Healthy Banana and Peanut Butter Oat Cookies

It's pretty horrible out there at the moment, and when it is like this my instinct is always to reach straight for the biscuit barrel and comfort eat my way through the worst of the winter.  In many respects, I am like a human Yogi bear.

The problem with that is, come the January sales, I'm reluctant to buy anything as my waist line has expanded so much that nothing in my usual sizes fits me!  I need something that is a compromise between moderating the bad food intake and also satisfies the sweet tooth.  These little cookies are pretty good at that - they have no butter and no bags of granulated sugar in them, so as far as a feel good snack goes, they basically come with their own glowing halo's.

They are not only angelic, they are also remarkably useful for using up some of those pesky ingredients that I always seem to have lying around, like bananas and porridge oats, and as if that wasn't enough, they are ridiculously quick and easy to make.

I'm not sure of the exact calorie intake per cookie, but as the sweetening agents come from pretty natural ingredients (apple sauce, banana and peanut butter) they can't be that bad!  If you are already noticing that the Christmas season belt needs to be loosened a little, these should help. Take out the chocolate chips to make these positively saintly.

They are quite chewy and go down well as a mid-afternoon pick me up when you are sat at your computer in your office, staring at the wind and rain pounding down outside and knowing that you should probably be getting on with some work, but you just don't have the energy.  One or two of these, a cup of tea and you will soon be on track for that Employee of the Month badge that gets handed out every so often in a vain attempt to encourage productivity.  

So that's enough of singing their praises.  Let's get on with making them!  Go and find:

1 mashed up ripe banana
45 grams peanut butter
65 grams apple sauce
200g porridge oats
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon good vanilla extract
couple of handfuls of mixed chocolate chips - add more or less depending on how chocolatey you like your cookies!

These are ridiculously easy to make.

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a baking sheet with baking paper

Mix everything together in one hit until it comes together

Form into small patties and press down the top to get rid of any ridges that may catch in the oven

Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown, checking every so often.

Leave them to cool for a couple of minutes on the baking tray before transferring them to a cooling rack - they need to cool a bit before you handle them as this allows them to firm up, otherwise they just disintegrate in your hands!

Chow down, guilt free!

If you like (or hate!) what you have read, please do let me know in the comments below or slap me with a cheeky follow, or say Hi to me on my facebook group or twitter!

You shall have a fishy on a little dishy

This is not my creation.

I don't think in a million years my brain would have been wired to consider this as a meal.  The combination of ingredients just sounds so strange together, and yet, weirdly, like strawberries and balsamic vinegar, Parmesan and pears or cayenne pepper and mango's, it just works. 

Actually this is one of Steve's concoctions.  He is a much more creative cook than I am - I tend to go for a recipe or a dish I have tried before and adapt it.  He just lets loose and experiments.  Sometimes this results in us having to order a pizza (like the ill-fated time we didn't have any tinned tomato's when he was making cottage pie so he substituted baked beans instead.  Turns out that just cos something is in a tomato-esq sauce doesn't mean you can substitute it for tomato's).  Other times, like this time, his evil genius just works.

This is toasted buttered bruschetta, layered with warm tomato and pepper salsa, a slice of lightly fried fresh monk fish, homemade crispy seaweed and a poached egg.

Weird and wonderful and surprisingly easy. 

You need:

1 loaf of fresh bread
2 tomato's (chopped)
1/2 yellow pepper (chopped)
1/2 green pepper (chopped)
1 red chilli (chopped)
1/2 onion (chopped)
Olive oil
Lemon
Bag of spring greens
Brown sugar
2 fresh fish fillets (firm white fish that won't fall apart on the griddle)
2 eggs
Oil for frying
Butter

You do need to do all of this at the same time so that everything comes together at the end and is still warm.

Slice two hefty pieces of fresh bread and turn the grill on, then toast the bread on both sides until lightly golden.  Remove and butter.

In a saucepan combine the chopped tomato, peppers, chilli, onion, a good glug of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice and allow to heat through on a low temperature

Heat the oil in a large wok, deep fat fryer or saucepan and, when hot enough, very, very carefully throw a few handfuls of the spring greens in.  Step back - the high water content in the spring greens will spit hot fat everywhere so keep your arms covered.  When the spitting subsides, use a spider or a slotted spoon and remove the spring greens to some kitchen towel to drain.  Keep frying until you have enough for your meal, then lightly sprinkle the spring greens in a little brown sugar.

Lightly griddle the white fish in a little oil and seasoning skin side down until the skin is crispy and golden.  Flip and repeat on the other side.

Poach two eggs, keeping the centres soft if you like them like that.

To assemble, layer the bread with the warm salsa, then the fish, the seaweed and then the poached egg.

Serve immediately, cracking the egg so that the yolk dribbles over the brushetta (which is amazing for mopping up the leftovers with afterwards.

If you try this, let me know what you think! I'll pass it onto Steve!

If you like (or hate!) what you have read, please do let me know in the comments below or slap me with a cheeky follow, or say Hi to me on my Facebook group or Twitter or Instagram!

Goji Berry Rant

Whilst perusing the shelves in my local supermarket recently I spotted a packet of dried goji berries.  "Deliciously sweet and cheerfully chewy" proclaimed the package and the berries themselves looked vaguely appetising*.

*this is a lie.  They looked suspiciously like rust red rabbit droppings. 

More to the point it was a buy 1 get 1 free deal.

Now I have heard the hype.  These little red rabbit dropping lookalikes are supposed to be a 'superfood' touted by hipster health care experts and nutritionists as doing everything from helping prevent chronic illness to being a great source of antioxidants and cleaning the bathroom.  Apparently they also count as one of your five-a-day.  Extra bonus.

I picked up two packets, figuring they would work as a desk snack to keep me away from the dairy milk.

About 3pm I made my cup of tea and cracked open the first little packet.  I sniffed it tentatively.  If I am honest it didn't really smell of anything.  A bit like the inside of a health food shop but that's probably not a bad thing.

I tried one.

I tried not to spit it out which would have been easier said than done as it was glued to the roof of my mouth.

I tried a second one.

It glued itself to my teeth.  A bit like an opal fruit starburst but without the, y'know, niceness of an opal fruit starburst.  The fruity juicy sweet flavour.  Someone give me an opal fruit please?

I took a deep breath and a great handful.

OH MY GOD THESE THINGS ARE DISGUSTING!

When I was little my mum used to give me a tablespoon of caster oil after dinner every night.  Not capsules or tablets but a spoon of greasy, stinking oil.  I know it was 'good for me'; strong bones or something (I have, in all fairness, never broken a bone in my life).  It always made me retch and I would have to have a glass of milk ready in the other hand to gulp to get rid of the taste.

Sadly I had no milk ready after the mouthful of goji berries.  I just had tea and burnt my mouth with my gulping.

Growing up we had Yew trees in our garden, or the giant bush of death as they are alternatively known.  The fruit of the Yew tree is a little squishy red berry that everything (birds, cats, mice etc) knows to avoid as it is really poisonous.  This fact had been drilled into my sister and I from the moment we could grab, snatch and say 'mine'.  They look like fresh goji berries.  Almost the spitting image.

I'm convinced that Goji berries are just Yew berries dried out and masquerading in a secret disguise in a bid to allow the trees to take over the world by killing off hipsters.

So here is my very well thought out review.

Goji berries are disgusting.  If you want a health kick eat an apple.  Apples never hurt anyone.

Oh and tomorrow there will be a giveaway on the blog.  One lucky reader will win a packet of unopened Goji berries.  All you have to do is like Miscriant's facebook page, follow me on twitter and follow me on Bloglovin'.  The winner will be randomly pulled out of a rabbit's backside and I will post the packet to them.

Happy giveaway!*

*PS there is no giveaway.