I've tried a few peanut butter cookie recipes, but this one is my favorite so far! It's from the back of the Jif jar. (And, believe it or not, I actually followed the recipe, except I added M&Ms and miniature peanut butter cups!)
Irresistible Jif Peanut Butter Cookies
3/4 cup Jif creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
3 tbsp milk
1 tbsp vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1. Preheat oven to 375 and set out cooling racks for cooling cookies.
2. Combine peanut butter, shortening, brown sugar, milk, and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add egg. Beat just until blended.
3. Combine all-purpose flour, salt, and baking soda. Add to the creamed mixture at low speed. Mix just until blended. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake at 375 for 7 to 8 minutes, or until set and just beginning to brown. Cool 2 minutes on the baking sheet. Remove cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.
These are the "cookies" that my helpers made! The top picture is Buttercup's pan, and the one below is Oliver's:
And last, but not least, here's a cute picture of Buttercup washing up after she finished with her ingredients. It reminds me of a similar picture of Oliver (scroll down to the 5th picture to see it) when he was about the same age! :-)
The kids love to help me cook, which is great! I love having them help in the kitchen, and it's a great learning experience for when they're older. :-)
Sometimes, though, I don't always have a lot of extra time to let them help measure, sift, and pour, so I'll just give them each a bowl and some dry ingredients and let them go to town. They always enjoy that, but yesterday Oliver seemed a little bored. So I got some empty spice shakers from their play kitchen and let them fill up the shakers with flour and spices, shake out the ingredients, fill them up again, etc. They both had a lot of fun and I was able to get my banana bread batter together in no time because they were so busy!
Here's a tasty, kid-friendly recipe that your entire family will love! But first, here are my cute helpers mixing up their own interesting concoctions:
Peanut Butter Granola Bars
2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
dash of apple pie spice or ground cloves
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup raisins (optional)
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup honey
1 egg
3 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup peanut butter
Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9x13 baking pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients together, then make a well in the center. In a smaller bowl, combine honey, egg, vanilla, oil, and peanut butter. Stir until smooth, then add to dry ingredients. Mix well. Pat the mixture evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until cooked through. Cool for 5-10 minutes, then cut into bars. **Don't wait too long to cut them, otherwise the bars will be too hard to cut! Enjoy!
It's been a while since I last posted about Buttercup, so here's what she's been up to:
She loves to play outside, especially in the back yard. Her favorite outside game is to go bye bye with Big Baby. Before we go outside, she collects her purse, car keys, cell phone, diaper bag, and Big Baby. Once we're outside, she puts on her shoes, and then picks up her favorite rock and fossil and carefully puts them in her purse. Then she goes down the steps, gets in the Cozy Coupe and hollers, "Bye!" multiple times to everyone outside with her. Sometimes I get the special job of babysitting Big Baby on the patio while she drives the Cozy Coupe around the yard. Lately she's also been singing the "Imperial March" (a favorite of Oliver's) to herself while she drives. Very cute.
Speaking of Oliver, he is still her #1 favorite person in the entire world. Now that they share a bedroom, they are closer than ever. There have been 2 occasions when he wasn't in his bed when I put her to bed, and both times she was beside herself because she missed her "Obivah." [By the way, she can pronounce "Oliver" correctly, I just think she chooses to say "Obivah" because she knows it annoys him!] After he started preschool last September, it took her at least a month to finally get used to the fact that he was gone 2 mornings each week.
She still loves blueberries. They're her #1 favorite fruit, although she also likes pears (fresh and canned), peaches, blackberries, watermelon, bananas, strawberries (whole, not sliced!), cantaloupe, plums . . . wait, maybe it would have been easier to list the fruit she doesn't like. Which would be: persimmons.
She loves to dress herself. Polka dot shirts and leggings are her favorites. I usually let her dress herself on weekdays and Saturdays, and it's always fun to see which outfits she chooses. She almost always matches colors or patterns, like in the outfit below:
She loves to play in the Childwatch at the YMCA while I exercise. I started taking her there after dropping Oliver off at preschool, mainly because she would be so mad at me for taking him away that I didn't know what else to do with her! Now she looks forward to going after we drop Oliver off. I think she thinks of it as her school. She's such a social little girl, too, so she loves the interaction with other kids. And as a bonus, she can see into the infant room, so she can watch the babies while she plays with the other toddlers. :-)
She used to be very independent, but about 6 months ago she started becoming more clingy. She used to run into her Sunday school class, but now she cries and clings every time we drop her off. :-( Fortunately, she doesn't cry for very long, but I do wish she would outgrow this phase quickly! (Strangely enough, she doesn't cry at all at the YMCA!)
She has such a bubbly personality (when she's well-rested and well-fed!) She also has an absolutely beautiful smile. It just lights up her face and it's so contagious that you can't help but smile along with her. :-)
She is also still our feisty little firecracker. She has no qualms about letting everyone know when she doesn't like something or if someone gets in her way! I have no doubt that her strong personality will only help her be an awesome, successful adult . . . if she ever gets out of the Terrible Twos. ;-)
She is such a fun little girl, and I am so thankful that God chose us to be her parents! She makes every day an adventure and I just love watching her grow! 
Not much creativity here, this is all I got! You can find more You Capture here.
