T&J's Trailmix

4 cups Cheerios
1 1/2 - 2 cups mini marshmallows
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Mix all ingredients together in a large zip lock baggie.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Angel Roll

1 Angel Food boxed cake mix
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 tbsp butter or margarine, softened
1 tsp vanilla
8oz cream cheese
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 15x10x1 inch baking pan and line with parchment paper. Grease and flour the paper.
2. Prepare angel food cake mix per the instructions on the box. Bake for 15-30 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Immediately turn out onto a linen towel dusted with confectioners sugar. Peel off paper and roll cake up in the towel, starting with the short end. Cool.
3. To Make Filling: Mix confectioners sugar, vanilla, butter or margarine, and cream cheese together till smooth. Stir in chocolate chips.
4. Carefully unroll the cake. Spread filling over cake to within 1 inch of edges. Roll up again. Cover and chill until serving.
5. Slice cake, place on plate and top with fresh strawberries and whipped cream.
   

No Sugar Added Cookies

From allrecipes.com

3/4 cup butter
2 ripe bananas
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Cream the butter or margarine until light and fluffy. Add the bananas and mix well. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, ground nutmeg and ground cinnamon. Add the dry mixture to the creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in the oats and the chopped nuts. Cover and chill dough for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease baking sheets.

Drop chilled teaspoon-sized rounds of cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheet (they don't really expand much, so you can place them close together). Bake in the preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes.

I tried these cookies because I had some extra bananas I needed to use. After mixing the dough, it tasted terrible and I was VERY skeptical. However, after chilling in the fridge, the dough was much better and the end result was surprisingly good for containing no white or brown sugar. Because I was scared of how they would be, I added some chocolate chips. While they were good, they weren't necessarily needed.

Simple, Old-Fashioned Pancakes

adapted from allrecipes.com

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3 tablespoons butter, melted

In a large bowl, wisk together the flour, baking powder, salt & sugar until well combined. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, egg, vanilla and butter. Wisk until smooth.

Heat a lightly oiled griddle or fry pan to medium heat. Poor or scoop the batter onto the pan using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown each size and serve hot.

Christmas Baking 2009

This weekend included my annual baking day (it actually took 2 days). The recepients this year were mostly Seth's coworkers & it was fun creating some yummy treats for them to enjoy. Each container included:

Sugar Cookies with a Hershey's Kiss
(I used Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix)
White Peppermint Snowballs
Magic Mint Chocolate Bark
Carmel Filled Chocolate Cookies
Cranberry Bars
Old-Fashioned Soft Pumpkin Cookies
Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies (made with M&M's instead of chips)

Everything was delicious and hopefully everyone will enjoy their little sampling :)

Old-Fashioned Soft Pumpkin Cookies

From Nestle Toll House

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
1 cup Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Glaze (recipe follows)

PREHEAT oven to 350° F. Grease baking sheets.

COMBINE flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in medium bowl. Beat sugar and butter in large mixer bowl until well blended. Beat in pumpkin, egg and vanilla extract until smooth. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto prepared baking sheets.

BAKE for 15 to 18 minutes or until edges are firm. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Drizzle Glaze over cookies.

FOR GLAZE:
COMBINE 2 cups sifted powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract in small bowl until smooth.

Cranberry Bars

From allrecipes.com

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips or white vanilla chips
1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup flaked coconut
1 cup pecan halves

Combine cracker crumbs and butter; press into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking pan. In a bowl, combine the remaining ingredients; mix well. Gently spread over crust. Bake at 350 degrees F for 22 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Cut into bars.

The graham cracker layer will be very thin and that's good :) Also, we're not huge coconut fans, so I just left it out.