In general, I think that men and women aren’t really all that different and that the “men are from Mars, women are from Venus” arguments are pretty silly. It my experience, it’s often used as a cop-out to avoid actually learning how to communicate with your significant other.

That being said…I swear my husband is from a different planet.

Let me explain:

Over the past few weeks and and while seeing many family and friends at holiday get-togethers, a significant number of people have been commenting that Tom has lost weight. I personally didn’t see it at all and thought these people needed their eyes checked…until Tom told me he has lost over fifteen pounds since our wedding day.

Ummmm…what?!

My gut reaction was panic—Why have you lost weight?! Are you okay? How is this possible when I serve you enough food to feed an average family of four?!

My hysteria was calmed when we realized what was actually causing this change:

• He wasn’t eating Jimmy John’s for lunch every day 
• He’s been running more–either with me or while choosing to play more basketball over lunch

Being that I sensed this change bothered him, we talked about it. In doing so, I learned that he had stopped adding mass gainer to his protein every day and that he thought he needed to add it back in. Somewhat confused, I asked for clarity on what exactly “mass gainer” actually was. His response? It’s a powder that adds significant calories and carbs to your protein.

My response? WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU WANT TO CONSUME A CRAP TON OF CALORIES AND CARBS THAT YOU CAN’T EVEN TASTE? If you’re consuming the same amount of calories and carbs that are in two ginormous slices of chocolate cake…why would you not choose to eat the cake?! The cake has taste! The cake has flavor! The cake has CHOCOLATE.

On the flip side, I personally literally not imagine a world where I would consume calories knowing I couldn’t taste and savor them. If I am knowingly consuming the same amount of calories and carbohydrates as I could find in one of my favorite desserts I would go straight for the killer brownies at Byerly’s and call it a day.

Hence, my conclusion that my husband is from a different planet.

Understanding that my pre-diabetes (and thus our cooking) usually limits the amounts of carbohydrates and sugar we’re consuming, I can understand why Tom was seeking out another source for these nasty buggers. But his desire for more calories got me thinking–especially since we don’t try to limit our calories in any way; we just try make sure most of them are coming from nutrient-dense sources like nuts or fruit.

Being that it’s the season of baking, I got to brainstorming about how I could create a satisfying Christmas treat that was diabetic-friendly AND could also pack a protein punch to help continue to supplement Tom’s desire to gain back the weight he’s lost. And if I could find a way to sneak in some cardamom? Well, that would be a classic Michael Scott “win/win/win” situation.

So…where’s the compromise?

Here’s our (win/win/win) answer: 

• Replace traditional all-purpose flour with almond flour–a high protein, low-carbohydrate (and gluten-free!) substitution
• Utilize applesauce to sweeten the cookies instead of white & brown sugar
• Pair a small amount of traditional molasses with pure maple syrup to maintain the color and richness of traditional gingerbread cookies
• Use a heavy amount of spices (including cardamom!) to ensure that the cookies deliver on the classic gingerbread flavors…and make Scandinavians everywhere jump for joy

| First Christmas Cookies |

Serves: Makes 3 dozen cookies–so 9 Tom’s or 36 Alaina’s 

Ingredients Needed:

• 1 lb. finely ground almond flour (~3.8 cups)
  • Almond flour is flour made out of (you guessed it) finely ground almonds–which is awesome, but also means it can be expensive. You can find sales on Bob’s (pictured below) that is sold in 1 lb. bags for about $10, or Costco sells a 3 lb. bag for $22 (~$7.33/lb)

• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. ground allspice
• 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. cardamom
• 1 stick butter, melted
  • You want salted butter here, NOT unsalted
• 1/2 cup no-sugar-added applesauce
  • Check your ingredients–it should just say “apples, water”!
• 1/4 cup unsulphured dark molasses
  • Also called “full”, “robust”, or “second” molasses–this is key to obtaining the classic gingerbread flavor (avoid “light” or “blackstrap” molasses)
• 2 tbsp. pure maple syrup
  • Like with the meatloaf, no fake corn syrup “maple” syrup here–you want the real deal
• 1 large egg
• Flour, for dusting work surface
  • I use all-purpose flour since it’s what I keep on-hand, but you can also use any gluten-free baking flour to keep the recipe 100% gluten free
  • For another gluten-free note, make sure you are using pure maple syrup and real molasses–this is critical as most of the non-pure/real versions sub-in other ingredients that could have gluten in them

Directions:

First up, prep your dry ingredients…

• Measure out all dry ingredients (flour, soda, & spices) into a large bowl

• Whisk dry ingredients thoroughly
  • This is key to ensuring that the cookies bake properly. Normally you would sift your dry ingredients, but this is made difficult with the slightly grainier texture of almond flour

• Set aside

Now get you wet ingredients mixed…

• In a large mixing bowl, mix melted butter, applesauce, molasses, maple syrup, and egg using a whisk or mixer until well combined

Now you’re ready to combine your dry and wet mixes…

• Using a spoon (do NOT use a mixer–it will make the dough too runny) gradually stir the flour mixture into the wet mixture

The tough part is next…you have be PATIENT….

• Separate your dough in half, form each half into a flat disc-shape, and wrap each disc in plastic wrap
  • If you have not discovered “Stretch Tite” plastic wrap yet you are in for a life-changing moment.  I will not even touch other plastic wrap–it just makes me frustrated when it breaks and sticks to itself! This stuff is. the. best.

• Refrigerate dough for at least three hours
  • You can refrigerate for up to two days, you will just have to let it thaw out slightly longer when you’re ready to work with it

Three (or more) hours have gone by…now you’re ready to bake!

• Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F
• Remove your first dough “disc” from the fridge and let it thaw on the counter while you prepare you working surface (~5-10 minutes)

• Lightly dust your working surface with flour and brush your rolling pin with some as well
  • This is a sticky dough–this is important!
• Unwrap your dough (saving plastic wrap!) and set it in the middle of your working surface and sprinkle a bit more flour on top before rolling out to be about 1/8 inch (or so) thick
• Cut out as many cookies as possible and transfer to cookie sheet–positioning them about 1 inch or so apart (they don’t spread–so don’t worry about that!

• Take remaining scraps, re-combine into another disc, and then re-wrap in plastic wrap and place in fridge
  • It is key that this dough stays cold so that you can work with it AND so it bakes evenly
• Remove second disc from fridge and repeats steps above–placing dough back in fridge after you’ve rolled it out and cut out enough cookies to fill your first cookie sheet
• Bake cookies in oven for 12 minutes on a silpat or ungreased cookie sheet–setting timer for halfway through (6 minutes) to rotate cookies 180 degrees to ensure even baking

• Once 12 minutes have passed, remove cookies from oven and let cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes
• Once 2 minutes have passed, carefully transfer cookies to wire cooling rack
  • Almond flour cookies are notoriously fragile/crumbly until they’ve fully cooled–be extra careful!
• Repeat above steps until all cookies have baked and are cooling
• Leave cookies on wire cooling rack for at least 8 hours (overnight works well!) to ensure they have full cooled and dried (do not stack them when cooling)
• Once 8 hours have passed, package them in an airtight container or ziploc bag, ensuring that you don’t stack more than two high in the container to avoid soggy cookies

You’ve baked your cookies! Congratulations! Now what?

• These cookies are delicious plain, but since it is Christmastime, a little icing can be super fun–plus the little bit of sweetness and vanilla balances out the spice of this cookie in the most INSANELY DELECTABLE way
• You can use any store-bought or homemade icing, but I recommend using homemade to avoid the weird ingredients that can be found in store-bought. My favorite? Alton Brown’s Royal Icing recipe is easy, uses ingredients you already have on hand, and maintains a slight softness when it dries that keeps you from breaking a tooth as you bite into your favorite cookie!
• Once you have the icing, just pop it in a freezer-thickness zip-top bag witha snipped corner and decorate to your heart’s content…or at least to the best of your ability…which (as you can see below) is very lacking for me personally…

Okay, so I know what you’re thinking…and I know these cookies are putzy. There’s a few extra steps that seem kinda silly and take a tiny bit of extra time, but I’m telling you it’s so, so worth it. And really, I promise, it’s no more work than having to roll eight million peanut butter balls in sugar and then unwrap eight million chocolate kisses to put in them. We all make those cookies every year…this isn’t any different!

So why is the little bit of extra effort worth it? Let me the count the ways…

• These cookies have the perfect consistency
  • They’re chewy on the inside, but they have crisp, smooth outside that’s perfect for decorating
• These cookies have the perfect spice balance
  • These cookies are like a perfectly harmonious chorus of spices singing the same Christmas carol and there’s no loud soprano (like cinnamon or ginger) overpowering the soulful altos (cloves & cardamom) that make the tune so rich
• These cookies are diabetic-friendly AND gluten-free friendly
  • Did I mention there’s only 4 carbohydrates and 3 sugars per cookie?
• These cookies are PACKED with protein and fill you up (or at least fill me up!) with just one cookie
  • Each 100 calorie cookie has a whopping 3 grams of protein

So while all of the above are reasons why these cookies are fantastic, these cookies are also wonderful to me and Tom because they’re so distinctively us. They’re a balance of what we both want in the food we eat and the food we want to feed our family one day–which makes them incredibly special.

In fact, above all that’s my favorite thing about these cookies: they’re ours. They’ll be the cookies we bring to cookie exchanges. They’ll be the cookies we make every year and decorate for our families. They’ll be the cookies we set out for Santa…and then secretly devour while the kiddos are sleeping. They’ll be our new tradition.

Because that’s the thing they don’t really talk enough about when you do pre-marital counseling…figuring out how to balance traditions when you get married is hard.  It can so easily spiral into a swirl of “my family does this“, “my church has this“, “my tradition is this” instead of choosing to do what’s best for your new family unit: you and your spouse.

So while these cookies won’t make all the stressors of holidays disappear or make Tom magically gain weight (even though I would prefer he just eat ten cookies instead of drinking scary powder made from who-knows-what), they are a true compromise and a true reflection of our very distinctive personalities. To put it simply, they’re a win-win-win.

Here’s to making many more culinary compromises…all in the name of love.

xoxo,

alaina

There’s no denying it—it’s officially cold season.

And no, I don’t mean the season of weather outside. I mean the sniffling/coughing/fever-type of “cold season” that descends on innocent good-intentioned hand-washing, arm-sneezing, flu-shot getting, vitamin-taking* people every year during the months of November and December.

{*Okay…well in all honesty I may actually only remember to take my vitamins like once a week. That is, unless my mother is reading this…in that case, I totally take my vitamins every day. Scout’s honor!}

Despite all of our precautions and good intentions to take vitamins, almost everyone gets some type of sniffle or pukey virus this time of year. Our bodies don’t seem to care that it’s holiday season and there are a myriad of events, parties, and delicious seasonal foods to be enjoyed. And really, if you ask me this is the greatest travesty of our bodies succumbing to the dreaded common cold: when your nose is stuffed up you can’t taste the foods that you only get to indulge in once a year.

As a woman who is obsessed with food, this is (of course) what I focus on when I have a cold. You may think I’m crazy lady to be more upset about not being able to taste food than not being able to breathe out of my nose, but luckily I married a man who believes the exact same thing.

How do I know we’re on the same page on this? Let me tell you a story…

Just last week, Tom got terribly ill two days before Thanksgiving. He was so sick, but even in his dehydrated, feverish state he had but one wish: to be well by Thanksgiving so he could eat the big meal. Fast forward forty-eight hours (and lots of Smartwater* later) he was a new man—a man who despite being on his deathbed days earlier managed to eat two huge plates of dinner and three pieces of pie at the Thanksgiving meal. With that miraculous turnaround, I couldn’t help but think that his sheer will and determination to get better so he could eat was a big reason why he got back up on his feet so fast.

{Note: For the love of all those who don’t want you to end up with pre-diabetes like me,  PLEASE DO NOT DRINK GATORADE WHEN YOU’RE SICK. Smartwater gives you the same electrolytes without the sugar and crazy food dye. If you need the shot of sugar, nibble on some unsweetened applesauce—I promise it does the same trick!}

Now that I’ve established that my husband and I have a potentially unhealthy adoration of food, let me get to my point: when you have a cold, it stinks. You’re usually not sick enough to stay home and Netflix-binge, but you’re also not healthy enough to sit through a meeting at work without people giving you nasty glares every time you try to hold in your hacking cough. It’s the worst.

In this predicament, I can think of but one solution to make me feel better: to cook

Cook comfort food. Cook easy food. Cook yummy food that will warm you from the inside out and create lots of leftovers…so you don’t have to cook more than you have the energy to do so!

When we get sick, Tom wants us to cook mashed potatoes…but I don’t want to eat something that will make me feel even worse after I eat it.

So…where’s the compromise?

Here’s our solution:

• Replacing the notion of “starches=comfort food” by creating a dish that leaves you just as satisfied with none of the heavy carbohydrates
• Filling the dish with lots and lots of veggies—fighting your virus by pumping your body with lots of natural vitamins and immune-boosting foods…especially if you’re not very good at remembering to take your daily multivitamin…
• Adding comforting, flavorful spices that are mild enough not to upset your tummy…but add enough punch that you can actually taste something
• Cooking a large enough quantity to ensure that you will have substantial leftovers…so you only have to cook once!

 

| All Stuffed-Up Stuffed Peppers |

Serves: 4 Tom’s or 6 Alaina’s, plus enough filling to use for 2-3 other meals for two people

Ingredients Needed:

For the filling base:

• 1.5 lbs ground turkey
  • We use the Costco ground turkey because it’s so much cheaper per pound, but that only comes in 1.5 lb package. That being said, if you have 1 lb. package that works too!
• 6 bell peppers (any color), seeded and with the tops removed
• 1 large onion, chopped
  • This is about 1 ½ to 2 cups
• 2 cups mushrooms, chopped
• 2 cups celery, chopped
• 2 tsp. minced garlic
• 1-2 tsp. olive oil

For the filling sauce:

• 1, 29 oz. can tomato sauce
  • Just sauce—not seasoned, not sweetened—it should just be tomato puree!
• 4 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 2 tsp. oregano
• 1 tsp. crushed red pepper
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• ¼ tsp salt

For the love of cheese:

• 1 cup mozzarella or parmesan cheese, shredded

Directions:

First, get everything prepped:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
• Chop/prepare all veggies, set aside
• Measure out all spices in a separate dish, set aside
• Spray and oven-safe dish with cooking spray and place prepared peppers in dish, set aside

Next, make your filling base:

• Brown ground turkey in a large enough pan and/or stock pot that can hold all ingredients once completed
• Once just browned, add in celery, onion, mushrooms, garlic, and olive oil and cook until softened

Now that your house smells delicious and you feel a little bit better already, add the sauce:

• Add tomato sauce and seasonings to pan—stir to combine

• Once combined, remove from heat

All that’s left is to put your peppers together and throw ‘em in the oven:

• Sprinkle a small amount of cheese into each pepper

• Spoon small amount of mixture into each pepper and top with a sprinkle of cheese

 

• Repeat until each pepper is full to the top (really stuff these babies!!) and top with sprinkle of cheese

• Cover dish with aluminum foil
• Place peppers in oven and cook for 1 hour

While your peppers are cooking…

• Package up your leftover “filling” in a microwave-safe dish. This filling will be your best friend for the next week as your regaining your strength and getting better. Why? Because you can made so much with it!
  • Add it to tomato soup for a hearty stew
  • Use it as a sauce for your favorite pasta/spaghetti squash/broccoli slaw dish
  • Add it to scrambled eggs and top with sambal oelek
  • Make enchiladas by spooning leftovers into Flatout tortillas, rolling ‘em up, placing them in an oven-safe dish, topping with cheese, and baking for 30 minutes at 350 degrees for thirty minutes
  • Eat it plain!—it’s delicious heated up with a sprinkle of cheese and dollop of plain greek yogurt on top!

Your timer is going off!

• Now that an hour has passed , remove from oven and serve
  • Be careful removing the foil from the pan–the steam that escapes is so so hot!

 

It might seem silly, but these stuffed peppers actually make your stuffed-up self feel a heck of a lot better–it’s comfort food, but it’s comfort food that makes your body feel better after eating it.

Why? This dish is literally “stuffed” with nutrient dense veggies–especially the vitamin C-packed bell peppers and tomatoes…the perfect cold-fighting boost your body needs when it’s under the weather.

So while you may be miserably sneezing, sniffling, and coughing all the day long, I hope that when you finally get to sit down in your comfies* you can sit back, relax, and let this comforting and cozy meal warm you from the inside out. Your body will thank you for giving it some nutrient-dense food to help fight your nasty virus, and your mouth will thank you for skipping the bland mashed potatoes.

{*Note: “Comfies” are what Tom and I call our comfy clothes. For example, for Tom its’s basketball shorts and t-shirt. For me it’s leggings, a sweatshirt, thick socks, and my electric blanket that I drag along with me everywhere like Linus from November through March}

So until this cold season passes, take heart. Use this time of year to slow down, take a deep breath, and curl up on the couch with your loved ones and read a good book or watch a Netflix marathon of your favorite TV show.

And, just for the record, I will say that sometimes mashed potatoes may be the answer to make your sick husband feel better. I may or may have not made mashed potatoes for Tom last week when it was the only thing he could stomach.

Why? Because at the end of the day cooking for someone is an act of love, and I love my husband more than anything in the entire world. As I always say, there is no such thing as a bad food or a good food. So if potatoes are what the situation calls for, make some dang mashed potatoes.

…and add lots of butter and half and half while you’re at it…because if you’re going to make mashed potatoes, really make ’em!

Here’s to making many more culinary compromises…all in the name of love.

xoxo,

alaina