I have had this recipe for at least 12 years and love it. So easy, buttery and crispy yet slightly chewy. It also has a bit of salty sweet going for it which is always respectable in a cookie. They look at little something like this:
Chocolate Chip Shortbread
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Add flour and salt. Stir in chips. Easy peasy!
Divide dough in half. Press each half into ungreased 8 inch round cake pan (it can be thin in some places). Bake 12 minutes or until edges are light brown. Score (cut almost all the way thru) shortbread with sharp knife. Make 8 wedges per pan.
Let pans stand on wire racks for 10 minutes. Invert (I always think of "Top Gun" when I hear this word but you do not need to flip off your shortbread. Unless you are in a bad mood and it makes you feel better then please, by all means do so.) shortbread onto wire racks. Cool completely and break into wedges.
Now your healthy dinner.
Chicken Burgers with Feta Cheese on Mini Pitas
This is actually a Weight Watchers recipe and very tasty. You can use ground chicken or ground turkey. Personally I find the ground turkey a bit dry. You can use regular, low-fat or, if they make it, fat free feta. You can also use either white or wheat mini pitas. Put ground chicken in a bowl (I use a mixer for better feta distribution), add 1/4 to a whole container of feta cheese. Well, it is this kind of feta cheese, which I think is about 8 oz. Use plain, garlic, sun-dried tomato or whatever flavor you like.
You can also add any spices you like to the mixture. Make 4 patties and grill 'em up on the George Foreman. Toast up some mini pita, smack the burger in the middle and you are done! For some reason I like to put taco sauce on the burger. I think because I like the idea of Mexico and Greece hanging out together. Of course you can also add your regular burger toppings like lettuce, tomato, blah, blah, blah.
Today was a day of running around. Took the boy to the gym, dropped off stuff at Goodwill, ate some pizza and did some Christmas shopping. Along the way I encountered an awesome server at Mellow Mushroom, a lot of rude drivers around South Park Mall, free Godiva chocolate and had fun trading insults with a good friend. But what stands out the most is the lesson I learned at the My Gym. Don't judge a book (read: person) by its cover (or outside appearance). We went to a different class today so there were new kids and, of course, new moms. One lady stood out because she was about six feet tall, very thin and attractive in an old school Ralph Lauren sort of way. She also had a two-month old she was carrying around, feeding and getting to sleep while she was chasing and playing with her two year old! So of course I am thinking "of course she has a nanny at home, how can she look and act that together with a two year old and a baby?!?!" I end up talking to her and she also has a four year old at home! Three kids under four! Crikey! She was super nice and said that she barely sleeps and her days are "challenging." Just because someone looks like they have their act together does not mean that they do.
The other lady came in with her two year old girl wearing a really cute Christmas dress and fancy Christmas bow in her hair. The mom was wearing skinny jeans, flowing black shirt, tons of diamond and pearl jewelry and a headband that looked sort of like this but was in black and white:
My first reaction was "that headband is ridiculous." Especially since most moms at the My Gym look like me: jeans or sweatpants and a casual shirt with one or more of the following stains: spit-up, wet and smushed Goldfish, yogurt or crumbs of any variety cracker, bread or cookie. Hair styles range from ponytail to hidden-under-a-hat-and-therefore-greasy-because-there-has-been-no-time-to-wash-it-in-five-days (I am assuming). My second reaction was "I would have nothing in common with her." Ok so that one ended up probably true but I learned that she is very nice and sweet and she talked to a lot of the other kids and moms which is rare in my neck of the woods. She started by telling me that my Ellie is beautiful and should be in commercials. That in and of itself is a one-way ticket to awesome in my book. Then she made me feel like one of the mad elderly with the following anecdote. Her daughter's name is Perri (or Perry, whatever, doesn't matter) and Perri has a cousin named Mason. She said she has never heard of the tv show ("Is the guy's name Mason Perry?" Um, no, but thank you for playing) but the grandparents get a kick out it whenever the cousins are together. Ok, how old do you have to be to remember Perry Mason? So she made me feel as old as her grandparents but she was super nice and while the headband was a bit much for the gym, she carried it off with her outgoing personality. So the lesson: we moms have got to stick together regardless of fashion.
