Whole Wheat S’mores Cookies

When I think of summer, I always think of lazy nights spent around a campfire chasing fireflies and making s’mores. Unfortunately, the weather here in upstate New York doesn’t always cooperate – it can be pretty chilly at night well into June and I’m more likely to be found inside with a cup of coffee. Of course, that hasn’t stopped me from coming up with other ways to enjoy classic s’mores flavor! I’ve tried everything from making them in the microwave (surprisingly efficient) to baking them inside wonton wrappers. You really can’t go wrong with the chocolate, marshmallow and graham cracker combination!

Lately, these s’mores cookies have been my favorite way to enjoy this sweet treat. They’re totally addictive! The cookies are crisp, but the whole wheat pastry flour gives them a tender crumb that’s soft – but not chewy – in the center. Graham flour adds both texture and flavor while milk chocolate chips and mini marshmallows add a touch of sweetness.

The one tricky part about making these cookies is that the marshmallows can melt and onto the pan before the cookies are finished baking, which makes a mess and causes the cookies to stick. Lining your pan with a silicon mat, like the ones from Mrs. Anderson's Baking at Harold Import Company, helps prevent them from sticking.

What I especially love about these cookies is that they aren’t super sweet, so they don’t set me off on a sugar craving. One or two cookies with a cup of tea is a perfectly satisfying afternoon snack.

Whole Wheat S’mores Cookies
by Lauren
Adapted from Healthy Delicious Whole Wheat S'mores Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar (packed)
2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup graham flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk chocolate chips
1 cup mini marshmallows

Heat your oven to 350°F. Line a cookie sheet with a silicon baking mat.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs, one at a time, and beat until mixed. Mix in the vanilla.

In a second bowl, combine the flours, baking soda and salt. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients (the dough will be very thick.) Mix in the chocolate chips and marshmallows.

Drop rounded tablespoons of the dough 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes, or until the edges begin to brown. Let cool on the baking sheets for 1 minute, then cool completely on a rack.

Yield 4 dozen cookies.

Quinoa and Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms

When I was younger, I hated mushrooms. Hate might not be a strong enough word. I absolutely loathed them and flat-out refused to try a single bite of anything that included them. I remember sitting at my grandparents’ kitchen table for hours, because they wouldn't let me get up until I had at least tried them. It was a pretty epic standoff but eventually, they gave up and let me go to bed, mushrooms untouched.

Then one day when I was in my 20's I got a random craving...for stuffed mushrooms. After a mini panic attack (no, I wasn't pregnant) I decided to give them a go. And I liked them! Weird, right? Anyway, I've been eating mushrooms ever since. I enjoy them in everything from farro risotto to bison burgers. Stuffed mushrooms are one of my favorite appetizers.

When I heard that Bilinski's newest chicken sausage included kale and balsamic vinegar, I knew they’d be perfect in stuffed mushrooms (I love mushrooms and balsamic together.) These little bites are perfect as an appetizer or as an afternoon snack. In addition to the sausage, they’re filled with quinoa for texture and bulk, chopped kale for color, cream cheese, and mozzarella. They also have a generous pinch of crushed red pepper - just enough to add a little heat, but not enough to make them “spicy.”

Quinoa and Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms
by Lauren

30 ounces crimini mushrooms (about 40), stems removed
1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed
1 cup water
2 Bilinski's Kale Balsamic Chicken Sausages, finely chopped
1 kale leaf, finely chopped
1/4 cup cream cheese
1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella
1 generous pinch crushed red pepper flakes

Heat oven to 350°F. Arrange the mushrooms on a baking sheet, stem-side up.

Combine the quinoa and water in a small pot. Bring to a boil; cook 10-15 minutes or until the water has absorbed. Remove from heat and mix in the sausage, kale, and cream cheese. Let cool slightly. Stir in the mozzarella and red pepper flakes.

Stuff about 1 heaping teaspoon of filling into each mushroom.

Bake 20 minutes, or until the filling is bubbly and begins to brown.

Pumpkin Monkey Bread with Cranberries and Pecans

Have you ever made monkey bread? Apparently I've been living under a rock, since I didn't even know it existed until about a year ago, but I wanted in on the action!

Monkey bread is a marvelous thing. It’s little blobs of soft dough baked together in a pan. The result is a knobby sweet bread that you can pull together with your fingers. The individual pieces remind me of donut holes.

I based this bread on the sweet potato monkey bread recipe in Make Ahead Bread: 100 Recipes for Melt-In-Your-Mouth Fresh Bread Every Day, substituting pumpkin and warm spices for the sweet potatoes and layering the bread with cranberries, pecans and a syrupy glaze.

Pumpkin Monkey Bread with Cranberries and Pecans

by Lauren

Adapted from Make Ahead Bread: 100 Recipes for Melt-In-Your-Mouth Fresh Bread Every Day by Donna Currie

For the dough:
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
2 1/2 - 3 cups all-purpose flour
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/2 cup room temperature water
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon buttery sweet dough flavor or vanilla extract

For the topping:
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup dry cranberries
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter

Line a mesh sieve with a coffee filter or cheesecloth. Add the pumpkin and let drain 30 minutes. Discard the liquid.

Combine the pumpkin with the remaining ingredients, adding enough flour to form a thick dough. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. Cover with a tea towel and let rise until it doubles in size - about 1 hour.

Divide the dough into golf ball sized pieces and arrange in a greased 8-inch pie plate. Scatter the pecans and cranberries between the dough balls. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning, heat the oven to 325ºF. Remove the pan from the refrigerator. Melt the brown sugar and butter in a saucepan and pour over the bread.

Bake 45 minutes, or until the internal temperature reads 190ºF. Let cool 20 minutes before serving.

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Slow Cooker Chickpea and Farro Soup

This time of year, I absolutely love turning to my slow cooker for dinner. It’s one of the busiest times of the year at my job, and when you add that to the stress of the holidays and the fact that it’s pitch black when I get home each evening, it’s really hard to work up the motivation to cook. I’d much rather be greeted by my slow cooker, which has been working away at a warm and cozy meal for me all day.

This hearty chickpea and farro soup is perfect for a cold, snowy day – and the leftovers make great lunches for the rest of the week.

Slow Cooker Chickpea and Farro Soup
by Lauren

1 cup dry chickpeas
2 carrots, peeled and cut into half-moons
1 rib celery, chopped
1 Vidalia onion, chopped
8 cups vegetable stock
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 cup farro
2 cups baby spinach
Parmesan cheese

Fill a medium pot with water. Add the chickpeas and bring to a boil. Boil 15 minutes. Drain.

Add the chickpeas, carrots, celery, onion, vegetable stock, bay leaf, and peppercorns to your Hamilton Beach Set & Forget 6 Qt. Programmable Slow Cooker. Cook on high 5 hours, or until the chickpeas are soft.

Add the farro and cook another 2 hours, or until soft. Stir in the baby spinach.

Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Triple Berry Pie with Lemon-Coconut Oil Crust

This triple berry pie is inspired by the best ingredients summer has to offer – from three kinds of berries to an amazing a lemon and coconut oil infused crust.

Cooking the filling on the stove instead of putting raw berries right into the crust eliminates that annoying air gap pies can get sometimes. It also lets you adjust the amount of sugar to taste – feel free to start with 1/4 cup and add the rest only if you need it.

Triple Berry Pie with Lemon-Coconut Oil Crust
by Lauren

2 1/4 cups Bob's Red Mill Organic Unbleached White Flour
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons coconut oil
1/3 cup ice water
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
2 cups quartered fresh or frozen strawberries
1 cup fresh or frozen blackberries
1/3 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
2 Tablespoons coconut milk
1 Tablespoon turbinado sugar or sanding sugar

In a large bowl mix together the flour, sugar, lemon zest, and salt. Add coconut oil; use your hands to mix the evenly distribute the oil into the flour. Sprinkle ice water over the flour; gently mix until the dough starts to come together. Form dough into two balls; flatten each ball into 4-inch wide disk. Wrap separately in plastic wrap until ready to roll out.

To make the filling, add the berries and sugar to a large saucepan. Cook, stirring frequently, until the berries soften, about 5 minutes. Stir in the cornstarch and bring to a boil. Cook 2-3 minutes or until the mixture thickens. Let cool.

Working on a generously floured surface, roll one disk of dough into a 13-inch circle. Transfer to a 9-inch pie pan. Fill with the berry filling. Roll out the other disk. Use a small cookie cutter or the wide end of a pastry tip to cut a design into the crust. Carefully place on top of the pie filing.

Roll the edge of the top crust underneath the edge of the bottom crust. Use your fingers to crimp the two crusts together, forming a seal. Brush top top crust with coconut milk and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.

Bake at 450°F for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F and bake for 1 hour.

Transfer the pie to a cooling rack. Let cool completely (at least 2 hours) before serving.

Chickpea Falafel with Tahini

My review copy of Silk Road Vegetarian came at the perfect time: right as I was set to embark on a 21-day plant-based eating challenge. Having a book filled with vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free recipes to fall back on was definitely helpful!

There were a ton of awesome looking recipes in the book, but I was most excited about the chickpea falafel. I’m a huge falafel fan, but I’d never tried making it at home!

The flavor of these was amazing! I was a little nervous about using so much coriander and cumin, but in the end it was the perfect amount.

The original recipe calls for starting with dry chickpeas, but since I've never had good luck with those, I adapted it to work with canned beans. Eliminating the need to soak the beans overnight also cut down on a lot of prep time. It’s helpful to let the batter chill for an hour, but aside from that these falafel only take a few minutes to make.

The falafel are delicious warm, but they’re also great served at room temperature, so you can make them ahead and bring along on a picnic. I served them with lemon wedges, tahini, kalamata olives, pepperoncini, and Kale and Quinoa Tabbouli for a delicious and filling vegetarian meal.

Chickpea Falafel with Tahini
by Lauren
adapted from Silk Road Vegetarian

1 large can (29-ounce) chickpeas, drained
1 onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
4-6 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup prepared tahini paste
1 lemon, juiced
1 pinch cayenne pepper
Lemon wedges

Add the chickpeas, onion, garlic, parsley, and spices to a food processor. Process 15-20 seconds, or until a thick paste forms. Do not over-process; the mixture should still have a little texture to it. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Add enough oil to a skillet to lightly coat the bottom. Heat over medium-high heat. Drop tablespoons of batter onto the hot pan; cook 5 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Carefully transfer to a paper towel. Add more oil to the pan as needed and fry the remaining falafel.

Whisk together the tahini and lemon juice; season with cayenne pepper. Serve the falafel with tahini and lemon wedges.

Toasted Coconut Tartlets

"If anyone asks, it's only a coconut."

A few winters ago, we escaped the bitter cold and went on a two-week Caribbean cruise. The ship left from New Jersey, so it took a few days for us to actually reach warmer waters, but once we got there it was AMAZING. Our first stop was in Puerto Rico, and we were so excited to get off the boat and explore (and also eat some better food!). We ate lunch at a tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant and then spent the day wandering around aimlessly. At one point, I saw a sign advertising aged rum served in coconut shells; I decided that I absolutely had to have one. We stopped at a courtyard bar and ordered one to share. Even though we fully intended on sitting at the bar with it, the bartender told us we could take it with us if we wanted. Her only warning? "If anyone asks, it's only a coconut." I guess a coconut shell is a little classier than a brown paper bag, but I'm not generally one to break the rules so we stayed in the courtyard. Luckily, open container laws don't apply to these coconut tartlets.

Moroccan Carrot Salad with Harissa Vinaigrette

This time of year is brutally cold here in upstate New York. Combined with what seems like never-ending darkness, its easy to fall into a rut of all comfort food all the time. I’m always looking for healthy recipe ideas that I can still get excited about in this weather.

This carrot salad is a definite winner. Even though the salad itself is cold, the harissa vinaigrette is spicy enough that it’ll warm you right up. Plus, after so much holiday excess, eating a big ole plate of carrots just feels good!

Pistachio and Cardamom Cookies

Cardamom is one of my favorite spices. It’s “warm” like cinnamon or nutmeg, but it has a milder flavor that’s very aromatic and slightly floral. It’s great in savory recipes (like this Moroccan Spiced Carrot Hummus, but I especially love using it in sweets. Cardamom also pairs beautifully with apples and pears and I love how it adds a slightly savory, spicy note to baked goods.

Baked Chicken and Spinach Flautas

There are so many opportunities to cook for parties over the holidays and these flautas made with small tortillas or cut in half and served with guacamole would make an excellent appetizer! - 37 Cooks

Baked Chicken and Spinach Flautas
by Lauren

These baked flautas are by far the most popular recipe I've ever created, and it’s for good reason – they’re fantastic and one of my personal favorites. By baking instead of frying, sneaking in some vegetables, and doing a neat trick with the tortillas, they’re definitely a fresher take on a classic dish.

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 4)

16 ounces beer (or chicken broth)

2 cups water

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 jalapeno pepper, minced

3 cups baby spinach, chopped

5 burrito-size flour tortillas (9 inches)

6 ounces Queso Quesadilla or other melting cheese, shredded

1 teaspoon olive oil, or cooking spray

Salsa, for serving

Preheat the oven to 450°F.

Meet Lauren!

Hey there! I’m Lauren and I love to cook (and eat!)

I've been cooking for as long as I can remember. When I was a little kid, I would always follow my mother around the kitchen and “help” as much as I could. Starting when I was about 10, it was one of my chores to completely plan and cook dinner one night every week. The dinner had to be a balanced meal – no getting away with saying we were have ice cream sundaes for dinner! At first, this was a little overwhelming – I still remember the first time I tried to manage a stovetop full of boiling pots – and there were failures when mom had to come to the rescue, for sure. But the excitement and pride that came with pulling off a successful meal couldn't be matched.