Do some cooking or baking to pass the winter days!
by Mary Alderson
KD & Peas & Tuna
I have decided to share my special secret recipe with all my fellow grandparents. This recipe will make you so popular with two-year-old grand kids. Every time our little Hazel comes for lunch, this is what she asks for. (It’s also what our kids grew up having every Saturday for lunch.).
So here’s the recipe:
Ingredients: 1 box Kraft Dinner, 1 can flaked tuna, one handful frozen peas.
Prepare KD per instructions on the box. Put a touch of sea salt, fresh ground pepper, a shake of Mrs. Dash, and two drops extra virgin olive oil in the water before you add macaroni. Once pasta is al dente, drain and add milk, margarine and powdered cheese. Mix it in the pot on the stove but turn off the burner. Stir in tuna. Add peas that have been thawed and heated in the microwave. Stir, then serve in bowls. The kids will love you (Hazel says “Gram, I love you so much!”) and will think you’re a master chef. It’s the best way to sneak in nutrition. If you have any trouble with this difficult recipe, feel free to send me a note. Do not complicate it with other variations and don’t send me your suggestions. I will not tamper with success.
Another Recipe!
So my sweet friend Viviana Zarrillo suggested that I should say “Follow me for more recipes” when I posted my popular “KD & Peas & Tuna”. I scoffed at the notion! My husband, Victor, does most of our cooking. However, then I remembered this cookie recipe that I have perfected by melding together a few other recipes. This recipe offers me a treat while I am fending off diabetes and trying to lose weight. Plus my granddaughter likes them. So here it is!
Banana Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients: See name of cookies above for list of ingredients.
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Mash one ripe banana – I use a whisk for good banana mashing.
Mix with 3 tablespoons peanut butter – I use the blue label low fat, low sugar peanut butter.
Add one cup oatmeal. I use Quaker Quick Oats. Mix well.
Drizzle a little canola oil on a cookie sheet. Use the palm of your hands to spread it around, thus oiling your hands. You need oily hands for the next step. Make little balls and place on the cookie sheet, then flatten the balls with a spoon.
Stick three (3) dark chocolate chips in each cookie. (I use dark chocolate; it has less sugar. I refuse to worry about a recent report that says dark chocolate has weird chemicals in it. The sugar in milk chocolate will probably kill you faster.)
Side note: The number 3 for the chocolate chips comes from Victor. Many years ago, he owned the old Carnegie Library in Forest where he housed a hairdressing business and our photography studio. He would often work late doing books or cleaning up, and see the Metcalfe brothers come to work next door at their Bakery. Victor would be heading home as they started baking. He wondered what they were doing, watching them through the window. When he went in to ask them, they said they were counting 3 raisins into each butter tart.
Bake at 350 for 12 minutes. I take them out at 11 minutes because we have a hot oven, even though we spent an evening trying to calibrate it. (and we are still married!) You don’t want them overbaked, as they will dry out and be too crunchy. I like them still soft in the middle. They should just be lightly toasted on the bottom. Yes, the cookies have sugar and carbs in them, but the count is low! And because they are good, but not really, really, really good, you can stop at one.
