Gluten free cookies for the busy parent

 

This week was two of our kiddos’ adoption day! Eight years ago, we brought home siblings: a three-year-old boy and a one-year-old girl, who we named Michael and Naomi. After more than a year in foster care and multiple homes, they blessed our home and found a forever family with Superman and I (and our other two sons, and soon after, their baby sister). Every year, we celebrate our kids’ adoption days with a fun family activity. 

This year, my brother and his family just happened to be out visiting from Idaho during Michael and Naomi’s adoption day. I asked the kids what they’d like me to make for their special day, and they both said cookies! With family visiting, I was crunched for time and didn’t have a lot of extra space in our schedule to make something from scratch. I was recently asked by the J.M. Smucker Company to create some unique tips for using some of their new gluten-free products, and I thought this was the perfect opportunity!

We happen to have a Walmart on the way to my sister’s house where my brother was staying, so we decided to swing by there to stock up on some basic pantry items, including some Pillsbury Gluten Free Premium Cookie Mixes! I often shop at other grocery stores, and usually gluten-free items are much more expensive than their “regular” counterparts, but I was happy with the prices, and really glad to see that three dozen cookies would only cost me about $3! 

I decided to make both the chocolate chip cookies and the sugar cookies, because Michael and Naomi wanted different kinds!

Now, these aren’t Paleo, and not necessarily something I would make for dessert every night, but they were the perfect gluten-free option for bringing to a fun family day. We had a great time “mixing up a moment” with my family and these Pillsbury gluten-free cookies. And they are so simple, it only took a few ingredients and a couple minutes to throw them together before all my own kids and my nieces and nephews were chowing down!

First, we got everything ready (do you spy my sister??): 

Then, we added together the ingredients (the mix, water, butter and an egg):

Next we formed the dough into balls:

Then, we baked them for about 10 minutes, pulled them out, let them cool for a few minutes, and then ate ’em up!

Everyone loved the cookies, and I have to say, as a busy mom and wife it was wonderful to have these as an option to serve my family when I just don’t have the time to make something from scratch. After all, eating gluten-free is important to us (and vital for Superman), but time with family is even more important. And since I got to get the best of both worlds, I was one happy momma! 

Be sure to come back next week to see how we incorporated Pillsbury gluten free brownies into a fun family cookout with my in-laws!

If you want to save some money, you can go pick up your Pillsbury gluten-free mixes at Walmart and use this coupon to save a little more! For more ideas on how to “mix up a gluten free moment” with your own family, check out Pillsbury’s gluten free board on Pinterest!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of The J.M. Smucker Company. The opinions and text are all mine.

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