heart cookies

I know Valentine's is over for the year, but we made these and they were so yummy, I had to share.  I saw these on Pinterest, and thought they were cute, but when I clicked on the recipe, it was made with Pilsbury dough.  Sorry, but that just sounds gross.  Not to mention, we eat so many treats around here, that I have to add in some nutrition to our treats, to balance them out (or to justify having so many). Here's the pb recipe I came up with:

Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 butter

*3/4 c coconut sugar

*1/4 organic sugar or blackstrap molasses or honey 

1 egg

1 cup natural peanut butter

1/2 t salt

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t vanilla

1 cup whole wheat flour

*1/2 cup almond flour 

chocolate hearts (I used Dove)

Mix butter and sugars.  Add egg and pb.  Mix. Add dry ingredients.  Bake at 375, for about 7 minutes.  Remove from oven, squish a dove chocolate heart on top.  Bake for another minute or two.  Remove from trays.

*I've never been into buying organic sugar....I mean it's sugar...it's bad for you, so why not buy the cheap stuff.  BUT when my sister had gestational diabetes, her nutritionist told her to use organic sugar because it's lower on the glycemic index...I did a bit of research and it's true.  So it's still sugar, but a better choice if you're gonna splurge.

*Blackstrap molasses has some good stuff in it. Basically it has the healthy stuff that would have been in sugar, had processers not stripped all the nutrients out to make it pretty and white (and really wonderful.  horrible for your body.  but wonderful).  Great source of iron and calcium.

*Coconut sugar, also known as Palm sugar.  Made from coconuts and has lots of minerals...potassium, magnesium, zinc and iron.  It's also low on the glycemic index.  I replace it 1:1 when a recipe calls for sugar.  It bakes up nice and has a salty toffee taste to it.  If you replace the sugar in your recipes with it, lower your salt a bit.  I used to buy it at Henry's in the nutritional/suppliment aisles, now Sprouts has it in the bulk section.

*If you replace the organic sugar with honey, you can also lower the amount of coconut sugar to 1/2 c.  Honey is sweeter than sugar, so you can use less "sugars" overall.

*Almond flour.  Ground up raw almonds.  Obviously good for you.  I buy mine at Trader Joes.  When I'm out and in a bind, I'll grind my own in my food processor.  Just watch it so it doesn't turn into almond butter.

Tanner scooped out every single cookie while Kate unwrapped the hearts.  I let him skip school that day, and we hung out in our jammies all day.  Everyone needs a day off once in a while.  = )

Winter Wonderland.

It was starting to look like an early Spring, but today they forecast 6-8 inches of snow. And from the looks of it, we are getting it all at once! We can barely see out the window, and everything is covered in beautiful, fluffy white snow.

Today cousins Kim and Dan and their beautiful daughters Taegan and Clara are coming to visit for the weekend, and Nana is coming too. Hubby and I made a special trip to pick up wine and beer, and lots of groceries in case we get snowed in. We are looking forward to a fun weekend full of good food, good friends (because we are lucky that they are more than just family), and the sounds of little girls laughing.

I will take pictures, promise!

Shabbat Shalom everyone, and have a great weekend!

Life with Kerri is having company.