Lactation Cookies

I wanted to go ahead and share the recipe for the cookies I make to help with milk supply. You never know who ya might help when you share interesting info!

These cookies may not be the lowest calorie cookie out there, but I've seen positive results by eating them. Sometimes pumping 0.5-1.0 ounce more in a pumping session. :)

So.. gather these ingredients:

1 stick of butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar (I use light brown sugar)
1 egg
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 Tbsp flaxseed meal
2-3 Tbsp water (more if you want moister cookies)
1 Cup whole wheat flour
2-3 Tbsp Brewer's yeast (the only kind that will work)
1/8 tsp himalayan salt (or sea)
1 1/2 Cups rolled oats (the bigger, the better)
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips (1/2 a baking bag of them)

Heat the oven to 340 degrees Fahrenheit. Odd, I know. But this temp seems to work. At least, in my oven. :)

(Before you start, take the 2 T flaxseed meal and add the 3 T water to it, stir, let it sit for a few minutes.)

With a hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Then add in one egg and the vanilla.

Now, add in that flaxseed/water mixture, mix until well blended.

Now add your dry ingredients: flour, salt and brewer's yeast.

With a big spoon, fold in the oats and chocolate. After it's well mixed, you're ready to bake!

Drop big teaspoonfuls on a stone or metal pan, whatever you prefer. (I use a stone.)

Here's the tricky part, that I don't even have down.. baking time. I try 13-14 min, but maybe my cookies are too big.... The timer goes off, and they usually need 5-7 more minutes! But just watch them, and when they start looking a little golden brown, they're probably done.

(and honestly, these are a little too done) 

YUM! I usually have 2 a day. (good thing nursing burns all those calories anyways!) And what's awesome? Kids love them too! Cohen asks for one almost everyday! And because of all the pretty healthy ingredients.. I oblige! If you want to make them even more healthy, you could substitute raisins or craisins for the chocolate. (But, whyyyy???)

I hope this helps you as it has me! Feel free to share if you want!

Cooking at Home

Since moving, it's been all too easy for us to just go grab food for dinner. Not only does this get expensive.. it's not good for us. :( Feeling bloated and yucky is not worth the simplicity. Sorry Pei Wei, Whataburger, Chick-fil-a, Burger King, Jet's Pizza..  you won't be seeing us so often. I made a conscious effort to make a plan and a list of grocery items for three make-at-home meals this week. I didn't want to get to ambitious on our first week of eating at home. :) Hoping to work up to like 6 meals a week at home.

I went to Pinterest for all three of these.

Tuesday night we tried Dr. Pepper Chili.

(her chili!)

My chili! I only omitted the onion (don't judge me!). And, I accidentally grabbed a can of adobo sauce with NO chipotles in it. :( So, I just used three Tablespoons of adobo sauce instead of 1 T and 2 chipotles. Still good. This Chili was so tasty! Very tomatoey, and the Dr. Pepper made it perfectly sweet! Glad there were leftovers! 

Wednesday night, we tried Chicken Enchiladas with Avocado Cream Sauce.

(That's her photo, not mine!!)

I was not crazy about this, unfortunately. I left out the onions. Hector said this is why it lacked flavor. The sauce needed more salt, for sure. And, on the recipe, she doesn't specify how many rotisserie chickens to use, I used one, and was lacking about 3/4 of the chicken necessary. :-/ I don't think I let mine cook long enough.. because the tortillas came out kinda gummy... ya know? Or maybe it was because Hector poured WAY too much of the avocado sauce on top before baking, that they never stood a chance. Regardless, don't think I'll be making these again. A lot of steps for bland, gummy enchiladas. (TO ME.) If I followed her recipe more closely, I'm sure they'd be ok. 

And tonight, we're having this. Sweet and Spicy Chicken.

(Her pic)

Can't wait for this one. I'm a meat and potato girl at heart! 

Yay for eating at home three nights in a row!

plan=success!

We had meal plan success this week! Not ONCE did we eat out! Wednesday before group, I was tired, it was kinda close to go time, and Hector said, "Wanna just grab something on the way?" I thought about it, came {this} close to saying, "YES! I so don't wanna cook today!" but refrained, and said, "No, I've got the chicken thawed out... I'm going to make dinner."

So, we had this. Greek Salsa Chicken.

Because of aforementioned laziness and time constraints, I didn't take pictures of the prep. But I followed the recipe exactly.

It had this "salsa" on top.

parsley, cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives, feta cheese, olive oil, oregano, lemon juice

BEST combo ever. We had leftover of this and ate it the following night with couscous. :)

I served it with roasted red potatoes. 

Tonight we had Grilled Cajun Ranch Chicken Pasta. Another win! Except, I tried the healthier option in the pasta sauce, where I used evaporated milk instead of heavy cream. And my sauce came out super watery! The flavor was there, but it didn't stick to the pasta whatsoever. But the marinade for the chicken was amazing! I'm SO excited to be taking that chicken in my lunch for work tomorrow!

It feels amazing to know that we didn't eat out, and that we followed our plan this week! Small victories, people. :)

Like Nutella? You'll love this!

You all know I have a SWEET tooth. Like, bad. So, when I ran across these on pinterest, I had to try them. Plus, I had ALL the ingredients at home! Why not? :)

Nutella Cookie Cups

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons of vanilla
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 jar Nutella (12-13 oz.)


Preheat oven to 350*. Grease mini-muffin pan, unless it's non-stick.


In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and both sugars until creamy.

Add the eggs and vanilla.

(I forgot the brown sugar until later, but they turned out fine!)

Gradually add the flour, baking soda and salt.

This is where I stopped and added the brown sugar!

Once it looks like dough, roll dough balls, about 1.5 inches wide. Put them in the mini-muffin pan. 

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown, but don't let the edges get too brown. 

Now, take a shot glass and press it into the centers of the cookies. 

Fill each cookie cup with about a tablespoon of Nutella. 

Now. EAT. You must eat one of these about 2 minutes after you fill them. The Nutella is gooey and warm and the cookie is moist and delicious. Serve with cold milk, I'm serious. These were a smashing hit! The recipe makes more dough than you'll probably need at one time. I think I used about a 2/3 of it. I just froze the rest of it, for a rainy day, you know. 

What's for Dinner?!

I used to toy with meal planning. Now, I'm serious. We have a small grocery budget each month and we have been going grossly over it lately. Not just with groceries, but with eating out too.

I sat down, looked through recipes and came up with this weeks plan. We buy groceries weekly. I just can't do it for a whole month.. or even two weeks. We do, however, take out cash every two weeks for groceries (haven't been.. but will now) and once that money is gone, so are our trips to the grocery store. BUT that's where the meal plan comes in! We plan it out, only buy those things and then we don't need to go back! And by buying each week, we are able to refill on basics like milk and bread.

July 7-13th Plan
Crunchy Pecan Chicken Tenders
Greek Salsa Chicken
Grilled Cajun Ranch Chicken Pasta
Tinga (a Mexican tostada dish)
Chili dogs
leftovers (twice)

(we eat small lunches i.e. sandwiches, rice, noodles, leftovers...)

So, tonight, we had Crunchy Pecan Chicken Tenders from the Plain Chicken.

So, grab these things:

Bisquick

paprika

chopped pecans

creole seasoning

salt

buttermilk

chicken tenders

melted butter

Heat oven to 350*

Combine 1 cup of Bisquick, 1/2 cup chopped pecans, 1 teaspoon of creole seasoning, 1 teaspoon paprika and 1/2 teaspoon of salt in a bowl.

like so.

Now, swish the tenders (about 2 pounds worth) in 1 cup of buttermilk. Then dunk them in the Bisquick mixture. Lay them in an ungreased 13x9 inch pan. 

Melt 1/4 cup of butter and drizzle it over the chicken.

like so.

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the chicken is done.

There ya have it! I served ours with steamed broccoli and roasted squash. It was pretty good! Cohen and Hector liked it a lot. Can the record just show that I don't love "tenders"? I think they're a little tough and whyyyyy do they all have that nasty tendon running down the middle???? 

It didn't turn out too crunchy, either. But the flavor was good and I loved getting little bits of pecan in bites. :) Maybe less Bisquick? Less butter? Not sure how exactly to make it crunchier. 

ummm.. did you know..

that you can make peanut butter cookies from nothing more than peanut butter, sugar and an egg?

I DIDN'T! Behold:

Here's what ya need:

1 cup of peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

that's it. 

See?

See?

Told ya!

Mix it all up in a bowl.

Roll out little 1 inch balls in your hands.

Bake at 350* for 10-12 minutes.

While they're still warm, make your fork impressions.

Enjoy with milk. After baby's in bed. It's really the only way.

I'm sure you're wondering which cookbook I got this shocker out of...

no kidding.

I guess I made mine WAY too big... I got 19, this recipe says it makes 30... :-/

Oh they're delicious. Don't make them or attempt to eat them unless you have milk in the house. I'm serious. You'll want it to wash down the delicious, sugary, peanut-y goodness you've prepared. 

So, if ya have 20 minutes, an oven and a hankering for something sweet.. this is for you.

something yummy for y'all

I realize I haven't written a post since almost Mother's Day.. so, I thought I'd entice you back with a yummy Mexican meal. :)

On our meal plan for the next two weeks, we have:
-Brisket tacos
-French Dip sandwiches
-Flautas
-Taco soup
-Spaghetti
-Chicken helper (don't judge, we're busy)

Most of those first dishes will make about 2-3 meals for us, for sure.

So, last night, we made the Flautas. Hector said he remembers them from Mexico.

He started by making his salsa verde. I hesitated to show it, because it's so, so, so good. And I'm greedy. :)

Onion, garlic, tomatillos, jalapenos, avocado and cilantro.

Place ingredients in blender.

Blend. Add in avocado (we used 4) then add in cilantro (as much as you want). Blend again.

Voila! It's comparable (I think better...) than Taco Diner's salsa verde. :) 

Now for the flautas. I was entertaining a busy 17 month old while Hector was preparing these, so I only got a couple pictures.

He boiled some chicken and shredded it really fine. Then I *think* he salted and peppered the chicken.

Next, he rolled it up in small corn tortillas.

Now comes the frying! He just heated a little vegetable oil in a skillet over medium heat. 

Keep the kids out of the kitchen--that oil jumps! :-/ Just turn them a little, to crisp up all sides. 

Slather on some sour cream, sprinkle with salt and pepper then splash on some lime juice. 

Hector added some queso fresco and put his salsa on top. 

Y'all, these are delicious. So, so good. It will make you never want to eat those Deli-Mex taquitos ever again! :)

I hope you guys enjoy these, they're worth a try!

And here's our cutie for you:

Meals are messy now, especially because we have spoon therapy now.

It's hard work! :)