Diabetic Friendly Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup Crisco Shortening

1/4 cup Splenda - Granulated

1/2 cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend

2 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup milk chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together flour, salt and baking soda.  Set aside.

In medium size mixing bowl.  Mix Splenda Granular Sugar, Splenda Brown Sugar Blend, Butter and Shortening till nice and fluffy.  Add in vanilla.  Add in eggs one at a time beating after each addition.

Add in flour gradually, and beat just until flour is incorporated.  Mix in Chocolate chips.

Drop by rounded teaspoon onto an ungreased non stick cooking sheet.  Flatten the cookies slightly and bake for 10 to 12 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.

I like to use a small ice cream scoop when baking cookies.  I flattened the cookies with the back of the scoop.  I baked them on parchment lined cookie sheets.  I got a total of 33 cookies.

Here's the nutritional info courtesy of LiveStrong

My favorite Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

My husband Chris was visiting a family from our church about two months ago and asked me if I had anything that he could take along as a treat.  I had a variety of cookie dough left over, one of which was Oatmeal Raisin and so I made a sampler platter.  (That sounds a lot better than "leftover platter doesn't it?")  Anyway, a couple of weeks later, one of the little boys from the family, specifically requested that next time Chris came over, could he please bring some more Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.  So just for Curtis here is my Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Recipe.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup  brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups oats, uncooked (not instant)
1 1/2 cups raisins

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a cookie sheet with nonstick spray. 

Combine together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a mixer beat the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla extract. Increase speed to high and beat until nice and fluffy.

Mix  the flour mixture into the creamed mixture until the flour is no longer visible. (Don't over mix or your cookie will be tough!.) Stir in oats and raisins.   This is where your arm will get a little bit of a workout!

To get nice, even round shaped cookies, I like to use an ice cream scoop.  (Use a #40 size)  If you don't have a good size scoop you can make a ball with two tablespoons of dough, place on cookie sheet and flatten slightly.  Place cookies about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 11 to 13 minutes until golden, but still moist beneath cracks on top. Remove from oven; let cookies sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool.

 Since it's oats and fruit you can enjoy these completely guilt free!  Right?

Khalil Wedding Cookies

This past weekend, I was lucky enough to get to attend the wedding reception for these two cuties:

 Aren't they just adorable?  The groom is from Nepal and met the bride in Utah.  The world truly is becoming a smaller place everyday!

I made cookies that were going to be placed on the table as favors.  The colors were gold and green so I was a little nervous, because gold doesn't translate well to icing.  But I found this amazing edible glitter that I fell in love with.  So hours and hours of hand-painting later here's what I came up with:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Treats

Almost a month ago now, my stepfather had a stroke.  Needless to say, our life's were quickly turned upside down.  After a lot of ups and downs, I am thankful to say that he is now slowly but surely recovering.  He is currently in Rehab ward and has actually been there for about two weeks, but before that it seems like we never knew where he was going to be from day to day.  Started in the ER, to ICU, then to Neurological monitoring and then Rehab. 

Every single staff member that we came in contact with were soo kind and caring.  We wanted to make just a little something to show them that we appreciated them, so I started making cookies.  Because we were all so busy I opted for Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Easy to make and everyone loves them!  We made bags and bags of cookies.  Each bag had two giant cookies in it.

My favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe to use, is the Tollhouse Cookie Recipe.  I use an ice cream scoop to scoop the dough and then let it chill in the freezer for a few minutes.  This helps the cookies keep their nice round shape. 

A special Thank You to all those wonderful nurses, doctors, medical staff, rehab therapists, counselors and anyone else I might have forgot!

And to my mother:  You are AMAZING!!

Teacher Appreciation Week

Of course as I write this, because I have been slow with the updates, school has already ended for summer.

The week of May 3rd was Teacher Appreciation Week.  Several years ago, I found out that nothing was being done for the teachers.  Well the Jordan kids were not going to stand for that.  So we started baking.  First it was just for the actual teacher of their grade.  Then of course we had to include the PE teacher, the music teacher, the gym teacher, the librarian, the art teacher, their teachers from previous years, the.....you get the picture.   We ended up making bags and bags of cookies!  And for some reason, when we do anything like this, my kids think its a tradition and we have to do it every year.

We started with the gifted program that they attend once a day.  I think we made 18 bags of cookies.  I got to go up there and have lunch with kids while they ran around delivering cookies to all the teachers and staff.  We had a blast!

Next was Ella's preschool - a much smaller group to bake for!

Last but not least, was Riley and Ciara's elementary school.  I think we made 25 bags for them.

We have been soo blessed to have the most amazing teachers.  Each one of them has become like a member of our family and I am so thankful for the love and care they have shown to each of our children.  Ms Becky, Ms D, and Ms O - Thanks a million, we love you!

 

"Thanks A Buzzillion" Bee Cookies

A couple of weeks ago, we had a meeting for the Teachers of our Primary at Church.  (Primary is the Organization for children 18 mos - 11 years old)

We wanted to let our teachers know how much we appreciate them, so among other things we gave them these:

A little something sweet, for the sweet teachers of our ward!