Foodie Files-- Gluten-Free Banana Oat Cookies (that also maybe have a little nutella in them too...)

I love eating healthy. I really do. But I also have this problem that seems to rear its head every time I eat anything healthy. Its called I love sugar. I also have the I love dessert and pastries and ice cream problem. Just not frosting, but that's beside the point. The point is that I crave super unhealthy things about 75% of the time, which makes my clean eating goals a little bit tricky.

I have a feeling I'm not alone in this.

So in light of this problem, I'm always on the lookout for creative ways to trick myself into thinking that I'm eating dessert when I'm actually not. Enter my newest concoction: banana oat cookies. The trick is having super ripe bananas. You wont even notice the lack of sugar. Tricky, tricky- right? I've also made a version of this recipe as muffins (or one giant single serve muffin...) but I'll save that for another day.

This little helper makes baking a lot more fun too ^^^


So the next time you need to lie to yourself about dessert, or if you have nothing else to do with the next 20 minutes- make these cookies.

Ingredients: 

• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats (make sure they're gluten free, if you're into that...)
• 2 very ripe bananas
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp raw honey (optional)
• 1 tbsp chocolate chips (I was out of chocolate chips so I substituted nutella, and I'm not mad about it.) 

- Preheat oven to 350 

- Blend oats in your blender/food processor till it has a flour-like consistency. I like mine a little bit more coarse, so I blended it less. 

- In a small bowl (or just throw them in the blender too), mash up the banana with a fork.

- Mix in the honey and cinnamon and fold in the chocolate chips/weakness of choice. 

- Drop in spoonfuls onto a baking tray and bake for about 15 minutes or until firm. 

There you have it! The dessert to end all desserts. I've made this recipe two or three times now and I LOVE them. They're quick and a heck of a lot healthier than a bowl of ice cream.

 Give them a try and let me know what you think!

Ramblings on Turning Twenty-One

A few weeks ago I entered into a new world where I can legally consume alcohol, gamble, or adopt a child. I can even apply for a license to drive a semi, or supervise my 16 year old brother who just got his permit. Seriously, this adulthood thing is pretty neat. While, in all honesty, I'll probably only ever do two of those five things in my entire life (I'll keep you guessing about which two though....), its *kind of* cool that I at least have the option to spend all my money on russian roulette.

So, this is what 21 feels like.

If I didn't know better, I would think that adulthood meant having responsibilities and owning them. I would think that it was more than a legal age or whether your driver's license is vertical or horizontal. I would think that it was about having character, maturity, and life goals. But, maybe turning 21 is just about legally being able to do all the things you've already been doing since high school. I don't know.

Whatever it really means, you have to celebrate turning 21, right?

All rants aside, for MY 21st, the only thing I really wanted was to go to Colorado. So that's what we did. In the spirit of adulthood, AJ and I left our responsibilities (child, dog and jobs) with Mimi and Papa for three days and roadtripped to Fort Collins, one of my most favorite places.

Aj's a beer guy, so the first thing we had to do was head to Odell's Brewery where I had a pilot tray 

This was the first time I had been away from Evie for longer than a night, so I was a little nervous to leave her. At the same time though, I was SO excited to have alone time with the husband and be back in my college town with all of my friends.

It just so happens that my wonderful friend Liz turned 21 the day before I did, so we kept our three year strong tradition of sharing birthday parties and celebrated together.

The Moscow Mule in the copper mugs was one of my favorite drinks ;)

These beauties came all the way from Denver to celebrate with me <3

The best part about turning 21 is that literally EVERYTHING is free. I don't think I bought myself a single drink or meal. I think I'll say its my birthday more often....Though we definitely did more than just go to bars and restaurants, that seems to be the only time it crossed my mind to take photos. We had SUCH a great time visiting friends and experiencing a little bit of the Fort Collins "night life" like I hadn't been able to do before. So far, I give adulthood 4 stars out of 5.

Of course, I was more than ready to be home after three days away- I wouldn't trade my real "adult" job of being a mommy for anything...not even free brownies covered in ice cream or Moscow Mules in awesome copper mugs. 

Evie- 9 Month Update

*Mushy Mom Alert*

Sometimes I look at my little Evelyn, with her blue eyes, huge grin (complete with three and a half teeth), pudgy thighs, curious fingers, and whispy reddish-brown hair, and I wonder how I got so lucky. If she isn't the very definition of God's grace I don't know what is. Despite my weakness and mistakes, He worked beauty into the ashes and in many ways healed my doubting heart with the birth of this little girl. Being her mom has brought more joy, tears, pain, laughter, and growth than I ever imagined...and its only been 9 months. Parenthood....I tell ya.

Its not all sunshine and toothy grins though. This month, while probably one of my favorites, has also been one of the hardest. Just when sleeping became a normal thing and I was adjusting to getting more than two hours in a row, teething hit hard. She cried about everything, and had a fever for four days. It is a good thing we can't remember being babies- they go through a lot. The sleep schedule we worked so hard on was nonexistent and I did anything I could just to get her to sleep. Which, a few times actually, meant her sleeping in bed with me all night long. There was one night when I had been up with her for hours and my patience had left the building. I was at the verge of a breakdown (in my sleep-deprived selfishness, I regret saying. My poor baby had teeth breaking though her gums for crying out loud), when AJ came to the rescue so I could get a few minutes to compose myself. On-the-verge-of-mental-break-down Olivia isn't a pretty sight, so thank God for AJ. We survived though and sleeping is on the up and up in our house, I'm happy to say. Until the next round of teeth.

Likes:
- Getting into things: now that she's crawling, anything in the house is fair game. So far her favorite places to explore are the bathroom and in Roxy's dog food bowl. She may have consumed a little too...it's a pretty safe assumption.
- Long walks in the stroller/car seat: this is still the only way she will nap, but I will take it because it usually is my only excuse to leave the house.
- Daddy: she is obsessed with AJ right now. The second he gets home from work she starts laughing and waving her arms and "dancing". He loves it.
- Blueberries: she will basically eat anything I put in front of her (except eggs...) but blueberries seem to be at the top of her list. She will eat around everything else on her plate if blueberries are in the picture. They also make her look like she's part of the Blue Man Group, so that is probably half of the fun.

Dislikes:

- Teething: see above rant.
- Putting clothes on: I can sympathize with this one a little bit. In all honesty, If I didn't have to wear pants everywhere, I totally wouldn't. Evie, however, doesn't understand the cultural norm the clothing is, and so she puts up a fight every time I try to dress her. This leads to a lot of naked baby time at our house. But her butt is probably in the top five on my list of cute things so I won't complain. ;)

Firsts:

- Crawling!!!!: This was a big deal. She took her sweet time about it and still kind of crawls like she has a bum leg...but she gets around. And fast. Look out world, Evie is mobile.
- Blowing kisses: Her Nona taught her to blow kisses which is probably the most adorable thing you will see all week.
- Pulling herself up on things: With crawling comes standing. And lots and lots of falling.
- Saying "poop": she lets me know when business has happened by making a little noise that sounds an awful lot like the actual word. Which means her two favorite words are "poop" and "dada". I'm such a proud mom.
- In case you didn't know, she got her two upper middle teeth. Refer to above paragraphs if you haven't read enough about her darn teeth yet.
-  This month AJ and I went to Fort Collins for my birthday. WITHOUT the baby. A definite first for all of us. We were there for three whole days- the time away was amazing, but by the end I was all too ready to be back to my baby. She did great with Mimi though :)

And just so you can experience the cuteness, here's a video of her "sneezing" and blowing kisses:

To Wheat, or Not to Wheat- That is the Question.

My most recent hair-brained idea has been to give up eating gluten. Hearing those words still make my carb loving self shiver a little bit.

I'm about two weeks in and I've already noticed a huge increase in my energy (because I'm not stuffing my face with a bagel first thing in the morning), as well as improvement in my skin and the infamous "belly bloat" I would feel, but not necessarily see after eating some kind of wheat. While these are definitely awesome bonuses, cosmetic changes and weight loss weren't really my goal in embarking on this wheat-free journey, but rather overall health. 

My mom (who has been gluten free for several years and has experienced many of the health benefits since), recommended the book "Wheat Belly" to me. I barely got past the first three chapters when I knew I had to at least try giving it up. In it, Davis talks about how our "healthy grains" today aren't at all what they were even 50 years ago. He explains that many well meaning diets often have the reverse effect because no matter how many "healthy grains" a person eats with his well balanced diet and rigorous exercise, he still isn't keeping the extra weight off. His book is engaging, science based, and has countless stories of changed lives. 

While weight loss isn't my goal, self control and health is. I realized that, when it came to things like pastries, bread, and pasta I had the self control of a 9 month old child- which let me tell you, is nonexistent. If it was in my house, I would eat it. A blueberry scone at work? Sure, I'll have three. If Aj asked me to make cookies, I'd eat half the batter before the first batch went in the oven. 

Overindulgence in any area of life isn't healthy, and I really felt that I couldn't just "cut back"- I had to quit cold turkey. So far, I haven't even been tempted to cheat. It has been far easier to completely remove wheat from my diet than it would have been to cut back. I've been forced to experiment with food and learn to cook things in new ways. Lettuce wraps have become my best friend. And AJ is thrilled because he can buy oreos without the fear that I'll eat them all before he gets home from work. Seriously. 

I've made this recipe before and LOVE it. Click here for link. 

Do any of you have experience with gluten free life? I'd love to hear your experience/tips/favorite recipes. 

I'm excited to share this journey with you all- keep checking back for updates, recipes and my latest shenanigans.