I wouldn’t really call this recipe cookie squares because to me they taste more like a coffee cake, but either way – these are great. I make all the gifts for teachers and crossing guards, so I’ve been trying some new things. Not only would these be great as teachers gifts, but also for guests staying at your house for the holidays, because it makes a lot!

Here is the recipe:

Cinnamon-Sugar Cookie Squares
Makes approx 150 bite-size cookies

½ cup butter, room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
½ cup canola oil
2 eggs
½ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
Cinnamon sugar, to garnish*

Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease an 11-by-15-inch pan.**
Mix all the ingredients together with an electric mixer, beginning with the butter, sugar, oil, eggs, milk and finally the dry ingredients.
Pour into the pan and spread evenly with a metal spatula or knife. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar all over and bake for 20 minutes or until the edges are light brown.
Allow to rest for 10 minutes, then invert onto a cutting board and cut into bite-size squares.
*To make cinnamon sugar, mix ½ tablespoon of cinnamon for every ¼ cup of sugar.

**Who has an 11×15 baking pan?? I don’t! I used an 11×17 jelly roll pan, or I’m sure you could use 9×13 pan – they would probably just need to cook a little longer.

It’s been such a busy time – I haven’t been able to read everyone’s blogs – but starting Friday the 23rd I am off until January 3rd! It will be the longest I’ve been off in a row in 7 years!!! I am so excited!!!

And, it’s the 21st of December and I have successfully stayed away from all treats at work – can you believe that?? Gourmet popcorn, cookies, fudge, donuts, muffins, coffee cake, etc… I’ve had NONE!!

And I’ve been working out every day too. I’ve started training for the half marathon. The official training starts in January, but I want to be able to not be totally out of breath when I get there! So I’ve been running, doing Taebo, my son Mark hooked up the VHS and now I have about 20 Firm tapes to work out to – I think I’ve had those for 20 years!!

How are your Christmas plans coming along???

The recipe actually came off of the back of Almond Bark and I just made it on a whim, and when we all tasted it, we were surprised that they tasted JUST like kit kat bars!!

The chocolate I use is called Almond Bark. Its a chocolate made for candy making. You need to use this because the chocolate dries within about a minute. If you use chocolate chips, it doesn’t set right. I’ve been lucky sometimes to find Almond Bark at Walmart for $1.00 a block, but even at stores like Jewel or Dominick’s in the Chicago area, it’s around $2.00-$2.50. It is sold by the chocolate chips.

All you need is 3 ingredients. Graham crackers, peanut butter and the almond bark chocolate.

Melt the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl at 20 second increments until it’s all melted.

Separate 1 sheet of graham cracker into the 4 pieces. ONE TIP – don’t use cheepo graham crackers – stick to Keebler because other brands I’ve used don’t separate right and you end up with a lot of broken sheets of graham crackers!

Take 2 graham crackers and put peanut butter in between and make a sandwich. Then dip it in the bowl of melted chocolate. Using a fork, make sure the whole thing is coated and lift up and shake off any excess chocolate. Let dry on wax paper or parchment paper, they will be dry fast!

If the bowl of chocolate starts to dry out, just re-heat it in the microwave for about 20 seconds so it’s all smooth again.

These are so good! Great to bring to a party – or just make for your family.

Do you have a special recipe you make every Christmas? I’d love to hear it!

I have Heidi from 101 cookbooks to thank for this recipe. She made this recipe for chocolate chip cookies in a skillet and it was a huge time saver for me over the weekend. I volunteered to make cookies for Claire’s Halloween party at school AND I had to make something for a cooking contest at work. I loved this recipe because it takes just a few minutes to put together and then you just put it in a cast iron skillet and bake for 35-40 minutes and that’s it. You need to put butter on the bottom and sides and it comes out super easy, then you just cut them up into pieces.

Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookies Adapted from Heidi at 101 Cookbooks

3 cups / 13.5 oz / 380 g whole-wheat flour (I used all purpose flour)
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

8 ounces / 225 g (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces, plus more for buttering the pan

1 cup / 5 oz / 140 g dark brown sugar ( I used light brown sugar)
1 cup / 7 oz / 200 g sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

8 ounces / 225 g bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped into 1/4- and 1/2-inch pieces (I used chocolate chips – about 1/2 cup)

Add the sugars and butter and cream for a few minutes. Add the eggs 1 at a time and mix together. Add the rest of the ingredients. This batter is super fluffy and yummy!

Coat a cast iron skillet with butter and pour the batter into the skillet and press down so it reaches the sides of the skillet.

Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes – mine took 40 minutes. Take out and cool completely.

I just put a plate over the skillet once it was completely cooled and flipped it over and it came out very easily. Then just cut them up into pieces. Claire said her whole class loved them.

Come back tomorrow and I’ll show you the pictures of the Halloween cooking contest at my office. I sadly did not win, but it was really fun!

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On another note, who watched Biggest Loser last night? I thought this episode was the best one so far. I always think it is funny that people get so bent out of shape when they have to switch teams, switch trainers, etc.. I want to shout at the TV “Have you not watched Biggest Loser before?” They always change something around!

Some of the contestants were sobbing because they couldn’t have Bob as a trainer or they weren’t working out with a former teammate. I especially felt bad for Anna because going in with her new team they were COMPLETELY against her. They didn’t even want to have anything to do with her. But I think she did the right thing by saying don’t get too dependent on a certain person or trainer to help you lose weight – in the end its all up to you anyway.

After the week Anna’s team lost the most weight – a few lost 15 & 16 pounds and another lost 11 pounds – in week 7!!! They did awesome.

Do you have a favorite contestant so far??

I didn’t really plan my dinners that much this week, I knew I just had things on hand to put something together. One night this week as soon as I walked in the door, my kids ran up to me and said like they normally do “What’s for dinner?”

I said “something with chicken!” I took 3 chicken breasts out of the freezer, defrosted them and cut them into chunks.

In a large skillet coated with a little olive oil, I started browning the chicken. I was looking in my pantry and saw the chipotle seasoning mix and decided to add that to the chicken.

I was thinking about what to make as a side dish, when I saw I had spiral pasta and was thinking if I could make a sauce, add the chicken and cooked pasta?

Once the chicken was almost cooked through, I added 1 cup of chicken stock and 1 cup of skim milk mixed with 1/4 cup of flour to thicken the sauce. Cook for a few minutes and then add the cooked pasta – reserving some of the pasta water if you want to thin out the sauce.

The result? YUM! No leftovers of this meal, which I always consider a success! Sprinkle with shredded cheddar cheese if you want.

If I had green onions, I think adding some chopped green onions on top and maybe a little bit of crumbled bacon would have made this even more deluxe!

Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts, trimmed of all fat and cut into chunks
1 tb. olive oil
1 packet McCormick seasoning (chipotle)
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup skim milk
1/4 cup flour
1 box spiral pasta
cheddar cheese to sprinkle on top
salt and pepper to taste

The seasoning is spicy – but it is less spicy making the sauce. My kids liked the heat, but it wasn’t too much where they couldn’t eat it.

Who loves watermelon? It’s my favorite summer fruit. Look at how pretty this melon was when I opened it up!

Have a great weekend? What are your plans?

*I just found a new blog – meet Rachel – she’s lost 85 pounds – check out her weight loss story and before and after pics here!! Great job Rachel!!

This is the first time I’ve made enchiladas this way, and I think I’ll make them this way again they were so good! I started with 4 frozen chicken breasts (boneless and skinless), an enchilada sauce packet, mixed with a can of tomato sauce. Cook on low all day.

When I got home from work, I took the chicken out, it was super tender and shredded easily. Take a tortilla, fill it with the shredded chicken (for my 2, I weighed out 2 oz. of chicken each). Roll up and place seam side down in a 9×13 inch casserole dish.

I actually poured all the sauce leftover from the crock pot over the enchiladas and sprinkled with cheese. Bake for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees. YUM!!

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Food find. Most of you know I love to save money at the grocery store and I frequently shop at Aldi Foods. Imagine my surprise when I saw that their brand “Millville” now makes Kashi look alike cereals for half the price of Kashi! This box was only $2.49.

It tastes exactly like Kashi and has the same nutritional info: 190 calories per serving and 8 grams of fiber.

Also, I’d like share a site that is relatively new to me, but I’ve been enjoying reading. Tiffany from The Gracious Pantry has lost 50 pounds so far and has a great blog about eating clean as well as great recipes. Tiffany you are a great inspiration to many!

What weekend plans do you have? It’s going to be another chilly weekend in Chicago. I had to drop my son Mark off at school today at 5:30 a.m to go on his 7th grade trip to Springfield – he’ll be gone until 9:30 tonight – I’m sure he’ll have a great day!