Itsy Bitsy Foodies

“What does she do? She helps me listen because sometimes I don’t.”

“What does she do to make you happy? Sings me songs to help me go to sleep.” 

“What is her favorite food? All the foods…but not sweets.” 

This is just a sampling of the Q&A on my Mother’s Day card that my 4-year old made at preschool.  It was truly the sweetest gift that I have ever received.  Just like the ride of mommyhood, reading it was a rollercoaster of emotion, one response making me laugh out loud, the next answer melting my heart and bringing tears to my eyes.

So he’s caught on that I love to eat and that I’m interested in all things food!  It’s interesting, however, that he assumes I don’t like sweets.  {If you haven’t noticed already, I have a major sweet tooth.  Even more than eating them, I love to bake all sorts of things and dream up different sweet combos.}  Maybe his observation is based on the fact that I’m constantly trying to curb his sweet tooth by urging healthier foods instead of sweets and discussing the differences between the two.

Along those lines, one of my passions is transforming sweet and otherwise not-so-healthy foods into healthier options.  These chocolate banana oat bar {cookies} are one such example.  They were a fitting choice for Mother’s Day because the original chocolate banana cookie recipe is one of the many childhood family recipes that brings back many memories of baking with my mom and Grandma.

The idea for this revised recipe came to mind when I recently made a batch of homemade energy bars with extra banana.  I realized that with a bit of chocolate, the banana oat bars would taste almost identical to the moist chocolate banana cookies passed down through our family.  I have to say that I like these healthy chocolate banana oat bars just as much as the original and the rest of my family loves them, too!

*The creative idea for the celery stamp roses came from ParentMap (originally from Parentella) and my son loved the project of making beautiful Mother’s Day and Teacher Appreciation Day cards!

{Happy Mother’s Day to all of you mothers, moms, mommies and hot mommas out there!!}