It's Valentine's!!

Here at our the Trippet House I take holidays very seriously, and by seriously I mean I bake my weight in treats (consequently my jeans start fitting tighter around the same time. Coincidence?). Valentine's Day is of course no exception. If my boys had it their way they would eat their weight in those puffy pink grocery store Valentine's sugar cookies. You know the ones that I am talking about- they have about 80 ingredients on the label, most of which I can't pronounce. That's if I let them of course. So with Mini-Me's preschool Valentine's party coming up I figured I would offer the kids a healthier version of the puffy pink heart cookies, something without all the junk and artificial food dyes. So here goes:

Healthy Sugar Cookies! (taken from Chocolate Covered Katie's blog)

• 1.5 cup whole wheat pastry flour (I use Bob's Red Mill organic)
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup turbinado sugar
  
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons almond milk
  
• 1/2 cup Earth Balance

Combine dry ingredients and mix very, very well. In a separate bowl, melt the vegan butter, then stir in vanilla and milk. Pour dry into wet and mix again. Form balls or roll out (not too thin), then use a cookie cutter to make shapes. If you want soft cookies, you’ll need to get the dough very cold. (So roll the balls first, then fridge until cold.) Cook in a 325F preheated oven for 9 minutes. They will look very underdone when you take them out, but that’s ok!! Just let them cool for 5 minutes before touching. http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2011/12/01/healthy-sugar-cookies/

Raspberry Royal Icing

• 15 frozen raspberries
• 1 lb vegan powdered sugar (be careful as most powdered sugar is not vegan)
• 1/3 cup of water

Heat the raspberries in the water until the raspberries start to fall apart. Throw them in the Vitamix (or any other high powered emulsion blender) on a low speed and gradually add the powdered sugar. If your frosting is too thin add a little more sugar. Frost the cookies once they have cooled (about 30 minutes). Let the cookies sit out until the frosting has hardened.

Enjoy!!