Recipe Saturday: No-Bake Cookies

This week has been quite a trial for this mom. My laptop crashed TWICE, my phone conked out the other night, and on top of that the weather has been downright terrible. We are suffering from MAJOR cabin fever at Casa Costa!!! Luckily, I found I had all the ingredients for this in the house yesterday, and these no-bake cookies saved the afternoon from delving into temper tantrum-ville.

Here is why I love No-Bakes: they are so so simple to make and don't require me to watch an oven. I always burn things. Always! The only downside to No-Bakes is that you have to let them cool, but "cool" is a relative term, right? :)


image via flickr by niemster

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1 stick butter (I have used slightly less to save on calories and it has been okay. haven't tried margarine)
3T cocoa (Trader Joe's is cheap and good!)
1/2 cup milk
1T vanilla
3 cups oats (I buy Target generic and they work great. Saves some $$ over Quaker)
3T Peanut Butter (I will buy generic of this, but don't buy low sugar/fat/sunflower/whatever. Stick with real PB)

Mix all ingredients together except vanilla, oats and peanut butter in large saucepan/skillet.
Cook 3 minutes on stove ...you don't want it to solidify too much
Remove from heat
Add vanilla, oats, peanut butter.
Drop onto wax paper to cool (I use the fridge or freezer depending on how much room I have)

That's it! I've seen other recipes with less sugar or more cocoa. I think it's all to taste. This is my mom's recipe so it's what I like :)