Giant Sugar Cookies

All of a sudden, these Giant Sugar Cookies were all I could think about. The craving came out of nowhere and was definitely serious.

I've made these cookies a lot — probably a lot more than I'd care to admit considering they aren't a "light" or "healthy" cookie in any way shape or form. If I'm going to bake — it's going to be the real deal.

I made them half the size the recipe called for so they'd be at least 200 calories a cookie rather than 400 calories. It doesn't make them a healthy choice, but at least lessens the damage, right? I don't know who I was kidding. I may have made them smaller, but that also tempted me to eat two at a time. So much for willpower.

I dare you to eat just one. Almost impossible.

They turned out just slightly crispy on the edges but softer and chewier in the center. My less giant version were roughly 1.5 tbsp - 2 tbsp of dough (instead of 3) and took about 12 minutes to bake. You want them to be just turning brown, so they're still chewy in the center.

You can make them even smaller by dropping only a tablespoon of dough and baking 8-10 minutes, but if you're anything like me you'll just end up eating three of them anyhow so you might as well just follow the recipe.

Roasted Vegetables over Polenta

Roasted veggies over homemade polenta "log"

I had a great weekend. I slept in enjoyed some time outside, cooked a few good meals, and generally got a lot accomplished. Felt great!

But today I'm totally pooped! I couldn't fall asleep last night for the life of me and I paid for it today, that's for sure. I skipped my workout because I was so tired and hungry. It probably would have helped energized me, but I brought my running shoes and a run sounded like TORTURE today. I'll go tomorrow.

Plus, I had a super hungry day today, which I think was because I was tired. It was like my body was looking for energy. I tried to feed it good foods and even a little extra coffee, but I was like an endless pit. I have my unofficial weekly WI, so if I don't lose as much as I expect I know today is probably to blame.

Saturday's eats weren't much to look at considering I was out of food in the a.m., well actually into the p.m. considering I didn't wake up until noon. So I ate two meals, both of which were odds and ends.

Yesterday started off with some scrambled eggs and toast with fresh chives from my "garden." I also had a late lunch that was a riff on this pizza. I made homemade pesto from the basil I pruned back a bit on Saturday and put it on a whole wheat mini pita I had in my freezer. It was delicious!


Sierra Nevada Summerfest

After enjoying a happy hour with Sierra Nevada Summerfest and a book, dinner was potato skewers with grilled chicken sausage and a salad — nothing too fancy, but it was a gorgeous evening to fire up the grill.


Potato skewers, grilled chicken sausage and a salad

For dessert I had some of this fro-yo I found at local natural foods store a few days ago. It sounded unique. It's good, but I could totally make this and even with full fat yogurt, the nutritional info looks like it will be about the same as this packaged stuff, with a slightly bigger serving. But if you don't have a ice cream maker, this is tasty! It's hard not to dig in every time I pass the freezer.


Low-fat cinnamon apple fro-yo

Today, I was a bottomless pit with a bowl of cereal with skim for breakfast, the dinner I had last night, crackers and edamame hummus, a cup of coffee with skim milk, a Nature Valley Sweet and Salty granola bar (I was limited by the vending machine), a handful each of peanuts and more crackers and finally dinner — roasted veggies with polenta.

Now this was good. REALLY good. The goat cheese totally made it. Plus, I have a special place in my heart for roasted veggies. It was garnished with my fresh basil. Deliciousness. I can' t even describe. The polenta was cornmeal made with 1 cup cornmeal and 4 cups water plus salt and pepper for four servings. I put the hot polenta in a loaf pan and let it cool overnight and then sliced and reheated. It's the poor man's polenta log. The pre-made logs are close to $3 if not more, and plain cornmeal is super cheap. All it takes is a little pre-planning. The meal was even pretty low-calorie, which was good considering the carbfest I had today.

Oh well. Onward and downwards, I suppose. :) Night!

Green Tea Ice Cream

I don't always eat perfectly OP. I try, I really do, but sometimes I'm scanning a cookbook or a food blog and I come across something and crave it for weeks on end. Real ice cream was one of those things. I occasionally read the food blog Chocolate & Zucchini. A few posts ago she made ice cream and mentioned The Perfect Scoop. I decided I had to check out the book and it didn't disappoint.

I decided to make the green tea ice cream and set DBF out on a matcha green tea finding mission. I found matcha green tea lattes and other liquid forms, but I needed the powder. Finally, about four stores later DBF stopped in an Asian market and after confusing the poor clerk by spelling matcha with a "t" (apparently she's only ever seen it spelled macha?) and after hearing her life's story, he found green tea powder.

Luckily, the ice cream was perfectly creamy and addicting. I don't even want to think about how much we consumed. And at 9 pts. per half a cup, you'd better have some serious WPA or AP for this. Or, as I figured last week when I made it... I don't really care.

My advice, if you choose to make full fat ice cream, is to pick a strong flavor that pairs well with a lower point dessert and have just a little teeny tiny bit. And then give the rest of it away before you get into it and eat it like a madwoman. The other suggestion, eat it when you're full. Beware of eating tasty high fat treats when hungry. Then end result isn't pretty.

I'm not posting the recipe b/c I didn't change it enough to feel comfortable posting it. E-mail me if you want to spend copious amounts of points you probably don't have. :)

Broiled Plums with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Have I mentioned how much I love my ice cream maker? While maybe not as good as the full-fat version, I like this Vanilla Bean Ice Cream more than most light vanilla ice creams. It's a few more points than say, a sugar free vanilla, but I know exactly what goes into it. Just a half and half, milk, a vanilla bean, sugar, and eggs. Nothing I can't pronounce.

I served it with broiled plums. I just halved the plum, sprinkled turbinado sugar on it, and broiled it for a few minutes until hot.

Food porn!

Is it just me, or is this raspberry sorbet food porn at it's best? I've heard of so many people who received an ice cream maker for their wedding and never use it. That's such a shame, because such tasty things can come from it. Like this sorbet. It's so easy even the cooking impaired can do it. No real cooking involved.

All it is, is a 10 oz. container of frozen raspberries in sugar, thawed, and pureed in a food processor with a little lemon juice and a splash of vanilla extract. Strain it through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds and freeze in the ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions.

For a special dessert I garnished with Reddi-Whip and some chocolate shavings. YUM.