I thought I’d share with you a really fun idea for a St. Patricks Day Family Home Evening.  Tradition says that St. Patrick used the shamrock to teach people about the trinity.  Likewise we can teach our family that Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are separate but one in purpose.  However, most of us don’t have shamrocks growing in our back yard (and if you do…you’re really lucky because that means you live in a WARM area!).  That is why I’m sharing this new recipe with you for Jell-O Cookies that you can shape shamrocks out of by forming 3 balls (while teaching that the God Head is three separate beings) and flattening them with a glass (while teaching they are one in purpose).  These cookies are also great for other holidays if you use different flavors of Jell-O to make different colors.

Fruit Jell-O Cookies
1/2 Cup sugar
3/4 Cup shortening (butter works well too)
1 3oz. pkg flavored Jell-O (lime or other green colored Jell-O)
2 eggs (2 T. Dry Powdered Eggs + 1/4 C. Water
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 Cups flour (I used half white wheat, half all-purpose)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2-3 drops green food coloring

Mix first five ingredients. In separate bowl, combine dry ingredients and blend into first mixture. Roll into nickel sized balls, place three together and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten balls with flat cookie stamp or glass bottom. Bake 6 to 8 minutes at 400 degrees.

© 2010 – 2011, Crystal. All rights reserved.

You’ll never guess what this cookie DOESN’T have in it! I’ll give you one guess…if you guessed a fat you are right! There is no butter or shortening in this cookie. Instead you have the protein, fiber and health benefits of….yep…BEANS! To make the deal even sweeter this low calorie cookie only has 1 cup of sugar and is full of even more fiber when you use whole wheat flour. The cookie has a great cake-like consistency and of course no bad flavor or after taste! I served them to my brother, nephew and husband and no one knew there was anything different about the cookie, in fact to quote them: “These are AWESOME!!” I think this may be one of my favorite food storage recipes yet!

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

(Made with white beans)

Or…proclaim it to the world that you are an Everyday Food Storage fanatic! Simple copy the entire text in the box below and place it in a text widget on your blog.

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© 2009 – 2011, Crystal. All rights reserved.

Front of Santa Cookie Mix

Back of Santa Cookie Mix

I love this idea! It’s so simple and such a great gift to give (the gift of NO MESS!…and a little food storage These magic Santa cookies are just the Cookie Clay Dough recipe in a jar.  You’ll remember that this recipe is so great because it doesn’t require any rolling, flouring of countertops, and NO cookie cutters.  The dough is the consistency of Play Doh and kids can just shape their dough however they would like.  Such a great activity for Santa cookies and for Mom!  When I do these I usually use half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose flour along with powdered eggs.  When you’re putting the ingredients in the jar it is important that you separate the sugars and put them in a little baggy (like we did for the dry ingredients of the pancake mix)  I also made you labels to use and I’ve separated them into Front (cute Santa Graphic) and Back (Instructions) so you can use ANY bottle around the house.  If you need to refresh on how to cut fabric for the tops of any jar or how to do the little baggies, click HERE for the how-to videos.  For reference, in the bottles above I used a peanut butter jar (on the left) and an applesauce jar (on the right).  You know I’m a big believer in using things around the house that a) you’ve already purchased and would normally throw away and b) you’re recycling and going GREEN!

Santa Cookie Labels

Now that you’re sold on the idea….go ahead and download the CUTE labels I made for you by clicking HERE.

For more tips and tricks for using food storage in your everyday recipes, please visit www.everydayfoodstorage.NET

© 2008 – 2011, Crystal. All rights reserved.

Hmm….don’t they look delicious?  These cookies are absolutely delicious and decorated well for the holidays.  What cookie rolled in soft powdery powdered sugar doesn’t look festive for the holidays?  Also, because they are rolled in powdered sugar and are a round cookie they look VERY gourmet for little effort!  Mexican Wedding Cookies (also called Nut Log Cookies) are filled with nuts (so…they’re delicious!) and also GREAT for disguising wheat.  Because wheat has a nutty flavor it compliments the actual nuts AND can actually help extend the flavor of the nuts with out adding more nuts…and now youe saving money AND time.  *sigh* Oh, how I love food storage!  These cookies can either be packaged in tins or packaged on little plates like the bread for great neighborhood gifts!

Mexican Wedding Cookies

For more tips and tricks for using food storage in your everyday recipes, please visit www.everydayfoodstorage.NET

© 2008 – 2011, Crystal. All rights reserved.

Now on to the next great idea for neighborhood gifts.  Now sometimes, I know, you need to give an inexpensive gift that has real “wow” appeal.  So, this idea will teach you how to a) easily gourmet up any cookie and b) show you a real “ta da” presentation for it.  All done at a budget…okay I admit it…mostly from the local Dollar Tree.   I learned a lot of these tips when I worked for a ritzy real estate company in Orange County where everything was dressed up to the nines!  And of course, now I’m sharing all of these secrets with you.  The recipe I “gourmet-ed” up is the easiest cookie recipe I make, it tastes delicious, turns out great each time, and has a lot of versatility!  And as usual, I have some tags you can use if you want, click HERE to download.

See recipe below videos.

Part 1: Adding gourmet flare to the cookies…EASILY!

Part 2: Packaging the cookies with Gourmet flare…EASILY!

Chocolate Cake Mix Cookies
1 pkg. Devils Food Cake Mix
½ C. Butter or Margarine, Softened
1 tsp. Vanilla
2 Eggs (2 T. powdered eggs + 1/4 C. Water)
½ C. Chopped Nuts
1 C. Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips (or chip of your choice)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Beat half of the dry mix, the butter, vanilla and eggs in large bowl on medium speed until smooth. Stir in remaining cake mix, the nuts and chocolate chips. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls (about 2 inches apart) onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes.

p.s. I get asked a lot about my graphics and while I am a graphic designer I love to use Digital Scrapbook Memories cds when I need to save time.  They are really cute and well laid out.  If you want more information on her cds, click HERE for her Holiday cd, or HERE to see one of her classic cds.

For more tips and tricks for using food storage in your everyday recipes, please visit www.everydayfoodstorage.NET

© 2008 – 2011, Crystal. All rights reserved.

Growing up we always had an Family Home Evening before Thanksgiving where we made Thankful Turkeys. I think it’s a great way to talk about gratitude with kids and to really make it a focus this week. I want the same for your family, so I found hte thankful turkey craft, a gratitude FHE lesson and a super cute treat to make with your family.

To download the thankful turkeys craft click HERE

To go to the FHE Gratitude lesson click HERE

And for the treat…Thankful Turkey Cookies!

This idea (and picture) is from Pillsbury.  Isn’t is so CUTE?!  I love it!  And let’s be honest…if you’re cooking Thanksgiving on Thursday, this is a great everyday emergency and purchasing the dough may be a great time saver tip click HERE for a coupon (unless of course you freeze your sugar cookie dough and have some in the freezer

Thankful Turkey Cookies

INGREDIENTS
1 roll (16.5 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated sugar cookies (or your favorite sugar cookie recipe..don’t worry I’ve supplied one down below)
1 container (16 oz) chocolate creamy frosting (I would use vanilla and tint it orange with food coloring which would negate the decorating icing and gel)
Candy corn
Orange decorating icing
Black decorating gel
Miniature candy-coated chocolate baking bits (or find some M&Ms in your kids Halloween candy)

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Bake cookies as directed on roll. Cool completely, about 20 minutes.
2. Spoon chocolate frosting into resealable food-storage plastic bag; seal bag. Cut small hole in bottom corner of bag. On each cookie, pipe frosting on outer edge of half of cookie. Arrange candy corn over frosting for feathers.
3. Pipe orange icing onto each cookie to resemble turkey face and feet. Use orange icing to attach baking bits to turkey face for eyes. Pipe black gel on baking bits for centers of eyes.

Sugar Cookie Recipe

This is my mother-in-law’s recipe (the real cookie queen)
Sugar Cookies

¾ c. shortening
1 c. sugar
2 eggs (1/4 C. Dry Egg Powder + 1/2 C. Water)
½ tsp. lemon flavoring or vanilla
2 ½ c. flour (1 C. Whole Wheat Flour & 1 1/2 C. All Purpose Flour)
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

Mix shortening, sugar, eggs and flavoring thoroughly.
Stir flour, baking powder, and salt together; blend in.
Chill for 1 hour.
Heat oven to 450 degrees.
Roll dough 1/8” thick on lightly floured board. Cut with 3” cookie cutter.
Cook 6-8 minutes.

For more tips and tricks for using food storage in your everyday recipes, please visit www.everydayfoodstorage.NET

© 2008 – 2011, Crystal. All rights reserved.

I’m so proud of all of you that are using food storage in your own recipes! I’ve received so many DELICIOUS looking recipes from the food storage fanatics out there that I wanted to dedicate Fridays to you!

The first Fanatic Friday Recipe is…. Pumpkin Cookies with Caramel Icing. Cortney sent me this recipe and picture. Don’t they look fabulous?! Pretty much anything with caramel is good in my book. I can’t WAIT to try it!

Pumpkin Cookies with Caramel Icing

Cookies

1 cup shortening (I used butter)
1 cup sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 egg
1 t vanilla
2 cups flour (I like my cookies fluffy and I’m at a high altitude, so I added ¾ cup more) *Note from Crystal…this would be a PERFECT recipe for whole wheat flour*
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
½ t ginger
1 t salt

Heat over to 350. Cream shortening and sugar. Add pumpkin, egg and vanilla. Sift and add dry ingredients. Drop by teaspoonful on cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 mins. Yields 5 dozen.

Icing

3 T butter
¾ t vanilla
1/4 C. milk *note from Crystal-3/4 T. dry powdered milk + 1/4 C. Water*
½ c brown sugar
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

Combine butter, vanilla, milk, brown sugar. Cook, stirring constantly to rolling boil. Cool. Stir in powdered sugar. Generously frost cookies while warm. Return icing to heat if too thick.

Cookies will appear raised when cooked. Frosting will melt on top of cookie.

Are you a Fanatic?

Share your successes! E-mail me at everydayfoodstorage@gmail.com with a picture (don’t we all eat with our eyes first?) and recipe of your food storage successes to be highlighted on Fanatic Fridays!

OR

If you’re really proud of all the food you’ve made with food storage and want others to benefit from it as well, you can proudly display this button on your own blog! Just copy and paste all of this html code (it requires scrolling down to copy everything) into your blog (Just add an html widget to your layout and paste this text in it!)

Text for Button:

<a border=”0″ href=”http://everydayfoodstorage.blogspot.com” mce_href=”http://everydayfoodstorage.blogspot.com” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/qq200/everydayfoodstorage/FANATIC4.jpg” mce_src=”http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/qq200/everydayfoodstorage/FANATIC4.jpg” /></a></p> <p>

For more tips and tricks for using food storage in your everyday recipes, please visit www.everydayfoodstorage.NET

© 2008 – 2011, Crystal. All rights reserved.

© 2008 – 2011, Crystal. All rights reserved.

Like I said before, traditions can come from almost anywhere! I’ve shared one from my family, one from my husbands, and now for the newest tradition from a stranger. This is so new, it’s never been done before but it is all planned out for Saturday. One of the funnest traditions of conference is having a treat ready for the boys when they get home from Priesthood session Saturday night. However, if you hit the local ice cream joint closest to your stake center, chances are that the lines will be out the door! (Not to mention it’s so much more expensive!) Well after seeing the Suzanne Eliason’s (The winner of the Utah’s Down Home Cook off) recipe for the skookie. I knew it would be good. I mean what part of a HUGE cookie topped with ice cream, hot fudge and caramel sauce doesn’t sound good?

Please note that this is just an average recipe and I just substituted food storage in where I could….and so can you with ANY recipe!

If you don’t have a real Skookie pan, no fear! Check your kitchen cupboards for some little Corningware dishes (you probably use the larger dishes for casseroles) or anything little that says “Oven safe” on the bottom. IT HAS TO SAY OVEN SAFE! The Corningware dishes are the white dish in my pictures. I actually like using them more than the Skookie pan since it gives better portion control. The dough needs to be refrigerated so make it in the morning and have it ready for the evening to pop in about 15 minutes before the boys will be home. It makes a lot so you’ll definitely have enough for your family! I’d say it makes 4 skookie sized cookies and 8-10 corningware dishes, depending on the size you found.

Outrageous Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Skookie
Suzanne Eliason-Utah’s Down Home Cook Off Winner!

2 C. oats
1 ¼ C. Whole Wheat flour (originally, called for all purpose)
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 C. butter
1 C. peanut butter
1 C. sugar
1 C. light brown sugar, firmly packed
2 Lg. eggs (2 T. Dehydrated Egg +1/4 C. Water)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 C. (or 2 bars) milk chocolate bar (broken into chip sized pieces)…I used chocolate chips

Instructions: In a medium bowl, combine oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine butter and peanut butter with an electric mixer until smooth. Beat in the sugar(s) until blended. Add eggs and vanilla then add flour mixture until combined. Stir in chocolate pieces. Refrigerate dough 1 hour or more.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray Camp Chef Skookie pan (or the dish you found) with cooking spray. Add hand full of dough to skookie. Press onto Skookie pan ½ in. thick, leaving dough ½ in. from outside of pan. (Okay, she’s not kidding when she says this! The first time I made this my eyes were bigger than my stomach and I filled it too full. I didn’t realize it until I smelled something burning…it was on fire in my oven! So I started putting it on a baking sheet just to make sure that didn’t happen again Bake for 10-15 min. or until top of cookie becomes light golden brown.

Top with ice cream, caramel sauce and hot fudge/chocolate sauce.

Before the oven.
And after…see how much it spreads! If you’re using a dish with higher edges like the Corningware, you don’t need to leave the 1/2 inch around the edges because it will climb up the sides instead of spilling out. Anyway, it’s a new favorite at our house and I’m positive it will be at your too.

For more tips and tricks for using food storage in your everyday recipes, please visit www.everydayfoodstorage.NET

On a side note: Jenni emailed me with a great raffle for a VERY CUTE nativity that her mom makes from river rocks. (Can you believe it?) Anyway, all the proceeds benefit the Children’s Cardiomyopathy Foundation (a foundation for a disease her daughter had). If you want to check it out, click HERE.

© 2008 – 2011, Crystal. All rights reserved.

This is one of my favorite recipes! Your kids will have a great time making their own cookie creations with this Play-Doh like dough. The joy is that you make things out of it, cook it & eat it too. It doesn’t require flouring your counter tops like sugar cookies, so there is no mess. The dough is especially fun to play with but if that weren’t enough the cookies are really good! They taste like Cinnamon Teddy Grahams. The real added bonus is that if you use dehydrated eggs you don’t have to worry about salmanella because they are pastuerized. See, food storage fulfills so many things! Make sure to read all the way through this post since I have 10 Steps for Cooking with Kids at the bottom of this post.

Cookie Clay Dough enough for 3-4 children
(Like Play-Doh only you can cook it & eat it too!)

In Mixer:
Cream together: 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup butter (1 cube)
1 tsp vanilla

Add: 2 cup whole wheat flour
2 T dry egg powder (do not add water at this time) or 1 extra large egg
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

(if you used dehydrated eggs) Mix & Slowly Add: 2 to 4 T water till consistency of Play-Doh

Now all you need is CLEAN hands, table or counter top, & creativity
[THAT IS RIGHT--NO FLOUR NEEDED for forming---so no mess!]
Make letters & numbers out of Cookie Clay Dough ropes or balls, make animals, faces, turtles, cars, or what have you. You can also use clean Play-Doh accessaries.

Place on ungreased cookie sheet
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes (depends on thickness so
keep your eye on it as some pieces may need to come out earlier than others)
(Note: The high oven temprature will kill germs so relax and enjoy.)

Cool 3 minutes

EAT Your Creations!

10 Steps for Cooking with Kids
Combined from the California Department of Health & Penn State Cooperative Extension

1. Decide on the area of the kitchen where you will be cooking.
2. Gather stools or chairs that will allow your child to stand or sit comfortably while working.
3. Wash hands and put on aprons.
4. Get out the recipe you will be using.
5. Read the recipe with your child. Explain that you will be following the steps in the recipe to prepare the food. Children get excited and forget. Repeat directions as often as needed.
6. Set out:
• the equipment and supplies that you will need (such as a mixer, blender, bowls, pans, measuring cups, knives, and spoons)
• the ingredients that you will be using
7. Children have short attention spans. Give them quick, simple jobs, and give instructions one at a time.
8. Expect spills and messes. Clean up with your child by giving them jobs to help with cleanup.
9. Eat what you have prepared.
10. HAVE FUN!

For more tips and tricks for using food storage in your everyday recipes, please visit www.everydayfoodstorage.NET

© 2008 – 2011, Crystal. All rights reserved.