Just 6 Cookies

Sunday morning I woke up and basically couldn't stop coughing. A deep, painful, chest cough. And I couldn't catch my breath. My allergies had been giving me a pretty sore throat last week, but I was enjoying spending so much time outside in the glorious summer sunshine, I didn't mind! Until those darn allergies triggered my asthma. I'm now staying indoors until this wind dies down and my steroids kick in, which makes me pretty sad, to be honest.

It's been a good two years since my asthma has been like this, so I'm pretty discouraged, and wondering what I did wrong. Should I have stayed on my allergy drops? I quit taking them last November after about a year because I felt like they weren't doing anything. But maybe they were? I didn't need steroids the entire time I was on them! I will have to look into that...

In the meantime, I've been craving cookie dough. Probably seeking comfort and security since life is all up-in-the-air right now. Last night I finally succumbed. While I drove to the pharmacy to get my meds, Ross biked to the grocery store for cookie ingredients (we seem to be out of everything these days).

However, Ross and I have a terrible habit of eating the entire batch of sweets in two days, regardless of how big the batch is. This time, I decided to solve that problem by only making 6 cookies. Just 6. We each ate one in dough form (ahhhh) and two fresh from the oven. I was absolutely, embarrassingly, completely overjoyed. Total bliss. And knowing I only had two hot cookies to eat made me enjoy them even more. No dessert beats the simple comfort of chocolate chip cookies.

This recipe is basically 1/4 of the recipe for my absolute favorite gluten-free chocolate chip cookies. Here are the measurements for just 6 cookies:

2 Tbs butter, softened
2 Tbs brown sugar
1 Tbs powdered sugar
1 tsp ground flax or chia seeds + 3 tsp water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup Bob’s Red Mill brown rice flour (brand makes a difference)
1/4 cup Bob’s Red Mill almond meal/flour
2 heaping Tbs gluten-free chocolate chips (we're suckers for the Enjoy Life brand)

1.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a pan with parchment paper or prepare with cooking spray.

2.) In a tiny bowl, mix the flax or chia with water and set aside.

3.) Beat the butter and sugars until smooth. Mix in the flax 'egg' and vanilla extract.

4.) Beat in the remaining ingredients, adding the chocolate chips last.

5.) Shape into Tablespoon-sized balls and place on prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Makes 6 cookies.


Hope these make your day like they made mine!

Catch Up

I haven't had a day off in an entire week. Yikes! Longer post coming tomorrow, but here's what the last few days have involved:


-Asthma attack and steriods. Gross.

-Wondering how to make and keep real friends here?!

-Lots of prayer and thought (and, yes, stress) about what I want to do with my life this summer and beyond.

-Stressing over the hospital-wide insurance audit on dependents. Seriously?!

-Finding a new church to attend for the first time tomorrow. We'd been going to one, but had trouble getting involved- they had to turn down 100 people who wanted to be in small groups. Time to find a more organized and mature church!

-Loving some of the sweet babies and parents in the NICU right now, even though we're back to the chaos of 2 units.

-Encouraging a fellow hearing-impaired student through her last year of nursing school.

-Cheering for Ross as he ran a 5k in sub-20 degree temps this morning before I headed to work at 11am.

-Signing up for the Brew to Brew relay and the Warrior Dash this summer. Possibly influenced by the fact that I'm overcompensating since the doctor forbade me to run the 5k I registered for today. (Although, even in my stubbornness, I'm smart enough to know this is the worst my asthma has been in my entire life and I will do anything and everything to make it go away. Speaking of which, any ideas?! Steroids eat away at my bones and the lining of my stomach, make me have weird dreams, and give me heart palpitations. I would like to avoid them in the future.)

-Starting a budget this month so we can begin the long process of saving for a house.

-Planning 3 meals/week that both Ross and I will eat- hoping this leads to more responsible grocery shopping which is more budget-friendly.


WOW just typing it all out makes me feel overwhelmed again. Time to crawl into bed and dive into God's Word. I'm thinking my great Bible time last night led to the best hour of sleep I've had in a LONG time- until Ross came home at 11pm and woke me up. Here's hoping for a longer stretch tonight. Neither of us has to wake up to an alarm tomorrow- BLISS!

Thanks for letting me vent :o)