Today’s Recipe: Chocolate-Covered-Blueberry Cookies

Hold onto your hats, girls—have I got a doozy for you:

Blueberries are good for you, right?

I KNOW—you’re bowled over! Scientists have discovered that blueberries are healthy. So those of you not eating blueberries because you thought they were unhealthy can…

What’s that? Nobody thinks that? Okay, then.

Scientists recently discovered that blueberries prevent and shrink cancer tumors, reverse memory loss, and improve motor skills. It’s also been found that blueberries fight an aggressive type of breast cancer. As little as a cup a day of blueberries can help prevent the cell damage that causes cancer, according to the University of Alabama. The subjects used in the study HAD to eat a cup a day (torture).

But as delicious as fresh or frozen blueberries are to adults, getting them into the daily diet of children might be easier if you do something better. Something that is a treat. Something that can be dunked into a glass of milk. Something that can be fun and whimsical. Something that calls to mind the bright, fruit-forward burst and melty goodness of a chocolate-covered blueberry. Catch my drift?

To the kitchen, girlfriends—it’s cookie time! Specifically, Meg’s Chocolate-Covered-Blueberry Cookies.

But I won’t go so far so to call these Cancer-Fighting Chocolate-Covered-Blueberry Cookies, seeing as how you’d have to eat several per day, every day, to …

Oh. Okay then! Cancer-Fighting Chocolate-Covered-Blueberry Cookies it is.

Chocolate-Covered-Blueberry Cookies

Yield: 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar (www.auntpattys.com)
• 1/4 cup honey crystals (www.auntpattys.com)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 t vanilla
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 cup dried blueberries

About dried blueberries: We have an abundance of blueberries this time of year, but I can only eat or freeze so many berries. This year, I’ve been plopping them onto the racks in my food dryer. I’ve noticed dried blueberries can also be purchased in stores. (Currants will also work in this recipe.)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. (Find coconut sugar and honey sugar HERE.)

In a large bowl, cream together 1/2 cup softened butter, 1/2 cup coconut sugar, and 1/4 cup honey crystals with an electric mixer or wooden spoon until smooth.

Add 1 egg.

Add 1/2 t vanilla

Beat well.

In another bowl, mix together 1 cup flour, 1/2 t baking soda, and 1/2 t salt.

Add to wet mixture.

Fold in 1 cup chocolate chips and 1 cup dried blueberries.

Drop dough by the scoop onto cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 12 minutes and transfer to racks for cooling.

Here’s my niece getting her daily quota of Cancer-Fighting Chocolate-Covered-Blueberry Cookies washed down with some Honest Kids healthy Tropical Mango juice.

She’s sitting on my brother, Brian’s, lap at a Butters family reunion we recently attended in Utah, the place where it all began for me.

Here’s my daughter about to meet a 100 new relatives. (She’s a tad hesitant.)

Mom (MaryJane) hooked up with cousins like Kevin, who she hadn’t seen since childhood. Here’s Kevin standing in front of a photo of Hen and Artie Butters (center), parents to six children (and their spouses). My great-grandfather’s name really WAS Hen, shortened from Henry, but ALWAYS called Hen. He would have fit in nicely in the circle of friends I run with.

Cowboy Earl

Mom’s favorite cousin in a game of dueling cameras

Mom’s “baby” brother Rex, welder by profession, inventor by trade, his house voted “best decorated for Christmas” three years ago in Ogden, Utah (still a kid at heart who trusts in Santa Claus)

Bingo!

Gamboling the day away (check out gambol over in Gleaming Word-a-Week). Horseshoe pitchin’ contest. How-high-can-YOU-swing?