Pecan Shortbread from The Smelly Llama

Thanks Mom for making these with the girls!

Pecan Shortbread
3/4 pound unsalted butter, room temperature 1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1 teaspoon pure almond extract
3½ cups all-purpose flour ¼ teaspoon salt
1½ cups small diced pecans

Recipe courtesy of The Barefoot Contessa


· Preheat the oven to 350° F
· In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the butter and sugar until they are just combined
· Add the vanilla and almond extracts
· In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then add them to the butter/sugar mixture
· Add the pecans and mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together
· Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes
· Roll the dough 1/2 ½ -inch thick and cut into 2-½ -inch squares with a plain or fluted cutter (or cut into any shape you like). Place the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet
· Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool until they reach room temperature and serve
· Yields 26 cookies at 3/8”

Play - Doh cookies from The Smelly Llama

Today we decided to make "play- doh" cookies. Here are our colored balls.

Ready for the oven

What a fun project! Here's the recipe, but we adjusted it by adding 3 cups of flour.

Here's the recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Play-Dough-Cookies/Detail.aspx

Basic animal cell cookies from The Smelly Llama

Since Squirrel has been studying cells in science, I thought it would be fun to make cell cookies.

Squirrel making the cytoplasm.

Fluffy Puppy was in charge of the cell membrane.

Squirrel eating the nucleus.

Having fun with the nuclei and cell membrane.

Our "cells" ready for the oven.

Definitely not the prettiest cookie we've ever made but they are delicious and were a lot of fun to make!

This recipe can be found here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Play-Dough-Cookies/Detail.aspx
Note: I found I needed much more flour than the recipe called for.

Apple Banana Muffins from The Smelly Llama

Getting ready to make breakfast

Adding the Bisquick

Dicing the apple

Twenty minutes later, fresh muffins for breakfast!

YCA Apple Banana Muffins


2 cups baking mix
2 T. sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup water
1/4 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/2 c. mashed banana
3/4 c. apple, peeled and diced
handful of chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line muffin tine with paper liners. Stir sugar into baking mix. In a small bowl, beat egg and add to water. Add liquid to the dry ingredients and stir 15 strokes, or just enough to blend. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Makes a dozen muffins.

low-fat banana bread from The Smelly Llama

Today we decided to make banana bread since our bananas were turning brown.

Peeling the bananas.

The mixologist

Ready to bake.

Fresh out of the oven! This is SUCH a good recipe! You can find it here:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Almost-No-Fat-Banana-Bread/Detail.aspx

Watermelon Smoothie from The Smelly Llama

This morning we decided to make smoothies.

Squirrel was in charge of the watermelon.


Fluffy Puppy added the yogurt.


I added the vanilla and ice. It called for sugar but I decided not to put it in because we were using Trix yogurt which has more sugar than regular yogurt (it's all we had). In the end, the girls felt like it needed to be a little sweeter so I added some sugar to their cups. I thought it was plenty sweet though. Next time I would add a banana for more flavor and a natural sweetener.


Squirrel posing with the blender.


Ready to fill up some empty bellies, or, in our case, spilled all over the table. :)

You can find the recipe here: http://www.recipezaar.com/71775