Low Fat Sugar Cookies

Today was our second time using this sugar cookie recipe and I just have to share because it's so simple and delicious!

Low Fat Sugar Cookies

Adapted from a recipe at About.com

5 T butter, softened
3/4 C sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla extract (this time I used 1/2 t lemon extract & 1/2 t vanilla - it was yummy!)
1 2/3 C flour
1 t baking powder
1/4 t salt

Using a mixer, cream butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla and continue mix. Finally, add flour, baking powder and salt and mix until dough forms. Wrap dough in plastic and chill for two hours in the refrigerator. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to a 1/4-inch or 1/8-inch thickness. Use cookie cutters dipped in flour to make cutouts. Place cookies 1 inch apart on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and decorate. Bake for 9-10 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Transfer to wire rack after 1 minute to cool.
Makes about 30 cookies, depending on size of cookie cutters used and thickness of dough.

Pizza Friday - Bacon French Bread Pizza

Just now as I started typing I realized I didn't take a picture :( UGH! It was so yummy. I skipped a week of grocery shopping so I was scrounging for ingredients this evening. I had a loaf of "Roasted Garlic French Bread" from Costco, sauce, cheese, and some bacon. Add them all together and pop them in the oven at 425 for about 10 minutes and you have quite the tasty little pizza. I should note that Cora ate all of the bacon off of hers, mine, and Daddy's. Sharing the bacon off my pizza is seriously true love.
Oh well, if I make it again I'll have to remember to take a picture!

New plates!

Aunts Susie, Liz, and Rhonnie sent these adorable new plates today so I have to showcase how nice our lunch looked on them :)
Leyna has been literally begging for "garbanzo beans" for two days straight so I mixed them with some rigatoni, spaghetti sauce, and cheese (and I added artichoke hearts to my serving!) and served cucumbers and olives on the side. They gobbled everything up!

Breakfast solved! (for now)

I have had the worst time getting the girls to eat a healthy breakfast lately. They just aren't interested and try to get by on the bare minimum of calories in the morning if I let them. Orange juice is the only thing I know they will consume for sure.
Cora won't eat eggs, Leyna is no longer into yogurt, waffles & cereal are iffy these days, and neither of them will touch oatmeal with a ten foot pole (I was the same way until about college). Even cereal bars have fallen out of grace. Thankfully I've finally figured them out (at least until they wake up tomorrow and change their minds) and decided that it's okay if they eat the same thing every day, as long as they're eating. Variety is not the spice of life when it comes to breakfast apparently. For Leyna it's either pancakes or peanut butter sandwiches. If we have berries she'll eat them as well but bananas are on the "not yummy" list at the moment. For Cora it's either our homemade granola with milk or yogurt with granola and berries. She's had the latter for the past two mornings and has cleaned her bowl. That makes me SO happy :)

Pizza Friday - Hawaiian Pizza (again)

Tonight we had another delicious Hawaiian pizza! This time it was our usual whole wheat garlic & herb crust with fresh pineapple and fried country ham. YUM-O. The girls have been enjoying salad lately so I served it with a chopped garden salad with ranch dressing. It was another delicious Friday :)

Pancakes for snack?

Today I did something a little silly that turned out to be a lot smart! We had lunch with Aunt Jean yesterday and she mentioned making really amazing blueberry pancakes. Ever since then I've had blueberry pancakes on the brain :)
After nap time today the girls needed something to do so I said, "Who wants to make blueberry pancakes?!" We used this recipe for Lemon Blueberry Pancakes. It was a genius idea because:
1. It was a fun activity that we could all do together. Measuring, stirring, dumping, etc...
2. The girls had a yummy and unique afternoon snack.
3. I don't have to make breakfast tomorrow because there are leftovers!!!
Sometimes I do really smart stuff. Sometimes I don't... ;)

A muffin tin lunch

(clockwise from top left) Red peppers, ranch dip, string cheese slices, grapes, Annie's organic spaghettios, Gummy Vites vitamin