Carrot Cake Mix Cookies

Have you ever had a box of cake mix, but not wanted to make cake or muffins? Then you can try cookies! Cookies are more portable and work great if you're traveling and want treats for the trip and to give to whomever you are visiting. I baked these cookies for a recent trip, and they turned out wonderfully. They are tasty, quick, and simple to make and store. 

Some cake mixes have a cookie recipe on the back of the box, but if not, all you need to do is add 2 eggs and 1/2 cup oil to the mix and bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 min.

I've been doing a bit baking lately, so stay tuned for more recipes and ideas to come!

Hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July!

Homemade Sugar Cookies, Pumpkin Bread, and Granola

Today I'm going to share a few recipes I've made recently. Also, I want to remind you that I have a giveaway for an Aeropress Coffee Maker going on now. You should check it out!

Easy Sugar Cookies

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 1/4 cups white sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Roll spoonfuls of dough into balls and place onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

Easy Pumpkin Bread 

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cups sugar

1 cup canned pumpkin 

1/2 cup olive oil 

2 eggs

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix together flour, salt, baking soda, and sugar. In a separate bowl combined pumpkin, oil, eggs, water, and spices. Combine with dry ingredients. Pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake 50-60 minutes until a toothpick poked in the very center of the loaf comes out clean. Turn out of the pan and let cool on a rack. You can also use this recipe to make pumpkin muffins. 

Maple Nut Granola
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 tsp. almond or vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups fruit and seed trail mix

Mix all ingredients together except trail mix and place on baking pan, which you can cover with aluminum foil or parchment paper to make the clean-up easier. Bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes, stir, then bake another 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Mix baked granola with trail mix for an even more robust granola treat.

Sugar Cookies

I don't bake desserts very often, but I needed to make some treats for a get-together with friends this past week and decided to make some sugar cookies. I looked around the web for a soft sugar cookie recipe and came across University of Cookie's recipe. I made the recipe without frosting because that felt like it would be sugar overload. The final product was delicious, and I used a fun alligator cookie cutter to make the cookies extra special.

They were a hit! Just don't cook them very long. Do any of you have a favorite cookie recipe?

I also came across the fun "Call Me Maybe: Military Version" video today. You should see it. :-)

Easy Sugar Cookies

Good morning all!  I had a wonderful weekend enjoying the beautiful autumn weather here in Illinois.  I also took some time to bake some sugar cookies.  I don't bake very often, so this was a fun treat. 

Easy Sugar Cookies (Makes 10 servings)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2teaspoon baking soda 
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract. Combine the flour, baking soda, and nutmeg; gradually add to creamed mixture.

2. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 in. apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F for 8-10 minutes or until light brown. Remove to wire racks to cool.

You can find the recipe with nutritional facts here.  They were tasty :-).

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Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't do much baking since I don't like to have a lot of sweets in my apartment, but I recently attended a cookout and decided to bring some cookies along.  I have a nice, large bottle of olive oil, so I decided to find a cookie recipe that used it instead of butter.  Olive oil is healthier too :-).

I found a few recipes, took bits and pieces from each and concocted my own since I can never seem to find a recipe I want to follow exactly.  My version wasn't too sweet, and the cookies tasted like shortbread with chocolate chips.  I liked them, and so did my friends, though some mentioned that they would have liked them to be sweeter.   Below is a picture and the recipe.

Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies

2/3 c. sugar
1/3 c. olive oil
1 tsp. vanilla
1 large egg
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. flour
2/3 c. chocolate chips

Directions
Mix together sugar, oil, vanilla, and egg. Then add baking powder. Next stir in salt and flour until well absorbed. Add the chocolate chips last.  Scoop spoonfuls of dough onto parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 min at 350 degrees until edges are slightly brown.

Enjoy!!

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