We’ve finally arrived at the last Friday in July. I’m ready to turn the calendar page! Meanwhile, here are a few favorites from the last week. I’m sharing with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.
1. Dinner with the family. Jesse’s car tag was delivered to our house, so he came over Saturday night to pick it up and have dinner. We asked Jason, Mittu, and Timothy if they wanted to come, too. Then something we ordered for Jason’s birthday a couple of weeks ago was finally delivered, so we were able to give that to him as well. We enjoyed the time together and even got in a couple of games before everyone left.
In the “not exactly a fave but kind of meh” category, I made these Zucchini Cookies for dessert. I was excited because the recipe only used five ingredients and they were all healthy (except maybe the chocolate): peanut butter, oatmeal, zucchini, banana, and chocolate chips. They didn’t spread out like cookies usually do, so the first batch remained in a ball shape and were still mushy in the center. I flattened some and cut others in half and put them back in for a few minutes. They were. . . just okay. They tasted a little too banana-y at first, but not so much after a few days. I’m wondering if I could use less banana and more of one of the other ingredients. What do you think? I know some of you are great at adjusting recipes.
2. A sweet text. Mittu texted Sunday afternoon to ask if they could come over because Timothy said he hadn’t gotten enough time with us the night before. Nothing warms a grandparent’s heart more than hearing their grandchild wants to spend time with them.
3. Lunch with Melanie. We usually get together once a month or so, but missed the last couple for various reasons. It was good to catch up and discuss all the world’s problems. 🙂 We used gift cards to Red Lobster.
4. A much-needed haircut. I was debating with myself whether to get my hair cut after lunch with Melanie, and I’m glad I decided to take care of that while I was out.
5. More gifts of produce from our neighbor and a man at church.
Anything exciting happen with you this week?
Stray Thoughts 
This is such a great list of faves. Family time, packages delivered, texts from the grandboy, a new hair cut, lunch with a friend and yummy fresh summer produce!
About the cookies: i made something VERY similar once (last summer actually) and i found that just using a half banana with a tablespoon of added flour does the trick. When you go to shred the zucchini, to get all the moisture out, shred it over a paper towel. Wrap the paper towel around the pile of zucchini and squeeze, squeeze, squeeze (similar to preparing tofu chunks for stir fry). Also using less zucchini than the recipe calls for works but squeezing that water out is vital. I didn’t see where she mentioned that in the recipe you linked to. Also don’t use steel cut oats. use the old fashioned baking kind. I always buy the name brand Quaker Oats quick cooking because the store brand were awful. I ended up throwing away most of the cookies i made with the store brand (it was our local grocery store). I hope this helps. ALSO if you mix in the chocolate chips (the dark ones are healthier than the milk chocolate ones and actually taste better!) and don’t put them on top, the cookies cook better. Make sure you also just use regular spoons like you’d stir your coffee with to place on cookie sheet. Those are some tips I’ve learned over the last couple of years when making the more vegan or “healthy” cookies and brownies. Hope that helps. (I find ice cream scoops/cookie scoops to be too big for the time alloted to bake them…the centers are usually not done).
Your cookies sounded like they had such potential – all great ingredients. Are you going to try them again? I always enjoy our lunches out. Did we solve any of the world’s problems? I forget. 🙂
I don’t know about trying the cookies again. I don’t think we solved anything, but it did feel good to talk about the world’s problems. 🙂 I think the only solution is a revival of God’s people and a great awakening of the lost.
Amen!
I can relate to putting off the haircut but then feeling relieved after I’ve done it 🙂 On the cookies — I have WAY too much experience trying to make recipes healthier (and often failing, at least in the taste department). Looking at the recipe, it *is* pretty banana-heavy. I’d probably cut down the banana to a cup and maybe increase the zucchini by an extra 1/4 cup? And I’d grate up the zucchini REALLY small so it’s not even maybe recognizable as zucchini?? Good luck.
What a sweet blessing to have Timothy requesting to spend more time with you.
And lunch with Melanie sounds like it was a fun and profitable time, as always.
Your recipe reminds of a cookie that someone shared last Saturday night at church. I’ll have to ask the baker for her recipe.
Have a good weekend and stay cool!
Regarding the too-much-banana flavor — sometimes, when you use good ripe bananas, the flavor is a bit overwhelming. As another commented, you can back off on banana and increase peanut butter. If there’s too much peanuty flavor, almond or cashew butter are good alternatives.
That Timothy. He is cavity sweet, that boy.
How nice that you had a somewhat impromptu family gathering and some games, too.
Your zucchini cookies sound….strange? I cannot imagine chocolate with zucchini….😀 . But time with friends always sounds good to me. And also gifts of produce. I know you were happy about Timothy wanting to be with you: how sweet!