Cookie Monsters

Since it's hard to buy presents for people you don't know well, and because teachers are always so busy, we make treats to give the girls' teachers at Christmas time. 

Honey, Lovey & Sweetie all take this job very seriously and really concentrate on making beautiful designs for their teachers they love so much! It is so cute to see them so focused and dedicated to the task. It's VERY important not to mix the cookies up so that each girl can ensure HER teacher gets the cookies SHE decorated. We also add in some other stuff I make, Butter Toffee Crunch, some Deluxe Party Mix and sometimes some fudge. This year I scored some gorgeous and festive baskets 70% off at Michael's (occasionally procrastination pays!) and made the whole gift look fancier than it really was :)

Here are my little elves, hard at work again, lucky for me they love this stuff! and check out the definition on Sweetie! Those arms are really toning up from all the cartwheeling, handstanding and walking on her hands lately!

Countdown's On!

The birthday frenzy is upon us! I'm running around while they're at school picking up supplies, cake stuff, loot bag stuff, party stuff and it's hectic! The girls are asking 100 times a day how much longer til their birthday?!?!?!? how may days til the party?!?!?!? Today after school I let them help me prep the loot bags. Holy chaos Batman. They were sooooo excited to do it, Lovey ran around filling a bag before I'd divided anything up or explained what needed to go in!

I made separate piles and they walked/ran around the table, supposedly taking one from each pile for the bag. At the end, the bags were gone but some piles had run out and some still had things left. We had to go back through the bags a few times to sort it all out. I tried to keep track as they went but had to give up when my OCD got my heart rate up too high. I just let them go to it and everything fixed afterwards.

Earlier in the day I'd been cleaning out Sweetie's closet and rearranging the Christmas decor that I'd jammed in there haphazardly after the holidays. She found the Santa hats & thought they'd be perfect for this little helper job!

Chocolate Chick Cookies- Fibre anyone?

We hadn't done any baking together in a long time and every time they found me with a batch of new cookies they wanted to know why I hadn't let them help! Usually by the time they get home from school there's not much time for the long process of having such dedicated helpers so I do it during the day while they're gone.
This week I decided to humour them and wait til they got here. With only minor fighting over jobs (choc chip measuring is the coveted role) we got the batch done up and the kitchen cleaned before Murray got home. Hooray!
Lovey was on a mission and washed all the dishes for me!
Here's a close up of my "healthy" flour mix. I got a cookbook that tells you how to sneak more good stuff into your kids without them realizing it and this is one of the tricks. Since white flour has almost no nutritional value, they suggested jazzing it up a little. Soooo, my flour bin is actually a blend of white flour, whole wheat flour, wheat germ and flax seed. This gets more fibre in for sure! It's almost undetectable in things like chocolate cheesecake muffins, (and anything chocolate based)and banana bread and although noticeable in these Chocolate Chick cookies, they still taste great.
See my productive little chefs hard at work? I only had 2 spatulas and 3 workers so you can imagine how that went! They worked it out though by getting the 3rd person to move the cooled cookies into the container which they also love doing.

Now here's the ultimate secret ingredient that gives a major nutritional boost and makes these cookies sooooooooo light & super moist!! I use my MIL's recipe, substitute my flour blend and then chuck this whole can (drained & rinsed) into the batter and let the mixer beat them into a pulp.