Some green changes are harder to make than others--for example, installing solar panels on your house or driving an electric car. Others are easy as pie--or in this case, a dozen cookies. Among the activities that I genuinely enjoy sharing with my children is baking. Unlike (just for example) playing "princess hair salon" or "crash-and-smash cars", we get mutual enjoyment out of baking together. My daughter puts on her chef hat and apron, her big brother proclaims he's my sous-chef, and they're off and baking.
From the green standpoint (of course), there is no plastic packaging with homemade cookies. Most store-bought cookies have at least two layers of packaging, and it's rarely recyclable, so it sits in the landfill forever. Also, homemade cookies contain only ingredients that I can identify easily. (I have a vague idea of what "high fructose corn syrup" is, but what is "resistant corn maltodextrin" anyway? Never mind--I don't want to know.) I can even use organic flour, organic sugar, organic eggs--you get the picture. So, recently, after handily churning out six dozen homemade sugar cookies with my kids and watching their enjoyment at the results, I wondered, "Why am I buying cookies?"
I don't want to lie to you and promise that I'll never buy another package of cookies from here to eternity, but since they're easy to make, a fun and creative activity with the kids, and a better choice for the planet (no packaging) and our health (no strange chemical additives), I plan on making them much more often and buying them far less frequently.
Here's a link to one of our favorite recipes for homemade chocolate chip cookies (from King Arthur brand flour) using organic white whole wheat flour. (Important step: You will need to scoop the dough into a tablespoon and mold it firmly onto it with your hand before putting each one on the cookie sheet., otherwise they are a bit difficult to manage--there are a LOT of chips.) Substitute as many organic ingredients as you can find--butter, eggs, sugar, even vanilla extract--most stores (near metropolitan areas, anyway) have gotten on-board the organic love train.
Food for thought (literally this time!): What are your favorite recipes using organic or otherwise healthful ingredients? As with a good batch of cookies, it's better to share!
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I'm only just now starting to involve my boys in the cooking process. In fact, they even help make sure our meals are balanced, with items from each of the food groups included. I'm guessing these cookies would be a big hit!
Posted by: GoExploreNature | 03/01/2013 at 09:47 PM