Day 39: Cookies for Breakfast!

This morning, with the help of my 4 year-old nephew and 3 year-old niece, made some cookies... and BOY , were they excited to think they were getting cookies for breakfast! But these are no ordinary cookies, we made breakfast cookies!!

They are super-healthy, and chock-full of hearty, filling, delicious yumminess! And, in case you didn't catch that my young helpers were involved, they are super easy to make. You can (and should) eat these for breakfast (best paired with a little protein), because they have no added sugar, are great to grab on the go, and have nothing that you wouldn't eat for breakfast!

My niece mashed the bananas, both munchkins took turns pouring in ingredients and stirring the mixture together, the hardest part was just waiting for them to be done! Especially when they were nearly done and the house filled up with a divine smell that made mouths water and little eyes peer into the hot oven!

*They were a little disappointed when I told them we couldn't add sprinkles to them, but LOOK at the looks on these guys faces! They were SO excited!

Breakfast Cookies

1 1/2 cup uncooked oatmeal
1 cup applesauce (preferably unsweetened)
2 old mashed bananas
1/3 cup craisins
1/3 cup golden raisins
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350*. Mix the applesauce, cinnamon & vanilla together, then add and mix the oats, dried fruit and the banana last. On a piece of parchment paper, or "greased" cookie sheet, drop the dough in 1 tsp to 1 heaping TBS size drops, and flatten with a fork. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the cookies are firm to the touch. Let them cool on the sheets
for 10 minutes and then remove and let them cool on a cookie sheet for another 10 minutes (if you can resist them that long). I like to let them cool for five minutes and then eat them warm with a short glass of cold almond milk. Yum!!

I burned quite a few calories playing with my nephew and niece. We played with Legos, played dress up, and chasing games (as animals), built a fort/cave and played and danced and had great fun! I
don't get a chance to see these little guys very often, so I have to take advantage of it, whenever I can.


EXCERCISE
I ran a 5K on a picturesque, leaf-covered road near my parent's house.

FOOD
Breakfast: 3...or 4 breakfast cookies, 1 HBE, a banana and a small glass of almond milk
Snack: 2 breakfast cookies (they're pretty irresistible)
Lunch: a cup of beef stew
Snack: a vanilla-blueberry recovery smoothie
Dinner: a cup a spaghetti and a cup of steamed broccoli


Tip of the Day
Eat your meals on a smaller, salad-size plate AND make sure that half of the plate is fruit and/or vegetables. Once you finish your plate, if you are still hungry, don't go back for seconds, unless its on veggies. Then, drink a full 16oz glass of water. Maybe have a piece of fruit for dessert. Like me tonight, I did have pasta for dinner, but HALF my plate was steamed veggies (I didn't take a picture of them because they were still steaming when I was taking pictures, and then everybody was waiting for me to eat!)



Thanks for reading all! I sure hope you enjoy the cookies!