2 Cups of Sugar??!!

I love to eat. And I love to eat really good, cheesy, bready, rich foods. I freaking love pizza -- it's my favorite. I know you only say that when you are filling out a survey about yourself on the first day of 4th grade, but it's still true for me. I also really like to eat well and feed my kids well. And by well, I mean loading our meals with lean proteins, veggies, fruit, and lots and lots of greens. Don't get me wrong, because if you know me and stopped reading here, you would call me a liar. I also eat way too much crap. Do I eat McDonalds? YES! I also really love fries. Do I eat the occasional frozen corn dog? YES! Do I have a slight addiction to Diet Coke? YES! I'm trying here people. The point to all of this is that I haven't always cared about what I ate or when I ate it. I have learned better habits along the years from various sources and also from having kids. I think having Piper and having to learn to feed her the right things made me try harder than ever. I like to call our family additionalists when it comes to food (as opposed to exclusionists, of course!). As in everything I try to do in life, I like to have a balance in my food choices. So I add good things as much as possible without taking everything out that I enjoy, but know is bad for me. Sounds like a horrible excuse when I put it that way, but oh well, we aren't all perfect.

I'm sure I'm not alone as a mother of toddlers when I sneak vegetables in anything and everything possible. Ian thought it was cool at first, until I made an "ice cream treat" the other night for dessert. Did I put kale in a chocolate-raspberry shake? Why yes, yes I did. I mean, if the kids are going to have sugary ice cream I must put something in there to make me feel better about it. It's crazy that I used to think a salad was a plate filled with iceberg lettuce, drenched in ranch (ok, I still do this) and topped with a bag of croutons. I attribute a lot of my food choices to things I learned while working at a holistic dental office in Las Vegas. I learned the uber importance of eating leafy greens every day, eating protein for breakfast (not sugary cereal or nothing at all!), and what fruits and veggies are important to buy organic. I started paying attention to my sugar intake, something I never cared about before! And I especially watched my artificial sugar intake (something I still need to work on tremendously...see above Diet Coke comment). Now when I make anything, like pancakes or cookies, I search the web for healthier ways to make them. And by the way, what did anyone do before the internet? We are so flippin' spoiled.

So, tonight when I was getting ready to make some no-bake cookies for a little play group tomorrow, I thought, "Do I really need 2 cups of sugar in these bad boys?" That is a lot of sugar. I searched around for a bit and found this nice little website {http://www.eatingbirdfood.com/healthy-no-bake-cookies/} that gave me a solution to this sweet predicament. It's a great blog with tons of recipes, one of which I used tonight! I will for sure be following this blog from now on. I tweaked the recipe a little myself..

"Healthier" No-Bake Cookies

3/4 C sugar
1/4 C cocoa power
1/2 almond milk
1/2 C peanut butter
1 mashed, ripe banana (mine was frozen)
1 tsp vanilla
3 C oats
Some chopped up almonds

picture a nice ripe, frozen banana in there. 

 mix everything except the vanilla and oats in a saucepan and bring to a boil, add in vanilla and oats and almonds and VIOLA! spoon mixture into little balls, let them sit, and then eat them. A lot of them.

Please ignore my cookie sheet from 1981. When something isn't broken, don't fix  it!

You want to know my absolute favorite part about all of this? They are so easy and hardly any mess! I'm talking 10 minutes and one pan. I don't know about everyone else, but I am such a messy cook. Even if I am using my mixer to make cookies, I end up with a sink full if dishes, egg yolk on my glasses, and flour on the ceiling. It's a gift, don't ask how I make it happen. This is all I had to do after I made these cookies, and yet, there they sit --still-- They will most likely remain there until the morning, or afternoon...or dinner time...