What NOT to do on a sugar detox

So I completed another round of a 21 day sugar detox right before Halloween. Being that tomorrow is Veteran's day, I wanted to bake something for our scheduled veterans coming into the office and may have gone a little overboard. I'm due to send a treat into EMX's work though so thankfully we won't be in a sugar coma.

So what is it all?

EMX emailed me a picture last week asking if I could duplicate a chocolate chip cookie with a smore inside. Duh. Challenge accepted.  I started with a double batch of my regular chocolate chip cookie dough.  If you want the secret family recipe,  you'll just have to Google the recipe because it's actually no secret. (Do you remember the episode of Friends where Pheobe realizes that her grandmother's cookie recipe was actually the recipe off the chocolate chip bag?)   I wasn't too keen on taking the time to make a million cookies originally so I decided to do a bar to start.  

I layered chocolate chip cookie dough on the bottom of a 9x9 pan.  Then did a layer of graham crackers,  followed by chocolate (some candy bar and some chocolate chips), mini marshmallows,  and then another "layer" of cookie dough.  I say "layer" in quotes because I enlisted R to help with this rather messy part and it didn't completely cover the marshmallows,  but we figured it would be just fine.

I threw that in the oven at 375 and started to assemble two large smore cookies.  Picture a layer of the cookie dough with a graham cracker,  more chocolate chips (because the chocolate bars were long gone), marshmallows, and then a topping of, you guessed it, more cookie dough. I was unsure of how long it would all take to bake, but monitored it all and the bars took about 35 minutes and the giant cookies took about 13 minutes. I was also worried about the middle of the cookies being too raw while the outsides became burnt but thankfully that didn't happen!

While we were waiting for the bars and giant cookies to bake,  I remembered something.  We have been so good lately about not buying packaged snack foods, except the occasional box of bunny crackers for the kids, but yesterday, we had a hankering for EMX's FAMOUS oreo cookie milkshakes. (The man can cook/make 4 things - pb&j, grilled cheese, pasta, and this milkshake.) Guess what we had left, just sitting there, oh so lonely in the pantry.  Oreos. Guess what happened next?

I set aside 3/4 of the dough left (about a single batch) for regular cookies and then mixed in oreo cookie pieces into the smaller portion of dough. Then we scooped out the remaining dough for baking.

I think EMX would have reproposed to me if the kids weren't hounding him for a bite of the oreo cookie. I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me before today to try that combination before!  The smores giant cookie and cookie bar also appear to be hits.

As EMX says after too much sugar, "I can see the future."

Who is ready for another sugar detox?

WFD 6/6/2013

You may be wondering what the heck I'm talking about in my post title.  WFD?  What does that stand for?

Whales Fighting Dolphins?

Um, excuse me, can you please move over?

What Fun Dog?

why is this so funny?

Witches Flying Drunk?

for realz.

oooooor, None of the above.

The answer is NONE OF THE ABOVE.  Instead, it's a little acronym that I like to use for the ever popular.... wait for it.....

What's For Dinner?!?!?!?!  

(Did you read that and say it in your head like a game show host?  If you didn't, then please read it again and this time read it with the enthusiasm of a game show host.  Thanx.)

WFD is not to be confused with WFL (What's for lunch?) or WFB (What's for breakfast?  Though I suppose it could be "What's for Brunch" too?)

OK - now that we have an idea of what WFD means, here is what is for dinner in our house tonight.  Nothing very spectacular.  It's a dreary rainy day and I'm just trying to use up miscellaneous food items in the fridge.  

So, yeah.  Nothing fancy.  It's more food than it looks like.  Big plates will do that.   Zweigles hot dog, mustard, roasted broccoli, roasted baby carrots with cinnamon and a leftover salt potato.   Giselle ate an entire hot dog, broccoli, carrots, potato and string cheese, so I guess it was an OK meal for using up what was in the fridge.  :)

What did YOU have for dinner?

Sunday Family Dinner - Oberdon style

If you are from Rochester, you will appreciate this post.  If not, maybe you will still appreciate it, but maybe not as much.  Garbage plates are a serious thing around here... They may not sound very appealing, but they are DELICIOUS!  (And completely unhealthy and greasy and did I mention, delicious?)

If you don't know what a garbage plate is, you can go here or here for an accurate description with pictures.  They are perfect after a night out on the town, or if you are in my family, for Sunday family dinner.

So that brings me to my dad's famous meat sauce recipe.  In Rochester, we actually call it hot sauce, but it's really not that spicy in my opinion and it is not really hot sauce like Frank's Red Hot.  It is just deliciously seasoned meaty sauce that you can put over your Plate or cheeseburger, or Hot Dog.

Complete recipe will be posted at the end with measurements, etc.

Start by chopping up the onions and sauteing them in the butter. 

Once the onions are translucent, add the ground beef and brown it.  Once this is done, drain the fat/liquid and add the seasonings, stir well and  then add water. 

Did you ever wonder what sugar, ground nutmeg, ground cloves, dry mustard, chili powder, cinnamon, cumin and paprika look like all mixed together?  Me too - here is what it looks like:

For fun, use a spoon that makes you smile and smiles back at you.  (Thanks Dad!)

Simmer uncovered for at least an hour to reduce the liquid amounts.

Then spoon over your food of choice and dig in.  Finish the gluttonous meal by making a brownie ice cream sundae and then vow to work out tomorrow.



Dad's Meat Hot Sauce

• 2 lbs ground beef (I prefer 90/10)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 cups chopped onion
• salt/pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 2 1/2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp dry mustard
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 1/2 qt water

Saute onion in butter until translucent.  Add beef and brown.  Drain.

Add seasonings and mix together well.  Add water and simmer to reduce, about 1 hour.