healthy-ish Whole Wheat Ginger Snap cookies

We have been sick as dogs around here. It seems like the colds keep coming and the noses keep running. Growing up; we always drank ginger ale when we came down with a cold or flu. I'm sure it really did nothing at all, but something in the ginger taste made being sick a little easier. So With all the colds and sickness in our house I decided it was time for the ginger. BUT I have also had a major major craving for cookies and sweets lately (which has equaled many extra workouts) so I decided to make ginger snap cookies with a twist.

I found this recipe on a cupcake blog http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2010/04/gingersnap-cookies-making-them-is-snap.html I often frequent and decided to to change it up and add a bit more health so I didn't feel too guilty chowing down on 6 of them while watching America's Got Talent (which by the way is a another guilty pleasure of mine - I mean how can you not heart random people with stupid talent).

The lowdown: I switched up the butter for half butter and half unsweetened applesauce. I cut the sugar in half, and used whole wheat flour instead of white flour. I was almost out of molasses, and having the actual amount would have made it more ginger snap like. We were also out of fresh ginger which would have tasted much better then the ground stuff - but what can ya do; I NEEDED cookies

Recipe:

2 Cups of Whole Wheat Flour
1 Tablespoon of fresh fresh ginger
2 teaspoons of baking soda
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1.5 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of suagr
3/4 cup of butter and unsweetened applesauce
1 egg
1/4 cup of dark molasses
1/3 cup of cinnamon sugar

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees
In a mixing bowl sift four, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt (if you don`t have a sifter just use a mesh strainer)

mix butter in another bowel - I filled up the 3/4 cup half full of butter and filled the rest with the apllesauce and then mixed mixed mixed until it was super creamy and add the sugar, continue mixing

Beat in egg and molasses

slowly add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar concoction and continue mixing

**I had to add a bit of extra flour as my dough was a bit sticky. Also I refrigerated the dough before rolling it into balls as it was super sticky

roll into tiny balls - about 1 inch diameter wise and then roll in cinnamon and sugar mixture

Bake for about 8-10 min depending on how chewy or crunch you like them.

JUST for the record I didn`t follow any of these instructions and they came out great - I would add a bit more ginger next time since I am a snappy kind of girl.

Alright now where is the darn remote..............

PS My mother has offered to send me a short email with my common grammatical errors, so please be fair warned that I may be stepping it up word wise since I will have been edumacted....

Kitchen Sink Muffins

Now before I continue on with a fun ubber healthy recipe, I must write a disclaimer on future posts to come. First, I am a terrible speller. You know the saying that "if you read for pleasure your spelling will reflect this"; my brain must have missed the boat on this one. I heart books - more then just food magazines and vampire novels, and I have actually read Pride and Prejudice, and yet my spelling still mixes up bowels and bowls and I often misuse "your and you're". Another case in point; I'm obsessed with semi colens and commas. My brain seems to think they make the words on the page much more exciting and so it is written. Therefor if you are spelling or punctuation obsessed you can do a couple things: either have patience and laugh along with me, correct me in the comment section below, or re-visit when I have my act together - which really could be a while. I have since discovered the spell check button on here and am hopeful in future recipes I won't be asking you to get out a mixing bowel.

KITCHEN SINK MUFFINS

This weekend I felt like sticking my head in the kitchen sink and turning on the hot water. With a late night visit to the children's hospital with M to ensure he could breath through his croup, random crying, sleepless nights and more random crying (me this time) I have come up with two conclusions: (1) I am so thankful for the overpriced rocker and ottoman in M's bedroom as it has served as my bed the last 48 hours and (2) I'm in desperate need of some baking therapy. With that said; everything in me wanted to make cookies. The ooey gooey melt in your mouth scoop of sugar pound of butter double chocolate chip kind (I have a great recipe for them). But with M's cold and our busy week - I figured I should hop on the healthy train, even if it's just for a moment.

My original inspiration for this recipe was from a Women's Health issue. I thought this had some great building blocks for an ultra healthy muffin and from there these were born. This is the link to the orginal recipe http://recipes.womenshealthmag.com/Recipe/date-and-oatmeal-muffins.aspx

Cost: Now I had all of these items in the pantry already, but after breaking down the cost, and after buying in bulk; 30 mini muffins came to about 3.00. The only speciality item on here is the pumpkin seed butter which is about 5.00 for a large jar and can be purchased in in organic aisle at Superstore

**I was originally going to use butter in the recipe, but instead chose to use pumpkin seed butter that as there is no sodium or sugar in it

Recipe:

1 1/2 cup of oatmeal (I used quick oats)
1/3 cup of milk

3/4 cup of whole wheat flour

2 Tbsp of vanilla Whey protein powder
2 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of baking soda
3/4 cup of dates (about 20 or so)

1 egg

1/4 teaspoon of honey
2 Tbsp of pumpkin seed butter
1 Tbsp of ground cinnamon
1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup of carrots

1/4 cup of dried coconut

Directions:

(1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees

(2) combine oatmeal and milk in a bowl and leave to sit. In another large bowl mix flour, cinnamon, whey powder, baking soda, baking powder,

(3) Combine dates, applesauce, coconut, in a blender and blend until you get a wet pasty like substance

(4) In a separate bowl combine egg, pumpkin seed butter, honey, add the date mixture from the blender and mix these until you get a wet pasty like substance

(5) Add in oatmeal and flour mixture to completely combine

(5) Spoon batter into muffin tins and bake for 20 min until tops a slightly browned

Would I make them again: for sizzle!!! I loved that I could throw just about anything to these; providing you add enough moisture and egg to hold them together. M has already eaten three today and can't get enough!

Where did I come from.......

As a child I was never really intrested in the kitchen area. Perhaps because ours was too small for more then one person, or perhaps because my tom boy attitude kept me outside with the rocks and the trees. Either way, cooking and baking didn't really intrest me. As I grew older and moved out on my own, I lived on rice noodles and chinese vegetables from the market and still had no clue what the kitchen was for besides storing stuff. AND THEN I married the most amazing husband who could GASP cook and I was set! But as I became a mama and then a stay at home one I thought I should probably take on a bit more responsiblity at home then just child rearing. But see growing up in a single parent family with a mother who is working full time gives you great insight on the independant woman, but not a ton on who to be a house wife. So I'm kinda making it up as I go along.

I have this image in my mind that a housewife is this June Cleaver woman who can do it all, and I sooooo don't fall into this category. I can hardly cook, cleaning is ok except those darn junk drawers and well when I'm baking I take a million shortcuts. but that's ok. I'm learning to lower these insane expectations of who I think I should be who I am. I plan on posting some fun baking ideas I have and sharing them with you, but learning along the way as well. I'm thankful for each moment I have with my family and can't wait to share our adventures. So follow or don't follow, read or don't read. It's more about the fun process then the actual product that comes from all of this.