Cookie Love

Day 4 of our 40 Day Challenge.

We all have "one of those days" and mine was definitely yesterday. To cheer me up, Hubby decided to make me something. He wouldn't often go out and buy something to bring about my happiness, but since we've been so focused on making everything, he opted to make me some Peanut Butter Cookies. If cookies don't scream love, I don't know what does! Ok, maybe chocolate. Yeah, chocolate screams love. But cookies come in close behind!

Did you know that you can substitute 1/4 cup of applesauce per egg or 1/2 of a mashed banana? I do it quite often and since we had run out of eggs, Hubby used applesauce instead.

Peanut Butter Cookies
recipe from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook

1 cup shortening
1 tsp vanilla
1 cupe granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten (we were out, so he substituted 1/4 cup applesauce per egg)
1 cup peanut butter
3 cups flour
1/8 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda

Preheat the oven to 350F and grease some cookie sheets. In a mixing bowl, thorough cream the shortening, vanilla, and sugars. Add the eggs and beat well. Stir in the peanut butter. Mix together the flour, salt, and baking soda, and add to the peanut butter mixture, combining thoroughly. Form into tiny balls with the palm of your hands and place on the cookie sheets. Press each cookie twice with the back of a fork to make a crisscross design. Bake about 8-10 minutes or until firm.

Whoopie Pie Cake and Fruit Snacks

What does a Whoopie Pie Cake and fruit snacks have in common? The adventures of Day 2 of our 40 Day Challenge!
Several days ago I volunteered to make a cake for my grandmother's birthday (we're celebrating tomorrow). Definitely didn't think that one through before deciding to embark on this new adventure. I was going to make a fancy cake with candies on it, but alas, we can't buy them right now. So, I found a marshmallow frosting and made a chocolate cake! To make it all fancy, I'm calling it a Whoopie Pie Cake.

Then came the fruit snacks. I don't know about you, but I LOVE fruit snacks. Who doesn't enjoy reliving their childhood? I recently came across a recipe to make my own. I'm all about multitasking, so while my cake was in the oven and the kids were napping, I moved onto my blueberry fruit snacks. Boy are they delicious!! Definitely not as sweet as the processed version, but so much healthier. No sugar and nothing fake about them. The only problem? They're going to disappear far too quickly.

40 Day Challenge

Hubby and I spent a couple of hours today making and freezing 10lbs of homemade whole wheat pasta. He comes from a very Italian family and he has always enjoyed homemade pasta. We had a couple dozen eggs that we needed to use, so we figured making pasta would be the best way to use them.

It was a great bonding activity and we discussed how we should make this a more permanent thing. And so, our 40 day challenge began.

What does the 40 day challenge entail?

• If it can be made, we will make it.
• We will only purchase items that we cannot make ourselves like eggs, milk, produce, flour, sugar, etc.
• We can only buy meats if we go through everything in our freezer (very unlikely).
• Fabric can be bought ONLY after the current supply has been looked through and there is no suitable option found (ex. I need brown fabric for Peter's Halloween costume and I don't have any). This fabric must be found on clearance.
• We will not purchase any clothing.
• If we run out of soaps, shampoos, or cleaning supplies, we will make our own.We can buy what we need to make these, but we must find the least expensive recipes to make them.

Why are we doing this?  

• It will be great to know exactly what is in everything we eat and use.
• We have a freezer and pantry full of food that really needs to be cycled through, this will force us to do so.
• We're really curious to see how long we can go without spending any money. How much will it really save us?
• We had so much fun just spending time together making pasta, this will be a great adventure for our marriage as we tackle this challenge together!