The Most Reliable Peanut Butter Cookie

These cookies are tried and true, completely easy, and always delicious. What else can you possibly ask for? They've appeared here before, but I think its worth a re-visit.

This highly complex gourmet recipe includes:
1c sugar
1 egg
1c peanut butter

Mix them. Drop onto cookie sheet and press down with fork tines. Bake them at 375 for about 10 minutes or until they are at your desired level of brown-ness. Take them out and just try to resist eating them until they are cool!

Easy Lemon Blueberry Muffins

Last Saturday, while in the midst of a massive spring cleaning, I started craving muffins. Since I was in my workout clothes, knee deep in the contents of my closet, with a ponytail sprouting directly out of the top of my head, I wasn't about to go to the grocery store, so the recipe had to involve things I actually owned. Luckily I found this recipe over at the ever-reliable For the Love of Cooking.

One note- I didn't have a lemon, and as I said, I wasn't going to the store, so I had to make do. The closest thing I had to lemon juice was Trader Joes margarita mix, which is kind of like limeade. I also only had plain nonfat yogurt rather than what the recipe called for (vanilla), so adjusted some other things accordingly, here is my version:

2 cups flour
.5 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
.25 tsp salt
.25 cup TJs margarita mix
1/8cup tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup plain fat free yogurt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1.5 cups frozen blueberries
.5 cup nuts
extra sugar for sprinkling on top

Preheat oven to 400. Mix dry ingredients, then add wet ingredients. Once its mixed, stir in the berries and nuts. Divide into greased muffin cups, and top with a sprinkle of sugar. Bake about 18 minutes.

(once again, until the new camera arrives, this was taken with my cell phone so I apologize!)

These were really good, and totally satisfied my muffin craving without much work and definitely without a trip to the store. I actually liked the limey-ness of the margarita mix (maybe I'm still fixated on the loss of my lime...). You should try it!

New Look for Spring!

So, how do you like my new look? (*twirls*)...

Thanks to the new blogger templates, things are a little fancied up around here... whew, thats better!

The Little Lime's Last Hurrah: Lime Zest Sugar Cookies

Ok, this post is a little bit tragic and its taken me a while to write it... after my little lime finally grew up and fell off his tree, I knew I had to use him for something good. The first thing I wanted to do, before he became a key ingredient in a number of delicious drinks, was to use the zest for something delicious. I love citrus zest... this love only became stronger when I acquired a microplane grater, which I highly recommend to everyone- it is so fast! and easy to clean!. At this point, if I have a lemon, zest goes in everything until its gone. Yogurt. Oatmeal. Everything. You name it.
I thought the best thing would be something very simple that highlighted the flavor of the zest, and finally arrived at the idea of a very simple cookie. I found a promising recipe on recipezaar and set to work.

This is what you need:
zest of 1 large lime
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter, chilled and cut into pieces (yes, actual butter)
2 1/3 cups cake flour, sifted
.5 teaspoon baking soda
.25 teaspoon salt

Process zest and sugar in food processor so zest is extremely fine. Add butter and process further. Add dry ingredients and process until mixed. These are refrigerator cookies, so you should roll the dough into two logs, wrap in waxed paper, and chill. When you're ready, slice and bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.

This is what I ended up with:
This does NOT look like the picture. They were bizarre and sort of lacey and left tons of butter on the cookie sheet. They were extremely crunchy and were ok, but weren't the cookie of my dreams.

In retrospect, I realized I made a series of ridiculous mistakes, probably because I was over excited about using up the lime. I did not put in baking soda (how this happened I don't know). I also accidentally only put in 2c flour, and it wasn't cake flour or sifted (because I am impatient). I feel a little like I failed the lime, which is why it took me a while to post this. But, I think the cookies themselves have some potential, as long as you actually pay attention while you make them!

Finally succumbed to the whole green smoothie thing...

OK, lets get this out of the way first-- I apologize on 2 fronts: 1. these pictures are STILL taken with my cell phone given the untimely demise of my camera. 2. I'm STILL sick so I can't post anything new other than smoothie recipes. But even so, its a good one, don't you worry.

There has been a lot of hype about adding dark leafy greens to smoothies. This is supposed to supply all kinds of extra nutrients, in addition to increasing energy levels and keeping you full longer. I have loved spinach since I was just a wee little child (I was apparently a weird wee little child- we have a copy of a Dr. Seuss book, "My Book About Me", in which I claim spinach is my favorite food. as a 4 year old). So, I went with spinach (don't get all excited about the camera, this is a free stock photo from http://www.sxc.hu/).

I was highly suspicious, but this was actually very good. I'm not going to go so far as to say you'd never know the spinach was in there. But I will say that you probably won't mind.

-1 cup fat free plain yogurt
-1 cup frozen blueberries
-1 cup baby spinach, washed and all that jazz
-2 tbsp walnuts
-1 squirt honey (I leave it to you to determine the volume of the squirt)
(see, now this is a camera phone picture).

Blend it either in a blender, or with an immersion blender, which is what I did.
The verdict: it is pretty good! It definitely is nutrient packed with the spinach, yogurt, blueberries and walnuts giving you plenty of antioxidants, vitamin A & C, iron, calcium, and omega-3's. Also, I really was full (but not overly full) for the entire morning, after sipping this. Don't be scared- I highly suggest you try it! I liked it enough that I've made at least 3 of them by now.

AN IMPORTANT WARNING: it is important to remember that you have just blended spinach and blueberries into tiny bits. I do NOT suggest drinking this at work unless you also bring a toothbrush. I also suggest not smiling at anyone until you have the opportunity to do a tooth check. Just saying.

*** ADDENDUM: I just made one this morning (these pictures are from a few days ago). I added Trader Joes lemon curd, to give it a little kick. holy smokes. I highly recommend either that or some lemon zest, it really brightened it up!

Sore Throat Soother: Cucumber Smoothie

Well, I haven't been posting much. The main problem is that my tried and true little camera bit the dust. In fact, if anyone has any idea what makes a camera do THIS by all means let me know (that was going to be a post on delicious roasted tomato fennel soup. oh well):

As a result I have been taking a lot of pictures with my phone (such as the French Lentils picture, which isn't all that bad). I have to, of course, get them OFF my phone, so more posts will be coming shortly.

In addition to being camera-less, this week I am also miserably sick with strep throat, which I haven't had for years. I forgot how awful it is. While trying to find an antibiotic that will take this thing down, I am in dire need of cold cool things to sooth my poor little tonsils. In addition to a lot of regular yogurt based smoothies, this morning I came up with this, which is actually a wonderful thing if you just need something cool and hydrating and don't feel like taking in millions of liquid calories.

No, unfortunately for all of us, its not a margarita. What it is, is a cucumber slushy. I thought of it because I love cold water with slices of cucumber floating in it, something about the flavor is so subtle yet so refreshing. And this is the perfect thing for a sad little sore throat:

-about 3 cups of cold water
-1/2 -3/4 of a regular cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks
-7-8 ice cubes

put it in a blender. blend it. drink it. its about as easy as it gets! It sounds strange, but I think in this scenario it really fits the bill if you just want a cooler easier way to get some water in. Next time you need it, try it! (it would also be good with a squeeze of lemon, which I don't have)