A Segue into bananas...#1

There are a number of things I've been thinking about doing with this blog. Sometimes I hope I'll be able to share with you some fun stuff (recipes, craft ideas etc) and sometimes some more serious topics. I think this post might be a bit of a combo, so stick with me and read on!

So, today in our stay-at-home-out-of-the-icy-wind day (see my last blog post), I decided that Tom and I would do some baking. I've been recently looking at changing the way we do food in our family (more on this later) and one of the things I'm looking for is snacks that will appeal to our kids that fit my criteria.
Last week I made 4 batches of muffins. Do you think there was one batch that appealed to EVERY family member? No. Batch #1 appealed to children #2 &3. Batch #2 appealed to children #1 & 2. Batch #3&4 appealed to children #1 & 3. ARGH! So today I've given muffins the cold shoulder. We're going with cookies.

Here are my criteria for home made snack food.
1) easy
2) quick
3) healthy
4) tasty

I finally found a cookie recipe that really does fit all categories! Yay! Here's the original recipe
on this blog but I changed it up a bit. Johanna is allergic to peanuts so I can't use PB in recipes that I'm trying to get the kids to eat. Anyway, here's my little kitchen helper giving me a hand. It looks like I'm also advertising Tupperware! (I do confess to owning a LOT of Tupperware.)

Banana Nut Butter Choc Chip Cookies!
INGREDIENTS
2 bananas, mashed

2 heaped tbsp almond butter

2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

1 1/2 cups steel cut oats

1/4 cup crushed almonds

1/4 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup shredded coconut 

METHOD: Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a tray with baking paper (avoid using canola oil sprays). Mix together the bananas, almond butter, applesauce, vanilla, and spices. Add in the oats, nuts, chocolate chips, and coconut; stir until well combined. (I let Tom put some more choc chips on the top too :). Spoon onto tray and bake until golden.

My oven is annoying. It's old and it has limited temperature settings so we go from 160 to 190 with nothing in between. The result is that often things cook quicker and not quite as well because I'm taking it out before it burns at 190 (but 160 is too low!). Today, I baked these for 18 mins at 190 and it did ok. I just have to keep checking.

Anyway, they turned out really well and YUMMY! And ALL 3 kids ate them. Hurrah! They are a bit chewy and do taste of banana (so if you don't like bananas then probably give them a miss). Apart from the choc chips there's no sugar. I'm going to make some without the choc chips too, for later, so they are completely sugar free (with the exception of the fructose in the fruit.) I'll be writing more about refined sugar later and how I am going at giving it up! Yes, that's right. I have basically been completely refined sugar free now for over a month (apart from the the few times I have sampled my choc-chip baking lol).

And another tip for you, which I have only just recently discovered, is - nut butter. I've always liked peanut butter but it's not always practical in our family. However, other nut butters I've been trying out lately are very expensive. What I didn't realise until today is that it is SO easy to make your own. I've been using lots of nuts lately, as part of changing what we eat, and I had a whole lot of raw almonds on hand. I grabbed 3 handfuls, chucked them in my food processor and this is what I got. 

No added salt, sugar or oil. Just pure almonds. Ok, so you're going to have to process them for quite a while, but that's nothing more than press a button and walk away. They go crumbly to start off with (almond meal, also great for baking) but if you leave it long enough it will eventually turn into this almond butter. I gave it a stir every few minutes to keep it going. It's that easy (and yes, that bowl is Tupperware too ;)

Now, before you think I've finished with this post, I haven't. I mentioned before that there was both fun and serious involved here, right? Well, I've done the fun bit, now for the serious. And it involves bananas. But I think I'm going to post it as a new entry because I think it is really important and deserves it's own post. The segue begins here...