The Great Halloween Candy Switch - Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Let's get this out of the way first... I love candy. I love candy too much. I have probably tried it all, I still have my guilty candy pleasures and I also have about four filled cavities that back me up. For me, this is kind of a "do as I say, not as I do" type of thing. With all of the things you read about artificial color and your child's brain, corn syrup made with genetically modified corn, and all that other fun junk, I would prefer for my kid to not eat 4 lbs of candy. She can keep a few things to enjoy, but I made a plan for the rest. 

I REALLY love the Switch Witch. It's on almost every mom blog I follow and the whole premise is that your kids pick about 10 pieces of candy to keep and then put the rest on the front porch before they go to bed. During the night the "Switch Witch" visits, taking their candy and leaving behind a present for them. I think next year this will be genius, but this year I don't know if Landon can fully grasp the concept to be ok with the fact that her candy is on the front porch and someone is coming to get it. I guess what I am doing is maybe a simple version of this.

I picked something L loves and it was a toss up between chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes. In the end, I found a great recipe for Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies on 100 Days of Real Food and the horrible weather was a great opportunity to make cookies together this morning in anticipation of all the junk tonight.

cookie monster

I made a few changes to the recipe after reading the comments and they turned out DELICIOUS. I don't know if I have ever made cookies this good. The Whole Wheat Flour really gives the cookie a bit of a nutty flavor. There's more to it. They are a little bit cakey, but in a fluffy way, not a dense way. At the end of the night, Landon can trade her candy for some cookies. Still a great treat, I just know exactly what went into them!

100 Days of Real Food's Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 16-20 cookies (just enough to not “over-indulge”

Ingredients

• ⅔ cup whole-wheat flour, pastry or white winter wheat recommended
• ½ cup white flour (or can use all whole-wheat instead) *I used all whole wheat
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt *I used a bit more salt to sprinkle on top of the dough before it went in the oven
• 1 stick butter (8 tablespoons), slightly colder than room temperature
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ¾ cup chocolate chips *I used a cup of milk chocolate chips

Instructions (From 100 Days of Real Food)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In a small bowl, mix together the dry ingredients with a hand-held whisk including the flour, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a large, separate bowl use an electric mixer to cream the butter. The butter is the KEY ingredient in this recipe and for best results it must be “slightly” colder than room temperature. I usually take my stick of butter out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter for a half hour or so before making the cookies. If your butter gets too soft/warm you can alternatively chill the cookie batter after mixing everything together.
4. Add the egg, both sugars, and vanilla to butter until well mixed. Scrape sides of bowl as necessary.
5. With the electric mixer on low, add the flour mixture (in batches) to the butter mixture.
6. With a large spatula stir in the chocolate chips.
7. If you have time, and for the very best results, it is recommended that you chill the batter for 10 – 15 minutes before putting the cookies in the oven (even if your butter was the perfect temperature!).
8. Put spoonfuls of batter on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 7 – 9 minutes. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack. *I noticed my cookies took at least 9 minutes, two of the three batches took 10 minute.

I know some of you reading this are like LAME and I get it. But this works for us and L is a much better kid on a regular diet of actual fruits, vegetables, dairy and proteins with an occasional treat. Halloween is just OVERLOAD. That being said we are handing out every kind of treat you could imagine, chemicals and all. I don't want to get egged. 

Happy Halloween!

RT

Here's Something REALLY Easy to Cook... because Kids are Hard to do

Hey there! How was your summer? I didn't do much really, just spent a few months being pregnant and the last three trying to keep my head above water with a newborn and a two year old. People tell you it's hard going from one child to two, and I expected it to be. What I didn't expect was for the newborn to be the easier part. Sure, babies cry and mine wanted to nurse every two hours for the first 8 weeks (I'm pretty sure he was hiding a stop watch in his crib), but what was hardest in our world was trying to manage the big changes that the baby made in our family life & L's routine. Three weeks in she realized that when I was nursing I couldn't get up and stop her from doing things. A week after that I figured out how to run while nursing. This is life now. Constant one upsmanship... With more wine.

We are hungry.... feed both of us. NOW. And again in an hour.

I won't make some big announcement like "I'M BACK! LET THE BLOGGING FLOW!" I'm just saying here I am today. And tomorrow everyone in my house might get a cold and I"ll be gone for a month, but maybe I won't be. Maybe I can learn how to have conversations with adults again. Maybe I can sing and dance soon without someone telling me that it is their turn to sing and dance and I am not allowed to. Maybe I can finally get the Caillou theme song out of my head and MAYBE, if I'm lucky, the characters on Sid the Science Kid will start to be less annoying. The last three months of nursing have been brought to me by PBS Kids (and Endless Alphabet on the iPad). If you have any programming questions, please direct them my way. 

I had to blog today because I found something SO EASY to cook you pretty much have to make it as soon as possible. I cannot stand it when someone tells you they have an easy slow cooker recipe and  it starts out like this: "chop your meat into 40 pieces that measure exactly one inch square. Get out a pan and brown the meat for 90 seconds on each side. In another pan mix together these five ingredients." If you tell me I am making an EASY slow cooker recipe, I want to put some things in a slow cooker and press a button. Not half cook an entire meal and THEN put it in the slow cooker for 8 hours. Let's minimize the dishes here. 

I follow the blog 100 Days of Real Food in my facebook feed and sometime last week a recipe for Pork Carnitas popped up. The woman who runs the blog only eats non processed food, so she makes her own tortillas and salsa and I think that is wonderful. I read it for inspiration. I don't have time right now to go out and buy a tortilla press and make my own salsa. These days if I put in my contacts and take off my yoga pants I'm really proud of myself. Here is her recipe that we used and made a few minor tweaks to. When I get used to this whole "having two kids" thing, I will definitely go back and make her salsa and maybe even make my own tortillas. Someone send me a tortilla press!

I didn't take any picture of our actual carnitas, but they looked exactly like this.

 Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas

• 2 to 2 ½ lbs pork shoulder or Boston butt roast, cut into 5 or 6 small pieces (Have your butcher do this for you to make it extra easy)
• 3 teaspoons dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt (we used 2 teaspoons of kosher salt)
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 onion, cut into 6 or 8 chunks (I used three small onions)
• 3 garlic cloves, whole (I used 5. We love garlic)
• 2-4 Limes
• 1 recipe tomatillo salsa (or you can buy some in the salsa section of your store. Our salsa was bad so we didn't end up using any. Still delish)
• Corn Tortillas
• 2 avocados, sliced
• Fresh cilantro

If you are getting your pork shoulder from the butcher, ask him to cut it into five or six small pieces FOR YOU. They will do it and it's one less step for you. The butcher is your best friend, use him. 

Mix up the oregano, pepper, salt and cumin in a bowl. Coat the pork pieces with the seasoning and put them in the bottom of your slow cooker. 

Cut the onion (or onions) into chunks and drop them on top. Peel the garlic cloves and put them on top. Put on the cover and set the timer for 6-8 hours on low. We did 7 hours and left it on warm for another hour after. 

When you are ready remove the pork from the slow cooker, discard the onions and garlic. Shred the pork with two forks (or with your fingers if you don't mind getting messy). 

We warmed up the corn tortillas in a pan on the grill, sliced fresh avocado from our Farmhouse Delivery and chopped some cilantro to go on top.

When I opened up our Tomatillo Salsa I noticed there was mold on the cap. Things like this happen when you have tiny children who require shortcut taking in other areas. In place we cut some limes into wedges and squeezed them on top of the tacos. SO GOOD. 

If you are using store bought corn tortillas I recommend doubling up. Two tortillas per taco. It holds the food better and tastes better in my opinion.

Seriously, this recipe meets the golden recipe trifecta: 1. EASY  2. INEXPENSIVE  3. DELICIOUS.  And the added bonus of making your house smell amazing while it cooks.

Here's to food and kids! Kids need to eat food so they kind of go together.

-RT