Diet, Growing Up, and Yummy Treats

Well, I've been a slacker with the blogging, once again. Surprise, Surprise, lol. But just to update you, on Monday my weight was the same as last week. No loss, but no gain either, so thats good. I think this week will be the same as well, but I am hoping to do much better this week (I'd better or I will never make my goal....yikes!).

Now I haven't mentioned this before, but man, Grace is really growing up. My little girl, who's really been doing some reading here and there for a bit, has just ballooned into a really good reader out of no where. Makes me proud AND sad that she's getting older (and that I can't spell things in front of her anymore......guess I'll have to learn a new language soon). I'd love to figure out what "level" she's reading on, but she surprises me all the time with the things she's picking up on. At first, I think we just thought she was memorizing the words, but she has picked up books for the first time, never having anyone reading them to her before, and reading 98% of the words. Now we just have to pray she gets better with her handwriting.....lol. That still needs some work =)

Now, here's a yummy recipe for you to try. I just tried this last week and it was soooo good and over all pretty healthy. After the recipe, I'll tell you the modifications I made, which wasn't really all that much. By the way, I saw this recipe made on a show called Jon and Kate Plus 8, which is about a couple who had a set of twins and then a set of sextuplets through infertility treatments. Talk about a full house! Anyway, a chef named Sara Snow visited and made this on the show, so I went to Sara's website and grabbed the recipe. Yum Yum Yum.

2 C Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 C Ground Flax Seed
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Cardamon, or Cloves (ground)

1/2 C Room Temperature Butter
1/2 C Natural Cane Sugar
1/2 C Honey
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 Small Apple, Chopped (Granny Smith is the best)
1/2 C Raisins
1/2 C Chopped Apricots
1 1/2 C Unsweetened Coconut
3 C Oats (oatmeal)
1/4 C Applesauce
1 C Chopped Walnuts or Almonds (Optional)

In a bowl, mix dry ingredients together (flour, salt, baking soda, spices, flaxseed)

In another bowl, beat butter and sugar. Then add in honey, eggs, and vanilla. Slowly add in the dry mix and beat together. Stir in oats, applesauce, coconut and fruit. Drop spoonfuls onto baking sheet and bake 12-14 minutes at 350 degrees.

Now I used golden raisins instead of regular, I used dried apricots (which I think is what they meant to use, but they didn't specify). I used sweetened coconut because I couldn't find unsweetened but I didn't use as much. I also used only about 2- 2 1/4 cups of the oats because it seemed that it was going to be too much. I didn't make it with the nuts, but I think if you like nuts, it would be good to add. I also baked it for more than the 14 minutes, and I think it came out closer to 20. I basically baked it until it was starting to brown around the edges. The recipe takes some prep time, but its a very yummy treat. Try it and let me know what you think!!