[The Gratitude Project] Neighbors

We live in the most amazing neighborhood.  The perfect place to raise a family.

Today I am thankful for wonderful neighbors!

Tonight we are going to visit some of those fabulous families with a plate of goodies.  You can do it too.  It's easy.

Tell your neighbors you love them "a whole honey bunch" with a plate of fresh baked cookies!

There's a bit of a story behind this cookie recipe.  If you haven't figured it out by now, I love to save a buck.  One day while I was grocery shopping I decided that I could get a big ol' bag of generic breakfast cereal for much less money than a box of the name brand kind.  I've bought the bagged cereal before and had relative success.  But that was the kids' cereal.  I hadn't been brave enough to try the generic version of my favorite cereal.   What's my favorite cereal?   Honey Bunches of Oats.  Perfection in my mind.  It's corn flakes and clusters or oat-ey goodness.  How hard can it be to replicate that?  I don't know what I was thinking, because---they are not the same thing!  At.  All.   I couldn't bring myself to eat more than one bowl of the stuff.  And I couldn't trick the kids into eating it either.  Boo.

So, now I have a ginormous bag of cereal that is going to go to waste unless I get creative.

And that my friends is how the "Honey Bunch Cookie" was born!

The bagged cereal might not be that great covered in milk in my cereal bowl.  But it's a super star in these cookies.  They are dee-licious!.  They are soft and very chewy warm out of the oven with the perfect amount of crunch.  If you want them crispy you'll need to cook them a bit longer.  I'm not going to lie to you...the dough is to die for.  I almost didn't bake any of it into cookies.  Just grab a spoon and dig right in.

Isn't it funny how life goes?  This morning I had a bag of nasty cereal staring out of the cupboard at me.  Now I'm not so sad that I have a gigantic bag of sub-standard cereal.  In fact, I'm quite happy about it.  I'll be able to make cookies for weeks!