My Food Review for the Week...

In our quest to eat better since after New Year's I've been experimenting with different things for supper. Some were hits, no real misses, and some were just OK. They included a very lightly breaded parmesan sliced eggplant, a recipe I half copied and half used what I had in my pantry. I really liked the flavor but had a harder time getting my mind around the mashed banana type texture of the inside, so I'd give it a B+. I also tried mashed garlic cauliflower. I guess with certain carb restricted diets, they use this to replace mashed potatoes. We are not on any such diet, but I thought I'd give it a try. We are trying to watch our sweets and refined carbs and keeping to as little processed foods as possible, so I've been adding to our vegetable repertoire. They were also not bad, as long as you don't have it in your mind that they are supposed to resemble the taste of yummy garlic mashed potatoes, because they don't. I also put a little cheese in them and all I had was monterey jack, so I think I'd prefer cheddar next time. Would give them a B- I think. I also tried a similar light breading (of the eggplant) with the addition of some lemon zest for cod fish for another meal, and that came out quite yummy. I'm not a big seafood girl, although we do do fresh fish at least 3-4 times a month and have gotten to enjoy it. It also was incredibly easy to make with only 4 ingredients, so I'll give that one an A.

That leads me to something I made for dessert tonight. Ev loves to bake with me, and since I haven't been doing alot of that lately with watching the sweets (besides a carrot cake I made last weekend, but also tried to "health that out" as much as possible), I figured there had to be a "healthy" cookie recipe out there. I was limited in what I had for ingredients, so I was looking for something with maybe oats & apples and I wanted it sweetened with something natural. I knew I did not want any white sugar or white flour in them. So, in scouring the Internet I came up with a recipe for Apple Oatmeal cookies. I thought they were really delish! The batter consistency seemed a little weird to me at first, but they came out soft and oh so yummy! I added to the recipe some raisins and chopped walnuts. I also used creamed honey (my favorite kind) which my mom brought from Canada this Christmas, I really don't know if that made a difference or not, but I'll definitely make these again. I'll give them an A+ as far as "healthy" cookies go! Everlea enjoyed them and also ate the eggplant, cauliflower and fish too. That is one thing she is pretty good about I must say, she still takes forever to eat but she does eat a huge variety of things. We've really tried to be diligent in having her try many types of food since she was a baby and so far so good for the most part. Anyways, here is the recipe. I apologize in advance if you make them and do not like them as much as I did, so make at your own risk. hee hee.

Apple Oatmeal Cookies Ingredients-
1/2 cup margarine, softened (I used butter was all I had on hand)
1/2 cup honey
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 apple, cored and chopped
(I also added raisins and chopped walnuts, but you can be creative)

Preparation-Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease cookie sheets. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine, honey, egg and vanilla until smooth. Combine the whole wheat flour, baking soda and cinnamon; stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in oats and apple. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.