One Tasty Sunday: Healthy PB and Banana Oatmeal Cookies

We have a playdate with a few of Little Man's friends tomorrow and thought these cookies would be the perfect snack to share!  I have used many cookie recipes in the past, but haven't managed to find one I like that has no added sugar or oil.  That means I need to create my own right?!?  Of course! 

So, these are my version of a healthy cookie.  No added sugar, oil, or eggs.  And Little Man LOVES them.  Actually, LM's Daddy does too, when they're drizzled with just a bit of honey.  YUM!!!  =)

PB and Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Makes Approximately 24 Cookies.

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup golden raisins
3/4 Cup peanut butter
1/3 Cup unsweetened applesauce
2 Large bananas, mashed
2 tsp vanilla
1 Cup old fashioned oats
1/2 Cup quinoa flour
3/4 Cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Soak raisins in warm water until they have plumped up.
3.  Combine peanut butter, applesauce, bananas and vanilla and set aside.
4.  Combine oats, quinoa flour, wheat flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.
5.  Slowly add dry ingredients to peanut butter mixture, stirring until completely combined.
6.  Fold raisins into batter.
7.  Drop large tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets.
8.  Bake for 14 minutes or until browned on bottom of cookie. 
9.  OPTIONAL:  For a bit of added sweetness, drizzle with honey while warm and then allow to cool.



Magnetic Fun in a Bottle

Wow, with a sick kiddo, temps at 100+ degrees, storms to rival the storm of the century, and finally an ill timed July 4th blackout (complete with newly legalized fireworks), we have had just a small amount of craziness around here the past few days.  Thankfully though, the power is back on, and I feel like we might be settling back into our own little version of normalcy.

I myself have learned quite a bit over the last week from, how to make homemade HEALTHY granola bars (using this amazing recipe) to how to more efficiently keep my Pinterest boards organized.  Have I mentioned I LOVE Pinterest?  In point of fact, I may be addicted.

Anyway, I think the most important thing I learned this week was to remember that things will most likely never go EXACTLY how I planned them...and that's ok.  As I'm preparing for starting Little Man's "Learning at Home" routines in the next few months, it's probably going to be more important than ever for me to remember that!

So, as I said, we have electricity again (Yay for today's modern conveniences!  Right?) so now, I can start at the beginning...always a good place to start.  ;) 

A few days ago (on a day we were planning to be at the zoo) we were hit with the double whammy of BLAHdom.  Thunderstorms outside and a Little Man who wasn't feeling quite himself inside.  What to do?  What to do?  One can only read The Cat and the Hat and There's a Wocket in My Pocket (LM's current faves) so many times before running to the craft supplies quick, fast and in a hurry!

And there they were...the newly purchased magnetic wands Little Man has been exploring the house with for a couple days.  He enjoys sticking them to everything, testing whether or not they will "stay together."  If you read a couple posts back, you know he also has fallen in love with discovery bottles.  So, I thought, why not combine his current fascination with magnets and his interest in all things discovery bottle?  And lo and behold...we have...the Magnetic Discovery Bottle.  I found the original idea here...on Pinterest, of course!

THE FINISHED PRODUCT.

Here are a few pics of Little Man and his Daddy getting our newest Discovery Bottle up and running...

I cut up about 12 pipecleaners into 1 inch pieces and LM diligently made sure each piece went into a VOSS water bottle.

We glued the lid on for safety after adding all the pipecleaners and the magnetic "coins" that came with the wands.

Little Man was fascinated by the fact that he could move the pieces inside the bottle without actually having to touch them.  MAGIC!

They both had a lot of fun with this project, and in true Daddy fashion, Little Man's Daddy devised a plan to make a Giant I-Spy Discovery Bottle the next day.  Hopefully I will get pictures of that adventure up tomorrow sometime.  I'm thinking that after the past few days with Daddy, Little Man probably won't think it's so bad to be sick!   

One Tasty Sunday...Making Unky Bars (AKA Super Cinnamon Blondies)

Welcome to our very first One Tasty Sunday post!  Today was Little Man's first time as sous chef in Mommy's kitchen.  Recently I found a recipe for Snickerdoodle Blondies at Your Homebased Mom that I have been dying to test.  LM's Uncle is a big fan of cinnamon toast and I felt, with a little tweaking, I could make these taste pretty close to the real thing.  So we gathered the ingredients and away we ran!  Of course, LM is still just barely two so, I threw in as much learning as I could along the way and we ended up with a lot of counting and learning the names of the ingredients.

 The original recipe was called Snickerdoodle Blondies.  My new version is Super Cinnamon Blondies since I definitely amped up the cinnamon, but mostly, thanks to Little Man, we now call them Unky Bars.   =)   We had a great time learning and playing through this recipe, and we can't wait to hear how much LM's Unky loves them.

Here is the shot I got of Little Man just after he strongly requested I let him taste the flour we were using...

And this is him trying to wipe his tongue clean...He gave me a look that asked, "Why did you let me do that Mom!?!?" 





And I have to say, I felt a little guilty about it.  But, he didn't demand a taste of anything else.  At least not until the bars came out of the oven!

Little Man stirring the dry ingredients. 
Rather than adding 2 whole cups of flour, we added 8 1/4 cups so LM could
practice counting, scooping, and dumping using the smaller measuring cup.

I love my KitchenAid Mixer, and so does Little Man.
He had a lot of fun watching it do its job, but also had the
responsibility of pouring and mixing the cinnamon chips.

I think patting down the dough into the pan was his favorite part though!
Let's hope Unky doesn't mind a few fingerprints!

Here is the finished product.  They turned out delicious.
No, not delicious...let's say HEAVENLY.

UNKY BARS  (AKA SUPER CINNAMON BLONDIES)

Bars:
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
½ tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. salt
2 cups brown sugar, packed
1 cup butter, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1 2/3 cup cinnamon chips
Topping:
2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
-Spray a 9×13-inch pan with nonstick spray.
-Whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cream of tartar and salt and set aside.
-In a large bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer (3 to 5 minutes).
-Mix in eggs, one at a time, then vanilla and keep beating until the mixture is smooth.
-Stir in flour mixture until well blended.
-Stir in cinnamon chips. 
-The batter will be thick. Spread it evenly into the prepared pan. Spray your hands with cooking spray and use them to pat the mixture down evenly.
-Combine the topping ingredients in a small bowl; sprinkle evenly on top of batter.
-Bake about 30 minutes or until surface springs back when gently pressed. (I have found that they appear to be underdone when they are ready to come out of the oven.  They do continue to firm up in the pan, and will get crunchy if you cook them too long.  Just have faith!)
-Let pan cool before cutting.
Makes 20 to 24 bars