Well as you may know if you are a regular reader of my blog, ever since having Eli, I’m on a health food kick. Wait, no not health food, whole food—that’s a more accurate statement. I’m not worried about fat content, in fact despite all these “low fat” food options, we are still losing the battle of obesity in this country since we tend to feel we can eat more of it because it’s after all “low fat!” (but that is a whole different discussion for a different blog and NOT the point of my post so lets move on!)
So guess what? I, me, this girl has been cooking!! Can you believe it? Who’da thunk it? I always hated the idea of taking so much time to prepare something only to have it consumed in a fraction of the time it took to prepare it (you’ve already heard me complain about this part). But I LOVE the feeling I have knowing there are no controversial additives in my food and especially not in the food I feed my completely-dependent-on-me-to-make-wise-decisions-for-his-benefit son. I’m seriously about to go batty as I learn about new safety reports on foods and products geared toward babies/kids! For example:
- The recent report of johnson &johnson’s baby shampoos containing cancer causing ingredients.
-The fact that MOST kids sunscreens contain “oxybenzone” which us fair folk thought was helping prevent melanoma but is actually more likely increasing our risk.
-High levels of arsenic found in ORGANIC baby foods and formulas! Are you freakin’ kidding me?!?! Here you go the super expensive organic route thinking you’re doing the best thing for your precious baby and you still end up getting screwed
.
Needless to say, I’m not a huge fan of the FDA. I seriously could go on and on but I’m bumming myself out and I’m sure if you’re human you’re feeling pretty discouraged too. Sorry about that. Misery loves company, thanks for joining me. Ignorance truly IS bliss. If you didn’t know about the stuff I mentioned above its like that awkward moment of deciding to tell an acquaintance (can’t be close friend because that’s too easy) they have a boogie hanging. Do you do it and risk their obvious brief embarrassment (or resentment in this case) or NOT do it and they continue walking around with a big ol’ goober flapping in the breeze and nobody bothered to tell them and then they are even MORE embarrassed (angry) later? Which is worse?? I don’t know.
Ok enough of that….
Now for something to smile about! A cookie! --or a cracker or granola bar or whatever we decide it is. I stumbled upon a “healthy” oatmeal raisin cookie that I just made, like right now. I have cookie crumbs all over my computer to prove it. 
This is a recipe I wouldn’t mind giving Eli as a meal it’s that “healthy”. I think it’ll be my go-to crunchy slightly sweet snack. This is mainly for you Jeri (who just had a beautiful baby girl by the way! Congrats momma!) I thought of you when I made these. I changed it up a bit from this recipe since I didn’t have some of the ingredients on hand. I used organic coconut oil instead of canola, whole wheat flour instead of the whole wheat pastry flour, 1/4 C whole milk instead of powdered milk, and I only had 1/2 C of honey so I used 1/2 C of organic agave nectar as well. Yummers! After you try it you’ll realize why it’s a stretch to call it a cookie because it’s not all that sweet like a cookie typically is. So just call it a healthy snack and you wont be disappointed.
Another SUPER yummy, SUPPER simple recipe to make are these puppies:
Recognize these? You find them in the energy, or protein bar section of the grocery store but they have no preservatives and only like 3-5 ingredients making it the best choice among them for a snack on-the-go from a whole foods perspective. But they are itty bitty with a hefty price tag of $1.25-ish each. Yikes! I found a recipe for these on one of my favorite food blogs “100 days of real food” and gave it a try earlier this week and was uh-mazed! If you google “larabar recipes” you’ll find a bunch of websites out there that offer the different kinds of larabars. I made the cashew cookie one and a key lime pie one from a different website. I loved them both (and so did the ever pessimistic food critic hubby. Eli of course couldn’t shovel it in fast enough!) The best part? No cooking involved! Just measure a few ingredients, throw them in your food processor and turn it on for a few minutes. Voila! I put the blob onto a piece of wax paper and then used another piece of wax paper on the top (because its sticky) to press it flat into a square, cut them into “bars”, wrapped each one individually in their own piece of wax paper and put them all in a zip lock baggy in the fridge for snacks throughout the week. Yay me!
Let me know if you try either of these recipes.
Ok, back to the olympics 
-Linds
1 comment:
Did you peanut butter in your bars? I am going to try using almond butter. I am peanut free environment now since my little man and peanut to get along. I'll let use know how it goes. Thanks for the recipe.
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