Best Cookies Ever. No Really.

I think I need some milk, please...

These are easy, and yummy fresh and warm out of the oven as well as a few days later. And the dough is pretty darn good, too, if your into that sort of thing, which I am :)

Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 1/3 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

1 cup toffee bits (I use health)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream together butter, sugars and vanilla. When mixture is light and fluffy, beat in eggs, one at a time. Measure 1 cup of flour and mix in salt and soda right into the measuring cup. Add to butter/sugar/eggs and mix. Add remaining flour and mix until completely incorporated. Gently stir in chocolate chips and toffee bits.

Here is where you get to eat some of the dough (this step of course, is optional). Drop cookies by the tablespoon onto an ungreased cookie sheet, preferably lined with a baking mat or parchment paper. Bake for about 10 minutes - depending on your oven, start watching around 8 minutes. Cool on wire rack and enjoy. Makes about 4 dozen.

Banana Pudding Parfaits

One of my son's nutritionists suggested I make him pudding when he was going through one of his "no liquids" phases because it is a way to "sneak" liquid in and when made with whole milk or cream it can be quite calorie dense. I don't know about you, but I don't have a ton of time to make homemade pudding and every time I would go to buy a pack of jell-o pudding I would look at the ingredients on the back and put it right back onto the shelf. Luckily the other day I finally found organic pudding at the store! I was beyond excited and bought a few different flavors. First up to try was my son's favorite flavor of everything, banana.

I also knew that adding fresh fruit to the pudding would be a must to add a more nutritional value.

1 box of organic banana pudding

 Whole milk or cream

2 yellow peaches, peeled and cut into slices

1 tbls unsalted butter

1 tbls agave nectar

1 banana, mashed with a fork

Make the pudding according to the directions on the box using whole milk or cream. Follow the directions for the peach puree in the Tiny Toddler Turnovers - or better yet, use the leftover puree!

Use a small ice cream scoop or large spoon and put one scoop of putting the the bottom of 4 small bowls or ramekins. On top of the pudding put 1/4 of the mashed banana, followed by 2 scoops of the pudding. Next up is a large scoop of peach puree followed by 2 more scoops of pudding. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours and Ta-Da! Pudding parfaits. If you want to make it a little special put a spoonful of whipped cream on top :)
 

You can really use any flavor of pudding and any of your child's favorite fruit for this. Another idea - layer the pudding and fruit into Popsicle molds instead of bowls and freeze them for a healthy pudding pop in the summertime!


For a lower calorie version omit the butter and agave and use low fat milk in the pudding.

Tiny Toddler Turnovers

Leftover pie crust + overripe peaches = one good idea

I was cleaning out my freezer the other day and came across some frozen leftover pie crust from a pie that I made a few weeks ago. In an attempt to remove as much as possible from a very overcrowded freezer I took it out and decided to find something to do with it. Enter overripe peaches sitting in the fruit bowl on my kitchen table. 

The great thing about this is that you can use ANY fruit you happen to have laying around, even frozen fruit taking up valuable space in your freezer.

3 ripe yellow peaches
2 tbls unsalted butter
1 tbls agave nectar (I used vanilla flavored because that is what I had - you could use honey or even maple syrup, too) 

1 homemade or packaged frozen or refrigerated pie crust 

1 egg lightly beaten with 1 tsp. water

2 tbls sugar mixed with 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat broiler. Peel and cut peaches into slices and place in broiler-proof glass dish. Dot top with butter and pour over agave nectar. Place dish about 6 inches from the broiler and cook until butter is melted and peaches just begin to brown. Let cool slightly and run through a food processor until desired consistency is reached.

Preheat oven to 350. Flour and roll out pie crust (if using homemade roll to 1/4 thick). Use a floured cookie or biscuit cutter to cut 2-3" circles - you can use the top of a drinking glass also. 

Spoon a 1-2 teaspoons of peach puree into the center of each circle and press dough ends together, rim the edges with a little bit of water to help seal. Place on silpat or parchment paper on baking sheet.

Brush top with egg wash and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake on the center rack for 10-12 minutes - until bottom in lightly brown. Cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes.

These were really good for being just kind of thrown together. Stay tuned to find out what to do with the leftover peach puree (and it will explain why there is a box of pudding in the first picture)!

To make this lower calorie, omit the butter and agave.