“One night, my nine-year old-old son and I were browsing through the Betty Crocker Web site looking for fun ideas for his class when he spotted a little blurb about the ‘Bake Life Sweeter Cookie Mix Recipe’ Contest. He got really excited when he saw the finalists and grand prize winner would receive 1,000 box tops for their designated school. He attends a wonderful public school a few blocks from our house and a couple of years ago our school signed up to participate in the Box Tops for Education program.
I am always in the kitchen baking for the teachers, staff, and kids, and my son made me promise to come up with a great idea so that we could donate the box tops to his school. My inspiration for the Wild Blue Energy Chews came from trying to make a healthy, yet still delicious cookie that included some of the so-called ‘Super Foods.’ Everywhere I turn, I see something about the wonderful benefits of eating blueberries, almonds, dark chocolate, and oatmeal. I also thought that adding some toasted wheat germ would even pack more of a punch. So, every day for a couple of weeks, I baked up two batches of cookies using Oatmeal Cookie Mix and my ‘Super Foods,’ changing quantities and ingredients along the way. As soon as they came out of the oven, I would race them down to the school so all of the teachers in the lunchroom and the Principal, Vice Principal and front office staff could test them. After the Holidays, everyone was adamant that they wanted a lighter and healthier cookie that tasted great and could actually give them some energy. After many variations, my final submission was a unanimous ‘Yes!’ I took out as much fat as I could get away with, added an egg white instead of the whole egg, and added a little extra water which resulted in a nice chewy texture. The whole process was fun for everyone!”
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