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Eggless, Dairyless, Oatmeal Cookies

By on February 24, 2010 in Large Family Good Eats

My kids don’t get sweets and treats very often, but every so often we make cookies.

I have not found too many cookie recipes that I like which are eggless and dairyless. I went on a search today to find a new cookie recipe to try out this afternoon. I found a really simple recipe which sounds like it might be yummy.

Oatmeal Cookies

Here is what I did to the recipe:

  • 3/4 cup Fleischman’s unsalted margarine
  • 3/4 cup lard
  • 2 cups brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 teaspoons baking soda
  • 6 cups oatmeal
  • 2 cup flour
  • 2 tablespoons cinnamon

I mixed the wet ingredients with the mixer. I mixed the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and mixed it with a spoon. Then I mixed the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.

I did not flatten the first batch of cookies because I thought they would spread on their own (wrong assumption – we had oatmeal cookie balls). The second batch, I flattened with a fork and they turned out better.

I did notice that the original recipe called for 1/2 a cup of white sugar – which double would have meant another cup of sugar – which might have added to the taste. I do not like sweet cookies, but these needed just a little more sweetness.

I eliminated the vanilla only because I did not have any (I love vanilla).

The oven was set at 350 for 12 minutes and the cookies came out done right on the nose.

The recipe (above) made 30-40 average size cookies.

My Thoughts: The cookies were good. The kids loved them. I prefer a more chewy cookie and these were on the dry side and more cake like. I was thinking of adding more brown sugar and more fat to see what happens. They held together really well, but didn’t look all that appetizing and were kind of boring to me.

Do you have a favorite egg free and dairy free cookie recipe? I would love to check it out.

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This Week’s Menu

By on February 22, 2010 in Large Family Good Eats

mpm8 1 This Weeks Menu

I am linking up with Menu Plan Monday for this week. I am not making any promises about doing this every week, but I am trying to get more organized.

When I did my Menu Planning post, I had great intentions. I made some adjustments as I made my grocery list and as I shopped. I actually forgot some things, but it’s all good because I prayed before I went in the store that God would ultimately guide my choices (and now, I’ll work with what I did purchase).

This is my plan for breakfast (with fruit) this week:

  • Monday – Orange Blackberry Muffins
  • Tuesday – breakfast skillet (sausages, onions, peppers, potatoes, spices) – no recipe, we wing it
  • Wednesday – oatmeal
  • Thursday – homemade biscuits with pepperoni  slices
  • Friday – sausage and hash browns
  • Saturday – pancakes
  • Sunday – pancakes

    • I can see that I will have to get busy and put some of our family recipes on-line so I can link to them.

    This is my plan for lunch (with raw veggies) this week:

  • Monday – soup and sandwich
  • Tuesday – soup and sandwich
  • Wednesday – soup and sandwich
  • Thursday – soup and sandwich
  • Friday – soup and sandwich
  • Saturday –soup and sandwich
  • Sunday - soup and sandwich

    • This is my plan for dinners this week:

  • Monday – Shepherd’s Pie
  • Tuesday – Homemade Pizza
  • Wednesday – Pasta
  • Thursday – Leftovers
  • Friday – Roast Beef Dinner
  • Saturday – Pork and Rice
  • Sunday – Sausage and Mashed Potatoes

    • Snacks will include the following:

  • veggies
  • fruit
  • popcorn (from scratch)
  • cookies (from scratch)
  • ice tea (from scratch)
  • lemonade (from scratch)

    • I would love to hear what your family does for menu planning and cooking.

    Please share links to your favorite recipes and resources.

    NOTE: I have added a Large Family Recipes page to my website.

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    The Quest For Eggless Muffins

    By on February 22, 2010 in Large Family Good Eats

    I am supposed to make muffins for breakfast this morning – according to my new menu plan – and I don’t have a suitable recipe. I have a great recipe for muffins which don’t have any eggs or dairy, but they have flax (which I am out of). So, I set out again in search of recipes for eggless muffins.

    When I have searched for recipes before without any egg or dairy (Hosanna’s allergies), I have  looked for vegan recipes. Sometimes vegan recipes use weird ingredients (no offense to any vegans reading), so today, I decided to search for eggless muffins and just replace any milk (if I need to). I really miss eggs.

    I found this Vegan Blueberry Muffin recipe that looks promising.

    They replace the egg with vinegar. I haven’t heard of this before. I have lots of vinegar (and it’s cheap).

    The recipe calls for milk and I happen to have a bit of soy milk in the fridge. I would have used water or water mixed with the leftover jam from the bottom of the almost empty jar in the fridge.

    It calls for lemon zest, but I don’t have any lemons to zest. I do have oranges that I could zest.

    Let me tell you a funny story about my oranges. We did our major grocery shop on Friday and I bought three bags of oranges. Only one made it into the fridge and the other two went missing. We looked high and low for them. We looked in my sister’s van (she drove me), we looked all over the house. We could not find these oranges. Well, I opened the deep freeze to pull out something and there, in the deep freezer, sitting nicely on top, were the two bags of oranges. The oranges were completely frozen.  I didn’t know what else to do, so I shoved the oranges into the fridge in hopes that they thaw and are edible. I’ll let you know how it goes. (They zested well, but my husband says that the innards taste like watered down orange juice).

    The recipe calls for blueberries and I think the berries in my freezer are blackberries and not blueberries. Yup, they were. They were really sour too, so I went with the full amount of sugar.

    In the interest of getting breakfast on the table and not making everyone wait even longer, I am going to attempt this recipe and see what happens. Normally, I would search out a few (or a few dozen) and pick the one I liked best.

    I made a double batch of the recipe (doubling everything). The batter tasted good (which is usually a good sign). I only have a jumbo six pan (I really need to get some new muffin tins) and the first pan is in the oven.

    I wanted to get some nice pictures of the muffins when they came out of the oven, but everyone gobbled them up so quickly I didn’t get a chance.

    The recipe made 15 jumbo muffins and fed 7 hungry bears.

    The muffins were delicious and this recipe is definitely a keeper.

    What is your favorite muffin recipe?

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