Salted oatmeal cookies: a recipe

Salted oatmeal cookies, the perfect blend of sweet and savory -- there's a reason they've been dubbed 'crack cookies'.

Note: Recipe and photos updated May 2016.

Salted cookies sound like an oxymoron, right?

Wrong. So wrong. So very, very wrong.

These cookies were first described to me as "cookie crack" and I can now bear witness that that is a perfect characterization.

Even though I have a bunch of healthier cookie recipes, I'm not even going to pretend that this is one of those. Yes, there are oats in it but there is also a crapload of butter and sugar which cancel out the oaty benefits.

But you will not care.

The balance of savory/sweet is absolutely perfect. You cannot eat just one. Hellz, you can't eat just six!

So please do not waste these on children. Repeat: PLEASE DO NOT WASTE THESE ON CHILDREN!

These are grown-up cookies.

White bean burgers (Secret Recipe Club)

These simple, healthy white bean burgers with a yogurt feta sauce are super flavorful and won't fall apart like many veggie burgers.

Note: Recipe and photos updated April 2016.

I made this recipe in 2013 as part of the Secret Recipe Club (SRC).

Here's how the SRC works: each month I am assigned another member's blog (a different one each month). I then pick any recipe from that blogger's site, make it and write about it here. There's also a link hop at the end of the post so that I (and you) can check out all the other participating blogs and their great recipes.

I was a little nervous about this month's assignment, as I knew it would fall right during Detox January. I had my fingers crossed that I would be assigned a blog with at least a couple of healthy recipes from which I could choose.

I hit the jackpot!

My assigned blog was Cooking Whims, written by Megan, another New Englandah (yay!). Megan is clearly a big fan of Cooking Light recipes, as am I, so I was thrilled to find so many things to try. In fact, I wound up making two of her recipes and had a hard time choosing which one to feature (really, it came down to which one yielded a better photo).

The winner? White bean burgers, a perfect, meatless dinner option for Detox January.

Best maple recipes

Nine delicious recipes: breads, smoothies, cocktails, breakfasts, condiments and desserts, all sweetened naturally with pure maple syrup.

It's that time of year again -- yes, spring. And if you've lived in New England, you know that means it's also the time when the sap starts running and the maple sugaring season kicks into high gear.

One of the ways I try to keep things healthy around here is by using natural sweeteners instead of refined sugar whenever I can. And maple syrup is one of my favorite ways to sweeten my recipes naturally.

So I'm treating you to a springtime roundup of some of my favorite recipes made with 100 percent pure maple syrup to celebrate the new maple season (and please, just back away from that bottle of Aunt Jemima or I'll have to slap it out of your hands!).

10 best recipes of 2014: The Ninj's favorites

Best recipes of 2014, part 2: Enjoy this list of my personal favorite recipes of 2014. Here's to a happy and healthy 2015!

Yesterday I revealed the list of my 10 Best Recipes of 2014 as chosen by you, my readers. Don't get me wrong, you chose very well -- from smoothies and desserts to pastas and soups -- there are some awesome recipes in that list!

But one other thing I like to do each year is also highlight some recipes that I particularly loved but that didn't turn out to be quite as popular (according to site statistics).

I hope you find some great recipe ideas in this list that you might have missed or overlooked during 2014.

Beet pesto and greens pasta

Easy roasted beet pesto, used as a sauce for gluten-free pasta and tossed with peppery beet greens: a gorgeous, healthy dinner that's simple and quick!

There is no more wonderful vegetable than a beet. There: I've said it. I've gone on record:

Beets rule.

Why, you may ask, do I make such a statement? ERMERGAHD, LOOK AT THAT COLOR! What other natural food has that kind of color -- and tastes good? (And yes, I know there are other colors of beets, but we're talking your average, fuchsia, beet-colored beet today, OK?)

However, that stunning color comes with a price: it stains. It stains EVERYTHING. This is an excellent property if you are, say, a Pilgrim who wants to dye your drab flaxen frock a gorgeous hot pink color (well, then I guess you wouldn't really be a very good Pilgrim now, would you?). It's not such a great property if you are simply trying to make dinner without ending up looking like a serial killer.

I know my love of beets is true love because I keep ... (wait for it) ... dedicated beet gloves in my kitchen.

(True story: Mr. Ninj was rummaging in the cabinet under the kitchen sink for a pair of rubber gloves to use in the garage and I shrieked, "Not those! Those are my BEET GLOVES!" Yes, I'm a complete dork.)

Taralli -- buttery Italian Easter cookies

Taralli are simple, buttery, traditional Italian cookies, often made for Easter, reminiscent of scones and, when unglazed, perfect for a not-too-sweet breakfast or cocktail cookie.

In my family, these cookies have always simply been called "Mom's Italian cookies" and they were always made for Easter (and sometimes Christmas). It was years before I realized that a) they were a traditional Italian cookie that other Italian families besides ours knew about and b) they had a name: taralli (although there are umpteen variations on how to spell it).

They are very buttery, cakey cookies, simple to make and amazingly delicious in their simplicity. This is a recipe that lets the good, natural taste of butter really shine through (I have since seen other recipes for taralli that call for almond or lemon extract, but I prefer this simple buttery taste).

They don't have much sugar in them, so they are not very sweet. In fact, I prefer to eat them for breakfast, as they are almost more like a scone than a cookie. Similarly, they make a great cocktail cookie or afternoon tea cookie.

However, if you have a sweeter sweet tooth than I, you can certainly ice them. Growing up, we always iced them, with a simple glaze made from confectioners sugar, moistened with a little lemon juice and milk -- just enough to make a thick liquid to spoon over the cooled cookies. And, as they were Easter cookies, we added a drop or two food coloring to some of the glaze to make them pastel shades of pink, green and yellow, as well as white.

Chai tea concentrate

Chai tea concentrate: an aromatic blend of herbs, spices, fruit and tea ready to mix with your favorite kind of milk for a hot or cold chai tea latte.

I realized recently that I almost never give you drink recipes, unless they're boozy. Which may make some of you think that I never drink anything unless it has booze in it. (Jeez -- I'm beginning to give myself a reputation!)

Au contraire. 

I have become a tea drinker over the past few years. It started on a vacation to the British Virgin Islands a few years ago. On said vacation, I was actually getting a ridiculous amount of sleep and feeling very well rested (this is pretty much the goal of any of my vacations). Which meant that I was not craving wake-me-the-hell-up coffee every morning. And, since it was the British Virgin Islands, I decided to be queenly and have a pot of tea with breakfast instead of coffee.

And it stuck. I'm now a morning tea drinker.

Not so much of an afternoon tea drinker, though. Not even herbal teas. Until last month.

What happened last month, you ask? I went to a local food swap and scored a jar of spiced chai, courtesy of fellow food swapper Lisa Barnes of Fiddleheads Cuisine (you've got to love a food swap with a professional chef!). It was just the right blend of spiciness, sweetness and floral notes -- perfect for an afternoon pick-me-up that doesn't pick-me-up quite as much as a cup of coffee, which would wind up preventing me from sleeping at night.

Savory sausage bread pudding muffins

Savory sausage bread pudding muffins: a fun riff on the traditional breakfast casserole, perfect for feeding a brunch crowd.

I love it when the stars seem to align -- that is, when my real life dovetails perfectly with my blogging life. How so? Katie of Healthy Seasonal Recipes asked me to take part in her spring entertaining giveaway on the very same day that my BFF sent me a recipe for a savory bread pudding that she thought I would like.

Booyah.

Spring entertaining made me think immediately of Easter brunch and, I swear, there is nothing better (or easier) for feeding a brunch crowd than a breakfast casserole. And it seemed to me that this savory bread pudding was just begging to be made into cute single-serving muffins.

(So, should we be even cuter? Should bread pudding muffins henceforth be known as "puffins"? No, I don't think so either.)

Therefore, you can see why I called it an alignment of the stars. 

In my quest to make my recipes more stealthily healthy, I cut way back on the whole-fat dairy in this bread pudding -- and you won't miss it: it's still rich and filling with lots of cheesy flavor. For a vegetarian version, simply omit the sausage and double up on the amount of bell pepper (a combination of red and green looks smashing).

Blackened blue steak salad with coffee marinade

Blackened blue steak salad, with a coffee-based marinade, tangy balsamic dressing and bold blue cheese, will quickly become a weeknight favorite.

If you think it seems silly of me to post a recipe for a salad, you're not eating the right salad.

I love a good meal salad. Probably for the same reason that I love one-pot dinners: it seems so efficient to have a fully balanced meal -- protein and veg -- all in one simple dish.

And there's the speed factor, too.  Meal salads are generally simple and speedy, perfect for weeknight dinners.

My blackened blue steak salad has evolved over the years. It started with the dressing, and then evolved into the whole salad, becoming my go-to recipe for those inevitable summertime post-grilling steak leftovers (plus it got its cutesy name).  Now, I'm marinating and pan-searing a steak in the dead of winter solely to be able to eat this salad.

Sometimes, when I have them coming in in my summer garden, I add sliced radishes to the salad for an extra peppery crunch, but it's just as good without them.

The one thing that cannot be messed with, however, is the blue cheese. In combination with the balsamic-based dressing, the blue cheese is what makes this salad so addictive (and yes, a salad can be addictive).

Banana espresso breakfast muffins (+ a giveaway)

Banana espresso breakfast muffins: a healthy, easy recipe reminiscent of banana bread but with a shot of espresso for a delicious morning pick-me-up.

 You know what's better (and a wee bit healthier) than coffee for breakfast? Coffee in your breakfast. In the form of banana espresso breakfast muffins.

Yeah, I'd call that stealthy. Here's how they happened:

I was excited when Staples asked me if I'd like to try out the Verismo home brewer from Starbucks. One of the biggest pluses is that the brewer comes with a recipe booklet for making many of your favorite Starbucks drinks at home. I mean, how cool is it to just whip up a chai latte or an iced Americano or a caramel latte whenever you want?

It's very cool. And handy.

And easy to use: just pop a coffee pod into the sleek brewer and press a button. There are also milk pods (made of real milk, not "creamer" chemicals) for making the specialty drinks, so there's no separate heating or frothing necessary. And the used pods are collected in a little built-in container which makes clean-up a snap.

Healthy and easy weeknight dinner ideas

Six easy recipes from The Ninj to help you pull together a healthy weeknight dinner in no time -- way better for your health and your wallet than takeout!

 

You know when your week gets cray-cray and you don't have a lot of time or energy to think about making dinner? Do The Ninj a favor: put down the takeout menu and pick one of these six simple recipes instead.

6 Healthy and Easy Weeknight Dinners

1. Chicken and Biscuit Casserole
2. Sweet Potato Mac and Cheese
3. White Bean Burgers
4. Slow Cooker Tortilla Soup
5. Rice Noodle Bowl with Sausage and Greens
6. Thai Tuna Sliders

What are your favorite easy weeknight dinner recipes? Leave a comment: The Ninj wants to know.

Boozy maple bacon jam

Boozy maple bacon jam. Yes, you heard me right.

This is my second post this week in which I think the title says it all and if I didn't write another word about it but instead simply gave you the recipe, you'd be perfectly happy.

I'm an advocate of homecooking for healthier eating and, more importantly, eating real food rather than prepackaged, only-microwave-cooking-required crap that is full of chemicals (and yes, I'm not perfect and occasionally indulge in Nutella but I also haven't eaten a bite of fast food in five years).

Luckily, bacon is real food, as regular readers know that I have a weakness for it and tend to throw a bit of it into nearly everything (including bacon oatmeal cookies -- yes, I went there). And I refuse to jump on the bacon-is-so-last-year bandwagon (freakin' hipsters, raining on my parade).

Yet you may notice that I haven't been packing on the bacon recipes much in 2014 (there's actually only been one, can you believe it?). Time to rectify that.

Happily, Katie from Healthy Seasonal Recipes invited me to take part in her Pure Maple link party to celebrate maple season -- and we all know that nothing goes better with maple syrup than bacon (well, I hope you know this -- it's a fact). And, even though the sap is running here in Vermont, it's still freakin' cold and snowy, so why not throw in a little bourbon to warm us all up?

(Bacon is never made worse by the addition of bourbon. This is another fact.)

Oooh! I can't believe I haven't yet mentioned the best part: you can make this boozy maple bacon jam in the slow cooker.

Nutella peanut butter chip mini muffins

A super-simple recipe for Nutella peanut butter chip mini muffins: I almost feel that I don't need to post anything else other than those words to get you to try this recipe, right?

I have posted before about how I get snack cravings -- like many of you, I'm sure -- in the late afternoon. Since we eat very little processed food around Casa de Ninj, this means that if I want a treat, I have to make it.

This is good in many ways because, if I'm feeling lazy, I just go without said treat. Which is better for my waistline.

However, there are times when the siren call of Nutella is just too great.

(And yes, I realize that Nutella counts as a processed food. Which is why I often make my own Nutella, but I don't expect you to go to those extremes. It's totally fine by me if you have a big ol' jar of Nutella in your pantry at all times. I'm not judgy like that.)

Coconut chocolate drops (and a Keurig giveaway)

Today is an exciting day in Ninjaland: to celebrate the first day of spring and, hopefully, the beginning of the end of all this winter snow and cold weather, I'm part of a group of awesome New England bloggers introducing you to a new seasonal coffee flavor from Keurig Green Mountain ... AND giving away a Keurig brewer!

The new coffee flavor, Island Coconut, truly lives up to its name. It's a light-roast coffee (which I prefer) with a great coconutty aroma -- it will definitely have you thinking about tropical islands and warm weather.

It also had me thinking about pairing it with chocolate, which I have done with this recipe for Coconut Chocolate Drops, a ridiculously easy, no-bake dessert. Made with very little sugar, ground oats, unsweetened coconut and cofee, these bite-sized chocolate drops are only slightly sweet and  guilt-free.

Caramelized onion bisque

I hate to say it, but it's still soup weather here in Vermont. Not quite I'm-wearing-three-sweaters-and-still-freezing hearty chili weather -- more like I'm-wearing-one-heavy-sweater-and-a-fleece-scarf caramelized onion bisque weather. Or, in my case, we-got-20-inches-of-snow-and-I'm-the-only-one-home-to-shovel caramelized onion bisque weather.

Being snowed in so completely that it gave me time to make a big batch of this bisque was the only good thing about last week's storm. I am seriously ovah this winter, peeps.

So let's focus on the creamy, hot bisque, rather than the cold and snow. You know how rich, sweet and tangy caramelized onions are? Well, now envision that as a soup: yum. Now add a whole head of slow-roasted garlic and some fresh leeks and make it all smooth and creamy.

Yep, it's a ZOMG caramelized onion bisque.

And, as is the case with recipes from The Ninj, it's easy. A bit time-consuming, yes, but not hard. And, on a snow day or a weekend, you'll have all the time you need.

Chocolate snap cookies

Lately, I've been getting a hankering for cookies in the late afternoon. I know, this is the time of day when a better snack choice would be a piece of fruit or some cheese, but sometimes you need to acknowledge your cravings.

Being The Ninj, I don't keep cookies around the house unless I have made them myself. So nine time out of ten, I'll have to bake a batch of cookies if I have a cookie craving at four in the afternoon and want to satisfy it.

Now, the great thing about being a food blogger is that, when I get said craving for cookies and must bake a batch, it's still considered working, not screwing around in the kitchen to satisfy a craving. And when it's work, it gets shared with you.

Really, we all win when I have a cookie craving.

Another part of being The Ninj, as you know, is keeping my recipes on the healthier side -- even the indulgent, four-o'clock-craving-satisfying kind.

(Yeah, you're welcome.)

I'm not going to tell you that these are healthy chocolate cookies. But I have made the effort to make them a bit lighter and they are awfully rich and chocolatey, so you're not likely to scarf down all of them in one sitting, which helps. Although, if you are a crisp cookie fan, they are pretty darned addictive.

Slow cooker mac and cheese with bacon and tomatoes

Today I'm going to start with a little math equation. But this is food math, so you're going to love it.

If a = I love me some mac and cheese and b = I am lazy, then a + b = slow cooker mac and cheese.

See? Food math is awesome!

The problem with some crockpot mac and cheese recipes is that they get all burned around the edges, which, frankly, is a huge letdown. This one is the exception. The texture and consistency is the same as oven-baked mac and cheese, plus the edges get nicely browned but don't char.

Plus, there's no pre-cooking of sauce or anything like that. I generally shun crockpot recipes that require you to pre-cook ingredients (read: dirty a bunch of other pans and defeat the throw-it-all-in-and-walk-out-the-door simplicity of the crockpot).

(Aside: You may notice that I use the terms "crockpot" and "slow cooker" interchangeably -- this is because, based on an informal survey I conducted on my Facebook page, so do you and I want to make sure all of you are happy. Because that's the kind of Ninj I am.)

Being the Ninj, I just had to mess around with the recipe a bit, though. You know, by throwing some bacon into it, for which I am developing a bit of a reputation. But I also added some tomatoes, which cooked down beautifully and added a little extra zing, while also making it a great one-pot dinner.

Artichoke hummus (and a book review)

I came upon this recipe for artichoke hummus in an unusual way. Knowing that The Ninj enjoys cooking and living in a generally healthy way, a college friend of mine asked me if I'd like to review a lifestyle book to which she had contributed. Since she herself is an awesome writer, of course I agreed to check it out.

So what does this have to do with hummus, you may be asking? Don't worry, I'll get there.

The book turned out to be Vibrant Living by Molly Shattuck, a health and fitness advocate and philanthropist from Baltimore who has designed a program to help people embrace a healthier lifestyle in 21 days.

Now, bear with me – I, too, was skeptical. I'm not an advocate of fad diets or “fix your life in 3 easy steps” kind of crap. You know me by now. My motto is everything in moderation: I think we often sabotage our efforts to be healthier and fitter by shunning every single “bad” food or by only eating restrictive, special diets that are too difficult to maintain, as well as setting unrealistic fitness goals.

I'm happy to report that Molly's ideals are quite similar (good thing, or it would have made for some awkward email exchanges with my college pal). She, too, embraces the idea that being fitter and eating better involves a fundamental lifestyle change but that need not be difficult or require you to subscribe to a packaged meal plan or to eat crazy-ass food. Her program emphasizes taking 21 days to establish a new routine of daily exercise (she includes easy-to-follow workout plans that don't require more than a pair of sneakers) and, my favorite part, eating “real”, unprocessed food.

Hellz yeah, Molly! High five from The Ninj.

Which brings us, at long last, to the artichoke hummus (See? I told you I would get here).

Brown rice pudding

Mr. Ninj is a huge fan of rice pudding.  Back in the days when we were dating and not eating as healthfully as we are today, he was known to buy a tub of Cozy Shack rice pudding from the grocery store and eat the whole thing.

Yeah, I'd say that makes him a huge fan.

Up until now, I hadn't really made rice pudding because it seemed like too much of a pain in the ass, frankly, and you know The Ninj is all about easy when it comes to recipes. (I know, that's not very loving of me, but hey, I'm honest.)

But brown rice pudding? That uses leftover or instant-cook rice and involves minimal prep? Now you're speaking my language!

I love this recipe because it's super easy and, because of the individual portions, you can pull one out of the fridge anytime you want a snack. Or, let's face it, breakfast -- this rice pudding makes a seriously delicious and filling quick breakfast. The custard is thick but smooth, and the rice adds just a hint of chewiness.

Easy Thai tuna sliders

Easy Thai tuna sliders -- a fast weeknight meal and a great way to add Omega 3s to your diet.

Even though creating, tweaking, photographing and writing about food and recipes is my passion, all that can often leave me tired and not too psyched to spend a lot of time making dinner every night. Just like you.

Therefore, I'm a big fan of quick and easy weeknight dinner recipes -- like these Thai tuna sliders.

I think I read somewhere that the slider craze is "over" -- whatevs, people. The Ninj isn't trying to stay one step ahead of the trends: I'm giving you real-life solutions and strategies to real-life eating situations. And one of those situations is not wanting to spend a ton of time making dinner.

(And sliders? Over? Come on -- who doesn't love cute food? Jeesh.)

So, can you open a can of tuna? Can you toast a bun? Then these tuna sliders have got dinner covered for you.