Chocolate Chip Banana Oatmeal Cookies

I have become a Pinterest Addict! It's nuts! Friends ask me to find stuff on there for them, Yes, it is THAT bad! 

So I ended up with a few extra ripe bananas today and am worn out from banana waffles, banana pancakes, and banana bread. I remembered a few weeks ago I pinned a banana cookie recipe.... PERFECT! 

This evening, I found my Pin, and have mixed up a batch of these! 


Chocolate Chip Banana Oatmeal Cookies Recipe:
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (about 1 large)
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
2 cups chocolate chips

Directions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda in a small bowl and set aside.  Place butter and sugars into a mixing bowl and beat on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low.  Add egg and vanilla and mix until combined.   Mix in banana.  Add flour and mix until just combined.  Stir in oats and chocolate chips. Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop or cookie scoop, drop dough onto baking sheets spacing about 2 inches apart.  Bake cookies until golden brown and just set, about 12 to 13 minutes.


Here we go! 

Using my cookie scoop! I think I need to acquire a smaller one... these cookies are pretty large! 

They smell amazing!

They are very cakey - and certainly too big, 29 cookies was the whole batch... Whoopsie! :o)

Mini Brownie Bites

I found this idea through Pinterest and with my upcoming wedding and Dessert Bar to fill up... I had to try it.

It calls for your regular brownie mix - I did the 'cake like' recipe.

the only difference is the pinterest pin said to preheat to 325 degrees.

Once mixed, I placed a quart sized bag into a soup mug, and poured my batter in. This made it super easy to pipe my batter into the lightly greased mini muffin pans.

I cut a fairly small sized hole in the corner of the bag so I could easily control how much went in the pan, and filled up two pans. 

Probably because I baked both at the same time, it took about 12 minutes for mine to fully cook. (The tooth pick came out clean test)

They smell fantastic!!!!

Now came the tricky part.... getting them OUT of the pan.... I found that a plastic fork worked best... poke all around then swirl around (all with the fork) and it should pop out. 

I then used this recipe to make a half batch butter-cream frosting (tried to tint it blueish...) and tried some blue sprinkles on some... not sure what I think yet... but the half batch more than covered the full batch of brownie bites.

  all in all- success and will be made for the Dessert Bar at the wedding! :o)