For anyone who does not know I am indeed a mommy to a little girl. The Peanut is 6 years old going on 16. Quite frankly, I am blessed to have her. She is sweet, she is well-behaved, she cleans her room once a month, and remembers to brush her teeth every other day (I remind her- don't worry!).

The Peanut also has a very full social life. My many friends from school and my sisters make up an army of Aunties, ready to step in and hang out with her. My parents are there. My grandmother is there. My best friend from high school's mother? There. This makes for very busy weekends as well, particularly when the seasons change. One Aunty wants to go to the pumpkin patch, one apple picking. One Halloween shopping, another to the aquarium. While I'm sure I would be able to go along on these fine adventures, I often just pack a snack bag for the Peanut and send her on her merry little way. She has been doing these activities since she was little and each event is special to that particular Aunty. I can't break tradition!

So what exactly do the Peanut and I do when we have a night to ourselves?? No boys around?? We make cookies! And watch funny movies. Tonight we picked the Muppets Treasure Island and chocolate chip cookies. We used a Pamela's baking mix, leftover from my summer stock.

First of, Pamela's always makes the grade for providing parents and kids alike who are gluten- and dairy-free with the easiest hands down baking mixes! Come on, how can you get any easier than throwing it all together- not overmixing and popping it in the oven?

I was impressed by the rich chocolate smell that came out of the bag when we opened it. There were HUGE chocolate chunks in the mix, which I was quite excited about! As you all know, I am a chocolate fanatic. For the most part the Peanut did most of the work, cracking the egg, adding the touch of water, and using the mixer (I was right on top of her… just so the nervous parents don't think I'm letting a six year old use electric mixers alone!). The Peanut did have to add a couple of tablespoons of water to the mix because the dough seemed a bit choppy, but overall this was perfect for a child to do.

I did scoop the mix onto the pan myself, I was afraid she would try to make a cookie pizza or something.

We let the cookies cook for about 16 minutes and in the mean time we ate the rest of the dough. The mix makes around 18-20 cookies according to the box and we only got 12 cookies onto the pan. Which means we ate raw cookie dough ... enough for six cookies. YUM! The raw dough tasted SO good. Now before everyone freaks out about the raw eggs, I have been eating raw cookie dough since I was weaned off the bottle. Well maybe not that long, but certainly since I was a kid and now that I have a child I'm certainly not going to deny her the pleasure of eating raw dough. I'm still alive.

Once the cookies came out of the oven, we immediately transferred them to wax paper and begged them to cool faster. I got the Peanut a glass of chocolate “milk” and we settled into watch our movie with a plate of cookies between us.

Can I just say YUM again?

Yea. YUM! The chocolate chunks melted in my mouth, the cookie part melted in my mouth with this sweet and light cookie taste. It was SO good!!! I was surprised! I was afraid because I have loved most of the Pamela's products so far and I was thinking I might not love these! I was wrong, the cooked cookie tasted just as good as the dough did.

So we watched the rest of the movie, laughed our butts off over Kermit the Frog and the gang... and the Peanut went to bed massively late. A successful ladies night indeed.

This is one cookie I highly recommend for a night in. Better buy two bags to make enough cookies to last more than one night however! I'll be working out to work these off for the next few days! Oh and for those moms paying attention... YES that is a Hannah Montana plate we used for the cookies in the picture!

Benefits of using Pamela's mixes: 1. lower in sugar than most baking mixes 2. EASY!!!! 3. some recipes work with egg replacers (see their website for more info)
Cons: ummm none??

This is a third party review by Go Dairy Free reviewer Amy B. Visit the Pamela's Products Website for more information or to order.

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

Powered by AkoComment Tweaked Special Edition v.1.4.6
AkoComment © Copyright 2004 by Arthur Konze - www.mamboportal.com
All right reserved