Oatmeal Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars ~ A recipe

On my last post I mentioned making some oatmeal cranberry chocolate chip cookie bars and every commenter so far has asked for the recipe…so I thought I’d share it .

It’s basically the recipe found on the Quaker Oats oatmeal container and on this page with a few of my own substitutions.  Here’s my own version of the recipe.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick), softened
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar {I use turbinado or raw sugar}
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour {I use a mix of white and fresh-ground wheat flour}
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
• 3 cups old fashioned, uncooked oats
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F.  Beat butter and sugars until creamy.  Add in eggs and vanilla.  Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and mix well.  Add oats, cranberries and chocolate chips and mix well.

Press dough onto bottom of ungreased 9x13-inch baking pan.  Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown. 

I’d show you a picture of the finished product…but they didn’t last long around here…maybe I’ll remember to take a picture the next time I make these yummy cookie bars .

Pilgrim Hats ~ A Thanksgiving Eve Tradition

A couple years ago, I found a cute recipe in a Family Fun Magazine that I knew the kids would enjoy making, and it looked simple enough that we could actually accomplish it...so began our Thanksgiving Eve Pilgrim Hat cookie making tradition.

This recipe calls for only a few ingredients: a bag of large marshmallows, a bag of chocolate chips, a package of fudge striped cookies, and a container of colored icing (the recipe calls for orange icing, but this year we used green).

My little kitchen helpers took turns smoothing out the melted chocolate over the chocolate-dipped marshmallows.

My camera guy (ds7) grabbed a picture of the pilgrim hats cooling (and hardening) in the fridge.

Here's the final product, the green icing makes them look a bit like leprechan hats - but the kids didn't mind :)

And, of course, I must share a picture of one of our cute taste-testers.

This treat is a great one to deliver to family and friends on Thanksgiving Day. Dh took two of our kiddos to his parents' house to deliver a plate of these on Thanksgiving morning, while I stayed home with dd5 to guard our turkey (in the oven) and work on all of those other millions of things that need to be done to prepare our annual Thanksgiving feast :)

Menu Plan ~ April 26 thru May 2

With the weather we had last week, I'm not sure whether to plan for winter comfort foods or switch over to cool summer dishes: we started the week with chilly rain, followed by a couple days of beautiful springtime weather and then the weekend brought scorching summer temps!

So this week, we're just sticking with meals that we enjoy eating...and here's the plan:

Breakfasts

• toast & jelly
• Whole Wheat, Choco Chip pancakes
• breakfast cookies
• cereal & yogurt
• baked oatmeal

Lunches

• tortilla pizzas, apple slices
• pb&j sandwiches, oranges
• snacky lunch (pretzels, cheese slices, fruit)
• quesadillas, oranges

Dinners

• Broccoli Cheese Soup, homemade bread
• Baked Mac & Cheese, green beans
• Soft Tacos, corn
• Rodeo Chicken Sandwiches, leftover baked beans, carrots & dip
• Cheesy Brown Rice, mixed vegies
• Homemade Pizza, carrots & dip
• Crockpot Italian Chicken, homemade bread, mixed vegies

For lots more menu plans, visit OrgJunkie.

Menu Plan ~ April 13-19

My menu plan post for this week is a bit late. It's actually been written on my calendar since last Friday, but I'm just now getting the post done. Oh well, better late than never, right? :)

There's lots of ham dishes in the plan this week - I don't want any of our delicious leftover ham from Easter dinner to go to waste (and if I don't plan to use it - that's exactly what would happen! :))

Breakfasts ~ toasted english muffins & jelly (buy 1 get 2 free sale!), baked oatmeal, breakfast cookies, whole wheat & choco chip pancakes

Lunches ~ Broccoli Cheese Soup (leftovers), ham sandwiches, crackers & cream cheese, pb&j sandwiches, pizza quesadillas, egg salad

Dinners ~ Egg Casserole (with ham), Rodeo Chicken Sandwiches, Black Bean & Ham Soup, homemade pizza, Chicken Paprikash, Baked Ziti

By the way, if you are looking for a really good broccoli cheese soup recipe - the one that I linked to on this page is AWESOME! It really is! I've made it 3 times in the past month. My husband loves it, and my 7-year old (who gags when eating veggies) actually told his little sister that it was good - and then immediately caught himself and said "I mean, it's okay" :)

There's lots more menu plans over at OrgJunkie!

Baking Nights

One night a week, while Daddy and my oldest son head to AWANAs, the two youngest and I have a baking night.

After getting the dinner dishes washed up, I pre-measure our ingredients into kid-friendly containers. On this particular night we are making breakfast cookies.

My daughter takes her turn adding ingredients to the mixing bowl. She also loves to try her hand at mixing the batter.

And I can't forget to give my two-year old a turn, he wants to do it all by himself :)

Once the batter is ready for the oven, I give the kids a small taste of their favorite ingredient, chocolate chips - they usually have a bit of fun before actually eating them.

While they're enjoying their little treat, I pop the cookies into the oven.

When the first batch is finished, my taste-testers enjoy the fruits of their labors (actually, on this night they also got to finish up some left-over birthday cake along with taste-testing our fresh-baked breakfast cookies).


And of course, we always leave some samples on the the counter for Daddy and big bro to snack on when they return.

A fun, productive evening with my kiddos. A yummy breakfast treat for the morning (and some for the freezer). A cute little guy in a too-big apron. Definitely a finer thing.

There's lots more finer things over at Amy's blog.

Menu Plan ~ March 22-28

This week I'm planning meals that make use of what I have on hand already. I plan to head out to the grocery store to stock up on fresh fruit and a few basics, but that's about it.

Last week, the kids and I headed to a local farm and stocked up on beef, so we do have a bit more beef in the menu this week - it does feel good to have a full freezer again.

Breakfasts ~ french toast, overnight whole wheat breakfast cake*, pancakes, amish baked oatmeal*, cinnamon rolls, cereal & yogurt
*Both the baked oatmeal, and ww breakfast cake are prepared the night before & kept in the fridge. I love that all I do in the morning is preheat the oven and then add the prepared pans - and they are both so YUMMY!

Lunches ~ tortilla pizzas, grilled cheese, pb&j sandwiches, snacky lunch (pretzels, cheese, fruit), tuna fish sandwiches, cheese 'n chips (basically tortilla chips topped with melted cheddar cheese)

Dinners ~ Cracker Casserole (named by my kids:) ), Baked Macaroni & Cheese, Chili (leftover from weekend), Beefy Enchiladas, Pizza Bread, Baked Ziti, Sloppy Joes

For more menu plans, check out OrgJunkie!

Better Than Box Cake

We just celebrated my daughter's 5th birthday. She requested plain yellow cake with "white frosting with dots" (translated funfetti frosting) ~ I planned on purchasing a yellow cake mix at my weekly trip to the grocery store - they're always on sale. But no sale this week, and I just couldn't bring myself to pay almost 2 bucks for a cake mix.


When I got home I did what I always do when faced with finding a good recipe, I hit the internet. My search for "homemade yellow cake" yielded this recipe that only required ingredients that I already had on hand, was extremely easy, and according to my husband "better than box cake". It can't get any better than that, can it?

For more Frugal Friday posts, head over to Life As Mom!

Menu Plan ~ March 8-14

We're gearing up for a busy week around here. My daughter will be celebrating her 5th birthday on Tuesday, so she got to choose her favorite dinner.

In addition, the two older kids are beginning swimming lessons on Tuesday evening (indoor pool, of course!). We have to be at the pool by 5:30pm on Tuesday & Thursday evenings, which means we need to leave home by 5:00pm at the latest! I would love to have dinner prepared so that all I have to do is re-heat in the oven for about 10 minutes when we get home - we'll see how it goes.

Breakfasts ~ Overnight Whole Wheat Breakfast Cake, french toast, pancakes, Amish Baked Oatmeal, cereal & yogurt, toast

Lunches ~ doctored spaghetti noodles, leftover homemade pizza, quesadillas, pb&j sandwiches, grilled cheese, snacky lunch (crackers, cheese, fruit)

Dinners ~ homemade pizza, egg casserole & fruit salad, Tortilla chips w/ taco meat & cheese (dd's choice), Chicken and Gravy over noodles, Broccoli Cheddar Soup & homemade bread, Pizza Bread & carrot sticks, Baked Ziti

For lots more menu plans, visit OrgJunkie!

Breakfast is in the freezer

I was very inspired by the Hot Breakfast Challenge that The Happy Housewife hosted last month. One of the things that makes it possible for me to actually serve a hot breakfast is the fact that my freezer is now stocked with some of our favorite hot breakfasts.

When I opened the freezer this morning, I got to choose between breakfast cookies, whole wheat pancakes, and french toast - I chose breakfast cookies. Then, I simply took the cookies out of the freezer and popped them into the toaster oven. A few minutes later we had a hot breakfast on our plates!

Stocking my freezer with these breakfast items was actually very simple. Last week on our baking night, we made a batch of breakfast cookies. I kept about a dozen cookies out for enjoying right away and put the rest into freezer bags (about 8 cookies in each bag). Then, over the weekend, I made pancakes for breakfast - since I already had the griddle out, I doubled the recipe - some of the pancakes went straight into our bellies and the rest were stowed in the freezer. And yesterday I made a double batch of french toast - this produced a hot, yummy breakfast for my family and two bags of french toast for the freezer.

Now if I can only keep up this momentum!