Oatmeal Nut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today is a special day. A special sweet little girl turns 2!!

Two years ago, Ryan and I got to meet our sweet Goddaughter for the first time. Avery has been such a blessing in our lives, always bringing us joy. Can you tell by my cheesy smile how happy she makes me...

Since that amazing day in the hospital when we first got to hold her, we have watched her grow into an intelligent, sweet little girl. Of course our little princess has her Diva moments, but she is surrounded by a family that loves her, which only makes her project more love!

Little Avery LOVES her sweets, so in celebration of her second birthday, we thought we would make special cookies, for a special little girl! Bonus, these cookies just happen to be gluten free!

We can't wait to officially celebrate with everyone this weekend and many more special memories with Avery.

Happy Birthday Avery! Uncle Ryan and Aunt Jessie love you!!

Oatmeal Nut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from Trader Joe's recipe

Yields: 24-36 cookies
Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 12 minutes

¼ cup butter, room temperature

1 ¼ tsp baking soda

½ cup sugar

3 cups TJ’s gluten free rolled oats

½ cup brown sugar

6 oz chocolate chips

2 eggs

½ cup sunflower seeds or chopped nut

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup peanut butter or almond butter

Preheat oven to 350F. In a large bowl, combine sugar, brown sugar and butter and beat until creamy. Add eggs, vanilla and baking soda and mix well. Add peanut butter and mix. Stir in oats, chocolate chips and seeds or nuts. Place tablespoon full of dough on a lightly greased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake 12 minutes until lightly brown around edges.

Low Country Lentils: Food Bloggers Against Hunger

Have you ever been hungry? Well, it turns out that 1 in 6 Americans will be hungry at some point in their lives. The food assistance program in the United States averages to around $4 per day for each person. Could you feed your family on $4 a day??

I have joined forces with Food Bloggers Against Hunger today to help raise awareness of this rapidly growing problem in America.

I decided to take $4 to the grocery store to see if I could come up with a meal for that much. My first thought was peanut butter and jelly, but peanut butter is actually pretty expensive and took up the entire $4 itself. My second thought was beans, which are economical to buy, filling and stretch for many servings. I like to cook my lentils in broth, but quickly found that buying broth wouldn't fit into my budget. So I found that the lentils, lemon and one vegetable would come under $4. 

• Lentils - $1.69
• Red pepper - $1.19
• Lime - $0.29
• Grand Total = $3.39

After spending an obscene amount of time in the store and coming away with only three ingredients with my $4, I was very frustrated and tired. It opened my eyes to how difficult life can be and I paused to be thankful for my life.

In addition to dedicating my post to this issue today, I want to encourage my readers to watch A Place At The Table by Participant Films. The documentary brings out the truth about the hunger problem in America and the implications it has on our society. If you have not yet seen this, I encourage you to do so - it will open your eyes!

Help fix this problem in America and send a letter to congress. I am proud to join forces with 200 other food bloggers today (and moving forward) to make some noise about this problem. I hope you will help too!!

Low Country Lentils

Yields: 6-8 servings
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 15-20 minutes

2 T olive oil
1 red pepper, finely chopped
2 T cajun spices

1 tsp ground cumin

2 cups red lentils
4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup water
½ tsp salt
Juice of 1/2 lemon
⅓ cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Heat olive oil in a large soup pot or dutch oven over medium heat. Add in the red pepper, cajun spices and cumin and saute for 5 minutes. Add in the lentils and stir to combine, then add in the broth, water and salt to pot. Stir and cook covered for 15-18 minutes or until the lentils are soft. Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice and cilantro.

Serving suggestions:
 - Over brown or white rice
 - Over fresh spinach
 - With cornbread

Spring Vegetable Crunch Salad and Blogiversary

One year ago today, I published my first ever blog post - I Now Pronounce You Man and Wife.

Happy Blogiversary

Reaching this milestone made me look back on some of my early posts and realize how much I have grown as a writer, chef, blogger, and person overall. The blog has been a channel where I can share my thoughts and opinions about the field I love - cooking. Kettler Cuisine challenges my creativity, writing skills and culinary knowledge every day.

Lessons in Blogging

There are several things that I have learned from the past year of blogging. It certainly isn't as easy as one would think:

1. A post takes time. As simple as it sounds to type up your thoughts and a recipe, it requires drafts, edits, HTML and multimedia. I have never been able to just "throw" a post together in 20 minutes.
2. You must think ahead. Different seasons bring different produce, ingredients and food trends. In order to stay relavant, I try to think a few months ahead and plan for dishes or ingredients I want to write about. 
3. Proper SEO is important. Search engine optimization is key to a good blog. This helps others find your site, and when you are taking the time and effort to write and create, you want people to read it! I have to thank my hubby and BoostSuite for this lesson. 
4. Promotion is a must. Food blogging is a wonderful, collaborative community of awesome people. I have posted and commented on other blogs, and in return, received blog-love in the form of shares, retweets, likes, comments, and shout-outs!
5. Give credit when deserved. I love to create my own recipes, but I often find inspiration from others. There are so many great recipes out there. When I get inspired by them, I make sure to give them some love!
6. This is not a job, but a hobby. I could spend all day, every day writing, cooking, posting, researching, editing, designing, etc. I have to limit my time on the blog so that I don't ignore other aspects of my life, like my job, friendships, health and most importantly, my husband!

Speaking of Ryan, I've got to thank him for all the support and advice. I also want to thank him for his patience, waiting to eat while I fiddle with the camera and lighting to capture our meals. Bless his heart,...as we say in the South.

Speaking of South, Spring has arrived! Well, at least for a day. I am so ready for it that I decided to start posting Spring recipes (see lesson #2). This particular one is a Spring Vegetable Crunch Salad.

The great thing about this salad is that there are no specific measurements or dressings. The amount of ingredients can depend on the number being served (or how many leftovers desired). The combination of these vegetables just screams Spring - a nice refreshing salad for a beautiful Spring day.

The key is to chop all the ingredients into uniform sizes. It was a split decision on dressing though - I went light vinaigrette and Ryan opted for his beloved Ranch.

We have a lot more in store for everyone, so keep following and compromising!

Thanks again for all your support.

Love,
Jess

Spring Vegetable Crunch Salad

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cucumbers

Radishes

Yellow cherry tomatoes

Pea sprouts (or other sprouts)

Chop all ingredients and toss with salt and pepper. Dress with favorite salad dressing right before serving. Salad can be made ahead and stored in the refrigerator.