Famous Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

I have been making chocolate chip cookies for many, many moons. I first started making them from my mom's good ol' Betty Crocker Cookbook. And I still swear by this recipe! If you make chocolate chip cookies from this orange cookbook you will not be disappointed! But over the past 20 years of trial and error and combining things that work and taking out things that didn't work I have come up with my own recipe that is pretty much perfection!

I mean look at these beauties!

 Always worthy of a close up!

 And would you believe I made these cookies with whole wheat flour! These cookies are so easy to make and so delicious that you must remember- With great power comes great responsibility! 

Famous Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Oven 350 degrees 

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 stick (1/2 c) butter

1/2 c vegetable oil (I use canola)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons pure vanilla, if you are using imitation vanilla use 3-4 teaspoons

2 1/2 c flour (you can use whole wheat like I did, or white flour, or half and half of both, they all turn out fabulous!) 

2 cups chocolate chips

Bake time 8 min.

 Cream sugars, eggs, butter and oil. (The oil is my secret to perfect cookies!)

 Add salt, baking soda, and vanilla.

 Mix in flour.

 Toss in the chocolate chips of your choice!

 Combine it all together! And...

Voila! Eight minutes later in a 350 degree oven, perfect cookies! Make sure the edges are golden and the middle of the cookies no longer look wet and shiny. 

(I have a convection bake setting on my oven and it really makes a difference on how my cookies turn out, but if you don't have a convection oven, its ok! You can still have perfect cookies, you may just need to cook them a bit longer.) 

Trust me if you make this recipe no one will leave you alone, you will be forever getting calls, texts and emails, asking for the recipe! So give them a try and let me know if you think they are the perfect chocolate chip cookies!

Dinner Solved!

Making meals every single day can be difficult,to say the least.  In fact, it can seem like a very effective form torture. And by the time dinner rolls around I often feel a lot like this! 

There have been times when I just don't have the time or energy to make dinner and that makes for times when I let things be called dinner that really shouldn't be. Some of the things I have fed my kids for dinner include- ice cream, cereal, left over birthday cake, pancakes, popcorn, cookies... (I could keep going, but I will stop there.) I do try hard to make a well balanced meal most days of the week. So when one of those days come up that I just don't really want to make anything but my kids have already had ice cream for dinner once that week, I do have a few 'go to' dinners that I can whip up in less than an hour that take a minimal amount of work and have a short  ingredient list.

So here is one of my recipes that my husband and kids all approve of.

Quick and Cheap Beef and Broccoli 

1lb ground beef 

1 package of frozen broccoli florets (or you can use the equivalent in fresh)

2 cups rice uncooked 

1/2 cup soy sauce

1 1/2 cups water- divided

2 T cornstarch

2 t sugar

garlic powder

ginger powder

First up- Defrost 1lb of hamburger (obviously, if yours isn'tfrozen omit this step)

 Cook 2 cups of rice according to package directions

 While you are waiting for the hamburger and rice get out all your ingredients (not pictured is 1-1/12 cups water, and 2 t sugar).

Then start browning the 'burger

When it's cooked add the soy sauce and 1 cup water.

 Mix the corn starch into the remaining 1/2 c water and throw that in too, then you can sprinkle in the garlic, ginger and sugar to taste.

 Toss in the broccoli ... 

Cover and simmer until broccoli is cooked and your sauce has thickened. This usually takes less than 10 minutes.

 And voila! Dinner is ready! 

 The time was 6:12 pm when I started defrosting the hamburger and it was 6:50pm when I took the last picture. That's a pretty quick and easy dinner!

 And it looks yummy too!

It gets a thumbs up from this kid who eats his broccoli like candy first!

What are some of your 'go to' dinners? And what are some things that you have passed as dinner at your house? :0)