"Here, eat this!"

Cleaning the kitchen, making dinner, throwing in a load of laundry, changing a diaper .... sometimes I find myself giving my kids food for distraction! ... I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this... but seriously - what are we giving them? Lately for me it's been chocolate chips, marshmellows, graham crackers.... (can you tell what I've been craving? .. Ssmmmoorrres) - anyway! I was thinking of all of the unnecessary sugar I have been giving to my kids, so I wanted to find healthier, quick, inexpensive alternatives. Here are a few of the more obvious ones:
Fresh or frozen fruits
Fresh or frozen veggies
cooked whole beans (my kids love munching on garbanzo and kidney beans .. me too! :))
soft nuts
cheese
etc.
While those are all awesome - sometimes they don't convince my kids that what they are eating is more fun than destroying my house as I clean it or climbing out of highchairs. - So I searched the web and found a quick easy winner :)

Oats and Nanners Drops by Karla

1 c quick oats
1 c ground oats (grind oats and make a coarse oat flour) I used 9 grain, you can do this in a grinder or in a blender
1/4 t salt
1/4 t cinnamon or ginger or cardamom (we'd try it with all 4 spices.)
1/4 t nutmeg
1 t baking powder
1 c (~2) overripe bananas, mashed The kids loved helping squish the bananas in a bag
1 t vanilla extract
3 T oil of choice I used canola
Directions: Mix dry, mix wet, add wet to dry. Drop by the spoonful onto parchment paper or greased baking sheet. Bake 12-15 min at 350. (adapted from a vegan cookbook)

NO SUGAR!!!! Sammy keeps calling these cookies and it is making my day! Both he and Claire love them and I have no guilt for giving it to them :)
Next time I am going to try adding walnut or pecan flour (I do this by putting the nuts in my food processor and grinding until it is like a flour) - to give it a nuttier flavor -
This is clearly no cookie, but the kids love it, and so does Mike! :) Enjoy!!