A few things we need to discuss today: Cookies, Cookbooks, Charity Bake Sales and October’s Secret Recipe Club reveal. Most folks love a good peanut butter cookie. Crumbly, comforting and sweet. Mine are all of that but also vegan and gluten free. These cookies are filled with health. They are baked in honor of a little boy named Liam who lost a struggle with life.
Will you please take a seat and join me for some cookies? Grab your milk and a plate.
It was essential that I added some pumpkin to the usual peanut butter cookies. Any place I can use pumpkin I do. From pie tarts to applesauce to curries.
Pumpkin rules and that is all you need to know.
The blog I get to reveal and share with you today is Darn Near Domestic. Kristy had these Peanut Butter Cookies sans the fork prints so I decided to make something similar. With my usual twists of course! Hers have no fork prints and neither do mine. Yes there is peanut butter in both our recipes. Hers have sugar, butter, white flour and eggs. Mine don’t. Her little son grabbed her freshly baked batch of cookies from the cooling racks.
My kids did the same…
I love decorating with all kinds of raisins and dried fruits. They are colorful, tasty and fun…
Here is the very special book I have been wanting to share with you…
I first learned about the book Cookies for Kids Cancer: Best Bakesale Cookbook on the blog Justcook NYC. The journey to creating this gem was emotional and well worth all the efforts.
This book is important because all of the proceeds benefit a charity close to the authors heart. Gretchen Hot-Witt’s little son Prince Liam was diagnosed with pediatric cancer at the age of 2 1/2 in 2007. She shares in the book’s introduction that the only thing in the world that mattered after his diagnosis was Liam’s health and path to recovery. Sadly Liam lost the fight to cancer earlier this year. He was only 6 years old.
My heart bleeds for this family.
None of us can imagine the pain associated with this sort of thing. To find out your sweet child is so sick sucks the life and strength out of you…..when you need it most.
When Liam was diagnosed Gretchen created a a positive plan. A BIG plan that involved raising money through local bake sales. She figured everyone loves a good cookie and they are an easy sell. With her first large scale bake sale initiative they sold $400,o00.00 worth of cookies. All of that money helps to fund new pediatric cancer treatments. As of today they have raised millions of dollars. Through cookies…
They formed the national nonprofit organization called Cookies for Kid’s Cancer that invites others to hold bake sales (and other events) across the  country to benefit this cause. You can help too by hosting a bake sale in your neck of the woods or by purchasing this book. All of Gretchen’s royalties go back to the foundation…to help little kids. Help me to help her help kids.
What is your favorite cookie recipe? Have you ever held a bake sale?
Giveaway Details
This giveaway is now closed. Thanks for all of your entries. Congrats to Averie #33 from Love Veggies and Yoga.
If you love all kinds of cookies, brownies, cupcakes and cakes then you will love this book. Every sweet treat that you could possibly dream up is in the recipe index. A few that sound great to me are Fresh Apple Cranberry Bars, Applesauce Bread, Cocoa Carrot Cupcakes with White Chocolate Chips, Cream Cheese Brownies, Pecan Sandies, Tried-and-True Sparkly Ginger Snaps, Coconut Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies. And yes, there is a recipe for Peanut Butter Cookies in the book. They are named after Prince Liam. Read more about the cause here.
Because I cannot resist a great cookie and this amazing woman’s efforts I am purchasing a Cookies for Kids Cancer: Best Bakesale Cookbook for one friend of MarlaMeridith.com….
All the info you need if you wish to donate money or host any kind of event to benefit this cause can be found on their webpage.
How to Enter
Leave some comments….tell me what your favorite kind of cookie is. You have until Friday, October 28th, 12 midnight PST to enter this giveaway. One winner will be chosen via random.org and will have 3 days to respond or a new winner will be selected. Open to residents of the USA.
To earn additional entries, leave a separate comment for each of the steps listed below. If you don’t leave separate comments for each step, we will not be able to include them.
- Tell me about your favorite cookie recipe. Have you ever hosted or been a part of a bake sale?
- Add the MarlaMeridith.com badge into your sidebar or somewhere on your blog
- Tweet this giveaway, being sure to include my Twitter handle (@MarlaMeridith). Here’s a sample tweet you could use or make up your own: Win the @cookies4kids Best Bake Sale Cookbook to benefit Cookies for Kid’s Cancer via @MarlaMeridith http://su.pr/2cbaQH #giveaway PLS RT
- Tell me which MarlaMeridith.com Recipe cookie recipe you want to try.
- Follow @MarlaMeridith on Twitter
- Follow @cookies4kids on Twitter
- Follow Marla Meridith on Pinterest & pin this post
- Sign up for my Email or RSS feeds
- Stumble this post & follow @familyfresh on StumbleUpon
- Add a link to this post on your blog.
- Add a MarlaMeridith.com badge somewhere on your blog
- Follow @MarlaMeridith on Instagram
*Be sure to stay in touch with MarlaMeridith.com and Cookies For Kids Cancer on Facebook too.
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Check out Group C’s Secret Recipe Club October Reveals
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Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe Links
- Dairy Free Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chips Laura Friendly
- Flourless Salted Nutella Thumbprint Cookies Running With Tweezers
- Maple Peanut Butter Cookies MarlaMeridith.com
- Monster Cookies Kumquat Blog
- Peanut Butter Cookies with Ganache Icing Fun & Food Cafe
- Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies Parsley, Sage, Dessert and Line Drives
oo I’m grabbing my milk and a plate!! Pass the cookies! Great looking cookies Marla!
My favorite cookie is a chewy soft chocolate chip cookie!
Glad to be in Group C with you!
Wow, I am so grateful to Amanda for introducing us. Your photos and recipes are amazing. Can’t wait to start following you….and I would love to win the cookbook!
Thanks for stopping by Brigid! I am grateful for Amanda too 🙂
Yum! Those look great – super adorable and something I can actually eat. Woo hoo! 🙂
Favorite cookie is called a Mudslide…It’s like a brownie inside a cookie!
Nelly, those sound like some AMAZING cookies 🙂
I tweeted!
I loove a fat, fluffy chocolate chip cookie!
And those Cocoa Carrot Cupcakes with White Chocolate Chips sound phenomenal!! I would love to try those from the cookbook!
My favorite cookie is oatmeal with raisins. What a great looking cookbook.
Cookies for Kids with Cancer is an amazing organization and this book is wonderful. Clients of my BF have an 8 yr old daughter battling brain cancer at this time. The strength in her little body and the courage she exhibits just amazes me. Whether I win or not, I’ll definitely be purchasing several copies.
Thank you Lisa. I am in such great support of this organization and I too will do what I can to support it. I am so sorry to hear about that little girl. xo
So many things to process in 1 post (in a good way). 1st, peanut butter and pumpkin, in 1 cookie. I have no words for the happiness this brings me. 2nd. What a great cookbook for a great cause. 3rd. I love that you make such healthy treats for your kids.
An awesome combo! Those cookies look marvelous.
Cheers,
Rosa
Delicious looking and I love how you decorated them too.
If you haven’t already, I’d love for you to check out my SRC recipe this month: Thin Mint Irish Coffee.
Lisa~~
Cook Lisa Cook
gorgeous photos! gorgeous cookies! to my eyes, definitely worth all the early wake-ups.
Oooh, I can just imagine how delicious the combo of peanut butter and pumpkin is, Marla! Love how you decorated them too, they are so cute! As always, another healthy/incredibly delicious treat.
I love all cookies-I appreciate ones that are versatile—like sugar cookies!!!Susan
Favorite cookie – my mom’s apricot turnovers!! So delicate, fruity and addicting! We always made them for wedding/baby showers and any other fancy schmancy parties we were throwing.
I follow you on twitter!
I follow you on Pinterest too!
I’m Already signed up for your email!
And I’m following @cookies4kids now too!
The cranberry pumpkin ricotta cookies are on my list to try!
Following you on Instagram too! Now I’m beginning to feel creepy, following you all over the place 🙂
Those look…so…good! And the photos! The one with the basket is stunning! The natural light is perfect!! Bake sales are my favorite way to bake and try new treats, that’s for sure! I think my favorite cookie is a chewy, thick, chocolate chunk!!!
Pumpkin + Peanut Butter = amazing combo!
my favorite cookie is a warm, homemade chocolate chip
I receive emails
I want to try banana oatmeal snack cake
Marla these look amazing!
I just pinned them to my Cookie Board.
You did a fantastic job on these. Wow. And that you made them GF and Vegan. Nice work, my friend!!
My fave cookies lately are the Peanut Butter Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies I made last week. This week…I’m onto something new.
Great giveaway!
RSS feed yes for sure
Twitter following
FB Like you
instagram following
stumble following
My favorite cookie is oatmeal chocolate chip! I haven’t organized a bake sale, but I have baked for them.
I tweeted the giveaway! (I’m @cupcake_muffin)
I follow you on twitter! 🙂
I follow you on Pinterest and I pinned this post.
I subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog.
Also – just wanted to let you know I am also running a giveaway on my blog if you’re interested! 🙂
The cookies I’d want to try from this blog are the Cranberry Pumpkin Ricotta Cookies.
I love chewy peanut butter cookies.
I’m an email subscriber.
My favorite cookie is a traditional chocolate chip cookie with Peanut Butter Cookie in 2nd! I love your Pumpkin Cookies, I may make these today to take to work tomorrow!
My favorite is double chocolate chip.
My favorite cookies are snickerdoodles with oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies following close behind 😉
What a terrific post. Thanks for sharing it. My fav cookie is my sugar cookie. It is the best in the world!!!!
Hi there! I am a new convert from Amanda at “I Am Baker”. I cannot begin to tell you how thrilled I am to find your blog! I’m currently on a quest to really change how my kids and I eat (my husband already does amazing, lol, even snubbing things I cook for broccoli and fish!). I’ve been doing an elimination diet with no gluten, dairy, soy, beef, pork, sugar, caffeine, and certain veggies (esp. corn). Even if I don’t turn out to be overly sensitive to any of these, I’m planning on cooking more like this – not as much gluten and lots more veggies especially. I’m also a Rocky Mountain girl (by Pikes Peak) and can’t get enough of “my mountain”.
Thank you so much for your blog! In the 20 minutes I’ve been reading it I’ve saved 6 recipes and look forward to many more!
Oh, and I love a classic chocolate chip cookie. 🙂
Am I able to enter the contest being a Canadian? Or has the 49th parallel messed with me again?
In any case, Pumpkin + Peanut Butter = AWESOMENESS! I love the little pumpkin head decorations!
Awesome! Great cookie, Great cause! Wonderful blog!
Stop by and see my Mint Brownie Bites!
You are breaking my heart and making me drool at the same time. I think I’ll have a pumpkin cookie and a good cry for Liam at the same time.
I love these cookies – both vegan and gluten-free! My kinda recipe, my friend. Now, I can’t wait to check out the next post with 10 Steps to getting skinny. Nah, I think I’ll make these cookies first!
my favorite cookie is gingerbread and gingersnaps!!! they are amazingly delicious!!! i also love european biscuit cookies, they are also to die for!!
i follow you on twitter!!!
i follow cookies4kids on twitter!!
i already follow you on pinterest and pinned this sweet post!!!
i am signed up for email feed, im pretty sure!!!
of course i follow you on instagram!!!
A great reveal, a great cookie, and a great cause. Thanks for bringing attention to such a heart-wrenching issue.
I love the pumpkin in these cookies as well as all the healthy (and pretty) toppings.
Great SRC post.
I’m a sucker for snickerdoodles right out of the oven.
Thanks for doing this post – “Cookies” is a word that should always go together with “kids,” but not the word “cancer!”
Donna, you are so very right. Cookies + kids makes lots of sense. Cancer is beyond awful and cruel. xxoo
I am always touched and amazed by families that turn sadness into hope for others. I know too many families that have lost loved ones to cancer, and it is just incredible how so many of them have created organizations to raise money to fund research for cancer cures so that others might not have to go through their pain. What a thoughtful giveaway Marla, and I love your cookie recipe.
Thanks Jeanette. Glad you like my cookie recipe. I know you have known many who have suffered from cancer. These organizations are so important. I always hope that all of that money ends up in the right hands…
This is such a wonderful cause Marla and I love your take on the cookies!!
Yummy. These cookies look great. I love anything that’s healthy and includes PB!
oatmeal chocolate chip!
My favorite cookies are things that most people have never heard of. My favorite was a cookie that my mother used to make that was a sweet fried ravioli that unfortunately, I have lost the recipe for. There was also another cookie called cenci that were fried strips dusted with confectioners sugar.
I have participated in several bake sales over the years, some for Camp Fire Girls, some for different clubs, some for my daughter. There have been too many to count.
What a great organization! My favorite cookie is the American classic – chocolate chip.
I got my milk and plate. I love the faces you put on these. What a great blog you got for SRC and you picked a awesome recipe. Thanks for sharing.
These cookies sound awesome! Love them! My favorite cookie is ginger molasses. Mmm.
I follow you on twitter~
I follow you on Instagram
I follow you on pinterest
Given that pumpkin and peanut butter are basically my two most favorite foods on this earth…I know I’d adore these!
These look delish!
My favorite cookies are no bake cookies!
I would love to try and make this cookie recipe the pumpkin peanut butter one, it sounds delish
I Follow @MarlaMeridith on Twitter
l Follow @cookies4kids on Twitter
l follow you via RSS feeds
I Follow Marla Meridith on Pinterest & pin this post
http://pinterest.com/pin/381056160/
https://twitter.com/#!/jrwarfield/status/128820890321424384
I tweeted about this giveaway
What a great post Marla, you are doing good work here.
Cookies look divine!
My favorite cookies are snickerdoodles or oatmeal? toss up.
I’ve been in a bake sale twice! It was so much fun. 😀 My favorite cookie recipe is my RAW Chocolate Chip Cookies. The are just so addictively good! 🙂
My favorite cookie is chocolate chip
I have participtated in a bake sale and made my go to chocolate chip cookie recipe – gooey on the inside with a little crisp on the edges
would like to try the blueberry lemon muffins you have!
wow, Marla, what a great cause and what a great loss. good for your for sharing this and for helping others help each other!
My favorite cookie is the classic chocolate chip…
I followed @marlameridith on twitter!
I also followed @cookies4kids on twitter… great cause
These are beautiful Marla! And so is your heart to give back… what a wonderufl book and giveaway!
What an inspiring woman to continue helping other children in need.
My favorite kind of cookie would have to be an oatmeal cookie, molasses, or chocolate chip dipped in milk of course! I’ve never hosted or been in a bake sale, but I have baked some cookies for a bakesale my mom’s work was hosting. 🙂
I tweeted the giveaway!
I would love to make your No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies…. and I think I just might do that 🙂
I am following you on Twitter
I am following cookies for kids on Twitter
I suscribed to e-mails!
I stumbled this post and I’m no
HI! I’m so glad Amanda shared you with us! I’ll definitely be around again. My favorite cookie: Nutella-Oatmeal. Its a variation on peanut butter- oatmeal. Oh so yummy. I think it might be time for me to do some baking. 🙂
Its been a LONG time since I’ve participated in a bake sale. But this week there is one for a girl that was just diagnosed with terminal brain cancer at our church. I’m shopping at this one. 🙂
TWEET:https://twitter.com/#!/5Grapes/status/128921379990011905
I’m following @MarlaMeridith on Twitter @5Grapes
I’m following @cookies4kids on Twitter @5Grapes
email subscriber. 🙂
I want to try the Bacon and Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms. They look so tasty… I’m thinking I might need to go back out for mushrooms. 😉
What a heart breaking story Marla! My heart goes out to Liam’s family.
These cookies are beautiful Marla! And so is your heart to give back… and tell Liam’s story and to share this recipe! Which by the way sounds delicious.
And the photo’s are amazing Marla!
I love chocolate-chip cookies and no I’ve never done a bake sale. I remember them as a kid.
I love a good brownie!
One time I made a ginormous batch of gluten-free vegan thin mint cookies (from Manifest Vegan’s blog). I took them to three different events, and everybody raved over them. Nobody could believe they were gluten-free!
Those cookies look great! I’ve been thinking lately about how lower gluten content just seems to make sense and these cookies are going to finally inspire me to cook up my pumpkin meat (and roast the seeds!) to get going on pumpkin season (albeit a little late)! Glad to have found your blog!
pumpkin and peanut butter together? Like a match made in heaven I would assume. Boy do they look delicious. Seriously though I have a bone to pick with you- with two kids running around where do you find the time to style all your photos. I am simply amazed everytime i leave this place! WOW
Great way to “healthify” the traditional peanut butter cookie and for such a great cause! Love the berries and nuts on top. My kids are getting old enough that they like to have little bake sales but I’m pretty sure most of the merchandise gets eaten rather than sold 😉
Such fun cookies – I love their little faces!
My fave cookie is snickerdoodle, I think. Or a soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie. Or pumpkin cookies… or…. 😉
Mmmm.. so drool-worthy! I was thinking of baking a pumpkin cookie, but I have to try your recipe. Looks yum!
Thanks for the info about this great organization, Marla! This is such an easy way for anyone to make a difference!
White chocolate macadamia cookies are the best
I, too, put pumpkin wherever I can 🙂
My favorite cookie is a sweet and chewy molasses cookie
Fantastic cookie recipe but most of all I love the story and the charity. It hits close to home with my brother who has so far won his battle. Thank you so much for sharing this {hugs}.
Marla, those cookies are so cute and rustic looking. I have never baked with stevia, but am so curious now…
Definitely my wife’s monster cookies….YUMMMY!!!!
I’m an email subscriber 🙂
email subscriber
Favorite cookie of all time – oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!!!
I’d love to try making the bacon and cheese stuffed mushrooms. THey sound delicious.
I’ve participated in my daughter’s class bake sale. It was great and horrific all in one!! The chaos of the kids on sugar but so much fun to be around family and friends and doing something great for the community.
Never have I organized a bake sale but I frequently participate in them. I love to try new recipes out after attending and volunteering.
Family Fresh Recipe I’d love to try out is the grilled cheese bruschetta. Sounds insanely good!
I never thought of putting pumpkin and peanut butter together. Now I’m going to have to try it!
G, pumpkin & peanut butter are awesome together. Not only for the flavor, but they both add so much to the texture of baked goods. The crumb is amazing!
What a great looking cookie!
My favorite cookie are my chocolate chip cookies which I’ve adapted from Jacques Torres recipe–every one loves those and asks for the recipe.
I’m now following you on Twitter.
I tweeted about this giveaway.
I’m now following Cookies 4 Kids on Twitter.
Marla, once I finish drooling over your photos, I’ll learn what this post was about. 🙂
Favorite cookie? Oh…that would have to be a soft chocolate chip cookie. Like the Subway kind! My fave! 🙂
Hi 🙂 You wrote that we could sub more oat flour for the quinoa flour, but could we just as well sub more quinoa flour for the oat flour? (Making it purely out of quinoa flour?)
Thanks 🙂
LOVE LOVE LOVE these cookies!!! i have made them dozens of times and have eaten them all by myself!!! hahaha such amazingly healthy and tasty recipes!! thank you so much adore the website and always look forward to making another one of your recipes.