Cookies!

Homemade Thin Mints

This is a low sodium recipe - a regular recipe that happens to not have lots of salt or need any adjusting to be a semi-heart healthy meal, at least concerning salt levels.

I've never been much of a cookie person. When it comes to desserts, I almost always want ice cream. Or my dad's homemade apple pie. Best. Ever.
But cookies have never really been my thing. When I'm throwing a pity party I like Oreos and peanut butter because it's such a huge indulgence. Maybe it makes me feel kind of rebellious - like i'm sticking it to "the man" (you know - the one that says I should eat healthy and not eat lots of cookies or throw pity parties. You know that's not a woman speaking). I mean, really. Do you even know how terrible Oreos and peanut butter are for you? But they are just so. darn. good.
But cookies have never been my favorite.
However, since there has always been a special place in my heart for mint anything, these cookies have definitely made it into my "Favorite Desserts" list. That list doesn't really exist yet, but...I'm a list person, so it probably will soon.
[For some reason I have this need to decide my favorite things - like it's absolutely necessary that I know my favorite (books/movies/television shows/desserts) at any given time.]

Moving on.
I found this recipe for homemade Thin Mint cookies. I made the batter and it came out perfectly. I froze it in two logs (that, to be honest, just didn't look too good). I made the first log later that day and - surprise! - I followed the recipe exactly. I didn't really like it. But I ate the cookies. I know, I'm a trooper. But they weren't great. They weren't very minty and I didn't like the dark chocolate too much.
So when I made the second cookie log yesterday, I changed it up a bit. I used milk chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet, and I added a teaspoon of mint extract to the chocolate.
I. Loved. Them. I can hardly stop eating them.

Make some. Right now.


Peace!
Scout

Cooking With Sodium

Banana Pancakes.

This morning I made banana pancakes for breakfast. They were pretty spectacular.
Ingredients:
Pancake mix and necessary ingredients
Banana
Cinnamon
Sugar
Vanilla extract 
Chopped pecans (optional)

First I made pancake batter. I used a box mix that called for:
1c. mix
1/2 c. milk
1 egg.

Then I mashed up half of a banana in a bowl with some cinnamon and sugar (fun story: I wasn't paying attention when I grabbed the cinnamon out of the cabinet and almost put cayenne pepper in my pancakes!) and added it to the batter.

Next I added some crushed pecans and a tiny bit of vanilla extract. I mixed the batter together and made the pancakes.

I topped them off with butter, sprinkled cinnamon sugar, banana slices, and chopped pecans. I don't know how they'd taste with syrup - I'm not much of a syrup person, though, so I didn't try it.

PS. Sorry for the terrible photo quality. I only have access to one camera - can you believe it's digital? I cannot get the quality to be any better than the above photos. It upsets me greatly.

Love,
Scout