Banana biscuit attempt.

So a while back I wrote a list of 14 goals for 2014 and I've not been amazing at sticking to them but the year is still young. (Well young-ish!) One of the goals on this list was to try more new recipes and whilst I've tried to make a few new things recently I haven't generally followed recipes. Pureed butternut squash or sweet potato and carrot anyone???  I also didn't fancy blogging about that as this isn't intended to be a parenting blog.

I have finally found a recipe here to try that wouldn't take me hours when browsing Pinterest the other day. It was for banana cookies and if you know me you'll know that I like bananas but I prefer them not to be too ripe so I often have the issue of what to do with old bananas. In the past I've made them into banana bread and buns which are both nice but this appealed as it seemed quick and healthy.

The recipe called for:

2 large old Bananas
1 cup of quick Oats

The directions were to mash these together, then portion them into cookie sized amounts on a tray and bake for 15 minutes. (Well the photo directions suggested this.)  I decided to be lazy so I chucked my bananas and oats into my food processor.  I also added a tea spoon of baking powder, some rapeseed oil and the seeds of half a vanilla pod before blitzing the mixture.

I then started to put this mixture onto a greased baking tray before deciding they looked a bit bland so I added raisins to the last three quarters of the mix.  Once I filled the baking tray I popped the biscuits into the oven.  The original recipe said to cook at 350 degrees and I presume that's Fahrenheit but my oven works on Celsius so I cooked them at 200 degrees Celsius and checked on them every so often. After checking on them and thinking they looked a bit anaemic I turned the biscuits over and then got them out when they looked a bit more brown.

However, after trying them they tasted slightly over done so I had enough mix for three more biscuits and cooked them until they were just brown. I thought that adding some vanilla pod seeds may take a bit of the banana taste away but I still found that they mainly tasted of banana and Paul thought they were quite bland aka healthy. I gave my son one without any raisins to try and it looked giant in his little hands but he sucked away at it and chomped chunks of oat biscuit away so they seem to pass the baby test at least. I may make these again if/ when I end up with ripe bananas that need disposing of.  However, I should probably find a British recipe instead of winging it by freehand trying to interpret American recipes.

14 goals for 2014.

It appears to be the norm to make a grand declaration of some vague desires that you resolve to stick to and then quietly despair as you have a human moment and break your self imposed vows. I've done this several times over the years and never quite managed to practise my instruments daily, lose weight or eat healthier. The thing is it seems quite counter intuitive declaring that you are going to eat healthier when there's chocolate everywhere the eye can see. (That's why I like to eat the chocolate then consider exercise and fruit...)

This year I've decided that resolutions are pointless wastes of breath and instead a list of 14 goals to do by the time 2014 is over seems like the way forward.  So here is my proposed list of goals for 2014.

1. Make a blog plan to help with writing You'll get what you're Given! I've been a sporadic blogger over the years but I'm slowly learning that if I don't organise nothing happens. (This is also true of a few other things such as meeting up with friends and getting anything done around cats/small children.)

A taster of what happens when I don't organise!

2. Bake birthday cakes for my loved ones. I didn't bake a cake for Paul last year, it would've probably made me sick but I think that this year me and the food processor can whip something up.

Something like this but a bit better hopefully!

3. Watch all the DVDs that I've got in my collection but haven't quite got around to watching yet... and return the ones that I've borrowed in the past. (Whoops!)

4. This one is about reading I started writing it but it got a bit long so to summarise don't just read quirk classics, Terry Pratchett, Jasper Fforde or The Walking Dead books and also read to my son as much as possible.

5. Try to make proper fudge again but it goes wrong remember that I can always make chocolate fudge.

6. Go to more parties and make an effort to see my friends and family more.

7. Dye my hair a few more colours before returning to work, blue is cool obviously but I may as well make the most of this freedom to try purple, green and red right?

My lovely blue locks... for now!

8. Have a bit of a CD purge.  Of course there are many CDs in the house from bands I know and love but there are also lots of old demos which I didn't like six or seven years ago and probably still don't like now.

Obviously the Belle and Sebastian & CSS cds are staying!

9. Stay silly. It's all well and good being a responsible adult but sometimes it's good to just be a bit silly and make up nonsense songs or talk in Gollum voices for no reason.

10. Travel a bit more and actually have a holiday rather than just a couple of nights in a London Travelodge. (This will probably turn out to be one of the hardest goals.)

11. See a few more live bands and acts as I count the number of gigs I went to last year on one hand. This makes me sad. (I also plan to award bonus points for each time I manage to take my son to a gig.)

12. Try out more new recipes from the many recipe books that have accumulated over the years.  Preferably one a month with a blog post but more if time/responsibilities allow.

13. Do at least ten active things this year, especially things I couldn't do last year. I plan to count walking and swimming in this so now I need to find eight more things...

I'd like to do a bit more skating this year for a start..

14. Don't get stressed about things I have no control over and formulate strategies for the things I can control.

I'm looking forward to seeing what I manage to achieve over the next year!