Want to bake your sweetie something for Valentine’s Day but nothing too unhealthful? Try my valentine heart cookies. Although I use refined flour and sugar, there’s no cholesterol, no high fructose corn syrup, and only good fats. If you don’t overindulge, a couple of these cookies won’t ruin your diet. In the spirit of hasty tasty meals, this one skips the measuring of dry ingredients and the mess of food coloring by using red velvet cake mix. It’s a trick I use for Christmas cookies, too. Enjoy!
RECIPE
Valentine Heart Cookies
(Makes 3-4 dozen medium cookies)Ingredients
1 18.25 oz. box of Red Velvet cake mix
½ cup canola oil
¼ cup egg substituteDirections
Mix together into a stiff batter (If too stiff, add a tablesp0on of water) and roll out for cookie dough (approximately ¼” thick). Using a heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut out cookies and arrange on an ungreased stainless steel cookie sheet about ½” apart.
Bake cookies at 375°F for about ten minutes or until barely brown around the edges. To avoid overcooking, remove the cookie sheet from the oven but leave the cookies for about 5 minutes. They will continue to cook on the residual heat of the cookie sheet. Then using a spatula, move each cookie to a rack to cool.
Serve cookies on paper heart-shaped doilies.
If you’ve followed my newsletter and blog, you know that I advocate a reasonable approach to diet. I’m hardly a health nut. But I do steer clear of a few bad ingredients, i.e. trans fats, added growth hormones, and high fructose corn syrup by carefully reading all labels. I drink organic skim milk and avoid unhealthful fats as much as possible. Lately, though, I’ve seen television ads defending high fructose corn syrup. Lest you be confused, let’s ask the food industry an important question: If high fructose corn syrup is nothing but corn syrup, why does it appear on labels listed separately and in addition to corn syrup? Sorry, but I’m unconvinced of its wholesomeness.
To add to my wariness, I read in EATING WELL magazine a report that according to two studies, HFCS is contaminated with Mercury. Ouch! That’s not appetizing. If you’re interested in your sweetheart’s health, don’t buy him or her products containing HFCS. Play it safe.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
“Chef Cheri”
HASTY TASTY MEALS BLOG 
Your recipes Cheryl are after my own heart 🙂 I love what you have here! I would like to invite you to Foodista.com – the cooking encyclopedia everyone can edit. We have lots of easy recipes you can try, so do check us out. Would also love a link to this post from our site.(This will direct Foodista readers to your blog)Here’s how you can create inbound links from our site Check it out here. This is a great way for you to build blog traffic and connect with other food lovers! Also feel free to share your recipes and tips with us! Thanks!