Tasty Protein Smoothie

*That is my empty blender bottle. I liked my smoothie so much I guzzled it before I remembered to take a pic. Oops. Yum. 

I'm a huge advocate for eating "real food". I think it's important to practice portion control, eat a healthy variety of foods each day, and always avoid "pills, powders, and potions". 

I really mean it. I'm not going to put a big lecture here about why I'm against supplements and the three Ps; that's not what this blog is about. However, I am about to post a recipe for a smoothie that uses protein powder, so I figured I'd best explain it a bit. The brief version: I needed to make a radical change in order to actually lose pounds on the scale, so I chose a specific, short-term plan and incorporated a protein supplement in order to shake up my metabolism (or whatever it is that is helping me to lose... and it is, by the way, helping). I do not advocate using supplements or any of the three Ps long term, but I do believe that within a defined, short-term diet plan, they can be useful. 

The issue with using protein powder is it tastes awful and feels gross in your mouth. I hate it. It makes me gag. But I have found with this particular recipe that I not only tolerate but actually enjoy getting my protein in, and the added bonus is it satisfies me for a very long time. I'm less likely to indulge or over-eat after I have this smoothie, so I'm trying to have it regularly. 

What you need:
1/2 C of cold, strongly brewed coffee, plus a little more
1/4 C of 1% milk
4 tsp granulated sugar
1 scoop of chocolate-flavored protein powder. 

Approx 1/2 C ice cubes

Blender

Blender Bottle

Notes: 

Regarding the protein powder: I use Optimum Nutrition's Platinum Hydro Whey (chocolate). I admit, the reason I'm using it is that we had some in the house already from our former weight-lifting days. There may be better options out there for weight loss, but I have found that in terms of meeting my current specific goals (filling, low calorie, tolerable on the palate) it's fine. 

I brew a large pot of coffee on the weekends for use during the week. I use Panera's Italian Espresso because I find it good and strong without being too bitter. I put it in the fridge in a pitcher unsweetened once it has cooled.

What you do:

In my blender bottle first, I mix the coffee, milk, sugar, and protein. Shake vigorously, until the powder is (mostly) mixed in. I then add enough ice cubes to bring the total volume in the bottle up to just below the lip, then dump the entire mixture into my blender. If you're doing it this way, do not forget to retrieve your blender ball before you turn on the power blender. Metal in your shake? Not delicious. 

I use the "ice crush" setting on the blender and blend the hell out of the ingredients. It gets kind of frothy, which I think is a good thing. Once it's all smooth, I pour it gently back into my blender bottle. I use a big plastic straw so I can drink while I'm driving. Up to you how you get it into your mouth. 

That's it. The great thing is, it's about 240 calories and it fills you up for hours... I'm normally so full that I only want a little fruit or veggies for lunch, and I'm good until dinnertime. What I love about this recipe is that you honestly cannot tell there's protein in the smoothie at all... it gets so well-blended, it's just like drinking an iced coffee. Plus, I get my caffeine fix too. :)

One thing: be sure to hydrate well throughout the day. I've heard protein powders can have some less-than-ideal side effects in terms of digestive regularity. So drink lots of water... you should be fine. :) 

Banana Chocolate Chip cake

Yes, this is my photo. This recipe is likely the most-used in the book... as evidenced by its disreputable state in the photo!

You know when you have this great idea, and then it all goes awry? About a year ago, while I was visiting my mom in Ottawa, I took a pile of photos of her old recipe book, thinking I would transcribe them to put them here... they're all recipes I grew up with and still make today. Anyway, I took all these pictures and had all these plans and then... well, I forgot where I filed them. 

I came upon them the other and and I was so excited! So I guess now I'd better get them uploaded and shared before I lose them again! 

This recipe was an absolute staple of my childhood lunches. My mom used to make this at least once a month, and a full batch could last us a whole school week, which was awesome. This cake is moist and delicious without being soggy... and the chocolate chips are such a decadent treat for a school lunch (or a snack at home when you're all growed up).

Literally all of my mom's recipes list margarine or shortening instead of butter. Needless to say, I always use butter. I also prefer to use frozen bananas... mostly because I'm too lazy to remember to take them out of the freezer and thaw them before I start baking lol. Normally, I'll toss whole frozen bananas on a paper towel in the microwave for 30 seconds, or until I can get the peel off. Sometimes they need a little more warming before mashing... sometimes not. And of course, there are other substitutions. For example, you can see I scrawled on the bottom that you can use apple cider vinegar to sour the milk... which is delicious and I recommend it. Also, this recipe is g-r-e-a-t if you substitute pumpkin puree and some pumpkin spice for the bananas. Yummo, I promise. 

So without further ado, here is my childhood favorite. 

What you need:

1/2 C butter (or margarine if you must)
1 1/4 C white sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 C mashed banana (or pumpkin)

1 tsp vanilla
2 C flour
1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 C sour milk

2/3 C chocolate chips (My mom used more, I prefer a higher cake-to-chip ratio. You decide what you want.)

How to sour  your milk:
I normally measure out about 2/3 cups of milk (I almost always use skim, since that's what I keep in the house, but it doesn't really matter). Then, pour enough vinegar (white or cider) to bring the liquid up to 3/4 cups. Stir with a fork, and let it rest for a minute or two until it starts to get nasty. I always give mine another stir before I pour it into the batter. 

What you do:
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until they're nice and smooth. Add eggs, vanilla, bananas (or pumpkin), and mix well. 

In a separate bowl, mix flour, soda, powder and salt. 

Add 1/3 of your dry ingredients into your creamed mix, stirring well. Add 1/3 of your sour milk and stir well again. Keep alternating until all of the dry mixture and the sour milk are mixed into the creamed bowl. Stir in chocolate chips. 

Pour into greased and floured 13 x 9 pan. Honestly, I never even knew I was supposed to flour the pan... haha... so it's not absolutely necessary but it might help? Also, this works well in muffin tins lined with papers, for a more portable snack. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes, or until it pokes clean.

Let it cool before cutting. Haha. Kidding. You'll never be able to let it cool first. Eat it while the chips are melty and gooey, you'll be a happy camper. Mmmmm. 

My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

*Yes, that's my image... of my trashed cookie book.

My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

Rather than post a picture of the finished product, I thought it would be insightful to post a picture of my cookbook. Everybody has a recipe like this; when I pick up the book, it naturally falls open to the page with the Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe on it. The page is crispy, wrinkled, covered in batter and oil and other debris. The spine of the book at that spot is full of old flour and spices. That's how you know it's a great recipe. 

The cook book is called The Ultimate Cookie Book (Tormont, 1997). You can buy it here. 

I never follow instructions very well. Call it a character flaw or whatever you will, it's just the way I am. That said, I've only made a few minor changes to this recipe. I eliminated shortening, because why use shortening when you can use butter right!? I also use AP flour instead of cake flour, and a large egg instead of a small egg, and I drop the cookies on a cookie tray with spoons rather than pressing them out of a pastry bag... though lately, I've been rolling them into little balls and then squishing them with a fork. I hate cleaning pastry bags, so spoons or balls are a better option. It's also just faster and easier... cookies to mouth in less time = good. 

What you need:

1/3 C butter, softened. (The original recipe calls for unsalted, I use salted, you use whatever you like!)
1/4 C brown sugar, lightly packed
1/3 C granulated sugar
1 C flour (The original recipe calls for cake flour, I use AP, you use whatever you like!)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 C chocolate chips

What you do:

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a cookie sheet... I use Pam spray, but butter adds even more buttery taste to the cookies, which is always good right?!

Using a mixer, cream butter and both sugars. Once they're nice and smooth, add the egg and blend really well.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Using a spatula or wooden spoon, mix the dry ingredients into the wet. You can use your fingertips too, but the dough is sticky.
Once your dough is nice and smooth, add the chocolate chips and blend well. Your dough should be stiff but sticky. 

Drop the batter onto a cookie sheet using a spoon*, or roll the dough into ping-pong-sized balls and then squish them down with a fork. Bake until cookies are golden. I suggest you let them rest for a couple of minutes before eating, but not too many minutes, or your chocolate chips won't be melty and gooey.

Awesome news! This dough can be frozen! I used to buy pre-made frozen cookie dough... you know, the one in the yellow or blue package at the grocery store? I totally lack discipline, so the ability to bake only one or two cookies instead of a whole batch is a much better option for me. I will eat the whole batch if it's in my kitchen.
So anyway, I decided to try freezing my own dough to see if I could get the same results as store-bought, and guess what!? It worked perfectly! What I do is make the dough exactly as described above, then chill it in the fridge for 20 or 30 minutes to make it easier to work with. Then I wet my hands, roll the dough into a ball, and split it in half... then split those in half, and those in half, and so on until I have the number and size of cookies I will want to bake. I put them between sheets of wax paper and put them in the freezer... after 24 hours, I pop the waxed paper covered cookies into a freezer bag and voila! To bake them, just put them on a  greased cookie sheet and pop them in the oven at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. I set the timer for ten, then have a peek to make sure the centres aren't still wet... if they are, they get an extra 2 minutes. If not, I eat them immediately. Almost. :)

*Originally, the recipe calls for the cookies to be pressed out of a pastry bag fitted with a large round tube. As mentioned, I hate washing my pastry crap, so I just don't do this.... but you can! 

Judy Sturgeon's Remarkable Fudge

*Yep, this photo is mine! The cookbook, however, is not... it's my mom's much-used and well-loved book of family favorites.

Judy Sturgeon's Remarkable Fudge

I'm pretty sure my mom worked with Judy Sturgeon. Then again, I don't remember her, so maybe I'm making that up. Either way, I don't like fudge. It's gluey and slimy and generally if I want to eat something super-indulgent, I can find ten things I'd prefer over fudge. 

Except this fudge. This fudge is the pinnacle of all fudges. It's sweet, it's firm, it makes a great sound when you chew it... this is top-notch fudge. My mom makes it every year at Christmastime. As soon as it's done, I'm picking at it. I will even lick the spoon, to this day, if she lets me. Tim and I brought home a plateful of this fudge after Christmas this year... it didn't even last a day. 

I strongly suggest you do not make this fudge unless you have somewhere to serve it where there will be lots of other people to keep you in check. Seriously. You've been warned. 

What you need:

Listen up! You need a candy thermometer, a  9" x 13" pan and an 8 " pan. Don't skip out on the thermometer.

4 C sugar
1 14 oz can evaporated milk
1 C butter
2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips
16 oz marshmallow cream (Jet-Puffed or Fluff... usually in the baking aisle at the grocery store)
1 tsp vanila
1 C chopped walnuts* (but seriously, why would you ruin fudge with nuts? Gross.)

What to do: 

Cook milk, sugar and butter to medium soft ball (236F). 

Beat in remaining ingredients.

Pour into pans.

Chill. 

I like to pre-cut my fudge so it gets just a bit of a crust on the edge of each piece. This, of course, is optional... I just like the different textures. 

*I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I hate nuts in my baking. I love nuts in cooked dishes and salads, just not in baked stuff. I don't know if it's because of the stark texture difference, of the way nuts get  waxy when you bake them... I just don't like it. So for all my recipes, if you think nuts would make them more delicious for you, by all means, go nuts! ha. 

My Sister's Favorite Cake-y Chocolate Chip Cookies

*Voila! Yep, I made those cookies... I used M&Ms instead of chocolate chips, cos that's how I roll...

My sister's favorite cake-y chocolate chip cookies

My sister loves these cookies. I think she'd marry them if that wouldn't make her a bigamist. She got the recipe from Martha Stewart (who else!?)... you can see it here. 

2 1/4 C flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
7/8 C butter, at room temperature
3/4 C sugar
1/4 C brown sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 C chocolate chips. (I always use semi-sweet... feel free to live a little and try something else!)

Preaheat oven to 350F. 

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. 

Mix butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs. Blend well. 

Stir dry mix into creamy just until combined. Add chocolate chips and stir lightly. 

Drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. 

Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until cookies are golden around the edges. 

Cool on wire rack before eating... but you should probably eat one while it's still warm and the chips are gooey. 

Mrs. Freeman's Brownies

*not my image

Mrs. Freeman's Brownies
When my mother was 16, she lived in a neighbourhood called Somervale Gardens in Point-Claire, Quebec. Down the street from her lived a lady named Mrs. Freeman, who was from Alabama and had a delightful southern accent. 

I never met Mrs. Freeman, but I sure wish I could. I'd like to tell her that her brownie recipe is the best in the world. She should know that her recipe is the standard to which I hold and have always held all other brownies I've encountered, and that not one has ever even come close. You simply cannot get or make a better brownie than these brownies, guaranteed. 

Now, I should say that because of Mrs. Freeman's brownies, I don't care for "wet" brownies at all. I like my brownies to have the consistency of dense chocolate cake, rather than having a fudgey texture. If you like "wet" or fudgey brownies, this might not be for you. It's ok. You're just wrong... try the recipe and maybe you'll come around ;). 

There's an awesome variation* below the main recipe, too... if you like chocolate and marshmallows, it's for you! 

Preheat oven to 350F.

2/3 C flour
1 C sugar
2 eggs
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 C butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 squares bitter chocolate, melted (I use Baker's, in the blue box). It's very important to use bitter chocolate... don't use semi-sweet or milk; the brownies' flavour depends on the strong bitter chocolate. 

In a small saucepan, melt the butter and chocolate together. 

Beat eggs, then mix well with sugar. Add chocolate while beating. Beat well. 

Combine flour, baking powder, salt. 

Add dry ingredients to chocolate mixture. Stir in vanilla. 

Pour batter into 8x8x2 pan lined with foil. Bake for 25 minutes* or until a tester comes out clean.

Pull the foil and brownies out of the pan and cool on wire rack. You will ice them, but be sure they're fully cool first. I use chocolate buttercream icing (one of the variations listed here).

*Chocolate Marshmallow variation

Follow the recipe as-is. Pour batter into 8x8x2 pan lined with foil. 

Bake at 350F for 20 minutes. Remove from oven. 

Cover semi-cooked batter with mini marshmallows. 

Bake an additional 5 minutes. Let cool in pan (I put the whole thing on a wire rack), then ice with chocolate buttercream. 

You'll thank me for this one. Then you'll curse me when you're running on the treadmill.