Cake and cookie mixes take sizable shelf space in the supermarket. They save you time and effort, and let you feel good about having made some effort to prepare a home made treat. but the reality is that they contain harmful ingredients that you would not use if you were preparing the cookies from scratch.
Here is the ingredient list for Betty Crocker Cookie Mix, Peanut Butter:
enriched flour bleached (wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), sugar, brown sugar, peanut butter (peanuts, dextrose, hydrogenated canola and cottonseed oil, salt), corn syrup, partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil, baking soda, salt, natural flavor, color added.
As you know, partially hydrogenated oils are responsible for the worst type of fat to enter our digestive system – trans-fats. Heath experts recommend people eat exactly ZERO trans-fats per day. So why is Betty adding them to the mix? Because it has longer shelf life this way, and provides a better texture and mouthfeel for the cookies.
Here’s the ingredient list for a homemade version:
Peanut butter (peanuts, salt), white sugar, eggs, baking soda.
Estimated prep time: 5 minutes to mix everything in a bowl. 30 Minutes in the oven.
What’s your excuse?
photo: Allrecipes.com
