freeze your dough

I try to drive as little as possible.  We love our neighborhood, partly because there's a lot of stuff within walking distance.  We also live within easy walking distance of reliable, safe public transportation.  We walk and bike, and consolidate trips when we do drive.  Nonetheless, we do use gasoline, which is starting to cost more than I like.  Maybe you have other tips for saving gas this week.  

With all this talk about rising costs, I turned to an old stand-by to cope: make cookies and eat them.  While Shannon's other friends will share serious & practical tips this week, I'm sharing a little yummyness that works for me. 

Here's the tip:  Go to your kitchen.  Make a double batch of your favorite cookie dough.  If, like me, you have little ones at home, call it home-schooling: count eggs, compare teaspoons to tablespoons, measure butter, count cups of sugar... Whatever you do, do not count calories. 

That would be like counting miles per gallon on your minivan. 

Now, bake cookies.  Bake about 2/3 of the dough, and find at least one non-family member to bless (neighbors?  friends?  coworkers?).  

With the remaining cookie dough & a small spoon or scoop, fill a mini-muffin pan.  I like to grease it first, though that might not be necessary.  Put the muffin tin into the freezer for about 15-20 minutes, until the dough is frozen.  Then, pop the frozen dough out into a freezer bag and save them for some future treat.  

My favorite recipe for chewy chocolate-chip cookies is from America's Test Kitchen, which could be found with a search for "Thick & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies." However, there are many good recipes available.  Some of them are even low(er) calorie & relatively healthy.  

Cookies now and later?  Works for me.  Have a great Wednesday!