Wednesday’s Elf4Health challenge was “Bake Cookies.” I hope it counts that I baked mini pumpkin-spice muffins and made No-Bake Chocolate Cashew Balls instead. I linked to the recipes, plus a couple of others I didn’t get around to making, here, in yesterday’s post.
At one point, I tweeted:
Baking cookies doesn’t mean I have to eat them all, right?
— Arlene Hittle (@ArleneAWL) December 19, 2012
Once I put it out there, I realized how true that is. I don’t have to eat them just because I make them.
So, I ate one muffin (minus the raisins, which I left out to bring the Net Carb count to 5.9 — from 7.something) and one cashew ball (6 net carbs) before loading the rest of the cashew treats into a container to take to work. (I ended up eating a second cashew ball at work, but that’s a heck of a lot better than chowing down on the whole batch!)
Both recipes went together with minimal effort, and I can see myself making them again.
I tackled the muffins first, and, while they were baking, moved on to the no-bake recipe.
The muffins were a success on two fronts.
I took my own advice and lined the mini-muffin tin with paper cups and — no surprise — they came out of the pan with no fuss. That’s in stark contrast to the Chocolate Peppermint Mini Muffins I made Saturday.
They tasted fantastic, too. Moist and light, yet packed with flavor. It’s going to be tough to give any of them away.
Maybe I’ll just freeze most of them instead.
The Chocolate Cashew Cookie Balls were messy to make, but fun. The oil from the cashews gave my hands the deep-conditioning treatment.
When I put them in the newsroom, they got a lot of interest right away. “Ooh — what are these?”
I explained they had just four ingredients: dates, cashews, vanilla and cocoa. Several folks went back more than once, which was fine with me. The more they ate, the less I will.
By the end of the night, this was all that was left:
It was nice to share.
Before work, I headed across town to Walmart, in search of the new Atkins frozen dinners. They don’t have them yet — next week, the employee told me. Then, there’ll be a whole case full. I can’t wait. I’d love to have quick, low-carb options for the many, many times I don’t have time to cook or have no access to a kitchen.
I ended up getting the ingredients to make Low-Carb Slow Cooker Lasagna instead. I’ll do that tomorrow morning to eat it for lunch before I go to work.
It should count for today’s Elf4Health challenge, to make a healthy casserole.
Adventures in weight loss, cooking & life 