My favorite thing to make...

My favorite thing to make isn't really a healthy thing. Cookies are probably my favorite treat. Well, that and ice cream (Love homemade vanilla with warmed peanut butter and melted dark chocolate on top. Yummmm!) I love making a batch of cookies and when they are cool I pop them in the freezer so I can have a fresh tasting cookie anytime (well, anytime the kids can't see me) and I don't feel like I have to eat the whole batch in two days before they start to go stale.

Last pumpkin season, I was looking for a new pumpkin cookie. And I also had a oatmeal raisin cookie that I really liked. It was a hardy type cookies with more oats than flour. So then I thought what if I made it with pumpkin added cranberries instead of raisins and added chocolate chips. This is what I came up with. This is a hardy cookie.


Oatmeal Pumpkin Cranberry Cookies

1 1/4 cup pureed pumpkin
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup white flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
3 1/2 cups oats
1 cup dried cranberries
2/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a large bowl, combine pumpkin, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Mix until smooth. Combine the flours, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Add to pumpkin mixture and stir just until moistened. Stir in oats, cranberries, and chocolate chips.

Drop by 1/4 cupfuls onto a baking sheet coated with cooking spray; flatten each slightly. Bake at 350F for 12-14 minutes. Cool for 2 minutes before removing from pan to wire rack.

Makes 20

If you want to know how this breaks down, one cookie has 179 calories, 3.6g fat (1.6g sat. fat), and 3.5g protein.

Chipotle BBQ Burgers with Slaw

It's grilling time! It seems that last summer, we didn't use our grill that much and I love doing meals on the grill. I hope to find more grilling recipes this year and take advantage of the nice weather and eat outside.

I'm not much of a beef eater so I try to substitute turkey a lot. I've tried turkey burgers before but it was always bland and too dry tasting. This recipe was originally a beef recipe. You can find the original here. But I think this one is good with turkey as long as you don't overcook them. I changed some things on the slaw part. I didn't think the original recipe had enough. I like to serve them with sweet potato chips or seasoned sweet potato fries.

Chipotle BBQ Burgers with Slaw

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

2 T barbecue sauce

1 T chopped chipotle chiles, canned in adobo sauce

2 cloves garlic, minced

20 oz package lean ground turkey

1 large egg

4 cups cabbage-and-carrot coleslaw

3 T reduced-fat mayonnaise

3 T reduced-fat sour cream

2 tsp sugar

2 tsp cider vinegar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

5 hamburger buns

Combine first 6 ingredients. Divide mixture into 5 equal portions, shaping each into a 1/2-inch-thick patty.

Heat a grill to medium-high heat. Grill patties until no longer pink inside.

Combine coleslaw and next 6 ingredients (through pepper) in a large bowl; toss well. Place 1 patty on bottom half of each bun; top each serving with 1/2 cup coleslaw mixture and top half of bun.

My favorites in healthy cleaning

Update: Between now and April 30, 2012, Shaklee will waive the membership fee (usually $19.95) with any order! That means you can save 15% and get the member price on products. You can email me with any order and I'll do the rest and have it shipped to your home. amymiller@shaklee.net


I've used Shaklee's Get Clean cleaning products for a few years now and love them! I've tried other natural brands and find that shaklee's products just work better. Before I started using these, I'd have to be careful of when I cleaned my house. I had a little trouble breathing after cleaning with traditional cleaners. I wouldn't be able to run well if I cleaned the same day. I had to either run before I cleaned or just do it on different days. The toilet cleaner was the worst for me. But now that I don't have those fumes from cleaning, it doesn't bother me anymore.

I used most of the products but I wanted to highlight my favorites.

Basic H: I use this to clean literally everything. I have 3 bottles with different concentrations to use on different things. A 16 oz bottle of water with a couple drops of basic h is used to clean windows and I use it to dust as well. We have a dog who slobbers on the back window and this works really well at getting that off, too. I do recommend a window cloth so you don't have streaks. Any specifically for windows should work.

Then the two other concentrations are 1/4 tsp and 1 1/2 tsp of basic h into 16 oz of water to clean everything else. I use Basic H on everything from toys and kitchens to floors and bathrooms.

Scour Off: This is one of my favorites. It's a paste and it is great for cleaning sinks, tubs, grout, ovens, even rust. This makes it easier for me to clean my tub. It helps to remove the soap scum. And it smells nice!

I love that I don't need 10 different cleaners to get my house clean. I can clean anything with these.

Another product that I really like is the Nature Bright. I've used this to get stains out of the kids clothes and it works great. I put them in a bucket and let them soak before washing them. I've also used this to get stains out of my carpet. With a dog and two kids, sometimes that is hard to keep up with!

A couple other things I really like are the Dishwash Concentrate and the Dish Washer Automatic Concentrate.

That is a quick overview of the healthy cleaning products I like. Like I said, I've used other natural cleaners and I found these worked better for me.