Recipe: Butter Cookies

I know I shared a recipe yesterday, but I wanted to share another one today because these are the perfect Christmas cookies.  This recipe for Butter Cookies is from my Great-Grandmother and my family makes these every year for the holidays.  It's really not Christmas in our house without them!  They're such a simple recipe, but taste so amazing and are very easy to customize.  You can decorate them with whatever sprinkles you want, add nuts, drizzle them with chocolate or even leave them plain.  No matter what you do with them the cookies you make with this tried and true family recipe are sure to be a hit!

Ingredients:

-2 cups (4 sticks) butter, softened

-1 1/2 cups sugar

-3 eggs

-4 cups flour*

-2 tsp. baking powder

-1 tsp. vanilla

-Chocolate for melting (optional)

(To make gluten free I mixed 2 cups of Pillsbury Best Multi-Purpose Gluten Free Flour Blend with 2 cups of coconut flour).

Instructions:

-Mix flour and baking soda until well combined, set aside.

-Beat butter until creamy, add sugar, beating well.

-Add eggs and vanilla, mix well.

-Gradually add flour/baking soda mixture and mix until combined.

-Cover and chill overnight.

-Roll out cookies, dusting hands, surface, and rolling-pin with flour to avoid sticking, cut with cookie cutters and place on cookie sheet.

-Bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.

-Transfer from cookie sheet onto wire cooling rack.

-Allow to cool.

-Optional: Melt chocolate (I love Hershey's Milk Chocolate for this) and drizzle over cookies.

-Enjoy!

What are your favorite type of Christmas cookies to bake?

                    

Recipe: Christmas Cookie Dog Treats

My other dog treat recipes (which you can find here and here) have both been so popular that they, along with the holiday season, inspired me to create a new one.  I go crazy at the holidays making eight to ten different types of cookies for humans and this year I thought to myself, "why should we have all the fun?  Lucy deserves some Christmas cookies too!"  This lead me to create a gingerbread dog treat recipe similar to the (human) gingerbread cookies I make every year, but with all dog safe ingredients.  These smell amazing they must taste great too because Lucy just goes wild over them!  I'm even planning on giving them to some of Lucy's little doggie friends as a Christmas gift from her since the recipe makes so many treats.  Now the dogs in my life (and yours) can be included in one of my favorite parts of the holiday season!

Ingredients:

-2 cups gluten free flour*

-2 tsp. ground ginger

-1 tsp. ground cinnamon

-1/4 tsp. ground cloves

-2 eggs

-1/4 cup molasses

-1/2 cup coconut oil, melted

-1/2 cup + 2 tbsp. water

*I used 1 cup coconut flour and 1 cup rice flour, but any gluten free flour will work.

Instructions:

-Mix gluten free flour, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, and ground cloves until combined.

-Add eggs, molasses, melted coconut oil, and water, mixing between the addition of each ingredient.

-Mix until fully combined.

-Shape dough into 1/2 teaspoon balls and place on cookie sheet.

-Using a fork, flatten the treats (you can press the fork into the dough just once, like I did, or twice and create a criss cross design).

-Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.

-Transfer from cookie sheet onto wire cooling rack. -Allow to completely cool before giving to your pup. -Store in an airtight container.
{This yields 86 1/2 teaspoon cookies, you can freeze both the dough and baked treats to use later and keep fresh longer.}

                    

Recipe: Holiday Dinner Dog Treats

You guys loved my last dog treat recipe so much that I decided to create another one!  I wanted to make something for the holidays for Lucy and was inspired by a classic holiday dinner.  I figured why should only humans get to enjoy food this time of year?  Our sweet pups deserve to too!  We also had a doggie family member coming for Thanksgiving so I decided to make these so that both dogs would get something special.  Let me tell you these were a HUGE hit!  Both dogs were completely obsessed with them and could not get enough.  Needless to say these didn't stick around for long since every dog I gave them to loved them!  These treats will be great all year long, but it's especially fun to spoil your pup around the holidays with treats inspired by what we're eating.  My first batch of these are already gone and I'm planning to make another next week since Lucy enjoys them so much.  This recipe is easy, healthy, and sure to make your pup(s) very happy this holiday season!

Ingredients:

-1 cup pureéd pumpkin

-1/2 cup cooked, mashed sweet potato*

-1 10 oz can white chunk chicken breast, shreaded

-1 egg

-1 1/2 cups gluten free flour**

*I cooked two small sweet potatoes in the microwave for about 10 minutes, scraped them out of their skins, and allowed to cool.

**I used rice flour.

Instructions:

-Mix pumpkin and sweet potato until combined.

-Add chicken, egg, and flour mixing between the addition of each ingredient.

-Mix until fully combined.

-Shape dough into 1/2 teaspoon balls and place on cookie sheet.

-Using a fork, flatten the treats (you can press the fork into the dough just once, like I did, or twice and create a criss cross design).

-Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

-Transfer from cookie sheet onto wire cooling rack. -Allow to completely cool before giving to your pup. -Store in an airtight container.

{This yields 90 1/2 teaspoon cookies, you can freeze both the dough and baked treats to use later and keep fresh longer.}

                    

Recipe: Apple Peanut Butter Dog Treats

So it's no secret that I love my dog and I love to spoil her rotten!  This past Sunday Lucy graduated from puppy school and I decided to make dog treats to put in little goody bags for all the pups in the class.  The class we took with Lucy at PetSmart was 6 weeks long and she loved the other dogs so I figured it would be cute to do something for all of them!  I was able to bring each dog 10 treats in a little cellophane bag and brought some to the trainer for his dogs at home too.  I probably seemed a little crazy, but everyone was appreciative of the little gift and I'm glad I was able to spoil all the pups for their graduation!

I had made treats for Coco in the past, but she didn't like them and I didn't have the recipe I used so I went on Pinterest to search recipes.  I read a few recipes for inspiration and then came up with my own.  These cookies remind me so much of human peanut butter cookies, but just made with dog safe ingredients (aka no white sugar).  They smelled amazing while I was making them and I wanted to give them a try, but I'm allergic to apples so my Mom tried them for me and said they were good.  Lucy also goes crazy for them, which made me so happy!  This recipe is easy, healthy, and sure to make your pup(s) very happy.

Ingredients:

-2 cups gluten free flour*

-1 cup oats

-2 eggs

-1/2 cup smooth peanut butter**

-1 1/2 cups applesauce

-1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

*I used a mix of coconut flour, rice flour, and Arrowhead Mills Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Mix.

**Make sure the peanut butter does not contain Xylitol.

Instructions:

-Mix gluten free flour and oats until combined.

-Add eggs, peanut butter, applesauce, and melted coconut oil mixing between the addition of each ingredient.

-Mix until fully combined.

-Shape dough into 1/2 teaspoon balls and place on cookie sheet.

-Using a fork, flatten the treats (you can press the fork into the dough just once, like I did, or twice and create a criss cross design).

-Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

-Transfer from cookie sheet onto wire cooling rack. -Allow to completely cool before giving to your pup. -Store in an airtight container.

{This yields 128 1/2 teaspoon cookies, you can freeze both the dough and baked treats to use later and keep fresh longer.}

Have you ever made dog treats before?

                    

Thirsty Thursday with Bai Bubbles

A few weeks ago the people over at Bai were sweet enough to give me a few cases of all their drinks.  I've been having so much fun trying everything and even mixing up some cocktails.  I've been told before I'm a little (ok, more like a lot) heavy handed with the alcohol when making cocktails.  Luckily my Dad is a bartender and seriously talented at making drinks!  A couple weekends ago my sister and I spent a night creating cocktails with my Dad with Bai Bubbles.

Bai Bubbles are one of Bai's newest drinks and are "flavor infused with antioxidants for a carbonated twist."  They make a great mixer because they don't only taste good, but are super light on calories too!  Each can only contains 5 calories and 1 gram of sugar so they are delicious and not bad for you either.

It was really cool to see my Dad mixing up different concoctions because to say that the drinks I make don't come out that good is a major understatement!  My sister and I also enjoyed taste testing everything so it would be perfect to share.  We had so much fun with this post and put together three signature cocktails to share with all of you, check out each of the recipes below.

Low Cal Pinã Colada

-1.5 oz coconut rum

-6 oz Bai Bubbles Peru Pineapple

Pour ingredients over ice and stir well.  Garnish with a pineapple chunk and serve.

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Blood Orange Breeze

-1.5 oz vodka

-6 oz Bai Bubbles Jamaica Blood Orange

-0.5 oz grenadine

Pour ingredients over ice and stir well.  Garnish with an orange slice and serve.

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Pineapple Coconut Crush

-1.5 oz coconut vodka

-3 oz Bai Bubbles Peru Pineapple

-3 oz orange juice

Pour ingredients over ice and stir well.  Garnish with a pineapple chunk or orange slice and serve.

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I really loved each of these and know you will too.  Let me know below if you'd like to see more cocktail recipes and I will get my Dad to come up with some more!

  

                

Make sure to add me on Snapchat - @kthomp22!

Today I'm linking up with Thursday Fashion Files, #WIWT, and Spotlight.

Recipe: Nut Free Pesto Pasta

This pesto recipe is my go to dish and the one everyone always requests that I make.  It is one of my favorite things to eat and is definitely comfort food for me.  I have a pretty bad nut allergy and can basically never order pesto out at restaurants because of that, even though it is one of my favorite dishes.  That is what I love about this recipe though - it does not contain any nuts, but certainly does not lack in flavor!  My favorite trick with this is to make a few batches of just the pesto (no pasta) at a time, put each batch in a small container, and freeze them, then whenever I want pesto I just defrost one of the containers, make the pasta, and have a super easy dinner!  This recipe is simple, healthy, delicious, and something that anyone (no matter the level of your cooking skills) can make.

Ingredients:

-1 large clove garlic

-1 cup basil, packed

-1/2 cup parsley, no stems

-1/2 cup parmesan cheese

-1/4 cup olive oil

-1 lb. penne pasta (can sub with gluten free pasta, my favorite is from Ronzoni)

Instructions:

-Rinse basil and parsley to clean, dry thoroughly.

-Put garlic in a food processor, pulse until finely chopped.

-Add basil, parsley, and parmesan to food processor, pulsing between each addition.

-Pulse the herb, garlic, and cheese mixture until ground.  Do not ground too much (see pictures below).

-Add olive oil and pulse until the mixture is the consistency of soft butter.

-Cook pasta to your liking, and drain.

-Pour pesto over pasta and mix well.

-Garnish with additional parmesan.

-Enjoy!

Have you ever made pesto before?

  

                

Make sure to add me on Snapchat - @kthomp22!

Today I'm linking up with Thursday Fashion Files, #WIWT,  Spotlight, Thoughts for Thursday, and Summer Style.