The Sweet Life

Our family has been very focused on "good" food for a few years now. As I have stated before, we have tried to maintain a healthy kitchen, and in order to do this I have had to research and educate myself quite a bit. My most recent book, is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It is very informative and creative, with just the right amount of how-to. There are endless recipes and descriptive chapters on how to grow your own garden. This week I have embarked on a journey of trying to create new and delicious recipes that we have not yet had. I have been very Greek this week with lots of tapas meals and tons of veggies and hummus with everything. Keton has been rather pleased, which I think is a good sign. I have a sense of purpose when I am food shopping and preparing meals for my family. To me, this part of my "job" as a wife and mother is a very important responsibility. I rest at ease when I know that my family is eating well, and I feel good that I am passing healthful cooking and eating on to my girls. For about a month Gracie was running around telling everyone that what they were eating had "bad sugar". Kind of annoying, but cute at the same time. We are eating at home more now than ever (although, with two little ones, eating out is a rarity!). After a weekend of original mediterranian meals, I decided to have a baking evening with my girls! Keton was off to watch the Lakers, and we set in to bake some cookies. This particular recipe came from the above novel, and it is called "Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies". They are made with half the regular amount of butter, and only 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/3 cup of honey as sweeteners. The other health benefit is that half of the flour used is whole wheat. I added some ground up flax seed to add more fiber and omega 3 fatty acids. Gracie helped stir and poor, and Stella hung onto my leg waiting for chocolate chips to fall.
It was going well, until I discovered that I did not have a shredder to shred the zucchini finely. Without this key tool, I figured the zucchini would just not work in the recipe so the cookies turned out to be just healthier chocolate chip cookies. They came out fluffy, and had a nice sweet taste to them that definitely took care of your sweet tooth, but also assured you that you were eating something that is healthy too.
I usually have to put the paper down for grease absorbtion, but it was rather minimal with these cookies. We loved making them, but we certainly loved eating them more...
It was hard to keep the girls to just one cookie, but the batch does provide us leverage for tomorrow! Gracie was so helpful and attentive, I think she might love cooking one day. This little project just reminded me of how fast the girls are growing. While waiting for the cookies to bake, Stella was busying herself with the computer (which of course, is hands-off....). As I glanced at her, I was taken back by how much older she seemed. I grabbed the camera in order to preserve her at this age, since I know by tomorrow she will look different.

I love how in the last picture here you can see her little chipped tooth. She took a spill while jumping on the bed. Stella is rather fearless. Both of the girls have features that seem to age and change with the sun rising and setting, and we are so amazed at this. What a wonderful reminder this is to slow down and count your blessings. That is what I will be doing tonight. Along with counting the cookies, as I am sure when Keton gets home there will be several missing....
If you have not baked with your little munchkins in awhile, jump on in and try this recipe!
www.AnimalVegetableMiracle.com