Chocolate Chip Cookies

Disclaimer: Originally, I’d gotten this recipe off the side of a chocolate chip bag, but I’ve changed it a bit to get the best textured cookies.

Ingredients:

3 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1 3/4 cups butter, melted – This is very important for getting the cookie texture just right. Melt the butter in a pan on the stove top.

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar – I’ve experimented with both dark and light brown sugar. Dark brown gives a richer more molasses flavor. Typically dark brown sugar is used in ginger bread cookies, but sometimes it’s fun in a chocolate chip cookie.

2 eggs

4-5 tsp vanilla extract – I’ve used 5 tsp when using dark brown sugar

1 pkg of semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preparation:

Mix flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Beat butter and sugars in a large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy (this will take a few minutes, as the butter will melt the sugars some, but as it cools in the bowl, it will fluff a bit). Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.

Drop by rounded teaspoon full about 2″ apart on a parchment lined baking sheet. Parchment paper (can be found at any grocery store) helps protect the bottoms of the cookies from burning. It also makes it easier to remove the cookies when they’re cooled. If your parchment does not lay flat, try spraying the baking sheet with a little cooking spray first, then lay the parchment on top. You’ll find it won’t roll up or slide around that way.

Bake the cookies at 375 for 8-10min. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks or (my favorite) brown paper grocery bags. The brown paper soaks up any left over butter, keeping the cookies from being too greasy on the fingers when eating them.

Flourless Morning Glory Muffins

Ingredients:

1 apple

1 banana

1 cup carrots (chopped)

1/3 cup raisins

1 egg (optional)

1/4 cup of your favorite nut butter

1/4 cup honey or real maple syrup

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp vanilla or almond extract

2 tbsp flax seed (milled or whole)

1 cup rolled oats

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375 and grease your muffin tin if not using paper muffin cups. Combine ingredients in a food processor or Vitamix until desired texture is reached (I’ve tried just chopping everything up and mixing with my hands, but that does take some time. If you like a lot of texture in your muffins, but like saving time, try a pie crust cutter to blend ingredients). Pour/spoon batter into muffin tins. If your batter seems a bit thin (some apples are more juicy than others) add an additional 1/4 cup of oats. Bake at 375 for 20-25min (until firm) and allow to sit 10 minutes before removing. I personally love to top mine with walnuts or chopped almonds before baking. The added crunch is really nice.

Sweet Potato Fries Recipe

3-6 sweet potatoes peeled and sliced length-wise
2-3 Tbsp coconut oil
2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp sea salt

Take peeled and sliced sweet potatoes, place in large bowl of salt water to brine 20-30min. This process pulls excess water out of the potatoes giving them a firmer feel after baking. Once out of brine, place on a towel and pat dry. Place in a freezer bag with coconut oil, black pepper, cinnamon and sea salt. Shake in bag until fries are coated. Place on a baking sheet and bake in oven at 350 degrees for 30-40min. Additional salt and pepper to taste.

Cranberry Wild Rice Bread

4 cups all purpose, unbleached, white flour

1/4 cup wild rice

1/2 cup dried cranberries

2 packets of active dry yeast

1 Blue Moon or Sam Adam’s Winter Lager

In a large bowl, place flour, wild rice, and cranberries. In a large measuring cup, combine beer and 2 packets of yeast. Stir together so that the yeast does not stick to the bottom of the cup. Pour over dry ingredients. Placing one hand to steady the bowl, use the other to fold the beer and dry ingredients together in a round ball of dough. If mixture seems too dry, add a few tablespoons of water, if too wet, sprinkle with additional flour.

Once dough is formed. Place plastic wrap over top of the bowl and let rise until doubled in size. Punch down and kneed dough to activate the gluten for about 1-2 minutes (this brings out the flavor). Place back into bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Do this about 2 more times. After dough has raised the final time, gently place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake in oven at 425 degrees for 50-60 minutes. Bread will be done when crust is golden brown and sounds like a drum when tapped on the bottom.

Persevering Through Hard Times

When we live out our lives, we expect the good times, we rejoice in them. We celebrate relationships with our friends and family, falling in love, new jobs or promotions, engagements, marriages, the births of our children, graduations etc… These are the highlights. The day-to-day, that seems uneventful for some, can also be something in which to rejoice.

Then there are the times we want to be over, but must endure. We whine, we begrudgingly drag our feet through those days, we complain, we let everyone or no one know of these struggles. Divorce, difficulties in our relationships with friends or family (the sleepless nights of teething and viral sickness between two children, in my case), death of a loved one, a cancer diagnosis, an act of terror that hits close to home…for some reason this list seems like it could go on longer than all the good we celebrate. These events seem to stop us in our tracks, they consume our thoughts and put our lives on hold. More so it seems than the good. We’re left asking “Why?” or “Why me?” Even more so, “Why does God let bad things happen to good people?”

While, I’m not an expert on answering these difficult questions, maybe I can shed light as to how I’ve come to understand perseverance. Over the years, through bouts of hard times in my life, one phrase that I’ve heard repeated to me, “God will never give us more than we can handle.” While this is Biblically true, and may give comfort to a few, it’s the LAST thing most people want to hear.

Over the summer, I had the opportunity to study the book of Job. It’s not a widely studied book, but it is rich with testimony of one man. He believed in God. On all accounts he was very devout. He had wealth and abundance in every way. In a short span, he lost EVERYTHING. In the midst of his true suffering, both physical and emotional, he cried out to God and asked, “Why? Why me?” Instead of turning from God and saying, “To heck with you! You’ve done me no favors!” He ran to God and lamented. He LAMENTED. Over, and over, and over. He never lost faith. He knew that God would give him comfort and trusted that the comfort would come without knowing when or how.

Our natural instinct is to run from God and try to fix everything ourselves. Then, at least, we still have our pride. However, pride isn’t something in which we should be placing our hope.

Why turn to God? He alone has the answers to our problems, if we give Him the time, He shows us the way. He wants a relationship with us. Relationships are a two-way street, sharing how we feel with the other person. No marriage could survive on one person’s actions alone, for example. When we let God know our struggles, it opens up the opportunity to let Him heal our hearts, however great the wound. This can take days, months or even years. Perseverance takes time. When Job gave all his problems to God, and the end of his struggles, God blessed him greatly! God gave him all the wealth he had had previously, and MORE! Job credited everything to God. When we push through the trials with God, He leads us to a place of rejoicing (the good times) on the other side. It’s our reward!

I’m dealing with teething and #mancolds over here, while my struggle seems rather silly, I honestly haven’t slept more than a few hours a night in the last 2 months. Psychologically, it’s getting to me. My plan? Work though this WITH God, because I know, on the other side, a solid night’s sleep will be my reward. Not sure when that will be, but I know it will come. Until then, Jesus and coffee are my BFFs.

Struggling? How can I pray for you?

-Lauren