Giant Oatmeal Cookies

When I made Jenna’s chocolate chip cookies a couple of weeks ago, I realized one very important thing.

I like my cookies BIG.

I don’t particularly enjoy the fact that most cookies are the size of a silver dollar. (Whatever happened to silver dollars?)  When it comes to normal cookies, I inevitably eat five… plus some dough.

With giant cookies I can typically limit myself to one (okay two). They’re typically thicker and more moist than smaller cookies which makes this girl quite happy.

This evening I felt like baking and got to work in the kitchen after Googling a recipe for GIANT oatmeal cookies.

How good is oatmeal cookie dough? 

Giant Oatmeal Drop Cookies (Recipe from Cooking Light)

Ingredients:

1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter or stick margarine, softened
1/2 cup applesauce
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups regular oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Cooking spray

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Beat sugar and butter at medium speed of a mixer until well-blended (about 5 minutes). Add applesauce and egg; beat well. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, oats, soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture; beat at low speed until well-blended. Stir in raisins, walnuts, and vanilla. Using 3 level tablespoons per cookie, drop dough 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray; flatten slightly. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove cookies from pans; cool on wire racks.
Yield: 15 cookies

Apparently I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t resist the dough. 

Dead duck sighting… 😉

The recipe I followed instructed me to make each cookie using three tablespoons of cookie dough.

The result?

Some VERY big cookies and a VERY happy girl.

 

Each cookie was bigger than my palm. This, my friends, is a very good thing.

In all the cookie madness I didn’t snap a picture of my dinner. Ryan and I had ravioli, in case you were curious.

The cookies were better. 😉

Healthy Eating in College

I’d like to start this post with a shout out to my cousin Andrew’s friends at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

I received this hysterical text from Andrew last night:

Say Whaaaaat!?

For anyone to say that my blog even comes close to Facebook in the minds of college students is one heck of a compliment.  As a former college student and previous Facebook addict, I felt very humbled and had to give these girls a shout out! 🙂

Andrew also told me that one of his friends had topic request that they would like to see covered on the blog: How to eat healthy in college.

Consider it done!

Healthy Eating in College

My interest in health and fitness began in college. I ate foods that I thought were healthy during my time at the University of Central Florida. My freshman year I had a meal plan, but after that my meals consisted of frozen entrees like Lean Cuisines and Lean Pockets.

These small meals wouldn’t fill me up and within a couple of hours I’d find myself snacking away on honey roasted peanuts, cereal or popcorn.

I once ate an entire box of Froot Loops in one day. (You should know that copious amounts of Froot Loops affect the colors of your bowels. My mom may or may not have received a panicked call from me due to this little discovery. Sorry for the grossness. Welcome to Peanut Butter Fingers! 😉 )

I now realize that if I had fueled my body with voluminous and nutritious foods like fruits and veggies and whole grains, I would have felt a lot more satisfied and not felt the need to snack my way through studying.

Of course I am by no means an expert, but knowing what I know now, here are my tips for healthy eating in college:

• Invest in a mini fridge. Keep it stocked with healthy snacks you can reach for when hunger strikes. Apples, oranges, peanut butter, lean deli meats and string cheese are all wonderful options.

• Take a lap around the dining hall before filling your plate. If you have a meal plan, make sure to take a lap around the dining hall to assess your options before piling a bunch of food on your plate. This way you’ll fill up your plate with the nutritious foods you want the most and not that hard roll or dry slab of meat that looked only somewhat appealing.

• Make fruits and veggies 50 percent. When plating your lunch or dinner at a dining hall, allow fruits and vegetables to take up 50 percent of the space on your plate. Fill the other 50 percent evenly between whole grains and lean protein.

Healthy Plate

• Beware of the salad bar. Salad bars are wonderful for those hoping to take in a nutritious meal… That is until you pile on gobs of dressing. Enjoy the salad bar but select lighter dressing like olive oil and vinegar or a balsamic vinaigrette rather than dressings full of saturated fat.

• Drinks add up. Shots. Lemon drops. Margaritas. They add up. Of course alcohol enjoyed in moderation can be part of a healthy lifestyle, but many college students hit the bars night in and night out, downing drink after drink and then wonder why the pounds start to pack on when they eat healthy otherwise. Hmmm…

• Make like-minded friends. Working out and eating healthy is much more fun when your friends are on board as well. Suggest trying out a new local healthy restaurant with your friends and share your latest healthy snack discoveries with each other.

I also want to add that to me, having a good time and livin’ it up with friends is a huge part of living a balanced and healthy life during college.

Though I’ve always had an interest in healthy living, that didn’t stop me from making a couple of 2 a.m. trips to Taco Bell with friends at the end of a long night.

I had one heck of a good time downing my fair share of adult beverages… Once I turned 21, of course. 😉

Eat healthy and get movin’… but take time to have fun, too!

Sip, Sip

BEEEEER

Yeehaw!

Hi Ryan!

What's In That Big Gulp?

If you are in college:

• What is your biggest challenge with living a healthy lifestyle?

If your college years are behind you:

• Were you healthy in college?
• What are your healthy living tips for college students?

Yoga: It’s What You Put Into It

I am by absolutely no means a yoga guru, but as someone who all but hated yoga less than six months ago, I had a revelation during today’s morning class.

Yoga is all about what you put into it.

You can make each and every yoga class a walk in the park. You can day dream your way through it and do the bare minimum.

Pigeon Pose???

Or.

Or you can push yourself further into every pose, stretching your muscles and making your body work.

Today I pushed myself and it was definitely a workout.

I’ll be 100 percent honest when I say that I used to think yoga was not a work out. I now know I wasn’t pushing myself and I wasn’t immersing myself in the stretches and sun salutations. Yoga is not the same kind of workout as a BodyPump class or intervals on the treadmill, but it is a workout.

Breakfast

After yoga and a long walk with Sadie, I was more than ready for a cold breakfast!

Apple Yogurt Bowl

I made myself an apple yogurt bowl by combining the following:

• Vanilla Greek yogurt
• 1/2 sliced Granny Smith apple (the other half went into my mouth)
• 1 c. cooked Flax-Z-Snax butter pecan hot cereal
• Three dashes nutmeg

Nutmeg Makes Things Prettier... And Tastier

Well Hello There!

What It Really Looks Like When I Eat It

I love the serious staying power that I get from a breakfast that combines high-protein Greek yogurt, whole grains and fresh fruit.

Sch-weet!

Question of the Morning

It’s an open-ended one…

What are your thoughts on yoga? Love it? Hate it? Think it’s a bunch of boo-hockey? Think it’s life-changing?

Share away! 😀