The following post was sponsored by a2 Milk® as part of an Ambassador Program for Influence Central. I received complimentary products to facilitate my review. As always, all opinions are my own.
Oh, goodness! We are about to embark on a new part of the parenting journey! Kindergarten! I can’t believe we are already here. It seems like the world could not have possibly gone 5 times around the sun since we had our oldest one. But here we are and I am excited and nervous (and excited and nervous, in that order) to start this new season in our lives.
I am currently in crazy planning mode: getting our “school” room set up, changing up the girls’ play area to include a new (boy) addition to the fun, banking meals in the freezer for this fall, and trying to figure out what in the world we are going to eat every day! And though all the planning can be a little overwhelming at times, I have created my own reward system in all the planning: Cookies! And milk!
Now, back at the beginning of the year, I would have never added the milk part to the mix. I was perfectly content with just a cookie thanks. And it was because I have had some tummy troubles when I drink milk. But this year I found a solution to the tummy troubles: a2 Milk®! It comes from cows that don’t have a hormone that is thought to cause most typical tummy issues in humans. So, it has me not only getting ready for back to school, but also back to milk and cookies!
And since I am in my intense planning stage for back to school, I thought I would share with you what we are planning for our after school snacks for this fall: Milk and Cookies! I mean this classic combination has been making kids squeal with excitement for ages – right? And I definitely want our kids to have some baked yumminess to look forward to at least once a week.
Bonus points on the day they have just come out of the oven.
Ultra-bonus points if the kids baked them all by themselves!
Here are the recipes we will be trying from day one of Kindergarten until we take a break for Christmas! Don’t forget to add the a2 Milk®! (to find out where to get it where you are, click here)
»» An absolute classic cookie recipe for making with kids is thumbprint cookies – they are a perfect first day of school thing to bake. If you are like me you figure out some way to capture that special day by doing some sort of hand print project. And what kid doesn’t like to press her thumb into a freshly prepared dough?(1)
»» I had to include an oatmeal cookie in this list because I am in always on the hunt for a good oatmeal cookie – minus raisins – because raisins are the saddest of foods. And I tell you, I am going to have to give this one a go because I find it intriguing. Before you click over to read the story, you have to promise me you will try to make them, too! Ok, now that you’ve sworn a blood oath, go read the recipe and story of Anzac Biscuits. I am pretty sure I am going to try to make it with light (or dark) corn syrup. (2)
»» Part of planning for back to school means stocking the freezer for the days that are longer, harder, and more stressful than the days in the summer. I LOVE to have some simple chocolate chip cookie dough prepped and ready to go on a baking sheet tucked away in the freezer for a hard day – or a good day. Or even a day when it is too hot to turn on the oven, so you eat the dough from the freezer (surreptitiously, of course, so the little ones don’t get any bright ideas). You’ve already heard about my go-to milk: a2 Milk®. Here’s my go-to chocolate chipper. (3)
»» Years I have been looking for a specific cookie recipe. YEARS! And I finally found it! I had these babies all the way back in college when a co-workers sweet wife showed me hospitality by inviting me to their home for my first Thanksgiving away from home. She made these marshmallow stuffed cookies and they are so good that you will remember them forever! FOREVER, I tell ya! (4)
»» I have two prerequisites for recipes to show their worthiness now that I am a mom to three kids under 5. They must be: 1. Insanely easy to make or 2. Insanely good. When those two collide, I am a seriously happy mama! Look, what I found! This recipe for Cherry Pie Sugar Cookie Bars is one of those ta-dah kind of recipes that is ridiculously E-A-S-Y! However, how I am going to keep my face out of these is still unknown. (5)
»» Your kids won’t have to wait around for Girl Scout cookie season to have the flavors they love. These Better than Thin Mints cookies are freakishly simple to make – literally just a few ingredients mean your kids will be able to make them all by themselves (except for the oven) – and you already know they were made to go with milk! (6)
»» I have a thing for pumpkin. I crave it all year round. And I really like it in pumpkin bread, scones, and crisp forms the best. But these little pumpkin-cinnamon chip cookies are starting to vie for my cravings attention, too. Our oldest made these without a great deal of help from me and she LOVED working on them. This is the recipe I will whip up the first day I start to feel fall – should be around November 20th here in the desert. (7)
»» To young kids recipes are magical because they randomly throw things together in a bowl, stir them up, and toss them in the oven for a specific amount of time and – voila! – something yummy emerges. But we adults are used to recipes – so the magic is gone. Bring it back with this magical recipe for peanut butter cookies using only 4 ingredients – and none of them is flour! (8)
»» Fall flavors are my favorite because fall is my favorite season! I cannot wait to try making these beautifully simple molasses cookies with our kids! They speak “fall” to me. I think we may add a little sparkle to them – ’cause who doesn’t like a little bit of sparkle at the end of a long school day? (9)
»» Cookies made to be dipped into milk? Yes, please! These are the perfect size for dipping into tall, slender glasses of milk. I love how these are so super simple to make and then the kids can decorate them however they like. The possibilities are endless. (10)
There comes a time in every mother’s autumn when she has a ridiculous quantity of candy in her home and she is tasked with ways to consume it without feeling like she is stealing her children’s hard-earned treats. You know what I am talking about, right? It is a struggle. But we can make it through it together…with this recipe for Reese’s Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookie Bars. (11)
»» Caramel.Pecan.Chocolate Chip.Cookies. You had me at caramel. No, wait, you had me at Pecan. I am obsessed with these flavors individually and together, so of course, I need these cookies in my life this fall. Who’s with me? (12)
»» What do you get when you put together an all-time favorite cookie flavor with my favorite season? Pumpkin Pie Snickerdoodles! {I know!} These are worthy of putting on your bucket list for this fall! Or this weekend, whichever comes first! (13)
»» For those days (or weeks, or months) when your chocolate needs a little chocolate to go with it but you still want to feel like you are meeting the health standard of your kid, these chocolate chocolate chip cookies will fit the bill. When you add oats to cookies, they qualify as breakfast, right? (14)
»» I used to say I didn’t like cranberries. And I still don’t. But what I do like are Craisins! Oh, the yumminess. My girls taught me they rock! And this recipe is for cookies made with my new favorite dried fruit, too; because they it is chock full of craisins paired with white chocolate. They were made to go together, I think – just like cookies and milk. (15)
»» Last but certainly not least, I think I am going to give you something new to crave with this one. I am putting it last on my list because I will be making these around Christmas time and we have a Christmas morning tradition of making and eating cinnamon rolls. Bet you didn’t think you could make cinnamon rolls into cookie bars. Well…you can. And I will! (16)
Ooh. This fall is going to be so good! Back to school. Back to milk and cookies. Back to the days of no tummy troubles after drinking milk!
Have you tried a2 Milk®, yet? Here are some great reasons to pick up a carton:
- a2 Milk® is REAL milk – not some over-processed or alternative milk. So it has all the vitamins of milk you might have been missing out on because you switched from, or even stopped drinking milk.
- a2 Milk® is crazy nutritious – Did you know real milk (a2 Milk®) contains 6 times the calcium of soy beverages and 8 times the protein of almond beverages? Oh, and it has 6 times the potassium of rice beverages, too!
- a2 Milk® is natural – the cows that produce a2 Milk® are from a heritage herd that are (and always have been) free from the a1 protein thought to cause tummy discomfort in humans.
Happy milk and cookies! (and happy tummies afterwards!)
