Cookie Friday: Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

 
We have a tradition of making cookies on Fridays.  It started when my kids were little and often wanted cookies.  I had the idea that we would cook a batch of homemade cookies every Friday.  When they were gone, no more cookies until the next Friday.

Box Mix Black Bean Brownies

Apparently the second week of this challenge is the week where I figure out how lazy I can be and still somehow incorporate beans and rice into our diet. In my defense, my sister-in-law gave me this divine idea for quick and easy Black Bean brownies. I have seen a lot of black bean brownie recipes and I was eager to try one, but I also wanted to ensure that the first try was a success. You know, so that the kids didn't always declare that they "hate black bean brownies" regardless of how good they are.

Orange Rice Pudding

We cracked too many eggs for our scrambled eggs at breakfast this morning, so I quickly searched for a recipe that included rice and eggs.  I wasn't feeling very fried rice-ish, so I quickly focused on the rice pudding recipes.  Not all rice pudding recipes include eggs; usually the baked ones include eggs and the stove top ones do not.

I finally settled on a Paula Deen recipe from the Food Network website and set about to make it my own.  No raisins for us as my kids hate them.  I swapped in orange zest for flavoring, upped the vanilla, and threw in a cinnamon stick for good measure.  I only have two pictures for this recipe because I had somehow set my camera on video.  Thankfully, it is a pretty easy recipe:  stir, pour and bake.