Banana “Sugar Cookies”

Okay, so I have a freezer full of bananas.  Snuffy goes through “banana kicks” .   She will ask for a banana at every meal and snack oppurtunity for a few days and then she will unexpectedly swear off bananas for a week!  That leaves me with lots of over-ripe bananas.   When I discovered Katie’s melted banana trick, I began saving Snuffy’s rejected bananas for my oats. 

Then, I began to use some of them  to make banana soft-serve.  

Banana Soft Serve with this guy

 Although I enjoy both the banana oats and the soft serve, I have accumulated a massive amount of frozen bananas!  

I made up this recipe as I went along.  It was going to be a version of my mom’s sugar cookies.  But, I found that the dough was missing something.  (One must always taste the dough to be sure the cookies will come out)

Banana “Sugar Cookies”

2/3 cup Earth Balance

3/4 cup Raw Organic Sugar

1 tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract

2 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder

3  Frozen Bananas (microwaved until soft)

4 tsp. Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk or Milk of Choice

1/4 tsp Sea Salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray a cookie sheet lightly with olive oil or canola oil.

Mix Earth Balance, Sugar,  Milk and Vanilla until light and fluffy.  Add Bananas and mix until combined.  Sift togother dry ingredients .  Add dry ingredients in small amounts to banana mixture.  Combine very well.  You may find that you need a sprinkle more of flour at this point.  Adjust accordingly. 

Drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto the cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.  The texture will be chewy and slightly cakey.  It’s definitly not your typical cookie.

Pink Barbie Sprinkles for Snuffy

I would like to try to adjust the ingredients and lose the sugar in this recipe… more on that soon!

I finally used my food processor to puree some baked Butternut Squash.  I know, I know more orange food! 

 I can’t help myself! 

Pureed Squash with a hefty sprinkle of Pumpkin Pie Spice and Vanilla Oikos is like a creamy Pumpkin Cheesecake

Snuffy would rather have her Stonyfield Yo-Baby .   She has basically been living on the stuff for the past 3 days.  She has another nasty virus.  Darn my schedule.  I hate having her in childcare with sick kids.  She does love it there and our babysitter is great with Snuffy.  But, any childcare facility tends to be a virus extravaganza.

I cannot count the number of times I was asked to replace Elmo’s binky today.

She’s taking it well though. 

We had to make a Target run to pick up a few things (like my sanity) and I caved at Starbizzle.

  That’s right, I bought my mucus-filled child a “Rainbow Cookie”

Of course it’s full of sugar and white flour.  But, ‘bizzle promises that all of their baked goods are made with natural ingredients and free of HFCS.  Oh yeah, and I tasted it too…dear lord it was good.  Definitly had about 2 sticks of butter in it.

Since Snuffy has been sick , she has been attached to my hip which means no running, no lifting, no biking or ellipticalling (new word, just made it up).      I tried to go run last night and all the dreadmills were taken so I had to use the elliptical.  I am determined to stick with my training schedule and be a good mama.  Therefore,   I had to get my workout in before Mallard left for work today.  I thought , “Hey , this Bloggy does it everyday!  I can so do this!”  I arrived at the gym super early and  I loved it.  The gym I belong to is actually a local community center that is undergoing some awesome upgrades.  They have an amazing indoor children’s pool for Snuffy.  It has a lazy river, a little kids’ slide , a huge twisting slide, a lap area, a waterfall and crazy fountains.  There is also a competition pool and an elevated track along with the weights and cardio equipment.  They have a coffee shop/bakery where all the baked goods are all natural and almost completely organic (GAHHHH!!)   As if all of this is not enough! I can’t wait to see what’s coming with the remodeling. Anyway, when I arrived at the crack of dawn, I expected some groggy ”New Year’s Resolution Runners” and maybe a few sleepy employees.  Boy was I wrong!   The trainers and desk personnel were just as upbeat as ever.  Everyone greeted me with a “Good morning!  How are you this morning?”  There were about 40 people lined up for an early spin class.  Most importantly there were more empty dreadmills treadmills so I was able to do my long run.  I felt so energized after!

I’m still looking into the HRM. I recieved some good feedback from a few of you(I love you guys!) If you have a Garmin or Polar, what model?  Any issues?