Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Freezer Cookies

Kevin and I have lost a ton of weight over the past 2 years.  Well, maybe not a whole ton, but between the two of us, we have lost a small child.  Well, ok, maybe a larger, older child.  We are not there yet, but we are proud of ourselves and our progress thus far.  It is true, every step in a forward direction does encourage us to keep moving forward in our mid-life efforts to get in shape after years of over indulging.

We are trying to eat healthier, however, that does not mean we don't crave carbs and, dare I say it, SWEETS!  Yes, sweets!!!!  Anything with sugar in it!!  Problem is we don't want a whole pie, just a small taste.    Often I will foist half of some creation upon our Beti, without whose help I would have no time to play around in the kitchen.   She happily takes whatever it is home to share with her family.  Problem is that she is here on Tuesdays and Thursdays and we have time to do our baking on Saturday and Sunday so she is not always getting the freshest representation of our talents, and sometimes a thing just needs to be consumed within a day or 2.  Half batch, you say?  Sometimes that is still too much.

Enter the freezer cookie.   In just a few minutes, we can have fresh baked cookie goodness whenever we want.  I may actually buy a toaster oven just for these little gems of goodness.




Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Freezer Cookies

Everything you need to make these is right here, except for the cinnamon and allspice.

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup butter @ room temperature

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups regular rolled oats

1 1/2  cups chocolate chips

Whisk dry ingredients, including the spices in a medium bowl and set aside.

Put both sugars and the butter  into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on high speed until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, and vanilla and beating until blended, scraping down as needed.  Reduce speed to low and slowly add dry ingredients, mixing just until combined.  Add rolled oats and chocolate chips, again, mixing until just combined.

Looks yummy already

Tear 2 long sheets of wax paper and divide the whole mess between the two.  Do your best to form into long rolls about 1 1/2 inches in diameter.  

Mine look more square than round, but by this point, it was 90F in my kitchen and the dough was starting to "melt".  hahaha

Wrap well in plastic and freeze overnight or up to 1 month.

You should end up with 2 rolls, each about 12" long.  

On baking day, preheat your oven to 350F, unwrap dough and cut into  rounds about 1/2 " thick.

This is the best part.  you can cut as many cookies as you would like and just pop the rest of the frozen round back in the freezer for another day.

  Place the frozen rounds 2" apart on a silpat or parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake 15 - 18 minutes, until edges are golden brown.

15 minutes to cookie goodness!

Let them cool a bit before eating them!  You can put them on a wire rack to cool, but it's ok if you skip that and just let them cool in the pan.

Freshly baked cookies!

Life with Cats

There is a lizard in our car.  Never, in my wildest dreams, did I imagine these words would apply to my life.  Nor,  that they would be spoken so matter of factly.  I guess life here has changed us a bit.

Many of you already know that we have 4 cats.  Over the years, for a variety of reasons, the faces have changed, but for reasons known only to the Universe, the number has remained constant.  

Ask anyone, the cats have an unwritten rule that says we can only EVER photograph 3 at a time.

Yes, 4 of the little furry darlings, who in spite of our best efforts to keep them full of Purina Cat Chow, do what cats do best, which is hunt.   Over the years they have brought home a variety of trophies.   We live beside a jungle, so you can let your imagination run.  

Of course, Alexa, the dog,  is always curious about what they bring home.   

A couple of times, we have even caught them playing with a scorpion, which is a big NO NO, and always causes us to move faster than we ever thought we could to separate the hunter from its prey.    In this particular instance, we are not sure which is which.  Cats are not immune to the sting, but their thick fur makes it difficult for the scorpion to sting them, except of course on their cute little noses and bottoms of their paws.

Sorry, no scorpion photos, this frog will have to do.

As I am sure all cat owners do, we have grown accustomed to the odd trophy, mostly small lizards of one type or another,  being dropped at our feet at inopportune times.  Often we try to save the poor creature, but other times, we have had to let nature take its course.   

Sometimes the trophy does escape and we find them in surprising places, like behind the fridge or under the microwave, rolled up in the window blinds, or in the case of one very small bat, flying wildly around the dining room looking for a way out.  We helped him find an exit VERY quickly!  Often there is just a pile of feathers to tell us what occurred during the night.

But, this afternoon, we had a new experience with lizards.  As Kevin was driving past the OXXO store, with no cats in the car, a lizard dropped onto his lap!  Kevin started so violently he injured his foot on the brake pedal, but managed to keep control of the vehicle. The lizard screamed and ran away.  Well, it didn’t really scream, but it did run away, jumping off of Kevin’s leg to take refuge somewhere in the depths of the dashboard.

Our car is parked in the driveway with the hope that while we are not looking the lizard will find his way out.  Meanwhile, for the next few car trips, I will be on high alert! 

A Fresh Start! Right after we tie up the loose ends!

So, it has been a very long time since we last wrote anything in our blog.  Our apologies to all of our readers.  It wasn’t that we forgot about you, but other parts of our life just took control over our time, and our vision for our blog just kind of faded into the distance.  Even more truthfully, when I wrote the last installment of our blog (nearly 2 years ago!)  I had hoped to give you all a positive and glowing review of the consulta system that seemingly all drugstores (farmacias) here have.    Turns out, I was not able to do that, and for that reason, I kept putting the next installment off … for so long, that eventually, it seemed ridiculous to even start it up again.  But, one of the results of trying things can be failure, so….

picking up where we left off, I was struggling with an ear infection had already visited one consultoria at one farmacia and was being treated at a second farmacia by a new “doctor”…

The first option, was a series of 3 shots in my behind, and was greatly encouraged by my husband,  “The Sadist”,  as the most efficient and effective way to clear the infection. 

In the end (pun intended),  it was determined that the injections were neither efficient, nor effective.   3 days, times 20 minutes driving, plus 15 minutes or longer waiting to be seen by the doctor, the cost of gas and $250 pesos for the meds…time, gas and money all wasted.

The doctor was incredulous but checked his enormous ARSEnal (read ego) of knowledge and information and came up with a different set of meds that would certainly deal with this nasty infection.    So, another 200 pesos for meds (they ALWAYS prescribe 3), more driving and waiting and gas for something else that did not work. 

You would think I would have learned something by then, but instead, I allowed him to send me for lab work.   Third times a charm, right?

I don’t remember what all that entailed, but it meant more driving, more waiting and several days for the results to come in.  These, I dutifully carried back to the same doctor at the same farmacia,  who then prescribed yet another volley of medication (yes, 3 items again), again, these cost about 200 pesos. 

Assuming that he would know what he was doing now that he had some medical jargon from a lab in front of him, I bought the new meds.   Colour me stupid, I was somewhat surprised when they did not work. 

By now, 3 weeks has passed, and I had spent $600 pesos on meds that didn’t work and another $400 pesos for the lab tests, plus I had been stuck in the bum 3 times!!  For nothing!!    $1.000 pesos, total loss of my dignity, Lord knows how much waiting time, and still no sign of improvement to my ear.

So, I gave up my dream of finding a good doctor at the farmacias and went to a specialist in PV, near Plaza Caracol.  He took one look in my ear, laughed and left the room.  He came back with a rather large syringe and a glass of nicely warmed water.  Within 2 minutes, the blockage in my ear was destroyed and I could hear again.   Turns out it wasn’t even an infection that we were dealing with.   The Specialist’s fee, $750.00 pesos and no meds. 

Lesson learned.  I have to admit I was highly disappointed because I so wanted to be able to tell you all the consultas work.  But for me, the truth is, that it didn’t.