmeg and other spices, but I also like stuff with actual pumpkin.  And because you can get canned pumpkin all year, using it shouldn't be limited to the cool months.  I found this simple recipe for a creamy pasta sauce and gave it a try.  I didn't bother with the fancy fettuccine nests they used, instead tossing it with regular spaghetti.  It turned out pretty good, particularly with broccoli, some cheesy turkey sausage, and a generous sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.  

Ingredients: 

• 2 tablespoons butter/margarine
• 3 to 5 tsp. pre-minced garlic (or 5 cloves garlic)
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 1/2 cups half-and-half (original recipe used heavy cream, but this worked pretty well) 
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid from your pasta, to thin out sauce if needed. 
2. Heat the butter over medium heat in a saucepan. 
3. Saute garlic until soft and fragrant. 
4. Add the pumpkin and cream/half-and-half. 
5. Simmer until slightly thickened. 
6. Add the cheese, salt, and pepper
7. Stir, then thin with pasta water (if needed) 
8. Toss the pasta in the sauce and thin as needed using the reserved cooking liquid.

Apple Cheesecake Quesadillas

A friend of mine regularly posts delicious-looking recipes on his social media.  One day this spring he posted this recipe for apple cheesecake breakfast quesadillas.  I swapped out some of the sugar, added more cinnamon, nixed using a hand mixer, and decided it didn't have to be for breakfast!  Here it is:

Ingredients:

• 2 flour tortillas
• 2 large spoonfuls of whipped cream cheese 
• 1 packet splenda
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla
• 1/8 to 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2+ small apple, thinly sliced
• cinnamon sugar

Instructions:

1. Mix cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon until smooth and creamy.
2. Spread half on one tortilla and half on the other. 
   
3. Top one tortilla with apple slices and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. 
   
4. Place other tortilla on apples (cream cheese side down, obviously)
5. Heat skillet and spray with non-stick spray.
6. Cook quesadilla until golden brown on one side
   
7. Flip and cook other side. 
8. Slice and serve warm

Rhubarb-Strawberry Sauce, plus (bonus!) Frozen Dessert

Rhubarb is one of the midwest's great fruit flavors, even if it is technically a vegetable. When I lived in North Carolina, it was incredibly hard to find in the stores and most of my friends weren't really familiar with it.  But my mom and grandma both grew rhubarb in their yards (in Missouri and Minnesota) and I have bags of frozen rhubarb in my freezer that I sort of hoard.   

This recipe combines rhubarb with its best friend in the whole world: strawberry.  The two complimentary flavors meld into a sauce that can be eaten cold or warm, and  used on ice cream, pudding, yogurt, oatmeal, on pancakes, etc.  Or you can eat it by the spoonful.  It is pretty dang good that way, too.  And feel free to mess with the amounts of each ingredient, depending on if you want one flavor or the other to come forward...and on how tart you like your desserts!

I also just tried a new experiment to make the sauce into a frozen-sherbet-y dessert.  I don't quite have the texture I was looking for, but it was super tasty so I'll work on it some more.  

The original is actually a WW recipe.  

Sauce Ingredients:

3 to 4 cups uncooked rhubarb, sliced (have used fresh or frozen after it is thawed and drained in a collander)

quart of strawberries, sliced (this is about 1.5 pounds and probably around 3 cups, I suppose?)

3/4 cup powdered sugar

Sauce Directions:

1. Put all ingredients in a medium saucepan, stir until sugar melts. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Cover pan and set over medium to medium-high heat until mixture begins to boil, about 5 to 10 minutes. 
3. Uncover, reduce heat to low, and simmer.  Stir a few times, cooking until fruit breaks down into a sauce.  (This'll take about 45 minutes.) Serve warm or chilled.

Serving size: 1/3 cup per serving, makes about 10 to 12 servings (depending on how much original fruit used and how much you cook it down)

BONUS!  Frozen Goodness Directions:

1. Freeze rhubarb-strawberry sauce in ice cube tray (makes about 10 cubes)
   
   
   
2. Blend two cubes with about 1/3 cup of the milk of your choice (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
   
   
   
3. Then blend in two regular ice cubes.  
   
   
   

(I think I need more ice cubes or something, as it was way too liquid to be scoopable.  But it was tasty!)

Vegetarian Mushroom "Meatballs"

As a kid I ate mushrooms in only three forms: on pizza, in pasta sauce, or in cream of mushroom soup.  I've significantly expanded my appreciation of the cute little fungi as an adult, but I really only love them when they are cooked.  (I'm not gonna lie, I can only eat a few raw mushrooms at a time...and then it is usually in a salad or with dip.  The texture isn't my favorite when they are uncooked.)

This mushroom-heavy, vegetarian recipe is one that is good on pasta or as the filling of a meatball sandwich, and the original recipe claims it makes good burger patties, too. (The original is in a book called "The Clueless Vegetarian."  I posted my version of the Spicy Peanut Pasta from this book earlier).   

The choice of mushrooms is yours.  I used white button once and a mix of button and portbellos once.  This most recent time was just the button ones, and I even used the pre-sliced 'shrooms.  I just chopped them up more--it was a timesaver and they were cheaper than the whole ones when I was at the store. 

I've done the meatball version twice now, each time slightly differently because of what ingredients I had in the house at the time.  But, hey, I liked it both times!  The secret is to get to a consistency that sticks together.  I also highly recommend letting the mix sit in the fridge overnight.  The ingredients meld together and the oats are less obviously oat-y that way.  

Also, it looks like a lot of instructions, but this takes only one skillet, one bowl, and one cookie sheet.  It could be summed up as: cook veggies, cool, mix into a mush, let it sit, roll into balls, bake. 

Makes: about 23 to 24 meatballs 

Ingredients:

• 1 to 1.5 pounds mushrooms* 
• 0.5 to 1 medium onion
• 2+ cloves garlic
• 2/3 to 3/4 cup bread crumbs**
• 2/3 to 3/4 cup oats (I used old fashioned--also called rolled--oats)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp. salt
• black pepper, to taste (1/4 to 1/2 tsp.)
• other herbs/spices, if you want them. 

* When I had 1.5 pounds of mushrooms I used half an onion, but when I had only 1 pound of mushrooms I used the whole onion.  It still worked. 

**For oats and breadcrumbs, use 2/3 cup of one and 3/4 cup of the other.  The original calls for more of the breadcrumbs, but I ran out of breadcrumbs making the most recent version and only had 2/3 cup.  So I just used more oats.  It was completely fine.  Seriously.  This isn't rocket science.  

Directions:

1. Chop mushrooms fairly small, but doesn't have to be minced or anything
2. Chop onion smaller than mushrooms, in the diced/minced range. 
3. Mince garlic (or use it out of a jar, if you are me!)
4. Heat a large skillet, on medium-high heat and spray with non-stick spray (or use oil, whichever you prefer)
5. Add the mushrooms, onion, and garlic. 
   
   
   
6. Cook, stirring often, for about 10 minutes.  The key is to cook everything until all the liquid is released from the mushrooms AND that liquid has evaporated.  
   
   
   
   
   
7. Transfer veggies to a medium bowl and let cool.  (This is important...otherwise you will cook your eggs and they won't hold your meatballs together!)
8. Add bread crumbs, oats, cheese, eggs, salt, and pepper. 
9. Mix until everything is combined and all mushy
10. Cover and put in fridge (The original says "at least 15 minutes or as long as overnight."  I'd say several hours or overnight is best--see above in description)
11. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
12. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray
13. Roll mixture into 1 inch balls and place on cookie sheet
14. Lightly spray tops with non-stick spray
    
    
    
15. Bake for 15 minutes,then turn over and bake 10 to 15 minutes more, until browned and sizzling. 
    
    
     
16. Leftovers can be refrigerated and reheated the oven.  You can also reheat them in sauce or the microwave, but they lose the oven-cooked texture