The Whole Wheat

Girl Scout Cookies fascinate me. They are a bit of a cultural phenomenon. Once a year we all get very excited and spend too much $$ on boxes of cookies that cute little girls in uniforms dole out. Or their parents give you the list and ask you purchase some. Either way.

First a little background and trivia. There are two primary companies that develop and bake Girl Scout Cookies: Little Brownie Bakers and ABC/Interbake. Each Girl Scout Council chooses their baker independently which explains why even regionally you may see different cookies sold by different troops. For example, last year in San Francisco I purchased cookies from my boss’s daughter and my cousin. My boss lived in the East Bay and my cousin in the South Bay – each was selling from different companies. I could only get Samoas from the East Bay!

Little Brownie Bakers appear to be the original company and make:

• Thin Mints
• Trefoils
• Samoas®
• Do-Si-Dos
• Tagalongs®
• All Abouts
• Little Browniesâ„¢
• Café Cookies

Notice those are all the original cookie name we grew up!

ABC/Interbake bakes approximately 40% of the Girl Scout Cookies each year. They make similar cookies but with the new names:

• Caramel deLites
• Peanut Butter Patties
• Shortbread
• Thin Mints
• Peanut Butter Sandwich
• Cartwheels
• Thanks-A-Lot
• Lemonade

Here are the ugly facts:

1. PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED OIL is in every cookie. No exceptions. However the ABC company does typically use it in the form of vegetable shortening not just oil.
2. HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP is in

• Peanut Butter Patties (ABC)
• Caramel deLites (ABC)
• Thin Mints (ABC)
• Thanks-A-Lot (ABC)
• Peanut Butter Sandwich (ABC) – corn syrup only
• Lemonades (ABC) – corn syrup only

In summary – not that you will have much choice as to what vendor the council in your area chooses, but if possible it is better to have cookies from the Little Brownie Bakers based on the fact that they only use SUGAR and not any HFCS. Plus I like the original names the best anyway.

This is a fantastic side dish and would be a great meal if you are a veggie. Actually I think its even vegan. We served it with moist and flaky Wild Alaskan Salmon. This is a very quick and easy dinner – I think within 45 minutes we went from fridge to cooking to finishing dinner, only the rice was cooked ahead (in a rice cooker).

Ingredients:

• 8 shitake mushrooms, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• baby bok choy, about 4 bunches, cut in half
• 1 c. vegetable broth
• 1 t. soy sauce
• 2 T. XO sauce
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped

1. Heat large saute pan or wok with 1T canola oil. Sauté mushrooms and garlic until nicely browned. Add bok choy, mix and cook for ~1 min.
2. Mix stock, soy sauce, and XO sauce together. Add to sauté pan then mix. Cover and cook ~5 minutes.
3. Add red bell pepper, cook ~5 minutes covered until vegetables are softened.
4. Remove cover, raise heat to high, cook off liquid. Serve hot!