Gluten Free Oatmeal Banana Pancakes with a Hazelnut Almond Maple Syrup

Most weekends I get to "sleep in" till about 7:00am, which I actually consider sleeping in. My precious little  Lilu is usually pawing at my face and whining for me to take her outside and play with her. Sidebar: She only paws and whines at ME, and not her dad! She probably knows that I'm a sucker and will scoop her up, take her out and giver her treats. Smart dog. Bad dog.

Anyways, for some weird reason I was feeling quite ambitious for a Saturday morning. I decided I wanted to make pancakes. Not that shit from a box(come on), and I wanted to stay away from over processed flour(sorry very large bag of All Purpose flour I bought because I was whining about never having enough flour). Yup. Lately I've been loving oat flour, it's super easy to make and I love the way it tastes. I searched around and found the recipe below, I of course modified it and they turned out pretty darn good. Go give it a try and let me know what you think.

Clean Eating: Chocolate Cinnamon Banana Muffins

If you follow me on Instagram or if you have the high honor of being my Facebook friend, then you know that I am, in fact, alive(wheew!). You may also know that I have been on a major health kick, working out and trying to eat clean. In doing so, I haven't really had time or the energy to put into this blog. But I have found so many new and different recipes that I want to share, all really healthy, but very delicious(example...see below). I'm probably going to start posting about my workout routines and things I've found that have motivated me into healthier lifestyle. I hope you all stick around and enjoy my journey. Now check out this recipe!

Peanut Butter & Oatmeal Cream Pie Cookies

As the title of this post states...Peanut Butter & Oatmeal Cream Pie Cookies. I know right? Oh and guess what the cream pie part is? Marshmallow cream, no big deal.

Just in case you were beginning to wonder if I'm 300 pounds, I'm not. I rarely eat my own baking. I do it more for the joy of baking and baking for others. Although the holidays were hard not to indulge, especially since baking was so readily available(totally my fault). Speaking of holidays, did I mention my wonderful stocking stuffer experience I had this year? Well let me tell you...

I was having a hard time coming up with ideas for the boy's stocking stuffers. I asked my boss who had tons of ideas that just spilled out of her mouth. Socks, candy, lip chap, giftcards, etc, things I had thought of already. Then she said beef jerky from the butcher and I was suddenly intrigued. The boy is terribly allergic to MSG - which is in EVERYTHING by the way. He gets really bad migraines, so finding snacks that he likes with no MSG is hard. I had written off beef jerky that you buy from the supermarket because it's jammed packed with MSG, but I never thought of getting it directly from the source. Anyways, so one day on my lunch break I make it down to the butcher and get a bag of jerky. I put the bag in my purse so the boy doesn't suspect anything(yes, I'm one of those girls who wears a suitcase sized purse). After work I had to stop by the bank. It was a long line as usual and I was already irritated that I had to wait when I only wanted to go home. As I'm standing there I smell this gross smell...you know when somebody burps and it stinks like salami? Yeah like that. The smell was so strong, it was fucking nasty. So then I was pissed that I had to wait in a long line with some asshole who couldn't keep their bodily gases in check. Finally I get in front of the teller and I pulled out my wallet and finally realized that, that asshole was me. My wallet and everything in my purse smelled like digested salami. Basically I got the fuck out of there - I was mortified.  A lesson for you all, don't put meat in your purse! It will smell for days...

Chocolate Chip-Cookie Dough Truffles

Remember when you were a kid and you were helping your mom make cookies for some fundraiser at school? Remember how you got into trouble for "testing" the quality of the cookie dough before baking? That was totally me...The Cookie Dough Monster. My mother liked to instill the fear getting salmonella poisoning for eating raw eggs as I'm sure yours did as well.  Never once did I get it and now I've found a way to indulge in my bad habit shamelessly.

Chocolate chip-cookie-dough truffles....what's better then cookie dough covered with chocolate? Nothing my friends, nothing! I definitely "tested" the dough in this recipe.

Tiramisu Ladyfinger Sandwiches

Is it just me, or did Christmas come and go just as fast as it got here? I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, I sure did. It's always nice to see family every once and awhile.

On boxing day I went wiener roasting with the boy's side of the family. We drove out to a secluded part of the bush on the farm and had a nice bonfire. After we ate, the boys shoveled off part of a slough that was near by and we played some hockey(I scored two goals - I know right?). It was so much fun - although my hips weren't having so much fun the next day...

As I look out the window, big fluffy snowflakes are covering the ground like a warm blanket. So lovely, so peaceful.

The days leading up to Christmas were anything but peaceful. For some reason everything was last minute. Christmas shopping, Christmas baking, was all left till the very end of what seemed like an extremely short month. I was working all day, only to come home and bake all night. After a few days of that routine - it got old. And after I was done, I said I was going to take a break from baking for a while... but HA! Who was I kidding?  It's only been a few days and I'm already getting antsy to bake something new. I think there is something wrong with me.

Anyways, these are delicious little treats. The original recipe had you make the actual ladyfigers(who's got time for that?). I bought some(gasp!) and cut them myself - you're welcome. The filling is the best part anyways.

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

Guess what? It's my favorite time of the year... it's holiday baking time! I do the majority of all my baking this time of year but don't worry, i'm not complaining(neither is the boy).

This year we decided that everyone is getting baking as their gift. Firstly, because it's yummy(duh) and secondly because it's just more practical, money wise. Holidays always put stress on the finances(especially when our truck decides to be a jerk and cost lots of money a week before xmas...thanks!). Why buy people things that they honestly don't need? And as a matter of fact, baking supplies isn't all that cheap anyways. To me, baking is a much more meaningful gift, I mean I took the time to make it didn't I(hehe)? Plus who doesn't like baking...a whole lot of yummy, delicious baking?

Anyways, the point is, I've found a bunch of new recipes to try out this year and I'm excited to share them with you. Especially because I have been MIA for like, a year...sorry.

The recipe I'm about to share is boyfriend approved. They're fluffy pumpkin filled cookies with sugary-sweet icing on top, sprinkled with a dash of cinnamon. Yeah, I'd go make these now too.

Pumpkin Spice Pull-Apart Bread

Guess what we woke up to this morning...snow! I feel like we've been spoiled over the past year with all the nice weather. We had a great summer which turned into an even greater fall(I was still wearing flip flops in October). Don't get me wrong, I love snow, but for some reason we just weren't prepared for it at all this year. It kind of messed up our plans for the day.

Today is my sisters birthday(Happy Birthday kid!). The plan was to arrive at the parents house at 4:30 to enjoy some appies and drinks and then dive right into the presents. Unfortunately, we didn't make it 5 minutes down the highway till we had to turn around because the highway was a skating rink. The first snow fall of the year and we can barely even make it out of the town! How did we do this last year?

Anyways, the recipe I'm about to post I actually made a few weeks ago, it was for my father-in-law's birthday. I remember that day being a busy day, so busy in fact, I forgot to take the final picture of it! So sorry - just imagine it being all fluffy and delicious...

Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Tis the season - for pumpkins! I certainly do love this time of year, the leaves are falling and making that great crunching sound as you walk by. The air seems fresh and last but not least, its Thanksgiving! This means turkey with all the fixings and of course pumpkin pie. You can't get sick of pumpkin pie, but this year I thought I'd play around a bit more with pumpkin and try something new.

I don't know if you know this, but I am a breakfast person. It is in fact "the most important meal of the day" - I'm quoting my husband. I agree with him, so today I decided to make Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Pancakes, a recipe I found a few weeks ago that I knew I had to make this THIS weekend.

Enjoy! We sure did!

Chocolate Coconut Banana Bites

I am genius. No really. I am.

Remember a while back(previous post, which evidently was a while back...) when I mentioned that Mr. Do Something hated warm/baked fruit of any kind? Well this is the part where I'm genius. I had fresh bananas on hand and very much so wanted to make something delicious with them. Banana bread is kind of been-there-done-that, so I searched high and low and accidently stumbled across a recipe that sparked an idea in my head! Instead of baking them...why not freeze them?