Thankful for my Garden and Cookies!!!

The return of my stevia

This past Friday I decided to go to my Mom's house and take a look at all of my plants I neglected in the winter.  Some had shriveled leaves and others looked plain dead.  But to my surprise, Most of my plants were still growing.  When the plants had turned to seed, those seeds fell on the soil and laid dormant until spring.  Now my stevia plant is back, I had seeds from some of my greens mix, I saw basil popping up despite the weeds, and flowers on my strawberry plants.  Don't you just love plants!  They may lay dormant in the winter but in the spring they come back.  Sometimes if they don't make it through the cold, they leave a seed that sprouts and continues with the life giving qualities that the plant supplies.  Life is so awesome that way!  We all go through seasons and plant seeds that will grow even when we are no longer around.

Tarragon

Right now some say America is going through a winter.  Well in this winter I've grown stronger and learned how to do a lot of things with less.  One fun thing I learned is how to make oatmeal cookies from packets of instant oatmeal.  One day I wanted to bake some cookies.  I love to bake, I must admit (The other night I baked some awesome bread, pics are below.) and that night it was a cookie night.  All I had were the basic ingredients and plain oatmeal.  No raisins, no nuts, not chocolate chips.  What I did have in addition to plain oatmeal were packets of raisin, date, and walnut oatmeal.  Hmm... so, what I ended up doing was substituting some of my flour with oatmeal packets instead of doing like I used to and buying all the extra ingredients separate.

Here is my recipe below
1/2 cup butter substitute or Earth Balance Coconut Blend
1 cup sugar
egg replacer mixed for one egg
1/2 tsp of vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of flour
2 packets of oatmeal

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream butter and sugar together for about 5 mins.  Add egg replacer and vanilla.  Mix dry ingredients together and mix in with butter and sugar mixture.  Scoop about 1 tbs of dough per cookie on to a cookie sheet and press down slightly.  bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Enjoy!

The next thing I want to try is the organic oatmeal with flax and maple and make that into cookies.  On sale I've seen a box of 5 packets for about  $1.50.  Not bad for organic, and I don't have to buy the flax seeds, oatmeal and maple syrup separately.  Just a little something to get your week started on a sweet note and to also remind you all that no matter the season, we can always survive and grow.

my strawberries

Aloe

My bread in a bundt cake pan,  all of my other pans are in storage.  Gotta make the most of what you have!