Cookie Exchanges

Many years ago my then church, St. Stephanus Lutheran in St. Paul, MN, held a "cookie walk" in early December.  Lots and lots of women would be assigned a certain cookie to make and then bring them to Central Lutheran School the day of the exchange.  It was a big open-to-the-community event / fundraiser.  The way it worked was you purchased a square plastic read pail with a lid and walked past the tables with all the cookies on them.  When you came to a type of cookie you liked you'd put some in your pail (not more than 6 of any one kind) and move along.  When your pail was full and you could still get the lid on you were done!  What a great way to do Christmas baking!

At our LAVFW District 5 meeting in September those present agreed that having a cookie exchange At our December meeting at my home post in Starbuck.  I'm not sure how this is going to work, but I just might make these cookies for it.  Of course I'll need to try them out on the deer hunters in early November first ;).   And they must might be the cookie I make for Christmas Care at the VFW just before Christmas.  I'm sharing the untested recipe - hope they're good!

RECIPE OF THE DAY: Healthy cookies!

Ingredients
3 mashed bananas (ripe)
1/3 cup apple sauce
2 cups oats
1/4 cup almond milk
1/4 cup raisins or nuts
1 cup good chocolate chunks
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon

Directions
preheat oven to 350 degrees
bake for 15-20 minutes
Cool and Enjoy!

Bumped Up Mac and Cheese

We really enjoy Macaroni and Cheese.  You know, the kind in the blue box.  We have hot dogs with it, genuine course ground all beef wieners.  I'm all for amending recipes to make them better though.  This afternoon a friend posted this on Facebook.  Looks good!  

1 box of mac and cheese made
16 oz. of cottage cheese
8 oz. of sour cream
2 cups of shredded cheese
1 egg whipped up
garlic salt and pepper to taste
Mix all ingredients and put them in a casserole dish and cook at 375 for 35 minutes. We also agreed to make the dish better it would be great with diced ham or bacon and sometimes we add tuna fish. Just a really great family meal for cheap!

It's getting to be soup time!

Nearing the end of August and the days are getting cooler.  A friend just shared this recipe for one of my favorite soups, so I'm going to pass it along.

Pasta Fagioli in the Crockpot~ just like Olive Garden
2 lbs ground beef
1 onion, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
2 (28 ounce) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (16 ounce) can red kidney beans, drained
1 (16 ounce) can white kidney beans, drained
3 (10 ounce) cans beef stock
3 teaspoons oregano
2 teaspoons pepper
5 teaspoons parsley
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce (optional)
1 (20 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
8 ounces pasta

Directions:
Brown beef in a skillet.
Drain fat from beef and add to crock pot with everything except pasta.
Cook on low 7-8 hours or high 4-5 hours. Add pasta the last 30 minutes.
Serve with a nice crisp green salad and some garlic bread!
Enjoy