Happy 4th of July Whole Wheat Sugar Cookies

Whole Wheat Sugar Cookies

2 sticks butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla or almond flavoring
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt

Beat softened butter with sugar until very creamy. Add egg and flour mixed with baking power and salt. Mix briefly and then add the vanilla. Beat one final time. At this point you can either drop the cookies onto a baking sheet or put them through a cookie press. If you would like to roll them and cut them into shapes they need to be refrigerated for several hours.

Bake at 350-375 degrees for about 10 minutes or until light brown.
Decorate if desired and enjoy!

We love to make these cookies because not only are they very versatile and easy to make- we always have the ingredients on hand- they are only slightly sweet. If you like a really sweet cookie you can decorate these with icing or sugars to your hearts content or you can leave them plain and they still taste good. We've also been know to add chocolate chips:).

Coming soon- tips on baking with whole wheat flour.

Good to the Last Crumb...

German Chocolate Pound Cake

1 package (18.25 ounces) plain German chocolate cake mix
1 package (3.9 ounces) chocolate fudge instant pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly mist a 12 cup Bundt pan with cooking spray and dust with flour. Shake out the excess flour.

Add all the ingredients to the mixer except the chocolate chips. Let the mixer run for 3 minutes or so. Add the chocolate chips and mix in well.

Pour the cake into the prepared pan and bake for about an hour.

Let the cake sit for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan. Enjoy!!

(recipe from Chocolate Cake Mix Doctor)


Note: we substituted chocolate fudge cake mix for the German chocolate mix and it was wonderful- very moist. Also, the recipe includes a glaze, but we were in a hurry and left it off.

Fruit Soup?

O.K., so I know all of you have heard of saving little your leftovers in a zip lock freezer bag for soup fixins at a later date- well, what about your fruit leftovers? You know that half of banana, last strawberry in the dish, or handful of blueberries.
Try this- toss your leftover fruit pieces in a container you store in the freezer. When you have a good supply dump it all into the blender with an equal amount of plain yogurt. What a wonderful yummy summertime treat! The best part- just like the soup it never tastes exactly the same every time.
Stay tuned for more yummy summertime treats. Have you tried freezing your yogurt before blending is with fruit? We are aiming for a milkshake consistency using just plain yogurt and fruit. We'll let you know.

Sweet and Simple

If you spend much time here you'll quickly find out we like to take the blaahhh ordinary, tweak it a little to try and hopefully achieve ...ahha wonderful!.
So here we have 3 simple ingredients: plain cheap oatmeal cookies, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and crunchy peanut butter. You get the picture. Melt equal amounts of chocolate chips and peanut butter, spread on one cookie and top with another, pop in the freezer until the chocolate hardens and you have a extra yummy treat. Put some in the freezer before you begin your project and when you need a break your treat awaits . Hope you enjoy.

Your turn- whats your quickie, but simple treat?