Ingredients

• 1 pouch (1 lb. 1.5 oz.) Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix. (Or use your favorite from-scratch sugar cookie recipe and add the neon green food coloring to finished dough. Eliminate the added flour, butter, egg and vanilla.)
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup melted butter or margarine
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (I use McCormick)
• 7 drops NEON green food color (McCormick makes this--check the supermarket baking aisle)
• 36 Mike and Ike or other "safe" jelly beans such as Surf Sweets or Vermont Nut-Free

Directions

1. In large bowl stir cookie mix, flour, melted butter, egg, vanilla and green food color until soft dough forms. Cover and refrigerate for one hour.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. For each cookie, roll heaping teaspoons of dough into 2-1/2 inch finger shapes. Be careful not to make the shapes too big or too flat--the dough spreads a lot during baking!
3. About 1 inch from the end of each "toe" squeeze dough slightly. With knife, gently make lines in the dough to look like "knuckles"
4. Bake 6-8 minutes until set. The edges of the cookies should not be at all brown. While still on cookie sheet and working quickly before cookies cool, gently but firmly press a jelly bean into the edge of each "toe" for fingernail. Cool cookies one minute; remove to cooling racks. Let cool completely, about 15 minutes.

Makes 36 cookies.

Jenny Kales is the mother of two girls, one with severe nut allergies. She writes about her experiences at The Nut-Free Mom blog, where you can find more allergy-friendly recipes.

Contact Jenny at nut-freemom@sbcglobal.net.