Thursday 8 May 2014

Re-organising My Kitchen and Chocolate Chip Cookies

When we put in our new kitchen, I chose to have 36" upper cabinets as opposed to the standard ones which left that goofy gap at the top.  My cupboards basically go the ceiling (I have a standard 8' ceiling) with a lovely crown moulding at the top.




I also have pantries that almost go to the ceiling.  Above these, my husband made a custom light box for bright general lighting.



I am a practical person and my home decor is no different.  I do enjoy beautiful things, but they need to be practical, and functional, and easy to clean as well a pretty.  My cupboard doors are Shaker style, because I love the simplicity, but I also think the doors themselves are easy to clean.  The cupboards go to the ceiling because I hated cleaning  the tops of my old cupboards which gathered grease and dust and a whole lot of ICK! Now, I have more space to store all my wonderful kitchen things and I don't have to worry about cleaning the tops of my cupboards again. BONUS!

So I bet you are wondering why this little blurb about my kitchen reno and what does this have to do with healthy food choices? Don't worry, I am getting to that.  When I first organised my kitchen after the renovation 2 years ago, I put the "sometimes" used things way up on the very top shelves as I required a little step stool to reach.  Makes sense, right?  So way up on the top shelves lived my blender, my food processor, and my salad spinner.  

Fast forward 2 years and my new food journey, these items have found their ways down to the everyday "reachable" parts of my cupboards.  In addition, the coveted place on my counter where my coffee maker once lived has been given to my juicer! My how things change.

The other day, I decided to make some cookies from one of my go to vegan sites. These particular cookies are gluten free too.  This was my first foray into baking vegan treats other than muffins. I had been thinking about these chocolate oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for several weeks and finally decided to give them a try.  But wait, the recipe calls for ground flax seed and water for the "egg" in this recipe, and I only have whole seeds.  Whew, thank goodness I have a coffee grinder which I typically use to grind whole spices.  Grab the stool and way up on the VERY top shelf lives my 25 year old coffee grinder!  Long story short, I use the grinder for my flax seeds, use the food processor on the large flake oats to make it flour, make my cookies and then clean up.  Yes, I think my little coffee grinder will have to take its place in the accessible cupboard with my blender and food processor! 

Over the years in the kitchen, I have acquired decent knife skills and I was always quite able to prepare fabulous meals with just my box grater, chef knife and my paring knife. Now, I feel that with the change in how I eat and what I prepare for family meals, I will concede that I need to take a little help in the food prep gadget department!  I think in the past 4 months, I have used my food processor and blender more than I have in the past 20 years and will probably keep on doing so.  In addition, I think I will experiment a whole lot more with eggless baking too.  I bet my ancient coffee grinder and I will be getting much more acquainted!

Here are my wonderful gluten free and dairy free chocolate oatmeal chocolate chip cookies from Oh She Glows.  By the way, this lovely Canadian girl has a gorgeous cookbook out that is doing really well.  I strongly encourage you to check out her site and her book!

Tada... My cookies!






My unwilling participant in my food journey enjoying her healthier option cookies!



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