Taste of Tuesday: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Hi everyone!

Boy, do I have a treat for you today! Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Um, yum.

The boyfriend requested oatmeal chocolate chip cookies a couple of weeks ago and I jumped at the chance to do some baking. I looked through Pinterest a little and came across some of my pins from Sally of Sally's Baking Addiction's Pinterest. After perusing her blog for a little bit, I found a recipe that looked a) simple and b) delicious. Making a recipe of hers had been on my to do list for a while - her site makes me drool regularly - but since I don't have a hand mixer at school, I had to wait to bake until I was at my parents' house (and had access to my mom's kitchen!). Perfect timing!

The funny part about this recipe is that, once I told my boyfriend I was getting started on these cookies, he texts me, "I don't even know why I asked for these, I don't really like oatmeal cookies." What? Then why did you ask for them? I'm making them anyway! When he tasted them, he was like, "wow. I know I said I didn't usually like oatmeal cookies but I like these!" I'll chalk that up as a win for me! My sister, who is a sweet aficionado but hates oatmeal l o v e d these cookies. I had to force her to take a bite of the dough, just to taste test it, and she was like, "you need to give me more of that.... It's really good."

These cookies are chewy, incredibly moist, and so, so yummy. I wouldn't hate it if there were raisins in there, maybe even some nuts, but that's an experiment for another day. As they are, they are a perfect basic oatmeal chocolate chip cookie.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 and 2/3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips (or mini M&Ms!)

*Makes approximately 30 cookies.

1. In a large bowl, cream the softened butter and the brown and white sugars with a mixer until smooth.

2. Add in the egg and vanilla and mix again until combined.

3. Stir in the baking soda, cinnamon, oats, and flour. Mix until just combined but do not overmix!

4. Fold in (don't stir) the mini chocolate chips or M&Ms.

How yummy does this look!??

5. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill the dough in the fridge for at least one hour. The dough needs to be very cold! I chilled mine for roughly an hour but I would have preferred to let it chill longer.

6. Hang out, watch some TV or read a magazine, run errands, drink a tasty iced coffee or whatever until your dough is cold.

7. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

8. On ungreased cookie sheets, roll tablespoon sized lumps of dough into balls. Place the balls on the cookie sheet, leaving room between each.

9. Bake each sheet of cookies for 10-11 minutes. The cookies will appear "undone" but they will firm up as they cool - this keeps the cookies moist and chewy!

10. As you take the cookies out of the oven, let them sit and cool on the cookie sheets for a couple of minutes before you transfer them to wire racks. Let them finish cooling on the wire racks, if you can, before devouring with a glass of milk!

A+ photo.... I got skillz, I know

*Note: My boyfriend said these could be bigger and "oat-ier". Next time I will increase the amount of oats either to 1 and 3/4 cups or 2 cups and make the balls a little bit larger before placing them on the cookie sheets. I would add more chocolate to these myself ;)

I hope you enjoy! These were really easy to make. I think I'm pretty proficient in the kitchen but I think the instructions are straightforward enough that anyone could make them... just make sure you stick to the recipe and don't take any shortcuts/skip anything! Let me know if you make them and what you thought :) 

Linking up for Taste of Tuesday with Ashley from Let's Get Bananas and Jessica from Blissfully Miller!

Taste of Tuesday: Speedy Spaghetti + Cheesy (Garlic) Bread

Happy Tuesday friends!

I am finally (!!!!) joining in on the Taste of Tuesday fun! I love to cook (and am apparently pretty good at it) but I am really bad at taking pictures while I am cooking/hate my iPhone pics/my apartment's kitchen is normally not very pretty. Regardless, I have some things up my sleeve for the coming weeks so stay tuned! 

Today's recipe is for a very quick spaghetti sauce and cheesy (garlic) bread. I whipped this up after some trusty Pinterest searching (which, by the way, you should follow me! Click here to do so) and did a couple of modifications to fit what I was looking for. I adapted the sauce recipe from Gina at Skinnytaste (which is an awesome food blog - lots of healthy recipes that are family friendly) and the bread from a recipe submission website, Key Ingredient. When I say "adapted" in regards to the bread it is because I spaced and forgot to add the garlic to the cheese mixture. I added meat to the sauce because I was cooking for the boyfriend - next time I make this for myself I will make it without meat. The whole meal was boyfriend approved (even though I forgot the garlic on the bread!) and very quick. I think the most difficult part of making it was searching for the ingredients at my grocery store! Gotta love being on a college campus with limited shopping some days. That being said, everything turned out really well with what I could find on campus on a Sunday night! 

Speedy Spaghetti Sauce 

(can be made with or without meat!) 

*Adapted from Gina at Skinnytaste

1 tsp olive oil 

2 cloves of minced garlic (I used the kind from a jar)

2 15 oz. cans crushed tomatoes

1 small bay leaf (I omitted this)

1 tsp oregano (I subbed 1 tsp of pre-made Italian seasoning blend)

2 tbsp chopped fresh basil (I omitted this - our store was out but there is some in the seasoning blend!)

Salt and pepper, to taste

*1 lb ground beef (or turkey or Italian sausage, whatever!), if desired (possibly consider adding chopped onions to this!)

1. In a saucepan or pot, add 1 tsp olive oil and heat over medium heat. When hot, add 2 cloves of minced garlic and saute until golden. (Try very very hard not to burn this! Use medium heat, not high)

2. Add crushed tomatoes, salt, pepper, and herbs (either a seasoning blend or oregano and the bay leaf).  Stir until combined. 

3. Reduce heat to low, cover the pan/pot, and let simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

4. After the sauce has finished simmering, remove from heat. Remove the bay leaf from the sauce (or don't, if you want to surprise your guests) and add the basil. 

5. Adding meat: While the sauce is simmering, heat 1-2 tbsp of olive oil in a saucepan. Salt and pepper your ground beef (or turkey, etc) and add it to the pan once it's hot. Brown the meat, adding more salt and pepper as needed (I normally add more salt and pepper before I stir/flip the meat to brown the other, already seasoned side). Once the meat is fully cooked, drain off the fat and add to the sauce, stirring to combine. 

*Served 2 people with leftovers. 

Cheesy Garlic Bread

(awesome with or without garlic!)

*Adapted from Key Ingredient (which has a recipe to serve more people!)

1 small baguette (I used La Brea Bakery's French Demi Baguette - one of my faves!) 

      * You could also substitute slices of a larger loaf of bread if you wanted to

2 tbsp butter, melted

1 tbsp parsley

1 clove of garlic, minced

1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste (I used a sprinkling of each)

1. Preheat your broiler (I used the high setting). 

2. Slice the baguette in half lengthwise. 

3. Mix the melted butter, parsley, minced garlic, parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper together in a bowl. 

4. Spread the mixture on each half of the baguette. Place the bread onto a baking sheet or a baking dish. 

5. Place under the broiler for about 3 minutes (time will vary depending on your broiler - make sure you watch it otherwise it will burn!) until the bread gets crispy and warm and the cheese is bubbling, golden, and melty. 

6. Let cool for about 3 minutes, slice, and enjoy! Garnish with some extra parm if you wish :)

Hope you enjoyed these recipes! Making this sauce was waaaay easier than I expected and much tastier than jarred pasta sauce (which is good in a pinch). I am addicted to the cheesy bread now and can't wait for another excuse to make it. 

Weekend Shenanigans!

Hi everyone! 

Hope your week is off to a good start - I'm trying to get myself back in the swing of things after a waaaaay too short spring break. Today I'm linking up with Sami from Sami's Shenanigans... yes I am a little bit late but hey, better late than never?! 

I spent this weekend breaking in these Minnetonka Moccasins that I got for Christmas and found in my closet while packing for spring break. My feet hate shoes. It took me six months to break in my Sperrys guys. SIX. MONTHS. I can't even tell you the number of times I attempted to break those shoes in while slooooowly walking to class.... halfway there I was hobbling and bleeding. I always packed a pair of flip flops as a precaution. 

Yum - part of the Easter dinner my mom made! Baked beans, corn casserole, and asparagus ricotta tart. Not pictured (fail) but equally delicious: cheesy potato casserole, fruit salad, Hawaiian bread rolls (my fave), ham, turkey, cauliflower. Don't get me started on dessert. I'm still full from that. 

Errrr excuse the poor lighting. I was holed up on the couch drinking a ginormous Dunkin Donuts iced coffee with caramel and skim milk. If you'd care to bring me one in the morning, you'd be my favoritest person ever. Also, I stalked the J.Crew Factory website for any deals I might have missed in stores (uh, 50% off everything? Yeahhhhh I took advantage of that. Goodbye to the next $200 of paychecks). 

Finally, I took my mom's Volkswagon Beetle Convertible out for a quick errand. I wanted to Instagram a picture of it and make a bad Easter egg joke (and by bad I mean that it probably would not have made sense at all) but I refrained. You're welcome. You should also follow me on Instagram if you don't already! My username is leopardspot. Also, look at how cute and springy those flowers are in my mom's car. They are always in the way when I'm driving, unlike in the red beetle that I drive, which has a perfectly sized bouquet of daisies in it. I don't know how my mother does it. 

Okay, well that was a very small peek into my weekend. I can tell you that the outfits I wore are not in any way memorable, although they were warm and comfy. It hasn't quite become "spring" yet in the Midwest. I would settle for high 40's, Mother Nature. Come onnnn. Please? Maybe just for my birthday? You have 13 days to figure it out, girlfriend. 

What I'm Loving Today

These guys! 

Alternative Baking Company Phenomenal Pumpkin Spice Cookie

I might be a little out of season with the pumpkin, but I stopped at a coffee shop recently and snagged one of these cookies. I've had cookies by Alternative Baking Company before when I lived in the dorms (aka eons ago) but I had never tried the pumpkin and let me just say, I was missing out! 

These are vegetarian, dairy free, egg free, and organic! I don't have any dietary restrictions but these are a delicious snack for anyone. Just maybe don't eat the whole thing at once.... they aren't exactly super low-cal. 

What is your favorite snack lately? Any good reccomendations? 

*This is not a sponsored post, I just really love these cookies!