Meltaways (Ty's Grandma's Recipe)

I think I did mine for like 8 or 9 minutes, but my oven seems to be on the faster side for baking.

Dough:
1/2 pound soft butter (two sticks)
3/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cup flour Cream butter until fluffy.

Add cornstarch and powdered sugar and blend well. Beat in flour until thoroughly mixed. Drop by small teaspoons onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Cool and spread with frosting.

Frosting:
Blend together 3 oz. soft cream cheese, 1 cup powdered sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Add food coloring as desired.
You probably already do this, but here are some tips: - To shape the cookies, I make small balls of dough and place them on the cookie sheet. Then, I spray the bottom of a glass with cooking spray and dip the glass in flour; I use this to gently flatten the cookies so that they are about a quarter inch thick. -I try not to overcook-if even one cookie looks a little bit golden brown on the edges, I take the whole tray out of the oven.

The Best Copy Cat Swig Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup Butter room temperature
• 3/4 cups Vegetable Oil
• 1 1/4 cups Sugar
• 3/4 cup Powdered Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Water
• 2 Eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1/2 teaspoon Cream of Tarter
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 5 1/2 cups Flour

Sour Cream Frosting

• 1/2 cup room temperature butter
• 3/4 cup Sour Cream
• 2 cup Powdered Sugar

Instructions

1. Cream together Butter, Vegetable Oil, Sugars, Water, and Eggs.

2. Combine dry ingredients and slowly add to butter mixture.

3. Mix until everything is combined.  Your dough should be a little crumbly and not sticky at all.

4. Roll a golf ball sized ball of dough and place it on your cookie sheet.

5. Now its time to give these babies their signature rough edge.  Put 1/4 c of sugar and a pinch of salt in a dish (this is in addition to the sugar and salt listed above.)  Stick the bottom of a glass in it.  This is going to be your cookie press.

6. Firmly press it into the center of your dough ball.  You want your dough to spill out over the sides of the glass.  If there is a lip its even better.

7. Bake at 350 degrees F for 8 minutes.  They should just barely be browning on the bottom.    Move cookies to a cooling rack.  Once they are cool put them in the fridge.

8. Start by creaming together butter and sour cream and salt.  Slowly add powdered sugar.  When it gets so thick its not frosting like add a splash of milk.  Alternate this process until your frosting is the desired consistency.  Add 1 drop of red food coloring and whip on high for 1 minute.

9. Keep cookies in a sealed container until they are ready to serve.  The magic of a Swig Sugar Cookie is that the cookies are cold and the frosting is room temperature.  Frost right before serving (if you make them in advance and need to refrigerate the frosting make sure you give it time to warm up before serving).

(Says to refrigerate the cookies and then frost with the frosting at room temperature. I tried that but didn't like the cookies cold. They weren't soft and crumbly. I just bake them and then frost when cooled and store them at room temperature. Obviously if there was extra frosting, I would store that in the fridge :) I also add a drop of vanilla to the frosting. I bake them for 8 minutes if I use a regular cookie sheet and 7 minutes if I use a dark cookie sheet. I like them on the softer side. Other than that, I follow the recipe exactly! It makes around 4 dozen. And yes, you will use almost an entire 2lb bag of powdered sugar for the frosting! The frosting makes a ton. You could really do 1 1/2 recipes and one batch of frosting.)

Homemade Granola Bars

What You Need

1/4 cup Coconut Oil
1/4 cup Raw Honey (Or if you are the type of vegan that doesn't eat honey, you can use maple syrup or agave)
1/3 cup Almond Butter
1/3 cup Crushed Raw Almonds
1 cup Gluten Free Oats
1 tablespoon Chia Seeds
1 tablespoon Raw Cacao Powder
1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon Coarse Sea Salt

What You Do

-In a large frying pan on medium heat melt together the coconut oil, raw honey and almond butter. Use a spatula to mix together and press lightly on the raw honey to help it melt. Melt these until it all becomes one thin batter. Lower the heat a bit and continue to stir. The honey is likely to burn if you don't keep stirring.
-As you stir add the vanilla and raw cacao powder. Stir until all the ingredients come together into a thin "milk" chocolate colored batter.
-Stir in a half cup of your gluten free oats. Stir until the batter coats all the oats. Now turn off the heat.
-Stir in crushed raw almonds.
-Now stir in the last half cup of gluten free oats. Stir until the everything is coated. The batter now should be thick with coated oats and almonds.
-Sprinkle in the chia seeds and stir on last time.
-Pour your batter into a small baking dish lined with parchment paper. Use the spatula to press into all corners of the pan and smooth out the top.
-Sprinkle the coarse sea salt on top.
-Place in the refrigerator over night. Or until the bars harden.
-Once the bars have set, cut into small bars and store in an air tight container and keep in the refrigerator. These can keep for about a week.

Oatmeal Carrot Muffins

These just popped out of the oven and I couldn't be happier! They are curtesy of my new favorite baking site: http://www.fortysomething.ca/ They are practically guiltless and next time I'm going to add even more goodness with some flax and chia seeds. I've gone on a mini-muffin kick and have a freezer full of a variety of muffins that I can just take wherever and hand over to the kids (but usually consume myself). Before starting, realize that they take at least 3 hours to make - see instructions.

Oatmeal Carrot Muffins

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup oats

1/2 cup shredded carrots

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1 egg

1 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 tbs baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup raisins

1. Heat oven to 400. In large bowl pour buttermilk over oats, stir to mix. COVER AND LET STAND FOR 2 HOURS OR REFRIGERATE OVERNIGHT.

2. Cream together brown sugar, margarine or oil, and egg. Stir into oat mixture and add carrots.

3. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Stir into batter just moistened, then add raisins.

4. Spoon into muffin cups coated with nonstick cooking spray or baking cups, filling almost to the top. Bake at 400 for 17-22 min. WATCH THE TIME ON THE MUFFINS. Insert toothpick to check.

Raspberry Cream... a spin on cottage cheese and yogurt

Seriously tasty ladies... it's a good change from the run of the mill cottage cheese, though probably slightly less healthy due to the added sugar.

By MARTHA ROSE SHULMAN of the New York Times

This simple dessert is a perfect destination for frozen raspberries, which throw off a lot of juice when they thaw. Serve it as a dessert, a breakfast, a topping for toast or a snack.

1 12-ounce package frozen raspberries

1 to 2 tablespoons sugar (to taste)

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon finely chopped lemon zest

1 1/2 cups low-fat or nonfat cottage cheese (I used nonfat)

1/3 cup plain low-fat or nonfat yogurt (I used nonfat greek yogurt)

1. Empty the frozen berries into a bowl. Toss with the sugar, and place in the refrigerator for several hours to thaw. Add the lemon juice and lemon zest, and stir together.

2. In a food processor fitted with the steel blade, blend the cottage cheese until smooth. Add the yogurt, and continue to blend until there is no graininess. Stir into the berries. Serve at once, or chill in a covered bowl in the refrigerator.

Yield: Makes 3 cups, about eight servings.

Advance preparation: This dish will keep for two or three days in the refrigerator.

Nutritional information per serving (using 2 percent low-fat cottage cheese): 77 calories; 1 gram fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 5 milligrams cholesterol; 11 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 147 milligrams sodium (does not include salt added during preparation); 6 grams protein

Nutritional information per serving (using fat-free cottage cheese): 71 calories; 0 grams fat; 0 grams saturated fat; 2 milligrams cholesterol; 12 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 169 milligrams sodium (does not include salt added during preparation); 6 grams protein

Herb Garlic Hummus

(Modified from Food Network)

Ingredients

* 1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
* 1 clove garlic
* 1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves
* 6 fresh basil leaves
* 1/4 cup fresh cilantro
* 1 teaspoon honey
* juice from 1 lemon
* 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
* 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
* 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
* Options for dipping: carrot sticks, sliced cucumber and whole-wheat pita chips

(Bake your own pita chips by pizza slicing whole-wheat pitas, and pulling apart the halves if you are using the kind with a pocket, spray with canola oil, lightly salt, and bake for about 7 minutes at 400 degrees, or until they start to brown. Easy-peasy.)

Directions

Place ingredients in a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse until smooth.

Serve with dippers.

More quick fixes...

1. Good ideas Emily... except, of course, the ones involving cream cheese (though in fairness, I wish I liked it). I'll add to the sweet potato idea by saying that I like to microwave a sweet potato, sprinkle with a little salt and cumin, and then dice tomato and avacado on top. Yum!

2. Another go to, scrambled eggs (usually 1 with the yolk and 2 egg whites), again with diced tomato and avacado on top (turns out I'm on kind of an avacado kick lately).

3. I second the peanut butter (the natural kind you have to stir, of course) and banana bit, but usually do this on a whole wheat english muffin. :) Btw, I also have pretty much completely given up bread, except for the english muffin (mostly because an entire muffin is a serving, rather than one slice of bread... makes me feel like I'm getting more bang for my buck).

4. All natural vanilla fat-free yogurt with pretty much any fruit stirred in. (I'll eat just this for lunch or a late dinner sometimes... I'm a freak.)

5. Hummus... with carrots and/or bell pepper. I think I'm going to try making my own next time. If I come across a good recipe I'll let you know.

6. Costco sells big bags of individually packaged salmon fillets. I like to defrost these one at a time. I bake it in the oven wrapped in foil for about 15 minutes (seasoned with whatever I feel like at the moment, such as season salt, garlic salt, a fish seasoning I came across, etc.). Then I add 1/2 to a mixed green salad with a little low-fat sesame ginger salad dressing, and put the other 1/2 in the fridge to do the same thing again the next day.

That's all I can think of right now... makes me realize I pretty much eat the same things every day. Emily, I love the wrap idea, and those particular wraps are delicious!

Snacks...here are a few of my favorite things

This is in response to a post oh....3 months ago. Glad to see I'm not the only slow poke.

Take a sweet potato and bake it until soft and fluffy (I do it in the microwave for ease and convenience). Then spread a wedge of Laughing Cow - light garlic & herb. So good, so legal. I usually do this for quick lunches, but throw some steamed broccoli on top and I would be completely satisfied with that for dinner. Got this bright idea from the biggest loser cookbook.

Pirates Booty. How come I didn't know about this sooner? So very good and addictive. I have no idea if it's good for you, but I find it in the health food section, so at least it makes me think I'm being good.

This seems silly to write, but I'll open a can of tuna and instead of making a sandwich with it, I'll put it on celery. I like the crunch.

This also seems silly - Peanut butter banana toast. You know, like we use to make after walking home from school together. It needs no explanation. Such a good afternoon pick-me-up. Sometimes I go crazy and use crunchy peanut butter.

I also really like to make wraps with flatout. I made a really good one today with plain light cream cheese, cranberry sauce, spinach and shredded carrot. But I am in need of some new fresh ideas to wrap if you've got them.

greek yogurt

i have yogurt issues lately (makes me gag!) but i can still eat greek strained yogurt. i LOVE this as a snack because it has tons of protein and is not full of sugar.

my favorite brand is fage.

i buy the 2% (the regular has a lot of fat but is oh so good!). i've tried the strawberry and honey, both are delish. i usually just buy the yogurt and add my own honey or fruit. also, don't be tempted to stir this yogurt – it's not necessary and ruins the consistency.

enjoy!