Recipe Sifter

Therapeutic oatmeal cookies where you squeeze, smash, and beat the dough to release stress: brown sugar, margarine, oats, and flour become tender cookies through aggression.

One master cream soup recipe with a butter-flour roux and half-and-half, plus six variations: cauliflower, broccoli, cucumber, lima bean, spinach, and asparagus. Serve hot or cold.

If you're in a hurry, try this succulent pork dinner that can easily be made in your crockpot.

Lumberjack pancakes made with rolled oats and flour for thick, hearty flapjacks with real texture. Served with warm preserves instead of syrup for a filling breakfast that sticks with you.

Cream cheese chocolate chip cookies: a full block of cream cheese creamed with two butters for an extra-tender, slightly tangy cookie loaded with semi-sweet chocolate chips. Makes 4 dozen.

Made these whole wheat pumpkin pancakes for breakfast, and they were delicious and packed with goodness. Served these yummy pancakes with maple syrup and orange juice, our palate and bellies were all well satisfied :)

Pizza Uno's deep-dish Chicago-style pizza copycat: buttery cornmeal crust pressed up the sides of a 15-inch pan, loaded with mozzarella, Italian sausage, crushed tomatoes, and parmesan. The real-deal windy city experience at home.

Fig oat bran muffins with banana, apple juice, honey, and cinnamon. A high-fiber, low-fat muffin loaded with dried figs and whole grain oats for a wholesome breakfast.

Spiced prune walnut bread with simmered chopped prunes, cinnamon, cloves, and crunchy walnuts. Eggless quick bread with deep, jammy prune flavor and a tender whole wheat crumb.

Chewy date and nut cookie balls rolled in powdered sugar. Baked in a sheet pan, cut into squares while hot, then shaped by hand into bite-sized treats with almond extract and corn syrup.

Chewy ginger cookies made with prune butter instead of fat, loaded with warm spices and molasses. Low-fat but big on flavor with crispy edges and soft centers.

Traditional Welsh honeycake with a spiced, honey-rich crumb topped with glossy meringue. Teisen Mel is a heritage British bake with warm cinnamon, a honey glaze, and a cloud of toasted meringue on top.

Moist banana bread swaps butter for applesauce and uses egg whites instead of whole eggs. Low-fat quick bread sweetened by 4 ripe bananas with cinnamon. Freezes up to 2 months.

Applesauce oatmeal cookies are soft, cakey, and warmly spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, studded with raisins and oats. Applesauce keeps them moist and tender with only a little shortening.

Low-fat oatmeal raisin cookies built on applesauce instead of butter, with cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and orange zest. Soft, chewy, and warmly spiced.

Oatmeal cookies with dried cranberries and three warm spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom. The chewy holiday-leaning take on the classic. Four dozen per batch.