Dried Fruit "better-for-you" cookies

• 3 cups quick oats
• 3 mushed up ripe bananas
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 1 cup dried fruit (I used raisins, apricots, and pineapple)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  1 tablespoon sugar

Mix everything together, put on well greased cookie sheet and baked at 400 degrees for 18 minutes. Makes about 15 "cookies". These work well as afternoon snacks.

Molten Chocolate Cake

• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 ounces chocolate
• 2 tablespoons whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• dusting sugar

Beat together eggs and sugar on high for ten minutes. Melt together chocolate, butter and whipping cream over low heat; mix in flour and vanilla. Fold egg mixture in with chocolate mixture slowly. Grease 2 ramekins dishes, dust inside with sugar. Fill ramekins dishes 3/4 full, bake at 400 degrees for 9 minutes. Center should be wiggly. Allow to cool for 5 minutes, flip ramekins dish upside down, serve away. Maybe dust some powder sugar or top with whipped cream if you can wait long enough!

Baby Bunch Bouquet

I got the idea to make this as a shower gift from Martha Stewart.
Instead of roses, I used bright gerber daisies, but I think you could use whatever fake flower looked the prettiest. I bought all the supplies to make this at Dollar Tree, and it cost $10. There are 2 onesies, 1 shirt, 2 hats, 2 pairs of socks, tights and wash clothes in it. I am putting it in an oversized vase, wrapped with a few extra clothing items. It was a little hard starting out, and would have been easier with another set of hand when taping them all together, but overall was a pretty easy craft. It took me about an hour to do.

Bacon Tomato Soup

• 4 Slices of Bacon, chopped up small
• 15 ounce can of crushed tomatos
• 4 celery stalks chopped
• 4 carrots chopped
• 2 garlic cloves chopped
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon sugar

Fry up bacon in a large sauce pan. Remove the bacon, leaving the grease. Toss in the garlc, celery and carrots. Cook in the grease until tender. Put into a food processor. Return to pot, along with cooked bacon, tomato, milk and sugar. Cook up until nice and warm. Serve it with grilled cheese - of course.

Baby Cakes

Here is a recipe for Baby Pancakes. I got it from First Meals by Annabell Karmel, then tweaked it a bit to fit our needs. Plus, I found the original one to be too runny.

• 1 egg lightly beaten
• 2/3 cup vanilla (or your choice flavor) yogurt
• 2/3 cup milk
• 3/4 cup self rise flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix together egg and yogurt, stir in rest of ingredients Cook up in a skillet oiled with canola oil. Connor likes his with peaches. I put the extras on wax paper and in a freezer bag, and it lasts us all week.

Artichoke Spinach Dip

I know everyone also has their own recipe for this, but I tried something new for our New Years Eve party, I kind of combined a standard artichoke spinach dip with hummus.

• 2 packs of frozen chopped spinach (thawed and water squeezed out)
• 2 cans of artichoke hearts
• 1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 can of chickpeas or garbanzo beans
• 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese
• 2 garlic cloves
• 3/4 cup of mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
• drizzle of olive oil

In food processor, blend together garlic cloves, chickpeas and lemon juice. Drizzle olive oil as needed. Stir together with all of the other ingredients (except the mozzarella). Put mixture in well sprayed 9 x 13 pan, top with mozzarella cheese, bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. I serve mine with regular tortilla chips, but if I am getting really fancy, I buy a french baguette, cut it in 1/4 inch slices. Using a brush, apply a mix of olive oil and some herbs - rosemary, oregano, whatever you like. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Put that under a broiler for a few minutes.

Mr. Poops

For the dog owner that has everything...Mr. Poops.