Rainy Day Cookies.

I am spending the weekend babysitting my fantastic niece and nephew while their parents are away on an anniversary trip. 9 years of marriage- and still head over heels in love. Marriage is hard work, but it is worth it.
Justice is 6 and Felicity is 2. I'm still recovering from the fact that my sister had the audacity to name her daughter the name that I picked out when I was about 12 years old to name my oldest daughter. Ahem. It's a good thing I don't hold grudges, right Rebecca??

This morning while we were reading books, we had the exceptional idea to make some cookies, so Justice began hap-hazardly pulling ingredients out of cupboards and off of shelves. "oh, this is good in cookies, and this tastes pretty good. oh, not this, let's hide this so Mom doesn't ever find this (stuffs a bag of rice into the freezer)" I pretty much let them choose what they thought would taste good in a cookie, with minimal guiding and persuasion. Okay, I might have just put the chili powder shaker back in the counter while Justice was distracted, but I was doing him a favor! :) He was convinced the chili powder was "that cinna-minty stuff Mom put in her cookies". I also placed an executive vote to add the 'shredded paper'. Apparently Justice is not terribly fond of coconut.

 

The recipe is as follows;
1/4 cup pb
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp molasses
3  large bananas, mashed
3 cups oats
2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup craisins
Stir together the first 5 ingredients until smooth. Add the oats, salt and baking powder and stir until dough forms. Add the craisins, raisins and coconut. Place medium size balls of dough on greased cookie sheet. bake @ 350 for 10 minutes. Make 24 cookies. (53 calories each)

Those are all very loose measurements, these were definitely 'dump, stir, add a little more' cookies. :)

Justice was extremely concerned at the absence of sugar in these cookies. I promised him they would be SO delicious that he would not even know there was no sugar in them. He was extremely skeptical and we had a good long talk about the different ingredients we were using and how they were good for us and help our bodies be healthy. "Oh, you are a healthy Aunt." Yes, Justice, I am your healthy Aunt.:)

 

 

 After I set the timer, Justice struck this pose and did not leave that spot until the timer rang. He gave me very regular update "oh goodness, this time stand still, like basically. I mean, still 7 minutes left. that's basically just as long at 8 minutes, so we still have to wait at least half of forever."

 

 

 

"Healthy Aunts" make sugar free cookies for you and then let you drink their coffee. :) 

I love spending time with my family and it's exciting to me to help teach them about taking good care of their bodies when they are young. Being healthy is a deliberate choice and if you raise your kids to be healthy from the start, you save them for blood sugar crashes, sugar cravings, skin problems etc... Now, obviously, making cookies without sugar is not going to make them healthy, but it's an excellent way to show them that life is still fun and full and exciting AND good for you.

While we made the dough, I was explaining to Justice that bananas were high in potassium, which is really good for our eyesight. While I was typing this post he came up to me and said "oh my, my eyes are watering. I'm pretty sure they just need a cookie. Or maybe two. One for each eye to  be healthy?" :)

What do you do to share your health/fitness lifestyle/priorities with those around you?

What is your favorite thing to bake with children??