Healthy Peanut Butter Banana Oat Cookies - 3 ingredients (sans optional extras)

So after Tuesday's healthy banana pancakes - which turned out to be amazingly delicious, I have been very intrigued by the idea of baking with bananas (besides banana bread)! That along with my recent lus (for lack of a better word!) for crunchy oat cookies got the gears in my brain turning.

So I thought ... surely if I could bake a pancake with banana and eggs, I could make an oat cookie using a similar method. So I turned to trusty old pinterest to see if it has been done, I went through tons of recipes, a lot of them called for apple sauce, some called for vanilla essence, flaxseed, almond milk, the varieties are endless.

So based on what I read I decided to give it a go, with peanut butter of course, that's why they are 3 ingredient cookies, but if you don't dig the PB then skip it and turn them into 2 ingredient cookies!!

Ingredients:
2 ripe bananas
1 cup of raw instant oats (give or take, depending on the size of your bananas)
2 teaspoons of peanut butter

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Using a fork mash up the bananas in a bowl, try to get it quite smooth.
Add the oats and mix thoroughly until well combined. If you are using large bananas you'll need more than one cup of oats, otherwise your cookies won't be very crunchy but rather dense and chewy.

Mix in the peanut butter.
Once everything is well combined, add in your optional extras (apple and cinnamon, fudge pieces, dried cranberries, nuts and raisins or choc chips).
I went for the dark choc chips!

Roll the dough into balls of your preferred size and place them on a greased baking sheet. (I lined our oven pan with tin foil and sprayed it with cooking spray.)
Flatten the dough balls out, they don't spread or rise so you don't have to accommodate for a cookie spread when you place them on the tray.

Pop them in the oven for 15-20 minutes, the tops will go golden brown and the edges of the cookie will start browning.
Once they are ready, take them out the oven and let them cool.

The recipe yields between 12-16 cookies and the hardest part is not eating them all on the same day they were made...we did! OOPS!

At least we don't have to feel guilty about it, it was really just a banana, a teaspoon of peanut butter and half a cup of oats each with a sprinkling of choc chips!

They are surprisingly filling and would be great for breakfast on the go, or a pre/post workout snack.

Let me know what you think, or if you have any interesting variations I can try!!

Shrove Tuesday AKA Pancake Day

Since tomorrow is it's almost Shrove Tuesday AKA Pancake day here in London, I am going to share 2 recipes with you...

1 - The healthy banana pancake recipe I plan on trying for breakfast tomorrow morning (follow me on Instagram if you want to see how it turns out).

So since I started Kayla Itsines again today after a few months of being WAAAY to inactive, I decided to try healthy pancakes for Pancake day tomorrow!

I found the recipe for 4 ingredient choc chip pancakes here, but I'll be adapting it a little...

Ingredients:
2 large eggs
1/2 cup of ripe mashed banana
A pinch of baking powder

Method:

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl.

Heat your pan and coat it with spray and cook.

Pour about 1/4 cup batter into the pan and spread it into a circle.

Let it cook until it's light brown, flip it over when the edges are dry and the bottom is pretty golden.  Cook it for about a minute on the other side.

Put the pancake in a plate to one side.

Continue making pancakes until all the batter is used up.

I'll be having my pancakes topped with peanut butter and apple, don't judge...just try it!!

2 - The recipe for the French crepes I made for Valentine's Breakfast this weekend.

Ingredients:
1.5 cups of flour - sifted
250ml water
300ml milk
2 large eggs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
Butter/spray and cook to coat the pan

Method:

In a large bowl mix all the ingredients together, except the butter.

Make sure there are no lumps and the batter is well combined.

Set the batter aside for about an hour is better, or overnight in the fridge if possible.

Heat the pan over medium-high heat, melt a little bit of butter, just enough to lightly coat the pan, or coat it with spray and cook.

Pour the batter into center of pan, jug, cup or ladle. 

Spread with the ladle/swirl the batter until you've made a circle.

Cook for 2 minutes or until the edges start browning and bubbles form in the batter.

Flip (with the mad skills that I know you possess) and cook for another 1 to 2 minutes.

Place the crepe in a plate to one side, continue making crepes until all the batter has been used up.

Re-grease the pan every few crepes.

Once all the batter has been used up, you can add all kinds of awesomeness to the crepes.

We melted nutella in and folded them over French style, and then served them with fresh dark red cherries and blueberries.

Note - I added a little extra milk to make batter and crepes thinner. You can play around according to your preference.

I was going to share Aunty Annies awesome pancake recipe with you but I need to find the additional notes to it, so keep an eye out for our recipe for awesome pancakes.

For a yummy savoury filling in your pancake/crepe try filling it with some cheese, a sprinkle of aromat and a few drops of tabasco, then pop it in the microwave until the cheese melts...AMAZEBALLS!!

What will you be making for pancake day? Traditional pancakes or something a little different?

The Londoners Guilt Free Dairy Free "Ice Cream"

Although it's a little late, as promised yesterday..here it is!
A healthy, guilt-free, dairy-free "Ice Cream" that will not de-rail your diet but is oh-so delicious!

I first found this recipe over on The Londoner's blog (her pics are waaaay better than mine...but I'm working on it, so for now - please excuse me), Rose has tons of awesome recipes, I still have a few I want to try! I followed her instructions, it's easy peasy and only takes a few minutes - but I hate chopping hard things in the blender, it gives me the heebie jeebies!!
So the next time I made this "Ice Cream" I used the same concept but did it a little differently.

What you'll need:

4-5 Bananas - not too ripe
Flavouring of your choice

How you'll do it:
Peel your bananas and cut them into chunks. (Rose tells you to freeze your bananas after this step)

Toss them into your blender/food processor/smoothie maker or any other pulverising device.

Pulse the blender until your bananas are a nice smooth consistent mush.

Add your flavouring and blend well - I made chocolate and split it into 2 portions (one plain chocolate and the other with a teaspoon of peanut butter!) You can really use any flavouring you like. I plan on adding some fresh strawberries to my next batch! Oooh and maybe I'll make a coffee batch as well...just thought of that and it sounds good, I can imagine it would taste like a freezo, YUM!!

Decant the contents of your blender into a freezer bowl, and pop it into the freezer. Leave it in the freezer depending on how you like your ice cream, I freeze mine for a couple of hours because I like my ice cream to be firm. If you like it a little mushy and melted then an hour should be just fine.

I like eating mine straight out of the freezer bowl but you could always scoop and serve if you feel like sharing! You can top it with fresh berries, chopped nuts or anything else that tickles your fancy!

What I like about this recipe is the fact that its good for pretty much everyone, lactose intolerant, vegan, vegetarian, you name it! Also, the banana flavour doesn't really come through unless your bananas are over-ripe. I also think it's really  important to use a good quality flavouring because, well that's what ice cream is all about!

I like making a big batch of this ice cream (chocolate of course) and freezing it, that way whenever my sweet tooth is calling, I have a healthy but satisfying snack at my fingertips!

Kickass Carb-Free Chilli Beef Lettuce Wraps

Ok so this is my absolute most favouritest way to cook beef mince!  It's just amazeballs! 

Beside the fact that it's super tasty and easy to make, the best part about it is that it only takes 10 minutes to make!

Carb Free Chilli Beef Lettuce Wraps

We adapted the recipe from Gordon Ramsay's Ultimate Cookery Course.

It's a great dish for a hot summer night, when you want something fresh and light!

This recipe makes a good serving for 2 - 3 people, along with a side of your choice, we usually have ours with a salad or veggies.

What you're gonna need:

Olive oil for frying
400 - 450g lean beef mince
1 tbsp Toasted sesame oil for frying
1 – 2 red chillis – finely chopped
A sprinkle of ground ginger
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped (or 1 heaped teaspoon of crushed garlic)
1 tbsp brown sugar
Zest and juice of 1 lime/lemon
Salt, Black Pepper and "Steak and Chop Spice"
2 little gem lettuce separated into leaves

Sweet and spicy sauce
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp olive oil
1 – 2 tsp durky sauce
1/2 chopped chilli (leave the seeds in for extra heat)
The juice of 1/2 a lime

How you're gonna do it:

Heat a large frying pan and add a little olive oil to warm. Season the mince with salt, pepper and steak and chop spice and mix to ensure the seasoning is evenly distributed.

Fry the mince in the hot pan for five to seven minutes until crisp and brown and broken down to a fine consistency.

Drain the crispy mince in a sieve and set it aside – this will help it stay crispy.

Using the same pan, add a tablespoon of sesame oil, the garlic, ginger, chilli and sugar and fry for about 2 minutes - Don't burn it!

Add the drained mince and stir it up.

Add the lemon juice and zest and heat through. Stir for about thirty seconds. Turn off the heat.

Mix all the dressing ingredients together in a sauce jug and adjust to taste.

To serve, spoon some of the mince mixture into the lettuce leaves, please for the love of all things grown in the earth, wash your lettuce leaves before you use them!! Haha! Drizzle with a little dressing and dig in to the most amazeballs lettuce wraps ever!!

I know a picture is worth a thousand words but pictures seriously don't do this dish justice!!