Handy Snacks from the Freezer -- Part 1

Do you have quick homemade snacks available at your home, or do you continually resort to purchasing bags of cookies and chips at the store? I always did this until I realized how much of my grocery budget was going for treats. Now I try to overcome the temptation to buy cookies and snacks at the local supermarket or discount store by having an "emergency stash" of treats at home in my freezer.

There are a couple of ways to prepare cookies ahead. You could always bake and freeze cookies in bags in the freezers, but there are also times when hot, chewy, melt-y cookies will hit the spot. Raw cookie dough can be frozen for these times, and we'll discuss how to do that later.

Baked cookies and cookie dough can be frozen for up to 3 months in your freezer, but if your family is anything like mine, they won't last quite that long!

Here's a simple recipe for sugar cookies that freezes well after baking. These are not the type of sugar cookies that you can roll and cut with cookie cutters, but they make an excellent cookie. I rarely use real butter for my cookies, but I urge you to try real butter in these. You will be glad you did!

Granny's Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup oil
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla
2 eggs
4 cups flour
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt

Sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt and set aside. Mix other ingredients well, and add dry ingredients slowly. Roll dough into small balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten balls with bottom of a glass dipped in sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until edges of cookies turn golden.

To freeze: These cookies are fragile, and are best frozen in a rigid container. They can also be frozen in a freezer bag, but they need to be placed where the bag won't be crushed.

Here is a recipe for cookies that can be frozen before or after baking:

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow Cookies

½ cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 eggs
2 cups peanut butter
½ tsp. vanilla extract
4 ½ cups regular oats
2 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Cream butter; gradually add sugar. Beat well with an electric mixer at medium speed. Add eggs, peanut butter, and vanilla. Beat well. Add oats, soda, and salt; stir well. Stir in chocolate chips (dough will be stiff.)

Freezing instructions: Roll dough into small balls (1 to 1½ inches in diameter.) Place close together on a cookie sheet. Freeze overnight. The next day, remove the cookies from the cookie sheet and quickly place in a freezer bag and store in the freezer. As you are ready to bake the cookies, take out desired number of dough balls and place on a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Centers of cookies will be slightly soft.

To bake without freezing first: Drop dough by the teaspoonful onto a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes.

Come back in two weeks for Part II of this article, which will include recipes for party snacks and after-school snacks!