Red Cabbage Slaw with Cloves and Dried Cranberries

This slaw is a unique and satisfying alternative to a plain old dinner salad and it comes together in a flash. It's very hearty and healthy and it can be made a few days in advance, so it's great to bring to a potluck. What more could you ask for?! 

*I also love this slaw with cumin and pepitas, so I included them in the recipe below.

For the slaw...
1 small red cabbage, cored and thinly sliced
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
1/4 fennel bulb, thinly sliced
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
1 carrot, thinly sliced
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup raw pepitas (optional)

For the dressing...
3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin (optional)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Chop the veggies and toss them together in a large bowl. Mix up the vinaigrette and taste for seasoning. Add it to the veggies and toss everything together. If serving immediately, taste and adjust the spices and salt as needed. If you're making this in advance (up to three days ahead works great) taste and adjust the seasoning again just before serving.

Pillowy Chocolate Chip Cookies with Vanilla Pudding Mix

This recipe is from the blog Chew Out Loud. I halved it and still got about 45 delicious little cookies (using about a tablespoon of dough per cookie). 

I wanted to try this recipe because it calls for vanilla pudding mix. I've seen a bunch of similar recipes and was intrigued as to how that would effect the dough/cookies. The bloggers at Chew Out Loud describe these as soft, chewy and not at all cakey. Mine where definitely very soft but I did find them to be just a tad cakey and not really chewy at all. I could also feel the texture of the vanilla pudding mix in the baked cookies, which was not at all unpleasant but slightly sandy. I like these cookies a lot although they aren't my favorite. I would be very interested to hear how they come out for you.

Pillowy Chocolate Chip Cookies with Vanilla Pudding Mix
From the blog, Chew Out Loud
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 cup (1 stick) salted butter, softened 
3/4 cup light brown sugar, loosely packed
1 (3.4 oz) package instant vanilla pudding (I used Jell-O brand)
2 large organic eggs
1/2 Tablespoon real vanilla extract
2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips 
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts, optional but recommended (I didn't add any but wish I had)

Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt and set aside. 

In a stand mixer or large bowl with a hand mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy (let it go for 4-5 minutes). Then add in the pudding mix, then the eggs and vanilla.

Add in the dry ingredients and mix on low briefly until just combined. 

Pulse in the chips and chopped walnuts. 

Cover the bowl and chill the dough for 30 minutes to an hour.

Once you're ready to start shaping your cookies, preheat your oven to 350F. 

Scoop out about a tablespoon of dough per cookie, rolling each up between your palms then flattening slightly. I got about 45 cookies total, which, besides the small batch I baked right away, I froze flat on a cookie sheet then transferred to a baggie in the freezer for later baking. 

Place the cookies an inch apart on a cookie sheet and bake, one sheet at a time, for 7-8 minutes. Allow the cookies to set up for a few minutes on the pan before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. 

Alice Medrich's Best Cocoa Brownies from Food52

Alice Medrich's "Best Cocoa Brownies" are definitely some of the best I've ever made or tasted. They're also really easy AND much cheaper to make than recipes that require melting chopped chocolate bars. I suppose that's why the folks at Food52 called them "genius". 

I only slightly altered Alice's recipe and simplified the directions just a bit by having you make the entire batter in the saucepan you use to melt the butter in. The sprinkling of flaky sea salt suggested by Food 52 is a must. So good!

Scrum-diddly-uptious! 

Alice Medrich's Best Cocoa Brownies from Food52
10 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup granulated white sugar
1 scant cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder (Dutch-process is also fine to use here)
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs (right out of the fridge)
1/2 cup all purpose flour 
2/3 cups toasted chopped walnuts and/or pecans (optional)
flaky sea salt for sprinkling on top of the batter before baking, optional

Preheat your oven to 325.  

Toast your chopped nuts, if using, for 8-12 minutes until fragrant. 

Line an 8 inch square pan with parchment or foil, greasing any exposed parts of the pan.

Heat the butter in a medium sauce pan over low heat until its just about melted. Remove the pan from the heat to finish melting. Add the additional ingredients to the melted butter in the order above, stirring well after each addition to combine them. 

When you add the flour, stir it until combined, then give it an additional 40 vigorous stirs. Add the toasted chopped nuts and pour the batter into your prepared pan. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out just barely clean (you want to under-bake these just a tad). Cool in the pan on a rack. Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Oatmeal Date and Toasted Pecan Muffins / Can dates help reduce the need for interventions during labor?

These muffins are tasty, moist, fluffy AND not too sweet. They're also loaded with whole grains, nuts and good-for-you dried fruit too...so there! 

Is it obvious that I am completely out-of-control with the carbs and sweets right now? Ack! At least it's not another cookie recipe!

I initially made these in an attempt to eat more dates. I heard about a study that found that eating dates (6-7/day during the last 4 weeks of pregnancy) can reduce the need for inductions/augmentations of labor. The study findings are preliminary at best, but since I highly doubted that dates could be harmful, I figured it was worth a try. 

I'm not sure if cooking the dates effects their benefits (I don't believe the study states whether dried of fresh dates are better either, so that's another question) but I don't really like dates on their own (just too sweet), so I hoped these muffins might count toward that 6-7 dates per day total. 

As to whether or not they helped, well, I had a super long "prodromal" labor (4 days...yikes!) but no interventions, augmentations or drugs were needed, so my answer is....um...perhaps??? Honestly, I didn't eat enough dates to make any judgements either way (I just don't like dates very much) but these are some dang good muffins so bake them up anyhow!

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Oatmeal Date and Toasted Pecan Muffins 

Slightly adapted from Wanna Come With who adapted it from Brown Eyed Baker

Yield: 2 dozen muffins 

1 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

2 cups cultured buttermilk

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cups rolled oats

1 cup steel cut oats (Feel free to use rolled oats only. I ran out so I decided to use steel cut to supplement)

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup dark brown sugar, packed

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon iodized sea salt (table salt)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup pecans (or any nut), toasted and roughly chopped

1 cup dates, roughly chopped 

Preheat your oven to 400°F.  

Grease the tops of two muffin tins and line with muffin cups.

Toast 2 cups of chopped pecans for about 5-8 minutes until fragrant. Set aside to cool.

Measure the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl and whisk well to combine. Add the oats and brown sugar and use your fingers to break up any sugar clumps and distribute the ingredients throughout. 

Finally, add in the roughly chopped toasted pecans and dates. Use you fingers again to toss the dates and pecans in the flour, breaking up any clumps that stick together.  

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, then add the cultured buttermilk, vanilla and melted but slightly cooled butter. Whisk to combine.

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and stir until just combined. Be careful not to over-mix!

Spoon the batter into your prepared muffin tins and bake for about 15 minutes until they just pass the toothpick test. 

Allow the muffins to set-up in their tins for a few minutes before transferring them to the rack to finish cooling. 

These are awesome warm and at room temperature. They're good for just about a week (freeze them otherwise). After a few days, they really benefit from a few seconds in the microwave or oven to revive them before serving. 

Note: Fill your cups fuller than this (right to the top) for a perfectly puffed muffin top.