07 January 2012

Cookie Dinner!

A couple months ago, Lucy kept talking about eating cookies for dinner.  I suspect it had something to do with watching Sesame Street every day.  But it got me thinking -- wouldn't that be fun? To have cookies for dinner?  So I asked my Facebook friends what kind of well-rounded foods could be made to look like cookies, and I got some great responses.  And I filed them away (in my brain).

Well, this week I pulled them out.  I knew Lucy and I would need some fun while Norman is away at a conference.  So, I present to you, Cookie Dinner!

[Lucy took this one of me. She's getting pretty good!]

[Actually saying "Cheeeeese!"]

First, in the afternoon, we made a project of making these healthy chocolate chip cookies.  They turned out really good!  The amazing thing about these cookies is that they don't take any sugar.  The bananas act as sugar and (I suspect) as egg, as well.  (They're also gluten free if you use GF oats.)

[Gives her a hobby...]


We ran into a little trouble when I decided to use frozen bananas.  Everything was going fine!  I remembered to take them out of the freezer to thaw while we ran errands, and frozen bananas that have been thawed are practically already mashed, so that was nice.  But the recipe calls for slightly warmed coconut oil, so that it's a liquid.  Wellll.... coconut oil solidifies at 76 degrees F, so when it hit those semi-frozen bananas, it just chunked back up.  I kind of mashed up some of the oil pieces, and microwaved it a little, but in the end I had to add a little extra olive oil to get it wet enough to stick together.  But the cookies turned out great!  They kind of remind me of those little bite-sized cookies from Paradise Bakery, except that they kind of taste like banana.


So in addition to actual cookies, we also had...


Roasted potato slices with ketchup frosting

 

and sour cream frosting and bacon sprinkles



And slices of havarti cheese, cut out with cookie cutters, topped with pear slices.

It was all pretty tasty!  I highly recommend the potatoes with sour cream frosting and bacon sprinkles.  I just sliced up a couple potatoes and roasted them in the oven with olive oil and a little salt and garlic powder.  Yum!

Lucy seems to have had fun.  I mean, she ate some of everything!  And it was a nice creative outlet for me.  So I'd say Cookie Dinner gets a B+.  (Points off for my lack of presentation. It's just who I am.)

3 comments:

meggo said...

I see she is going for the actual cookie in the picture. Has she ever eaten sugar? I have got to get Drue off sugar, but we're just too deep in, I think. I love this idea.

Jessie said...

"Has she ever eaten sugar?"

LOL. Yes, she eats sugar. I mean, we still try to keep it to a minimum, but she has the occasional chocolate, cookie, or ice cream. Oh, and she eats dried cranberries every day and those have sugar. But I think we're going to switch to raisins.

But honestly, she doesn't eat much sugar because we just don't have that much in the house because I try not to eat it myself. Since we eat so well at home, I don't freak out about her having some junk outside the house.

Jessie said...

Oh, I should add that I've lightened up as she's gotten older. Until she turned two, I was *very* strict on no sugar, no wheat. There's some evidence that until kids get their two year molars, they don't have the enzyme to digest grains well. I wanted her to have a good foundation, because of course even now, I don't have total control over what she eats any more (Sunday school!). And if we have more kids, we'll see how well that holds up for them, of course!