August 18, 2012

I walked in after work on Wednesday ALREADY missing the days at home where I could try out recipes and use my husband as a guinea pig. I get the itch to cook and bake at least once a week, so here is what I came up with when it came to what we had in the pantry.

(recipe courtesy of www.pbfingers.com )

Cocoa Oatmeal Cookies

Makes 10 – 12 cookies (depending on how much dough you eat)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon cocoa powder (may increase to 3 teaspoons if you desire a more chocolaty cookie)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
3 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup old fashioned oats

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine flours, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
In a smaller bowl, combine sugars and beat in one egg.
Mix canola oil and vanilla into sugar mixture .
Slowly beat sugar mixture into flour mixture. Your dough should be slightly runny.
Gradually beat oats into mixture until a thicker dough forms.
Use a tablespoon to portion out cookies onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or sprayed with cooking spray.
Bake for 8 – 10 minutes, until tops of cookies are slightly browned.

I really liked them, the husband wasn’t too thrilled with them. If you are expecting the normal chocolate chip cookies, you may be disappointed. I realy thought they had good flavor and it was nice not to have to use butter.

My second recipe is courtesy of my mom.

Green Enchiladas

I bought the taco size corn tortillas from a local market and cut up onions, boiled shredded chicken, and poured some green sauce inside each tortilla. I rolled them up and placed them along my pan (I ended up with ten rolled up tortillas), and then poured the remaining sauce over it.

I really like the Las Palmas green sauce (found at Albertsons and Walmart) for a mild taste. The hubby wants a more FIRE BREATHING approach, so I suggest adding some jalapeno or green chiles to the dish. You can make it with flour tortillas, but the corn really makes it taste better in my opinion.

Great and easy recipe!

So we were allowed a lot more time before school started to get our rooms set up. We had more time than usual that I actually finished early and was a little ancy to get my kiddos. Well, not too ancy. 🙂

This is my eleventh year of teaching. Sigh. It makes me feel old.

I didn’t really change much to my room this year. I really like the traditional row set up because it keeps their attention, plus they can easily get into groups if they need to. I have an advisory class this year that I am kind of excited about because they are a small group of kids I have to take care of and stalk on grades. No pressure that I have to staff members’ kids in that class, one being my boss.

Last year, my animals were getting stolen left and right…let’s hope these little critters have a good year!