Pepper Paints

Thursday’s Recipe…..Banana Dots aka Breakfast Cookies

Ginger wanted to make cookies for breakfast this week and ironically that same day Dawn‘s FB update was about the Banana Cookies they were having for breakfast. The same recipe she so prettily copied out onto an index card for me about 10 years earlier. That recipe has been filed away unused all these years. I think it is very telling that I had an unused recipe hanging around for 10 yrs. One would think I would have pitched it if I hadn’t made it once over all these years. But I’m a bit of a saver!

The other funny thing about this post are the pictures of Ginger all combed and dressed for breakfast! She rarely gets dressed or combs her hair with out lots of prodding—but she had some new duds to slip into and was pretty excited to wear them! I wouldn’t want to give the impression that we “dress” for breakfast around here!

These are easy and tasty and have chocolate chips in them so they make everything right in the world while scarfing them down!

2 bananas

1 cup sugar (or sucanant)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon (or more)

2 1/2 cups flour

2 1/2 cups oats

1/-1 cup choc chips

1/2 cup applesauce

Preheat oven to 350

Mix bananas, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, applesauce, and baking soda.

Mix in flour then oats—-they should be thick and gooey like cookie batter so add  more flour or applesauce as needed

add chips

Place dough on cookie sheet and cook 10 -15 minutes or until golden brown

I made my cookies huge so I had to cook them a little longer.

Mmmmm Mmmmm Good! That’s what cookies for breakfast are…Mmmm Mmmm good!

Thursdays Quarter Recipe

Well that was fast…it’s apple time again! Recently we visited our favorite orchard for the first pick of the season (jonafree, scarlett o’hare and liberty).

We filled ourselves with apples and raspberries while we were there and brought a few bags home.

Now what to do with all those apples that are sitting on my counter?! Pies, drying, cake, sauce..the list goes on and on! This week  I am going to re-post a raw apple pie recipe that I plan to make tomorrow (for potluck)!  I have made it several times and every time it is delicious!!

You will need both a blender and a food processor. Because, I guess you can’t put liquid stuff in the food processor or it will seep out of every crack and crevasse..nobody told me that!

For the crust you will need

2 cups almonds-plus a few more for dusting the bottom

2 cups dates

1 teaspoon salt

Put a few almonds in the food processor and line your pie plate with almond dust

Next process the almonds dates and salt until they make a sticky mass. Dump them into a bowl and make it into a ball with your hands, try to form it into your pan shape as best you can-it will be crumbly-press itinto the bottom of you r pie plate.

For the Filling you will need

6-8 apples chopped-or thinly sliced

1 cup raisins and or cranberries

2 Tablespoons cinnamon

Combine in a bowl

For the Syrup for the filling you will need (this can be doubled-I did, because I lost most of it when I tried to make it in the food processor instead of the blender!)

1/2 cup of dates

1 large orange

1/4 cup of water

Blend this all up until smooth and pour over your filling.

Be sure to pit all your dates!!!

This was so delicious!! I even ate it for breakfast the next day and it was even better because the apples had softened a bit.

Try it you’ll like it!!!

If you have a recipe to share, leave a comment with a link to your recipe post!

Santa’s Lodge, Museum and Candy Castle

We hit 3 Santa themed places in just a couple of hours during our recent trip to Santa Claus, Indiana.

First there was the breakfast buffet at Santa’s Lodge-Buffet, need I say more? This is not only a restaurant but also the closest hotel to Holiday World, complete with meeting and banquet rooms. Just walking in the door makes you feel like it’s Christmas time!

From there we headed to the historical, Santa’s Candy Castle.

Once part of the first themed attraction in the nation, Santa Claus Town, the Candy Castle has been restored and re-opened. It is home to the worlds largest candy cane selection and over two dozen flavors of hot chocolate. Not only is there lots of candy to choose from but also a post office room complete with a mail box so that letters to santa can be mailed immediately!

Our next stop was the Santa Claus Museum. The museum is filled with donated artifacts of the town of Santa Claus

as well as santa claus figures, toys and a display of various letters written to Santa over the years. Where do you think all those letters to Santa end up every Christmas?  Why, in Santa Claus, Indiana! The town has been answering letters to Santa for nearly a century. Last year alone, volenteers answered 35,600 letters.

Next stop….Holiday World!!

Thursdays Quarter Recipe

Good Morning! I am not someone who gets up and eats breakfast right away. Sometimes 2 or 3 hours pass before I am ready to eat. When I have time I often make smoothies. I am working on making those green smoothies actually taste good. I make bad, bad green smoothies. But I recently found this site-with over 70 green smoothie recipes!!! So there is hope for me. Did I already link to this last week?  If so, sorry I am getting old!

Sometimes I just have plain fruit and sometimes I have museli. It is really expensive to buy but not too expensive to make your own. And you can customize it to your taste! I use a large container and start with raw oats and various nuts and or seeds. I usually use almonds, pecans and sunflower seeds. Then I add some dried fruit-I love raisins, some apples and strawberries that we dehydrated and cocoa nibs.  Shake it up!

I always add fresh fruit either berries, a grated up apple or a banana. I use almond milk from the carton-so technically not raw but very convenient for the 1/4 to 1/2 cup that really use. If you pour the milk and let it sit, the oats will soften some. I prefer it chewy. And I like to top it with lots of cinnamon.  Especially on chilly mornings.

Ginger-well she just prefers icicles!

If you have a raw recipe that you want to include this week just leave a comment here with a link to your raw recipe post! I would love to have others join in!