My mother-in-law came this week for her yearly visit. Every time she comes I screw something up in the kitchen (my favorite was when I served raw rice. I forgot to turn on the stove but did remember to turn on the timer). This time was no exception. The other night I made dinner rolls for supper. They were not from scratch….merely Rhodes frozen dough balls that you put on a pan, cover in Saran Wrap, let rise for a few hours and then bake. I forgot to take the Saran Wrap off when I baked them so when I pulled them out of the oven they were all covered in a shiny, thick glaze of melted plastic. My mother-in-law was nice enough to help me pick off all the plastic and we served them alongside my homemade fried chicken… laughing! They actually weren’t too bad…just a few crunchy spots!
Needless to say, I require really easy to prepare foods. Nothing fancy for this girl!
The recipe I’m going to share with you today is so simple that my 7 year old daughter can now make them by herself. It’s an old recipe with one easy, cute twist. My mom always used to make these when I was little and they were one of my favorites. At Christmas time she would don them with a maraschino cherry.
Iris recently graduated to stove cooking and can make these cookies all by herself! Here she is making her own cookies for her 1st grade class birthday treat!
When I was trying to come up with a treat for my daughter to take for her Kindergarten class on her birthday I instantly thought of these cookies because they are easy to make, travel well and are yummy. The only problem is that they kind of look like a mound of dirt.
No problem!!! I simply put a gummy worm on top of the cookies and called them “Worm in the Dirt Cookies!” My daughter loved them and has requested them for everything since then!!
Iris selling Lemon Zucchini cupcakes and Worm in the Dirt Cookies at her yard bake sale last year! The neighbor kids kept coming back for more and more cookies! The cupcakes were bought out by our elderly neighbor ladies!
Worm in the Dirt Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 C. quick-cooking rolled oats
- 2/3 C. peanut butter
- 2 C. sugar
- ½ C. (1 stick) butter
- ½ C. milk
- 1/3 C. cocoa
- 2 tsp. vanilla
Directions
- Combine sugar, butter, milk and cocoa in medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a rolling boil.
- Remove from heat. Add oats, peanut butter and vanilla; stir quickly, mixing well.
- Immediately drop mixture by heaping teaspoons onto wax paper or tin foil.
- Add gummy worm to the top
- Let cool
Worm in the Dirt Cookies
Motherhood Is An Art 
These look so easy and yummy, and better yet (for us) they are wheat-free! In fact, if you use gluten-free oats, rice milk and dairy-free “butter”, they would be gluten-free, casein-free, which is a huge plus for a lot of families with dietary restrictions. Making some today with the kiddos… can’t wait to see the smile on my daughter’s face when I tell her she can eat them 🙂
Oh that’s awesome!! I would have never thought of that as we are lucky we don’t have diet restrictions but I know so many families do. There isn’t too many cookies that don’t call for flour…plus these are so easy!! I hope you enjoy!!! Thanks for checking it out!
Oh I could write a book on all the silly things I’ve done in the kitchen…. The saran wrap is a new one for me, but I can SO picture myself doing that! Those cookies are a cute idea.
haha!!! Thank you!!!