banana oatmeal breakfast cookies!

around the time of the lentil soup, i decided healthy cookies were in order, and went with 'vegan cookies invade your cookie jar's' banana oatmeal breakfast cookies. also, i had all the ingredients, including brown rice syrup and flax meal. because i am cool.

they also have oats and cranberries and, surprisingly, bananas.

remarkably, in making these cookies, i ran out of oatmeal, bananas, oil, cranberries, pecans, and agave. good job, nicole. here they are, pre-oven...

and post. yes, they look like blobs, but they're actually quite nice. bonus: you can taste the dough raw, which is not a bad thing.

chocolate fudgy oatmeal cookies!

next up in our dessert tour also comes from 'vegan cookies invade your cookie jar': chocolate fudgy oatmeal cookies. these were also made a few weeks ago, mainly because i wanted cookies, i wanted to try more recipes from this book, and, the big one....um....i had all the ingredients on hand.

as part of my ongoing quest to make dessert recipes pictorially interesting, i'm condensing - look at all the fun dry ingredients! flour, cocoa, salt, oh my! i forget what else - sorry, this one's not online and the books's not here.

here is the only one i'll highlight: flax seed meal. i don't know what it is, but i know its good for me and can also be sprinkled on hot cereals and in smoothies, according to the package. and it contains fiber. the end.

and here is an 'action shot' of pouring oil into sugar and stuff!

i have to admit, i like stirring shots. here's one of wet into dry (note the oatmeal - i didn't forget about it):

and, here the little guys are pre-baking. kindly refrain from telling me what they look like. we're all thinking it, but its best not to say such things aloud:

and, here they are, out of the oven. i realize the appearance (especially with the crappy camera - cc for short), hasn't improved much. but these are lovely, and perfect for an everyday, somewhat healthy cookie. i think this is my third recipe out of this book, and all get five TOP CHEF stars.

baked apple oatmeal!

i was up earlier than usual this morning and wanted something a little different for breakfast. enter: baked apple oatmeal.

i found it the other day while doing a search to incorporate apples into breakfast, and i'm glad i did. it was pretty easy to make - you just have to be willing to wait for it to bake...

step one...the apples. you won't get very far without them:

chop them up and throw them in a bowl. while you're at it, take a cup of oatmeal and throw it in there, too. when i was little, i thought the quaker oats dude was william penn. don't ask me why, because i don't have an answer.

to clear up any mass confusion, your bowl will now look something like this:

i love one-bowl recipes. need some maple syrup? no problem - in it goes...

i also added some milk (in this case, some light soy milk that needed to be used up)...

and some chopped walnuts. which started out whole but were 1) placed in a plastic baggie and sealed...

2) and then pounded with the bottom of the measuring glass. genius.

anyway. along with some spices - here it is - one bowl:

and, after a good mixing, one baking dish:

here is the baking dish out of the oven and ready to eat. it does not look much different from before the baking period, although, i assure you, it tastes different. this was a lovely breakfast - rather like healthy apple pie filling. i would definitely make this again. this was TOP CHEF baked apple oatmeal.

and speaking of top chef, this week's challenge was all about pleasing natalie portman with vegetarian food; and, was it just me, or did they do all do a fairly disappointing job. and i don't mean with cooking techniques - they are clearly all better than i will ever be. i mean - they were all stunned as to what to do. they all just kind of made glorified salads or side dishes. nobody really made an actual meal. for shame, top chef, for shame.