Since my aim lately has been kid-friendly, easily-freezable stuff, I made two Vegan Lunch Box recipes tonight. First for dinner, we had Pups in a Blanket, which was a biscuit crust wrapped around a faux hot dog. I thought these were awesome, but (no surprise) Emma was not really into them. After picking off the crust after saying her hot dog was “dirty,” she ate a few bites of the dog. Since I had a few dogs left without a blanket, I stuck those in the freezer for later.

I also made some Banana Oatmeal Cookies after reading about them on Jennifer’s blog. The recipe sounded super duper (no oil, no sugar, no salt) and like something Emma might actually eat. To top it off, I had 2 overripe bananas on the counter and about ten thousand in my freezer, so I really think it was in the stars for me to make these today. This recipe is probably great as is, but I made a few changes, of course:

1. Instead of sunflower seeds, I used 1/3 cup of toasted pumpkin seeds.
2. In addition to the cinnamon, I added 1/4 tsp of allspice (I love allspice in banana bread and thought it would be good here too).
3. After mixing in the dates (which I probably used about 1/2 cup of) and seeds, I didn’t think it looked like there was enough “stuff” in the batter, so I added in about 1/2 cup of raisins.

These are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good and the best part was that Emma ate one entire cookie. That, in itself, is a miracle. She is the type of kid who can eat a dessert in the middle of dinner and still finish dinner, so I gave it to her as part of her dinner. I don’t like to use treats as rewards for things– treats are treats. We have them occasionally and she doesn’t have to lick her plate clean to get one. I froze the rest for her to take to Mimi and Papa’s when Matt and I go on our vacation.

So for not being into the pups, she liked the cookies and still managed to eat the rest of her dinner. It was a good night.