Chicken Avocado Ranch Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Salad

For me, this meal is currently one of my favourites, but it takes some time to get ready. Something about it makes me think I should be enjoying it in California - perhaps it's the avocado...

The sandwich is made up of:

• Two pieces of Farmer's Market cheddar cheese bread

• 2 tsp butter (1 tsp spread on each outer side, for frying)

• 30g cheddar cheese

• A few slices of tomato

• 2-3 slices of avocado (I start with 1/2 an avocado, and put a couple slices into the sandwich, and dice the remainder and add it to the salad, so about 1/4 avocado in each)

• 3 oz chicken breast pieces

• 1.5 Tbsp Kraft low fat Ranch dressing

The salad includes:

• 2-3 cups baby romaine lettuce mix

• 1/2 medium tomato, diced (mostly, whatever was left after the slices went into the sandwich)

• About 1/3 granny smith apple, diced (I just nibble on the rest later)

• Approx. 1/4 avocado (I start with 1/2 an avocado, and put a couple slices into the sandwich, and dice the remainder and add it to the salad, so about 1/4 avocado in each)

• 2 slices of bacon, cooked extra crispy using my microwave tray, then crumbled

• Dressing of your choice (for this one, I used 1.5 Tbsp Farm Boy lemon garlic vinaigrette dressing)

Nutrition information: sandwich / salad

Calories: 512 / 166
Potassium: 385 / 386
Fat: 23 / 12
Carbohydrates: 38 / 17
Fibre: 4 / 7
Protein: 27 /  9
Weight Watchers Points Plus: 12 / 5

My rating: a filling and satisfying meal, mostly healthy ingredients, with healthy fats, plus the deliciousness that can only come from bread and butter (one of my weaknesses). The salad (or variation thereof) is on my menu at least weekly, but the sandwich is a rare delicacy.

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies (Jacques Torres recipe)

Last week, I finally caved and made a recipe I've been wanting to try for a long while now: the famous chocolate chip cookie recipe that ran in the New York Times in 2008 and can be found everywhere online. They were delicious. Amazing. I WILL make these again.

I made a couple substitutions (artificial vanilla instead of the natural kind, and a blend of milk, semisweet and dark Belgian chocolate) so I didn't have to made a separate trip to the store. I also didn't quite make it to the 24-hour refrigeration mark - I ended up baking 22 hours in.

The biggest change I made, however, was to the size of the cookies. This recipe is for HUMONGOUS cookies. I measured mine out (just a bit over a level Tbsp each), and made just over 7 dozen normal-sized cookies about 2.5" across - many more than the 1.5 dozen this recipe is supposed to make. If you made the smaller cookies like me, you should bake for somewhere around 8-10 minutes.

Since I had so many more than expected, I bagged up a couple dozen for my colleagues (see picture), sent a container to work with my spouse, and took a couple dozen to the pottery studio.

Nutrition information: for a serving of two cookies
Calories: 200
Potassium: 0
Fat: 9
Carbohydrates: 27
Fibre: 1
Protein: 2
Weight Watchers Points Plus: 5 (3 for a single cookie)

My rating: a perfect combination of sweet chocolate with sea salt. Everyone loved them. However, because of the quality and the price of some of the ingredients (namely 1-1/4lb of Belgian chocolate), I'll keep these for just an occasional rotation.