Energy Balls

I found this recipe on a blog I love, The Frugal Girl.  They taste like little balls of cookie dough.  Only they have good stuff in them.  The kids love 'em.  They are perfect for after school or putting in lunch boxes instead of a cookie.  Mmmm.  I saw another similar recipe, and sort of combined them.  The link goes to the original, and below is what I did.

No-Bake Energy Balls

1/2 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup powdered milk
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

In a medium bowl, stir together peanut butter, honey, vanilla..  Stir in oats, wheat germ, powdered milk, and chocolate chips.

Refrigerate mixture for 30 minutes.

To make the balls, scoop out about a tablespoon of dough, press to compact, then roll into a ball. 

Repeat with remaining dough.

Store in the fridge.

Twix Bars

Oops - We ate all of them before I took a picture!

I got the recipe on a site called Peppermint Plum.

48 Club Crackers (a few more than one sleeve)

1 c. graham cracker crumbs (one sleeve)

1/3 c. sugar

3/4 c. brown sugar

1/3 c. milk

1/2 c. butter

Topping: 3 cups chocolate chips

Directons:

 

Place one layer of Club Crackers in a lightly greased 13×9 casserole dish. 

 

Use your food processor or blender to make graham cracker crumbs, and pour into a heavy sauce pan. Combine remaining ingredients into pan and heat over medium heat until it comes to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil for 5 minutes (continue to stir). It should look (and smell) like caramel. 

 

Carefully pour mixture over crackers. 

 

Immediately place another layer of Club Crackers on top, pushing them down into the caramel mixture gently. 

 

 Melt chocolate chips in microwave and pour on top of crackers.     

 

Refrigerate until cool, and then cut and serve. 

Cake Cookies

Cake cookies are so simple and versatile.  I mentioned them once before in an old post.  You simply take any cake mix, add 2 eggs and 1/3 cup oil, and whatever goodies you like, and drop onto a cookie sheet..  They bake at 350 for 8 minutes or so, but watch carefully, as different doughs vary.

Ideas:

This time I used white cake, made balls, and rolled them in cinnamon sugar.

Both the funfetti cake or cherry chip cake are great on their own.

Chocolate cake mix with chocolate chips, or caramel chips, or PB chips, etc.

White cake with M&M's.

Or my usual, whatever box of cake I happen to have combined with whatever goodies I happen to have.

S'more bars

These were oh, so good. Next time I would add the step of sticking the tray under the broiler at the very end to toast the marshmallows a bit.

14 graham crackers
2 cubes butter
1 cup brown sugar
Chocolate chips
Mini-marshmallows

Break the graham crackers into squares and spread onto a cookie sheet.
Melt the butter and sugar together and boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
Pour evenly over the crackers.
Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.
Sprinkle with chocolate chips and then marshmallows.
Put under the broiler for a few minutes, for the marshmallows to toast.
Let cool about 10 minutes in the fridge, and then cut into bars (along the graham squares) before it gets hard.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 cup (170 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup (105 grams) light brown sugar

1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated white sugar

3/4 cup (185 grams) peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)

1 large egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups (260 grams) all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions:


Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place rack in center of oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy (about 2 - 3 minutes). Beat in the peanut butter. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat to combine. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the peanut butter mixture and beat until incorporated. Fold in the chopped peanuts, if using. (If the batter is too soft to form into balls, place in the refrigerator for about an hour or until firm.)

Roll the batter into 1 inch (2.5 cm) balls. Transfer the cookies to the prepared baking sheet, placing about 2 inches (5 cm) apart. Then, using the tines of the fork that has been dipped in white granulated sugar, make a crisscross pattern.

Bake the cookies for about 10 to 12 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly browned around the edges. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Can be stored at room temperature, in an airtight container, for about a week. Freeze for longer storage.

Makes about 40 cookies.

Pumpkin Cookies

4 cups flour
1 cup oatmeal
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups shortening
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups canned pumpkin

• Cream shortening and sugars. Beat in egg and vanilla. Beat in pumpkin.
• Combine dry ingredients and blend into wet ingredients.
• Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheet. (They don't spread, so you can put them pretty close.)
• Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes, until lightly colored.
• Cool and then drizzle with a powdered sugar glaze.

Scooby Snacks

These came straight out of a Scooby Doo book. They aren't very sweet at all, so think more of a mini-granola bar than a cookie. That being said, the kids loved them!

2 cups flour
1 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup sugar
1 cube butter
1/2 cup cocoa
2 eggs
2 Tbl vanilla extract
2 Tbl walnut extract (I just doubled the vanilla)

Preheat oven to 350 and grease the cookie sheets.

Mix all the ingredients together. Drop dough by the tablespoon onto the cookie sheets, and then squish into whatever shape you want.

Bake for 8 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

We had lunch at church yesterday, and while Zachary picked cake for his dessert he had his eye on some chocolate chip cookie bars. So when I asked him if he felt like cooking anything it was a quick request to make these. They turned out very tasty, and have a lighter texture than regular cookie bars.

1 cup butter or margarine, melted
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 and spray a 9x13" pan.

Mix butter and sugars together. Add the egg and vanilla and mix. Add flour, soda, salt and mix. Stir in chocolate chips.

Spread into pan and bake for 25 minutes. Cool before cutting into bars.

Update on shortbread

Here's this year' batch of Nana's shortbread. Recipe is here:
http://lookwhaticooked.blogspot.com/2009/01/nanas-shortbread.html
I took some additional pictures as well:

Peppermint Bark

This is the candy pictured on the right in the Pine Bark Candy recipe.

Melt almond bark and stir in broken up peppermints. Spread, cool, and break.

Really, it is that easy.

I usually buy "vanilla melts" from the bulk section at Winco. But if I forget, one package of almond bark, or one bag of white chocolate chips work, too. Then I crush up some candy canes or some peppermint candies in the food processor. Stir them both together and spread it out on wax paper until cool and then break up into bite sized pieces.

Or one giant piece.....

Pine Bark Candy

AKA Christmas Crack, perhaps because it contains crackers, or because you crack them into pieces, but I think because it is highly addictive. It is the candy pictured on the left.

Saltine crackers
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

• Line a cookie sheet with foil. Cover with saltine crackers in one layer.
• Boil butter and brown sugar together for 3 minutes.
• Pour over crackers.
• Bake at 375 for 6 minutes.
• Remove from oven and then sprinkle chocolate chips on top.
• When they start getting melted, spread with spatula.
• Place in freezer to cool, and then crack into cookie sized pieces.

Almond Bark cookies

Chocolate or White Almond Bark Bars:

2 lb pkg of almond bark (white or chocolate) melt in oven at 200 degrees, in big bowl or roasting pan. Stir often. Take out of oven and add:

1 cup peanut butter
3 cup Captain Crunch
3 cup miniature marshmellows
3 cup dry roasted peanuts
3 cup Rice Krispies

Stir all together ~ drop by Tablespoon onto wax paper. Cool. (Note: I mix the dry cereal, marshmellows and peanuts together prior to adding to bark) My mom has been making these special Christmas cookies every year since I was born... now, she and I make them for my kids.

Russian Tea Cakes

Today marks two weeks until Christmas, which sounded a lot like a good reason to make my favorite Christmas cookies!

This is 1/2 the original recipe and makes about 3 dozen.

Mix thoroughly:
1 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Add:
2 1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Chill dough. Roll into 1" balls. Place on ungreased baking sheet. They won't spread, so pack them on there. I can make this recipe on two cookie sheets. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. They will be set and just slightly browned. When they are still warm roll in powdered sugar. After they have cooled completely roll them in the sugar again.

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CAUGHT! Not in the cookie jar, but with the bowl of dough!

Oreo Bark

After I made the Oreo truffles I had extra melted almond bark and Oreo crumbies, so I stirred them together, spread it on some wax paper, let it cool in the fridge, and broke it into bite sized pieces. It was pretty tasty, too! Definitely the way to go with the leftovers, but would also make a VERY easy dessert.

Oreo Truffles

These are SO easy and SO good! Especially impressive for a three ingredient recipe.

Take one 1 box of Oreos (or if you get the big Costco one use three tubes.) Toss them all into a food processor and blend until you get a fine powder. It will look like the bowl on the left. The white cream filling just blends right in. Leave three cups in the food processor and set the rest aside.

Add one 8oz block of softened cream cheese to the food processor and blend it together. It will now look like the food processor on the right of the picture.
Roll into 1" balls. I used my trusty cookie scoop and then just rolled the edges a bit.

Melt either chocolate chips or white almond bark. (I doubled the recipe, so did some of each.) Dip the balls into the melted chocolate, and place onto cookie sheets covered in wax paper. Sprinkle with the extra Oreo crumbs. Refrigerate for at least an hour.

Halloween Cookies

Make your favorite sugar cookie and frosting recipes. (Not to be vague, but I used a mix this time. Not saying I couldn't make my own, but didn't this round....)

The funny faces are obviously easy. For the spiderwebs I drew a big spiral of icing, and then pulled a toothpick from the inside to the outside 7 or 8 times to make the webs.

Chinese Pizza

AKA what to do with the leftover chow mien noodles from the Asian Chicken and Noodle Casserole.

This is Mom's original recipe:

Microwave 2-3 minutes:
12 oz butterscotch chips
1 cup peanut butter

Stir thoroughly until chips melt.

In bowl mix together:
8 oz crunch chow mien noodles
1 cup cereal (rice crispies, wheaties, corn flakes, etc.)
1 cup mini marshmallows

Pour gooey mixture over dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
Spread onto pizza pan. Let cool to set, and then cut up with pizza cutter into wedges.

I was out of butterscotch, so used chocolate instead. And also went with cheerios for the cereal. Both the original and the chocolate version are very tasty!

Black and White Hearts

Abigail's pick for the CDA trip.

1/4 cup sugar
1 cup butter, softened
3 oz cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 cup chocolate chips
2 tbl shortening

Combine sugar, butter, cream cheese, egg and vanilla. Beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add flour and beat until well mixed. Divide dough in half and wrap each half in wax paper. Refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface and cut into hearts. Place 1" apart on greased cookie sheet. Bake 7 to 10 minutes, or until edges are light brown. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Melt chocolate chips and shortening. (Works fine in the microwave. I started with 90 seconds, then stirred and did 30 seconds more a few times until it was super melty.) Dip half of each heart into melted chocolate. Refrigerate on wax paper lined cookie sheets until chocolate is firm.

Bird's Nest Cookies

Zachary picked these out of a cookbook to take on our Coeur d'Alene trip.

1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
1 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips
2 bags M&M's (which leaves extra for munching helpers)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Spread coconut on ungreased cookie sheet. Toast in oven, stirring frequently, until coconut just begins to turn light golden. Recipe said 25 minutes, mine was near burnt in under 20. (White, white, white, white, burned.) Remove coconut from cookie sheet and set aside. Increase oven temp to 350.

In large bowl cream the butter and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add flour and salt. Stir in chocolate chips. Form dough into 1 1/4" balls. Roll heavily in the toasted coconut. Place 2 inches apart on lightly greased cookie sheets. Make a dent in each cookie with your thumb. Bake 12-14 minutes or until coconut is brown. Remove cookies to wire racks and immediately fill with M&M's.

Cookies

It feels like I have hardly posted a thing over here. I don't know if I have been neglecting this blog, or just not cooking anything new. Probably a little of both. Today was "Cookie Sunday" at church, so here are my two contributions. On the left, cake cookies. On the right, chocolate no-bakes.
I have been making cake cookies for a long time. They are a simple go-to recipe. You just combine 1 box of cake mix, (any type will do), 2 eggs, 1/3 cup oil. Add whatever goodies you want. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes or so. That is it! These are from the "funfetti" mix, which is a kid pleaser. I also like using chocolate mix and adding chocolate chips or M&M's, or whatever else my pantry has to offer that day.

The second recipe is from Mom, and is also simple.

In a big bowl stir together:
3 cups oatmeal
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Combine and boil 1 minute:
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup milk
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 tsp vanilla

Stir the chocolate goo into the oatmeal mix. Stir well and drop by spoonfuls (I use my cookie scoop) onto wax paper. They will set up as they cool.

It is a very forgiving recipe. I didn't have nearly enough oatmeal, so I just added a lot more coconut. I also was short on the cocoa, but it didn't seem to matter. Mental note: Check supplies before you start cooking....