Grocery Shrink

This fancy looking dessert couldn't be easier or tastier!  If you want to take the whole family to an ice cream parlor but can't really afford it, why not stop by the grocery store, pick up an inexpensive half gallon of ice cream and come home and make these?

The cookie recipe is adapted from the formula I posted about here:  http://groceryshrink.typepad.com/the_grocery_shrink_blog/2009/06/basic-drop-cookie-recipe.html

1 Cup butter, softened

2 Cups brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups flour

3 cups rolled oats

2 cups peanut butter/chocolate chips

We baked the cookies and let them cool. Then put a scoop of ice cream in between two cookies.  Wow!  I haven't had anything that good at an ice cream parlor.  It cost us about $3 for the whole family (7) plus seconds, versus $20+ if we had eaten out.

The past 2 weeks have been busy.  It's been swimming lesson time and each girl takes a lesson at a different time with the boys all togeter for the third hour.  Today we had 2 little friends spend the night whose lesson started an hour earlier than ours.  So we had 7 children to get ready to swim, pack a lunch and practice violin before 8:30.  What to fix for breakfast?  Blueberry yogurt pancakes of course.  Delicous, fast and full of carbs.  I made up the recipe on the spot using  pancake proportions and ingredient substitutions similar to the cookie recipe I posted earlier.  They were yummy!

Pancakes:

1 8oz container mixed berry yogurt

2 C milk

2 eggs

2 Tablespoons oil

(mix well)

3 Cups flour

1 t baking soda

(Mix well, form a hole in the center of the flour and pour the wet ingredients in.  Blend and cook like pancakes.)

Blueberry Syrup

3 Cups water

3 Tablespoons cornstarch

1 1/2 Cups sugar

2 Cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Bring to a boil in a medium saucepan while stirring, until thickened.  Remove from heat and stir in 2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (I got mine at Costco).  Stir until blueberries are thawed and sauce is purple.  Enjoy!  This sauce is also great on Vanilla Icecream.

If you want a healthier sauce, replace the water with white grapejuice and use stevia instead of sugar to sweetened it.

I checked the price of Eggo waffles the other day at Walmart, just for curiosity.  I was shocked!  It was about $4 for 10 waffles and they don't even taste very good.  I usually make waffles on a Saturday morning when I'm ready to deep clean my kitchen.  I triple the batch and just keep cooking while I'm cleaning.  As soon as they come out of the iron, I lay them single layer on a cookie sheet to keep them from getting flattened.  Then I set the entire sheet in the deep freeze.  In about an hour they are ready to move to freezer baggies.  They are fairly safe from flattening at this point, though a lot of pressure would do the trick.  On busy mornings, it's easy to pop a few in the toaster for a hot family breakfast. 

If you don't have a waffle recipe you love, try mine.

2 Cups whole wheat flour

1 Tablespoon sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup oil

2 cups milk

2 eggs

1.  Combine dry inredients and wet ingredients in separate bowls

2.  Mix together and pour 2/3 cup batter in a belgium waffle iron.  Bake for 5 minutes or until the light comes on.  (If only mine had a dinger too!)

My friend Shayna, brought sandwiches like these to me after my second baby was born.  They were so fabulous that I got the recipe.  Hers were filled with chicken salad and made with Swiss cheese.  These are slightly less gourmet, but still very tasty.  Here’s the recipe:

Dough:

1 Stick butter

1 Cup water

1 Cup flour

4 eggs

1 Cup shredded cheddar cheese

In a medium saucepan, bring water and butter to a boil.  Stir in flour until it forms a dough.  (It’s similar to making playdough at this point :).  Remove from heat and and allow cool slightly.  Add eggs, one at a time beating well with a wisk or electric mixer after each one.  Stir in cheese.  Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet.  Depending on the size you get about 20 puffs.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 325 for 20 more minutes.  It’s very important not to open the oven door even a crack until the entire cooking time is over.

While the puffs are baking make a tuna salad:

2 Cans tuna, drained

1 stalk celery, finely chopped

1/2 Cup mayo

1/2 Cup plain yogurt

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1 C cheese

Combine all together and chill.

When the puffs are cool.  Open the tops with a fork and fill with tuna salad.  Yum!