Make-Ahead Monday: Peanut Butter Cookies

I once had a Tuesday through Saturday job and decided it was worth the time to spend several hours every Monday making food for the upcoming week. It was a busy day in the grocery store & kitchen, but it was great to have several things in the freezer so I could just thaw something the night before & pop it in the oven for a quick, convenient, homemade meal every day of the week. It saved me money over buying premade meals, and it ensured that the food was healthier because I was making most things from scratch rather than eating a lot of processed convenience foods.

Some of the things I made regularly back then:

*Lasagna

*Quiche

*Enchiladas

*Lentil Soup

*Clam Chowder

I don't remember what else I made, but these were on the menu pretty regularly, and this list alone was a decent variety so I didn't get bored.

Interestingly enough, I now have Mondays off work again, over a decade later. I've done food prep days here & there in recent years, but I haven't been doing actual meals and it hasn't been as organized or as frequent as I'd like it to be. I've recently decided that I need to institute the weekly meal-making practice again in order to make my life easier and to save money by planning meals ahead of time. I'll keep you posted & try to share what I'm making each week. Today, I was limited by not planning ahead & by not having enough freezer space, so I made 3 quarts of ghee and started a batch of beef broth with some grassfed soup bones I had in the freezer.

Beef Broth

Broth is simple. Some people use veggies in the pot with the bones, but I never bother with that. I roast the bones at 400* or so until they're done and put them in the crock pot. Then I fill the crock pot up with water & turn it on low. I check the water level once or twice a day & keep the crock pot full. After a day (for chicken bones) or two or three days (for beef bones), the broth will be ready. At this point, I strain out the bones & refrigerate the broth until I'm ready to use it in soups, stews, for cooking liquid on rice & beans, etc.


The kid made a big batch of peanut butter cookies today, which are an inexpensive, easy-to-make treat with the nutritional goodness of natural peanut butter.


Peanut Butter Cookies - makes 12-15

*1 cup peanut butter (we buy it freshly ground & add 1/4 tsp. RealSalt to this recipe)
*1 cup natural sweetener of choice - we like turbinado sugar for the price, but it doesn't blend in as well as others (use only 1/2 cup if you choose honey)
*1 egg

Mix together well with a fork or spoon. Put blobs of dough (about 2 Tbsp. each) onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. It will work without the parchment paper, but they do stick a little bit. Press each one with the back of a fork until maybe 1/3" thick or so. Bake at 350* F for 8 - 10 minutes. Let sit on parchment for several minutes to cool before carefully removing them in order to keep them from falling apart. Enjoy!

Have you ever had a food-making day to prepare food for the whole week? What was your experience &/or opinion of it?

Recipe - Coconut Flour Muffins

This may not be one of the cheapest foods I make, but these muffins are very satisfying and are a healthy option fo a treat or a breakfast-on-the-go.

Gluten-Free Coconut Flour Muffins

Coconut Flour Muffins – by Angie, adapted from Vivian, who adapted it from the book “Cooking With Coconut Flour”

Basic muffin recipe:

12 eggs
1 cup coconut palm sugar
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (or coconut milk)
1/2 cup butter (or ghee, or coconut oil), melted
1 1/4 cup coconut flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. Real Salt

Sift dry ingredients together & set aside. With an electric mixer, beat together eggs, palm sugar, coconut oil and coconut milk. Keep the mixer running while you add the dry ingredients and mix all together until smooth. Work quickly because it gets pretty stiff as the coconut flour absorbs liquid. Fill 12 greased muffin cups to the top with batter, or use non-stick muffin papers – the regular muffin papers stick and will tear away a lot of your muffin. Even in greased muffin cups, the muffins will usually stick & tear a bit. Bake at 325° F for 20 - 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10+ minutes. They are good as they are, but I also like mine cut in half with some real butter...melting from the warmth of the fresh-baked muffins. Yum!

What to add for flavor variations:

Blueberry muffins:
2 cups frozen blueberries – stir into batter just before filling muffin cups

Chocolate muffins:
1/3 cup raw cacao powder – sift in with dry ingredients
1/2 cup coconut palm sugar (add this much extra because of the bitter cacao)

Coconut muffins:
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes/shreds – stir in just before filling muffin cups

Gingerbread Muffins - I’m still playing with the amounts of spices for this variation:
2 Tbsp. blackstrap molasses – blend in with wet ingredients
1 1/2 tsp. ginger - sift all spices in with other dry ingredients
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves