Soft Gingerbread (Improved)

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 box butterscotch instant pudding mix (3.5 oz)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and egg. Add the pudding mix. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, ginger, and cinnamon. Combine the flour mixture into the egg and sugar mixture, adding a little at a time. Cover and chill 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350. Roll dough to about 1/8 inch thickness and cut into shapes. Place cookies on greased cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Bake 8-9 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Tips
When you are mixing the dough, it might seem really dry. Just keep mixing it until it is not dry. It will probably be easier to do this if you use a mixer instead of stirring by hand.
Chilling the dough is not required but it makes the dough a lot easier to work with.

Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Rods

Ingredients
2 Giant size Hershey's milk chocolate bars (7 oz each), chopped
1 bag (10 oz) pretzel rods
sprinkles or other topping

Directions
Line two cookie sheets with wax paper. Melt the chopped chocolate bars in a double boiler. (See below if you do not have a double boiler.) Stir frequently so it doesn't burn. When the chocolate is melted, remove from heat. Dip the pretzel rods in the chocolate. You can put sprinkles or mini M&Ms or other topping on the pretzels. Place the pretzels on the wax paper. Freeze or refrigerate until the chocolate hardens, about an hour or two.

If you have leftover chocolate, just start dipping random things- bananas, apples, or whatever else you have in your kitchen!

If you want to dip strawberries, just wash them and dry them first.

Double Boiler
If you don't have a double boiler, put an empty stainless steel bowl on top of a pot of boiling water. Add the chocolate to the dry bowl.

Clean out the pantry minestrone soup (crock pot)

3 c vegetable broth

2 cans beans, drained (whatever beans you have)

1 can tomatoes, diced, undrained

1 can corn, undrained

whatever vegetables you have in the fridge

salt and pepper to taste

1. Drain and rinse beans. Add to crock pot.

2. Add tomatoes, corn, and vegetables.

3. Cover with vegetable broth.

4. Cook low 8 hours or high 4 hours.

Whole wheat waffles

2 eggs

2 c whole wheat flour

1 3/4 c milk

1/2 c vegetable oil

1 TB white sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

sprinkle of cinnamon (optional)

Preheat waffle iron.

Beat eggs with hand beater until fluffy. Beat in flour, milk, vegetable oil, sugar, baking powder, salt, and vanilla just until smooth. (It makes a big difference {think yummier} if you mix all of the dry ingredients in one bowl and all of the liquid ingredients in another bowl and then combine.)

Cook to desired crispiness.

Crockpot Taco Soup

1 can vegetarian chili

1 can corn with liquid

1 can diced tomatoes with liquid

1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce

1 can black beans with liquid

1 package dry taco seasoning

Stir together. Cover and cook on low in the crockpot 6-8 hours.

Jacob's big chocolate chip cookies

2 c all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 c butter, melted

1 c packed brown sugar

1/2 c white sugar

1 TB vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 c chocolate chips

1. Preheat 325

2. Mix flour, baking soda, salt.

3. In medium bowl, cream melted butter, brown sugar, and white sugar.

4. Beat in vanilla, egg, egg yolk until light and creamy

5. Mix in flour until just blended.

6. Stir in chocolate chips.

7. Drop cookie dough 1/4 c at a time about 3 inches apart.

8. Bake 15 minutes, until edges are lightly toasted.

9. Cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before removing

Crockpot Black Beans

2 cups dry beans (1 lb)

1. Rinse beans under cold water. Remove broken beans and rocks.

2. Soak at least 6 hours or overnight in the fridge.

3. Dump the water and rinse the beans.

4. Put the beans in the crockpot and cover the beans with plus 2-3 inches of water (over the top of the beans).

5. Cook on low 8 hours in crockpot or until soft.

6. Drain and store.

You can add onions and/or other seasonings before cooking the beans, but I usually don't.

Instead of cooking the beans in water, you can cook them in vegetable broth. But water is cheaper. :)

The freezer is a good place to store cooked beans. I store 1 1/2 to 2 cups of cooked beans in containers in the freezer. They easily defrost in the microwave or in the kitchen sick under warm water.