Chocolate Chip Cookies

Does anything say I love you better than a plateful of Chocolate Chip cookies???  The kids and man of the house coming into the wonderful smell of freshly baking cookies makes them feel the love and their excitement to get a hot cookie lets me know how happy they are.

Pick up a package of chocolate chip cookies in the store and read the ingredients.  It is SCARY!!  I have no idea what half of the ingredients are.  So I refuse to buy them.  These cookies above are made using the original Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip cookie recipe except I use Whole Wheat White Flour in place of regular white flour.  No one can tell the difference but I know they are a tad bit better for them!

 

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (or whatever flour you choose like whole wheat white)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (I add 1/4 teaspoon baking powder for a thicker cookie when baking)
• 1 teaspoon salt (I omit the salt but you can add it if you like)
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels or any other semi sweet chip

Directions:

PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes.  This makes 56 cookies if you make about a teaspoon size drop of dough  (and your children have taken a few fingerfuls of the dough)

 

Keep a bag of chocolate chips in your house stocked all the time as these are so easy to whip up and you can spread the love also!!

 

Island Living

My son’s school had a field trip around the Island visiting our town hall, the local police station with the jail cells (the kids were able to enter them), and a few other original areas.  They were given this picture as a momento of our Island.  It’s shaped like a pork chop as you can see.  That was the most amusing part for the kids.

The boat pictures on another post are pictures taken on the right side of the Island as you see it.  Our home is located just left of the dirt divider you see running in the middle of the Island which is a pipeline.  We call this Island home 🙂

Fern…but no water

I love when the fern around the little garden pond are perfectly green and growing.  The wild grass and iris give it a tropical feel.  The only thing missing is the water which apparently drained out of the pond due to a rip in the liner.  This would not be such a big deal but we have to remove every rock from around the pond to replace it so it’s very time consuming.  But I love sitting on the deck hearing the water trickle and seeing the little tropical oasis, so a rock digging I will go. 

30 Day Fitness Challenge

Well here goes nothing.  On Facebook someone posted this challenge and I’ve decided I am going to give it a whirl.  Working around the ranch and unloading 1200+ 45 lb bales of hay a year does keep my upper body in good shape but from there down oh boy.  I have the inherited lower ab “elmer” we call it which is a lower belly.

Before the kids and animals I had plenty of time for a 1 1/2 to 2 hour workout.  So for the past 12 years I’ve struggled to find 30 minutes to work out as I try to “do it all” and neglect the “me” time.

So today was day one and no problem with the squats or pushups but barely made the 15 leg lifts.  I think those will be the most challenging for me.  If you would like to join the facebook challenge here is the link:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1444809585761364/

Happy healthy June!!