A tweaked cookie

I'll tell you making healthier food choices in the Bacon house is easier than finding time to blog about them. But I haven't left you all out.  I have hundreds of pictures on my camera just waiting to post on here!  In our quest to better food, I'm happy to have tweaked the good ol' chocolate chip cookie!  I've searched and tried several recipes in the past few months and this one the judges, aka Mr. Bacon and the kids have approved of. FINALLY!  This eating better and healthier stuff isn't that hard to do. Honestly!  For those who are starting out on this journey to, what have you though?  I'm finding it easier to just substitute healthier ingredients in many of our favorite dishes.  Baked goods is one of those areas this works pretty well with.  So here is my "bacon approved" whole wheat chocolate chip cookies for everyone to try!

"Bacon Approved" whole wheat chocolate chip cookies:

 1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/3 cup oat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick cold butter (yes we only use real stuff!)
1/4 c up white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup almond milk (or any milk)
1 tsp vanilla or almond extract. (we prefer almond)
1 cup chocolate chips (not one bag)

 What I think makes this cookie so great is the white whole wheat flour I found . And guess where I picked it up- Walmart. Are you surprised?  Sure it's not organic, but we buy what we can afford and it's better than white flour! And for $3.50 for a 5 pound bag it's not bad.   Also if you are curious about oat flour it's nothing fancy.  I took my box of oatmeal and tossed it in my Ninja blender and gave it a whirl.  Once you have something that resembles flour (I blended mine for about a minute) I poured it back in the container to use for baking.  Super easy! 

Preheat your oven to 350*.  Now it's time to mix everything up. In my kitchenaid mixer I placed my cold butter and my sugars.  Beat until well combined. This is important because if you don't mix all the cold butter you'll have chunks that melt in the cookies when they bake.  Next add in the egg, milk, extract of your choice and mix well.  Then add in your dry ingredients- flours, soda and salt. Combine it well and mix in chocolate chips.

Now some of you might be second guessing only 1 cup of chocolate chips.  Again this is a compromise, Mostly good ingredients and a few not so good. These would be great with dark chocolate chips too!  Really the kids and Hubby didn't miss the extra chocolate chips in the cookies, and one bag can now make 2 batches unlike my old recipe. 

 Place your cookies by teaspoon full on the baking tray.  I get about 2 dozen cookies out of this recipe.  And they're not super small cookies, but not huge either.  Bake them in the oven for 9-12 minutes, or until golden brown.  Let them cool on a wire rack and enjoy your healthy cookies!

While I was baking those I made up something else for dessert that night.  I had a container of heavy whipping cream in my fridge that needed to be used up (from my homemade healthier coffee creamer- more to come on that in another post!)  I already had my mixer out so I cleaned up the bowl and tossed in 1 cup heavy cream.  With the whisk attachment I started mixing.  Making homemade cool whip is super easy.  I beat the creamer for about 5 minutes our until firm peaks formed. Be careful not to mix too long or you get butter! 

 Once it's forming peaks add in 1/4 cup sugar and 1 tsp vanilla and mix just to incorporate it.  There you have it, super easy homemade cool whip! 

 Next I tossed about a cup of frozen strawberries in my ninja blender. Have I told you how much I LOVE my ninja blender?  Mr. Bacon and the kids got it for me for Christmas and it' was my favorite gift!  I use it almost every day.  I blended up the frozen berries (which came from my garden last year. I froze them to enjoy later on!) and it resembled crumbles. 

 Then I mixed the two together.  This is heavenly!  Strawberry fluff. Try not to eat the whole bowl at once!  It's a much lighter texture than ice cream and only 4 ingredients!  Not too bad for a healthy dessert. 

 I did take a little of the extra and stick it in these cute ice Popsicle molds I bought. They'll make a great after school treat for the kids!

So tell me what you think when you try these healthier treats for your family! I love to hear back from my blog followers!

You're crazy right? .........Homemade cookies

 Check out the new improved healthy whole wheat chocolate chip cookie recipes that all the Bacon kids approve of!! CLICK here! 

The other day we were at the store doing shopping and the kids were asking for cookies. Of course it was right as we hit the bakery. Just out of curiosity I checked out the prices that the store wanted for them. I about fell over, $3.99 for 12 'bakery' cookies! Of course I didn't buy them. I told the kids we'd bake up a batch later in the week and that's just what we did. Don't they look yummy? Fresh baked warm gooey chocolate chip cookies. I had to take a picture fast because they just don't last at our house. Our batch of cookies made 4 dozen cookies (That's $16 worth of store bought cookies! Maybe I should get into a new line of work...) And they only took about 30 min from start of mixing to first bite. So you want to whip up a batch today? Here is the recipe.

Chocolate Chip Cookies:

1 cup butter or margarine softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2.5 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1-12 oz package (about 2 cups) chocolate chips
1/2 cup coarse chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375*. Combine butter and sugars in bowl. Mix well. Add in vanilla and eggs and mix until creamy. Mix in flour, baking soda and salt until well combined. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by teaspoons full onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 9-11 minutes or until edges of cookies are slightly browned. Remove from pan and cool on wire cooling racks.

Some tips I've picked up over the years: I find this goes really fast to mix up in my mixer (i have a kitchenaid mixer but any mixer will work, of course mixing with a good ole' bowl and spoon works just a well) When baking the cookies keep an eye on them, every oven bakes different. Take them out of the oven when the edges are slightly browned not the whole cookie brown to get soft chewy cookies. Remove the cookies from the cookies sheet after 2 or so minutes onto cooling racks. This way the bottoms don't turn hard from continued cooking on the hot pan. Feel free to try being creative to make them to your liking. This batch I made up I added in 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, they were delicious! I also like to change extract flavors, my favorite is almond! You can also omit the nuts, or add different kinds (peanuts, pecans, ect) or try adding M&M or white baking chips (or a mix of several) instead of the chocolate chips. Or press these into a greased 9x13 pan for cookie bars. It's great to have a recipe that you can change up for lots of yummy possibilities!

Now go bake :)