Cookies and DefineMind class

Giveaway Winner:

First, let’s announce the winner of the 18 Rabbits Granola Bar Givewaway. Congratulations to #14 Jae! Please email me your mailing address and 18 Rabbits will send you a 5-bar sample. Enjoy! Thanks everyone for leaving comments to enter the giveaway. Comments are always appreciated.

Project Food Blog:

From now until Wednesday, you can vote for food bloggers to advance in Foodbuzz’s Project Food Blog. Miss my first entry? See it here. And click here to vote.

Define Mind Class:

Last week I tried a free Define Mind class at Lululemon. I have wanted to try free classes at Lululemon, but haven’t gotten around to planning for it. Define Body, a popular Houston studio that fuses pilates and yoga into their own “Define” style classes has intrigued me for a while, so I finally got to try. The Define Mind class I went to was relaxing and focused on stretching major muscle groups like quads, glutes, the spine, hamstrings, and shoulders. Hank, the owner and instructor of this class, was so kind, knowledgeable, and gorgeous (just had to throw that one out there)!

The hour long class used a rubber ball to roll around similar to how you would roll a foam roller over tight muscles. It was a familiar “hurt so good” sensation that really helped tight muscles.

He also played GREAT music during the class, including a lot of Dixie Chicks. If you’re in Houston, check out his original studio in the Tanglewood/Galleria area, or his new studio coming in the next month in River Oaks.

Clean out the Pantry Cookies:

These cookies didn’t really clean out the pantry, but I couldn’t think of an acceptable name for them. Oatmeal Banana Coconut Chocolate Chip Raisin Cookies was too long I thought.

This recipe was adapted from Anne P. at Fannetastic Food. They are more like chewies than cookies, and you can taste the ingredients, especially the banana and oats. Jeffrey was not a fan, but they satisfy the cookie need for me. They are soft and chewy and have a short list with things I always have in my house. No eggs, oil, butter, or sugar necessary! If you eat these for breakfast, I think it would be A-ok too.

Ingredients: makes about two dozen cookies

• 1 C oats
• 2/3 C whole wheat flour (*pastry flour is best, I don’t have any)
• 1/2 C coconut
• 1 T flax seeds (use ground glax if you have it, I’m still using up a bag of flax seeds)
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 2 mashed bananas
• 1/4 C plain Greek yogurt
• 1/4 C maple syrup
• 1/2 C raisins and chocolate chips together, or choose just one
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

My modification to this list was that I used vanilla Greek yogurt and left out the extra vanilla extract. I happen to have a container of Oikos Vanilla open so I used that instead of opening a new plain. Adapt to what you’ve got!

Instructions:

Combine wet in one bowl, combine dry in another. Add wet to dry and mix by hand or with hand mixer. Then add chocolate chips/raisins in after. Spoon onto baking sheet and use a Silpat if you’ve got them. Bake at 350* for 15 minutes. Enjoy!

Lily says Hook ‘em Horns! Way to wreck ‘em Tech!