Feed Me Friday - Breakfast Cookies

So....its Friday and like promised today we talk food, more specifically breakfast. My sweet husband has returned back to work this week, which means I now have to fend for myself for food as well as feed two kiddos.

I have quickly learned eating is going to be tough, let alone eating something I might consider healthy. So come nap time on Monday I decided to make up some breakfast cookies. Never heard of them? Let me explain to you what they are. Breakfast cookies are basically an over sized glorified oatmeal cookie, pretty simple I know. But they fill you up and hold you over till the next meal or at least they would if I wasn't a breastfeeding mama chasing a toddler ;) So for me they are a great satisfying snack that can hold me over for a couple hours until there is some peace where I can snack yet again.

In theory you want to make these as healthy as you can with dried fruits and natural sugars and such. BUT as I am a new mommy and some times I just want something sweet I went ahead and made them a little 'bad' but still with a few healthy twists to make me feel better about myself. With that I bring you my Almond Toffee Breakfast Cookies!!!

**Note a few ingredients are probably not hiding in your pantry but no fear I found all the 'weird' items at my local grocery store, if you can't find them at your local store I suggest trying a health food store like Whole Foods.

Almond Toffee Breakfast Cookies

the wet:
1/2 cup mashed banana
1/2 cup softened unsalted butter
1 cup    packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp     baking soda
1/2 tsp  baking powder
1/2 tsp  salt
1/2 tsp  almond extract
2          eggs

the dry:
3 cups  quick cooking oats
1/4 cup oat bran
1/4 cup toasted wheat germ
2 tbsp   ground flax seed meal
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp     pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
3 tbsp   cocoa powder

the flavor:
1/2 cup toffee bits (if you can't find toffee bits finely chop up a few toffee candy bars)
1/2 cup toasted sliced almonds
1 tbsp whole wheat flour

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

Mix together all your dry ingredients and set aside. Now in a separate bowl cream together the bananas, butter, brown sugar and white sugar. Stir in baking soda, baking powder and salt until well combined. Mix in almond extract and eggs.
Slowly add in the dry ingredients, I tend to do this in 3 installments. Also you will want to switch from a mixer to a good old fashioned wooden spoon. I find wooden spoons do a much better job at combining the ingredients plus they remind me of making cookies with Grandma. Once all the dry ingredients have been thoroughly mixed in, set aside. Quickly toss the toffee bits and sliced almonds with the tablespoon of flour to make sure nothing settles to the bottom of the cookies. Dump into cookie batter and fold in.
Now the messy part. You will be using a 1/4 cup measuring cup to dollop out the cookie portions. I find using a cereal spoon helps keep things a little bit less messy. Scoop, form into a ball and plop onto a parchment lined baking sheet. You will want to gently smash the cookies down till they are about 1/4" thick. Note* the cookies will not spread nor rise up all that much but this thickness ensures they will be fully cooked when all is done. Bake for 12-14 minutes until the middles look set (really looking for lightly golden brown edges as well but as we added cocoa powder that is nearly impossible to see).
Cool and enjoy!

Or if you are like me and knowing they are not safe on the counter, freeze them until you are ready to eat. Pull one out and let it defrost at room temp for about 10 mins or pop into the microwave for a few seconds to thaw and gently warm.

Be sure to have a big ol' glass of milk with it, makes them healthier of course!

pssst. They also work as lactation cookies, not strong ones but enough to help you out trust me ;)

So now here is a little fun site I found, it calculates your nutritional facts in any recipe. Just add in all the ingredients that you baked with, add in the # of servings and BAM! instant food scariness. Now I do not recommend you do this with your favorite cheesecake recipe or even those twice baked potatoes. Lets stay ignorant, ignorance is bliss. But this was fun for me to see how bad of a morning breakfast I had made and you know what its not all that bad! Here is what I got:

Nutrition Facts
Calories                       241.5
Total Fat                       10.2 g
  Saturated Fat                 4.7 g
  Polyunsaturated Fat       1.3 g
  Monounsaturated Fat     3.4 g
Cholesterol                      33 mg
Sodium                       283.9 mg
Potassium                   183.3 mg
Total Carbohydrates         39 g
  Dietary Fiber                   5 g
  Sugars                       22.9 g
Protein                             5 g

Not too shabby, I am sure I could make healthier ones but for now I am happy with some almond toffee ones.

Apple Dump Cake Pancakes

So I woke up yesterday morning with another one of my slightly unusual pregnancy cravings. I wanted pancakes and apple pie, don't ask me I generally dislike apple pie even. But I decided it had to be done and quickly as my little man does not like to wait for his 'num nums'.

Last week while searching on Pinterest and Google I came across a recipe of how to convert a plain box of cake mix into pancakes and let me tell you I am addicted to it. So yesterday morning I modified it to suit my needs, here is what I came up with.

Apple Dump Cake Pancakes
1/2 box of cake mix (white, yellow, funfetti whatever plain flavor you have on hand)
1/2 cup flour
2 tbsp brown sugar (NOT packed)
2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of ground nutmeg
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup quick stove top pie filling, recipe to follow (can substitute can pie filling but I never have that on hand)

So lets start with the quick stove top pie filling as it needs to cook down while you gather the rest of the ingredients.

Quick Stove Top Pie Filling
1 granny smith apple cut into 1/4" chunks
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
mini pinch of nutmeg

Dump all the ingredients into a saucepan and bring up to a gentle boil over med/med-high heat. Cook for roughly 8-10 minutes until the water and sugar create a caramel sauce around the apples and the apples are fork tender.
Pull off the heat and cool.

Now back to the pancakes....dump all ingredients into one bowl, stir. Simple as that no need to do wet and dry bowls just mix all together. Gently fold in the pie filling, if you went with a canned pie filling you might want to chop up your apples a bit as big slices won't work as well here. Now here is the real trick to pancake making stop what you are doing and let the batter rest at least 5 minutes. You heard me don't go making pancakes right away.

Now turn on your electric griddle if you have on to 300 degrees and allow it to preheat, if you are doing this stove top I'd say over med/med-high heat but you hopefully know your stove best to know what temp works. Spray with cooking spray and get to making pancakes. Now I do find these take a bit longer to cook on each side than the traditional buttermilk pancakes so be patient and don't try flipping them too soon. They will be slightly gummy still in spots due to the apple pie filling 'sauce'.

Enjoy! We sure did. They are truly sweet enough to eat on their own but a little syrup and butter never hurt.....or if you are pregnant like me wait till your child is taking a nap and smear it with a little frosting YUM!

My husband had these cold later when he got home and exclaimed BEST apple pancake he had ever eaten! Now that makes me smile as we are big time apple eaters here :)