Have you ever thought that there should be a nation wide Cookie Day?

A day devoted to the pursuit of the perfect cookie?

No such luck on that yet so I've decided that we can have our own QK Cookie Day right here.

Every week we're going to spotlight a new homemade cookie recipe or healthy home baked treat from the Ferrante kitchen.

MAKING COOKIES IS A HIGH PRIORITY ACTIVITY FOR THE CARE AND FEEDING OF YOUR CHILD! 

Home baking is always something that I've felt is becoming lost… it certainly hasn't been a priority here.

But there are so many good reasons to make it a priority that I am happy to have found a solution to kick it up a notch.

What kind of reasons?

• Spending time with my daughter that not only teaches her a good skill and habit for when she grows up, but also makes her feel like a contributing member of the family who gets to eat good cookies in her lunch that she helped make herself.

• Reduce garbage. The garbage and waste created by buying so many packaged foods is astronomical. It is beyond my imagination how much garbage is generated by this one habit. Home baking and using reusable containers makes a huge difference, one child at a time.

• Better health of course. This morning we made white chocolate chip cookies. We buy them sometimes but they don't have reduced sugar, flax, pumpkin, sesame seeds and whole wheat flour in them. Next time I am going to substitute part of the butter for olive oil as well, or maybe even applesauce.

• Saving money. I didn't run the numbers, but I'm willing to bet that making our own cookies is cheaper than buying them. Certainly if I was to go out and try to find cookies that contained the extra healthy ingredients that I make ours with.

• Avoiding additives. Not only can you be in control of what kind of nutrition you add to your home baked goodies, you can also be in control of what isn't included in the recipe. Look on the label of your cookie bag from the store. Lots of stuff in there that isn't going to be in your cookie jar anymore!

• It smells good! Nothing like the aroma of baking cookies (unless it's the aroma of a good home cooked meal) to make a home feel like home and to make a person breath deep and relax. That's got to be a good thing.

I'm sure that you can think of plenty more good reasons to make yummy homemade cookies a regular occurance at your house too!

QUICK BATCHES

You can plan your schedule to work in what ever way is right for you. I am liking doing the quick batches with my daughter in the morning before she goes to school.

It's a really nice way to send her off. Nothing like homemade cookies fresh from the oven that you helped make to give a jump to your step (not to mention cookies for breakfast – which is allowed because they can be breakfast food.)

DON'T FORCE THE ISSUE 

This works if your child is interested. My daughter likes it so it works for us, as a matter of fact, it was her idea to help in the morning. Your child may prefer to do it on the weekend or at night. Or they may even prefer not to do at all. That is totally up to you and your family.

You may find yourself making cookies by yourself once a week. That's ok too.  Much will depend on the ages of your children.

If you have a few kids, you may want to rotate who you make cookies with to spend some alone time with them each one on one.

OR BIG BATCHES

Another way that I like to make cookies is to big batch them. Make a huge batch and then freeze the dough ahead to cook up easily before school.

We will probably switch up a few baking sessions to do some of that too. The small sessions are good to see which recipes are the most popular and to see if there are any tweaks to make them better next time. 

That's why I've made QK Cookie Day on Sunday. Sunday seems like a good day for making cookies. It's the day that I put aside to focus on slowing down a bit and doing family stuff that goes beyond running errands, doing the things that MUST be done, and doing the things that make a home a home.

But you can do it any day you want. Obviously, when we do our small batches before school, it will be during the week. Mondays will be the norm but it can be any day that works. Maybe even more than one. We've done two this week so far and counting.

It takes about 1/2 hour including clean up with the two of us doing them. Not a huge deal if you plan for it. 

BE READY

One thing that will make it a much bigger success and a lot more fun is if you have everything ready the night before. Nothing worse than being on a time limit in the morning, trying to spend 'quality time' with your child and getting stressed because you can't find something. (been there!)

Or getting half way through and finding out that you are missing an ingredient. (been there too!) 

Baking and cooking in general is so much more enjoyable when you kitchen is in order. If your kitchen isn't in order, you can still make your cookies in peace by simply putting your baking utensils in one place, choosing your recipe and checking on the ingredients the day before (or on shopping day).

Be sure that the dishes are done the night before also so that you have lots of room on your counter.

If you've had enough of the kitchen KAOS in your house, get a real boost with our KITCHEN KAOS DISASTER RECOVERY KIT. 

You can make your kitchen come alive again, to truly be the heart of your home and a place where you can make good health a top priority again for yourself and your family by spending 20 minutes a day for 2 weeks going through – one step at at time.

RAISING HAPPY KIDS, ONE COOKIE AT A TIME 

If I've learned one thing over the years, it's that time is too short to waste on 'Mess Stress' and waiting for 'Someday' when it's all going to magically fix itself.

You only get your kids once and that time is fleeting.

Grab onto it for all it's worth right now. And a clean kitchen and good cookies is a great place to start.

LET'S KICK IT OFF WITH CHOCOLATE!

So let's kick off QK Cookie Day with the recipe that my daughter and I made this morning.

Homemade White Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

MORE HOME BAKING FOR HEALTH RESOURCES

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Home Baking for Health Articles and Tips