Comments (23)

By Estela - Weekly Bite, May 28, 2010 8:19 am

Happy Friday!! Are you excited for Memorial Day weekend? I know I am!!

I’m so glad you all enjoyed my Nutrition Q & A! Your comments were all so sweet! I am so proud to be a cancer survivor and I do my best to support the cause. I plan on writing a more detailed post on it in the future.

On most days, my day starts at 6:15 a.m. My alarm goes off at that time every morning. Sometimes I wake up to it… sometimes I get woken earlier by you know who.

This day she slept in till 7 a.m., so I was able to get breakfast ready for her before she woke up.

This is her “Mom why are you taking a picture of me so early in the morning with egg on my face?” face.

On the menu for Miss M was a scrambled organic farm fresh egg, chopped kiwi, and a toasted whole wheat english muffin with Crofter’s Super Fruit Spread.

She ate all the egg and kiwi, and picked at the English muffin.

It still amazes me that two brown eyed people conceived a child with some of the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen!

My mission for the day other than taking care of my little munchkin was to purchase a large suitcase and play around with a new cookie recipe.

M and I are traveling to Minneapolis to visit my brother We’re so excited! But… traveling alone with a baby is tough. There are so many items to pack… hence the need for a very large suitcase!

Here are just some of the items I will be traveling with:

• Stroller
• Car Seat
• Car seat base
• Pac-n-play for her to sleep in
• Tons of diapers
• Wipe
• Multiple changes of clothes
• Snacks
• Travel Meals
• Toys to keep her occupied
• Not to mention a million odd and ends and my clothes too!

Between my husband and I, we had accumulated a lot of REI dividend points, so I ventured to REI and ended up purchasing this monster of a suitcase! Its not the most attractive suitcase… but with all the points we earned it was practically free! Score!!

I was also able to squeeze in a yoga class. My yoga studio has childcare now! I’m so happy about that because no childcare = no yoga

I also experimented in the kitchen.

I’m such a messy baker!

I’ve seen these cookies before but have never attempted to make them. I decided to add my own little twist to them and try to make them into a healthy snack.

I used whole wheat flour and flax meal as the base. These cookies were so moist and dense! It made for the perfect afternoon snack!

Ingredients:

• 2 very ripe bananas
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter (softened)
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 14 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup flax meal
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream bananas and butter together. Add sugars and vanilla. Mix until creamy. In a separate bowl, combine flour, flax meal, salt, and baking soda. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix until combined.

Drop by rounded tablespoon onto cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Let cookies set on cookie sheet for a few minutes, then move to a cooling rack.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Do you have any big plans for the holiday weekend?
My husband will be in town so we’ve got lots of fun family time planned
Have a great weekend!!!!

Comments (34)

By Estela - Weekly Bite, January 26, 2010 9:24 am

Can you think of a more perfect combo? Chocolate. Peanut Butter. Bananas.

I love chocolate and peanut butter. I love peanut butter and bananas. I love chocolate covered bananas.

Sometimes I stand in my kitchen and stick my spoon in the peanut butter jar, then dip my peanut butter spoon in a bag of chocolate chips…. do you every do that?

The combination of all three just makes sense.

My husband on the other hand… well, he loves peanut butter and chocolate, but peanut butter and banana, he doesn’t get. His exact words to me were “I just don’t get the whole peanut butter banana thing.” “What’s the big deal?” I looked at him like he was some sort of alien or broke a sacred vow.

Okay, back to this awesome bread…

If you’re familiar with my blog, you know that I have issues with bananas. I buy massive quantities of bananas, then the minute they go ripe, I throw them in the freezer… then buy more bananas. I now have massive quantities of bananas in my freezer. So instead baking the same old banana bread, I changed up the recipe and added peanut butter and bananas.

This bread is Gooood! Its dense, rich, and must be consume with a large ice cold glass of milk.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 3/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 over ripe bananas
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Whisk together then set aside.

Combine sugar, canola oil, and applesauce. Mix until well blended. Add peanut butter and vanilla to sugar mixture. Mix until peanut butter is blended through. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture. Mix just until combined. Gently mix in bananas, then fold in semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Spray an 8 x 4 inch loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray. Spoon batter into pan. Bake for 55 – 65 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center. Cool completely on cooling rack. Once bread is completely cooled, transfer loaf out of the pan.

Enjoy!

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Question of the Day?

What’s your favorite food combo? PB & Chocolate is my favorite

Comments (27)

By Estela - Weekly Bite, January 6, 2010 11:26 am

I peaked.

Seriously… I should just retire now. I should retire from cookie making.

I’ve literally died and gone to cookie heaven!

This is the best damn cookie I’ve ever made!

Never has a bite of cookie brought me to my knees.

Can you tell I love these cookies!

I originally started out with all intentions to make standard oatmeal cookies. As I started to pull all the ingredients out… I thought to myself “Wait a minute… I don’t even really like oatmeal raisin cookies.” I put the raisins back in the cabinet and pulled out the chocolate chips. Behind the chocolate chips was a huge jar of Jif peanut butter (my husband refuses to eat the all the natural stuff). From this, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies were born.

To scoop out my cookies I use a small ice cream scoop (about 1.5-2 tablespoons). This makes for the perfect seven bite cookie. My husband went nuts over these cookies! They were so good he said I shouldn’t make them for while (cause he’ll eat them all)!

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks butter (softened)
• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour (all-purpose flour can be used too)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3 cups quick cooking oats (old fashioned oats will work too)
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chip cookies

Heat oven to 350 degrees

Beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes). Add eggs and vanilla, beat well. Add peanut butter, mix until creamy.

Add combined flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix well. Stir in oats and chocolate chips.

Use a small ice cream scoop or about 2 tablespoons worth of cookie dough onto ungreased cookie sheet. With your fingers, flattened cookie a little.

Bake for about 13-15 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Let cool on cookie sheet for about 3 minutes. Transfer to wire rack.

Proceed to enjoy the best cookie you’ve ever had!

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Question of the day?

In cookie heaven, what cookie would you be surrounded by? You know my answer