Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?

Fact: I do not post recipes that I have not first tried, and loved.Fact: I do not make a lot of my recipes again, that is unless they contain coconut, banana, pineapple, cinnamon, ginger, chickpeas or sweet potatoes
Fact: recipes that really make an impression on me get made time and time again, hence I change up my tofu/sweet potato, chickpea/sweet potato combination at least three times a week
Fact: I love smoothies, that make both an impression and are filling
Fact: this morning I found a smoothie that was insanely memorable and stood out from other smoothies I made and was insanely filling

Yesterday morning I made a smoothie that Angela had posted over the weekend, however I changed it up a bit; Raspberry Cherry Basil Smoothie.  I fell absolutely and completely in love with that smoothie, and will be making it again this week.  However, on that one post, Angela posted three different smoothies.  I figured since the first one was such a hit with my tastebuds that I would attempt another smoothie from her post. 

I decided to try the Banana Date Cinnamon Smoothie.  I've made a smoothie incredibly similar to this before, however, I used a handful of dates, and by the time I drank it all of the dates were at the bottom.  I loved the taste of the smoothie, but the fact that I needed a spoon to scoop up the remaining date pieces kind of urked me.  This smoothie however, was perfect.  It was really a woooowww smoothie.  The one date that was in the smoothie made a heck of an impression, I was going to add more because I didn't think that one date would make it that sweet, but it showed me otherwise.  The banana was perfect, and the cinnamon, ahhhh there was so much it was divine!  This reminded me of the cookie I had for my dessert at lunch (I finally finished them off, and forgot to take a picture before so I took one with my cellphone and it really does not do this cookie justice).  This smoothie was like an oatmeal cookie, probably part and parcel of it having oats in it.  I had this for breakfast at 7:30 am, and didn't end up eating my lunch until 12:30 pm, yes, you can say it certainly held me over.  I will be making this again and again, because this truly is one of my favourites right now.

Banana Date Cinnamon Cookie Smoothie

Recipe adapted from here

Ingredients:

• 1 frozen banana (peel before freezing)
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 pitted medjool date
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup rolled oats
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
•  2-3 ice cubes, as needed

Speaking of the cookies I had for lunch.  I made these a couple of weeks ago and decided to freeze them, (they are so delicious frozen), and I've been picking at them in my lunches since.  I unfortunately finished off the last two for lunch today.  They were so delicious, maple syrup, peanut butter, banana, oats, mmmmm.  They are a hearty cookie with the right amount of sweetness from the dark chocolate (yes, I know not everyone finds dark chocolate sweet, but seeing as I'm not a fan of chocolate, dark chocolate is sweet enough for me).  I loved these cookies and they were always such a perfect little dessert after my lunches, yum!

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Recipe adapted from here

 

Sorry for the gross, phone picture

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 tbsp vanilla
• 6 tbsp Gingerbread Peanut Butter
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, mix bananas, vanilla, peanut butter and maple syrup into a creamy consistency (best to do with a hand mixer).

In another bowl, combine oats, flour, baking powder and salt

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until they are well combined, the batter should be slightly sticky. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Place heaping tablespoon-sized balls of the batter onto an ungreased baking sheet and cook for 15-18 minutes.

 If you're a blogger, or just someone who cooks/bakes at home, what kinds of foods have really made impacts to your palette that you go back to a lot?