Just a small thank you...

Christian has had some issues with school this year, mainly due to the fact that this is the first year he's been diagnosed with ADHD and we've been exploring our options to try and find a comfortable way for him to fit in.

It's been a rocky start, with Christian's principal calling at least once a week with him in the office for something or other, and Friday when my phone rang and I saw the school's caller ID, I was not excited about answering.

Turns out Christian's principal just wanted to let me know that he's been amazing, and because he was so good they gave him a coupon for a free kid's meal from Chipotle. His principal and his teacher both went way out of their way Friday to let Christian know that he was special, and that he deserved positive attention, and for that I wanted to give them a little thank you.

I made the most amazing chocolate cookies, made with olive oil, and decided to package up a couple for school.  I'll start with the recipe for the cookies, then the directions on packaging.  I hope it doesn't seem to over the top.  I was going for classy yet understated... it seemed like a good way to show our gratitude.

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup Splenda granular
1/2 cup Splenda brown sugar baking blend
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1 cup dark chocolate chunks or semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350.  Whisk together dry ingredients and set aside.  Using mixer on low, blend Splenda and Splenda brown sugar with olive oil.  Slowly add in eggs one at a time.  Mix in extracts and stir in dry ingredients til well blended.  Fold in walnuts and chocolate chips.  Spoon by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheet and bake 9-11 minutes.  Let cool five minutes before removing to baking rack to cool completely.

For gifting as a thank you, I cut a sheet of white cardstock lengthwise down the middle and folded it into a little sleeve, hotgluing to seal.  I tucked two cookies inside the sleeve and wrapped it gift-style in tissue paper.  Then using scrapbook scissors, I cut two cards from cardstock, stamped the front, embellished with a silver marker, hot glued on a bow, and glued the whole thing on top of the cookie box tissue.  The effect was really cute, and I just filled out the inside of the card with a simple thank you.  I'm hoping two cookies will be just enough to not look like a suckup, but we'll see.