Monthly Archives: April 2014

Recipe: Banana Oatmeal Cookies (vegan)

In light of declaring love for the Cookie Monster, I must share this new discovery for a vegan oatmeal cookie (Cookie Monster’s second favourite cookie after chocolate chip). These cookies are made with unprocessed, whole foods and are delicious enough to feed the cookie monster inside any one of us. Oats are naturally a gluten free food, but may come into contact with gluten during processing. Purchase gluten free oats (they are more expensive) if you have that degree of sensitivity. I tend to have Bob’s organic rolled oats in my kitchen most of the time.

I ordered the Oh She Glows cookbook on the based on the inspiring appeal of this oatmeal cookie recipe http://ohsheglows.com/2014/01/17/banana-bread-muffin-tops/. I made them right away, repeated the tasty success several times over, so here is my adaptation of the recipe:

3 ripe bananas

1/2 cup pitted dates, packed (soak dry dates, and a mixture of medjool and other pitted dates is nice)

1/4 cup coconut oil

2 cups rolled oats, separated into 1.5 and 0.5 cups

1 tablespoon shredded coconut

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg (optional, freshly grated is best)

1/4 cup currants

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, mix together dates, bananas, and coconut oil to a fairly smooth consistency. Add 1.5 cups of oats, shredded coconut, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, pulse until oats are ground. Power off food processor and remove the blade. Stir in remaining 0.5 cups of oats and currants into the bowl of the food processor.  Spoon batter onto a baking sheet and flatten slightly with a spatula. Bake for 12 minutes, remove and rotate tray, bake for 12 more minutes or until the desired level of browning is achieved. Makes 12-16 cookies.

Enjoy fresh or within 2-3 days or freeze for a week in an airtight container.

Enjoy vegan banana oatmeal cookies warm off the baking sheet!

Enjoy vegan banana oatmeal cookies warm off the baking sheet to indulge your cookie monster-

 

Cookie Monster-love him and cookies!

A friend had this on her facebook the other day shortly after the topic of memes came up in conversation around the dinner table (it was a nice surprise I knew what they are!)

Cookie Monster's Trainer

Who is Cookie Monster’s Trainer? Making Life Good recommends Vivian Law

I love this photo and I instantly realized that I would love to be Cookie Monster or Alistair Cookie’s trainer, happy to be at ‘fault’. Cookie Monster is a such a lovable and funny character-I fail to see how human weight ideals apply to him, as he is a furry blue monster! I would join him in shoveling vast quantities of cookies towards our faces and making a big mess in general-we could do lots of speed, endurance and clean up training specific to…cookies!!

When the question of Cookie Monster’s potential negative influence on the eating habits of children arises, I feel we are forgetting that children have inborn appetite regulation we can foster and the appeal of the character is his outrageousness. Apparently he has been changed to enjoy some healthy foods in addition to cookies-watch this hilarious interview where we learn much about his preferences: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssoSiZAqN98

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssoSiZAqN98[youtube_sc url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssoSiZAqN98″ title=”Cookie%20Monster%20interview%20″]

Cookie Monster has a singular love for cookies and we can learn from his enthusiasm. We are constantly around messages of ‘this or that food is bad’, ‘we should not be eating this or that’…and we end up eating the foods in judgement at some point anyway. Becoming aware and letting go of our internal conflict around our food choices creates a more harmonious relationship within ourselves and food. Let’s take a cue with a ‘C’ from Cookie Monster and eat delicious food we love with clarity and enthusiasm. ‘C is for cookie, that’s good enough for me’