With the holidays in full swing, many of us are in the kitchen cooking and baking up a storm, have a to-do list a mile long, and add to that the stress of holiday gatherings and Christmas parties. Is it any wonder most of us feel stressed during the holidays?
I try to reduce some of my holiday stress by taking short cuts when I can. I’m going to let my little secret out of the bag …….. I’m a big fan of the bagged cookie mixes, and I don’t hesitate to use them in some of my holiday baking!
What if I told you that you could make a cool chocolate mint cookie in no time with just a few simple ingredients?
Of course you could make these using a basic sugar or butter cookie recipe from scratch, but if you’re pressed for time (and less mess) this is great alternative! Leaving you with more time for shopping, wrapping or dancing to your favorite holiday tunes!
Ingredients
- 1 pouch Betty Crocker® sugar cookie mix
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 teaspoon mint extract
- 1 egg
- green food color
- 1 cup creme de menthe baking chips
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350°. In large bowl, stir in cookie mix, butter, extract, food color and egg until soft dough forms.
- Stir in creme de menthe baking chips and chocolate chips.
- Using a small cookie scoop, drop dough 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
- Bake 8-10 minutes or until set. Coll 3 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.
- Cool completely before storing tightly covered at room temperature.
- Enjoy!
Notes
from Betty Crocker Recipes
*NOTES:
The green food color is just to give the cookies a “mint” look, but you can certainly eliminate it if you wish.
I used CK leaf green gel food color and just a bit of Americolor bright white gel food color.
Doughmaker Aluminum cookie sheet is a great pan for cookie baking.
That’s my secret to stress free holiday baking!
These cookies would also be perfect for a St. Patrick’s Day treat!
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P&G Beauty is here to help reduce some of your stress by taking the guesswork out of gifting this holiday season, with an array of P&G Beauty Holiday Gift Sets from Olay, Crest, CoverGirl and more. The indulgent products in each gift set are hand-selected favorites that provide head-to-toe pampering and will surely delight everyone on your gift list! They are in stores now, and with a suggested retail price of only $9.99, they are budget friendly too! Great for yourself or to give as a gift! I plan on personalizing a few for teachers and neighbors (also great for bus drivers and office exchange) by taking off the plastic, replacing it with Christmas cellophane, tied up with pretty ribbon, an ornament tied into the bow and a nice handwritten note!
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Disclaimer: I wrote this sponsored post for keeping your holidays stress free campaign by The Motherhood on behalf of P&G Beauty and received a gift and stipend to tell you about it. All thoughts, opinions, and ideas are solely mine.
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Each year, we load the kids into their car seats with a warm drink and a snack and then go for a drive to look at holiday lights, including a light show and 4 really decked out houses while we play Christmas music.
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We keep it simple by decorating gradually as Christmas approaches. Each weekend, more is done until the weekend before the holiday, the whole house is ready! This makes the job easier and builds anticipation.
Our holiday tradition is to have everyone participate in the holiday decorating, even the little ones!
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For our holidays, my mom and I have a tradition of crafting different decorations each year. It’s a great creative outlet and tons of fun!!
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Our Holidays are made special by all of us girls getting together and baking a ton of cookies:)
Every year we play Christmas music and decorate the tree together, We have a great time together.
I have tried since I was a “grown woman” to make yummy treats and give them to family and friends. The Boss and I also have a tradition of listening to all the Christmas CDs and tapes (yes, we still have some tapes!) from Thanksgiving until Christmas. We have so many that it usually takes that long to listen to them all.
I bake tons of cookies in advance and then freeze them, then i can share then with friends all season long.
We are lucky to have a very famous neighborhood near our house that has blocks of houses loaded with Christmas lights and decorations. There is even music playing and hot chocolate or cider on sale there. We have a tradition of either walking through the neighborhood or driving through if it’s too crowded.
We have an advent calendar which we fill with Christmas-related activities: put up tree, read a Christmas story, go on a family outing, buy gifts for giving tree, make Christmas cookies, etc. It can be difficult when “Make Gingerbread House” shows up on a Tuesday, so we give ourselves some leeway but it keeps us moving forward.
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I love the stress free baking, I try and bake some things and freeze before baking and it works pretty well!
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We have started baking cookies and brownies for friends and relatives during the holidays together
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I’m just in love with your blog, and was thrilled to see the gingerbread recipe. It’s always been one of my favorites, and I love making it (even when it’s not the holidays). I’ve joined you and P&G on FB too!
On Thanksgiving, upon our guests arrival, we hand each of them a sticky note. They write down something they are thankful for (can be anonymous) and we stick them all around the house to remind everyone why we are there.
Love your blog!