The girls are gone this weekend, hanging out with their Dad like often, so I’ve been working and just having a nice relaxing weekend after a crazy crazy month! I’m so happy that October is here! I don’t know why, but this has been one of the most chaotic and busy Septembers that I remember in a long long time. I’m glad that finally things are calming down and my to do cards are finally down to under 25! Yahoooo!

I just had an itching for a good cookie… and so I will admit, my first thought was that I didn’t have time to make cookies, so I should just run up to the corner and get something sweet to take care of the need.

But then I thought, no, I’m trying hard to stay away from pre-packaged and overly processed foods. And we’ve done really well. Sure, we do eat out here and there, but for the most part, everything here at home has been made from scratch the last couple months and we love it.

And then I thought… it would probably take me at least a half hour to go and get something. Circle K Mart is only like 2 miles away in reality, but I would have to get my coat, and purse, go out and get in the van, get there, figure out what I wanted, and get back and settled. It would easily be 20-30 minutes to do it all. I’m not the fastest thing on the earth and all. HAHA…. And it would probably cost me at least a couple bucks for some overly processed goodie that in reality would not be as good as something homemade and hot from the oven.

So I decided to use our new favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and time it.

Well, it took me 17 minutes to mix up a batch of cookies. I had everything on hand, of course, and it’s an easy recipe. 17 minutes from start to scooped and in the oven. And about 15 minutes later, I had a whole sheet of yummy fresh, hot, simple and not overly processed cookies ready for the day.

I popped the rest of the dough in the frig and then a little later I put another pan in when I was doing some dishes. (If I don’t keep an eye on them, I’ll get sidetracked and burn them…. I’m like that! Ha!) And then when I was taking a little break from working and watching a little tube, I did the last batch! It was simple.

I am surprised how often I think that I’m saving time by running to the store or fast food or that sort of thing when in reality, these domestic tasks are not that tedious or long to do! Like popping a loaf of bread in the breadmaker. It takes about 5 minutes to put all the stuff in there and walk off. It does everything for you! I like to check it when it first gets going to make sure it’s not too dry or wet because of the humidity and all, but usually it’s fine. Easy. And putting food into a crockpot to cook through the day… Easy. Doesn’t really take that long. I can load a crockpot in less than 30 minutes. And it’s always so welcome in the evening when it’s all done.

Eating out should be fun, relaxing and a treat. I’ll admit… I got delivery Chinese food twice this weekend! I have the BEST little family run place around the corner and they deliver for free. WIth the girls gone and me busting a move to get a lot of work done, it was awesome and yummy to use my banjo picking money to get their dinner specials on Saturday and Sunday evening. That was part of the relaxing and enjoying the time I was working that I think you should do.

But combined with homemade cookies? Perfect!

Our Favorite Chocolate Chip/M&M Cookies

2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups chips, or M&Ms or whatever you’d like to pop in there!

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Don’t grease cookie sheets! (makes them spread out too much!)

Melt the butter (but don’t brown it!) and let cool a few minutes and then add the sugars until blended. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Add in salt and baking soda. Mix up nice and creamy smooth. Add in flour and stir by spoon good. Add your mix-ins.

If you can, pop the dough in the frig for 10 or 15 minutes. It does make for a poofier cookie. If you can’t wait, make one batch and put the rest in the frig! We use a small ice cream scoop. Don’t pack too close because they will spread out a bit. Bake for 15-17 minutes until the edges are lightly toasted. They are best if you don’t overbrown them. Leave them on the cookie sheet for like 5 minutes before you transfer them to cool. They will keep cooking a bit longer if you let them rest before scooping them off the sheet! (If you can wait that long! These are super yummy cookies!)

This dough freezes great… sometimes we make a double batch and bake two pans of them and save the rest in two chunks and we’ve got fresh cookies in no time!

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