We are sick with the flu over here but I still wanted to share…these with all of you!! I will try to have directions and how we are using the following printables soon!! I just have to get things in order here first….thanks for the understanding and happy, healthy thoughts for your families too!!
cooking with kids
Monkey Bars
Pumpkin needed a quick easy recipe for a bake sale so we made these; Yummy Monkey Bars!!
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup peanut butter
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 2 1/2 tablespoons butter (we used a 1T of Coconut oil in place of 1 T of butter)
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ripe banana, mashed
- 2/3 cup rolled oats
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons wheat germ (we used flax seed too)
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- (We also added some cinnamon and some pumpkin pie spice…next time I would probably even add some dried fruit)
Directions: | 1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×9-inch baking pan | 2) In a large mixing bowl beat the peanut butter, brown sugar, and butter with mixer. Just until smooth and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla, then add banana. Stir in the oats, flour, wheat germ, and baking soda. Spread in prepared baking pan. | 3) Bake 20-25 minutes…sprinkle with powdered sugar or serve with butter..MMM!! | ||||||||||||
**Original Recipe Found Here we altered the original quite a bit after reading the reviews 🙂
Food for thought
Today marks the official “start” of our fall routine around here…May God Bless our family and yours on these new adventures we are about to step foot into!!! There is a large part of me that is excited about the “what’s to come” and I would say an equally large part that is “saying….what have I done…”? I am a total control freak so when things get a bit crazy and spiral out of control I feel totally overwhelmed. So starting this Fall I’m counting on some new help aids around here to get me through any tough patches.
Pumpkin will be 4 next Sunday and loves to help so we have taken her lead and she has become quite the “helper” around here. We have implemented the “snack pack” in our home. Pumpkin picks one morning snack and one afternoon snack (mostly healthy…some organic…some just plain not nutritious (shocking I know). The intent here was to give her a choice and get used to making healthy ones at that. She loves her snack pack! I fill it 1 x a week with new goodies everyday she gets to “pick” her snack and when all her favorites are gone that’s it!!

I know I have mentioned before how much Pumpkin loves to cook and help in the kitchen so this is her year to shine. She is officially on our family dinner menu…that’s right as “Chef Pumpkin!“
Her “cooking day” is moving from Tuesday to Wednesday because of soccer practice but as you can tell by her little smile she loved her “big night”. I sit down each month and plan our “menu” for the month I included Pumpkin in the the “picking” of her meals. I must say she has quite the palette for food because when asked what she would want to make she said “hmmmm how about Salmon?” What 4 year old says that?

And of coarse life wouldn’t be complete with out a few “samples” below Pumpkin is tasting something Daddy made!