Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

My God, but this is the bossi­est win­ter we’ve had in a long time. Just when you think you can’t find any more ways to com­plain, describe, cry about the cold weather, winter’s like, “Oh, yeah, well what about this?” And shazam: Polar Vor­tex on our asses. (Sorry, I know this is a fam­ily show, but des­per­ate times, etc.) I don’t think my kids have been out­side other than for the quick walk to the school bus/daycare in about a week. And even that brief expo­sure has all of us red-faced and sore from the cold. It actu­ally hurts. Okay win­ter, we get it, you’re the man.

If you’re stuck inside with the kids this week­end you’re going to need some activ­i­ties. There’s only so many times I can play Catopoly (mmm hmmm, lit­ter boxes instead of houses, not kid­ding). So I’m going to get my kids in the kitchen for some bak­ing. This is a super easy recipe that comes together quite quickly but still has enough steps that if you’ve got more than one child to amuse every­one gets a few turns dump­ing in ingre­di­ents. I really love the way choco­late and coconut taste together, plus the coconut adds an extra chewy-ness.  These pack really well, so you’ll be one step ahead in the lunch game for next week. Next week when it won’t be so cold. Right? Sorry, for­get I asked, win­ter, you’re the boss. But until it warms up, we’ll always have cook­ies…

Photo by Maya Visnyei