sweet potato oat drop cookies

ladies and gentlemen, today i present you with the product of a new favorite pastime.  dun duh duh duh!!!

the recipe for these sweet potato oat drops is actually a spinoff of this recipe that i found on pinterest.  i love the original recipe because they do not have sugar, butter, eggs, milk or flour but they have lots of protein and are really filling.  plus, they taste awesome.  i've already made them twice with dried cherries and they get gobbled up quick!

my recipe is a little different than the original and it does cheat by using 1 egg for binding purposes but they are still super healthy.  my aunt did some research about a condition that we both have and found out that sweet potatoes are good to eat to help the condition.  well that got me thinking that maybe i could change the recipe a little and make it with sweet potatoes instead of bananas as the "wet" part of the recipe.  sometimes i just have the best ideas.

the recipe calls for almond meal, which almost stopped me from making these at first because i had no idea where to get it.  then i discovered that it's very easy to make almond meal if you own a blender or a food processor.  just measure out a little more than the required amount of almonds and pulse them in the appliance of choice until the almonds are a grainy consistency.  don't let them run for too long though cause otherwise you'll end up with almond butter, and that's not what you want!

these cookies are soft, just sweet enough, and have a nice texture.  they can be refrigerated and either reheated or eaten cold (my favorite) as a quick, filling breakfast or snack.  enjoy!

1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/4 cup almond meal
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 cup raisins
2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 medium sweet potato
1 large egg
1/4 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons honey

preheat oven to 350 F.  line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicon mat.

start by cutting the ends off the sweet potato.  cook the potato by wrapping in a wet paper towel and nuking it in the microwave for about 4-5 minutes, depending on how big it is.  let it cool before peeling and mashing to a smooth consistency.

in a large bowl combine rolled oats, coconut flakes, almond meal, and pecans.  stir in cinnamon and raisins.

in another bowl combine mashed sweet potato, egg, oil, vanilla, and honey.  pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and stir until well combined.

take a large cookie cutter (i used a canning ring) and use an ice cream scoop with a lever to press batter into the cookie cutter on the cookie sheet.  these cookies do not spread so you can fit them close together on the sheet.  bake for 20 minutes or until cookies are firm and golden brown.

DIY bleach art

so i know that i haven't posted anything in many, many moons and i don't really have a good excuse for it except that i didn't have anything too interesting to say.  i also know that i never post DIY or "hey, look what i made!" style posts but this is an exception, so i hope you won't mind :)

pretty much anyone who knows me (or reads my blog posts) knows that i am a complete night owl.  it's definitely when i do my best thinking and working and planning and all that.  as it happens, it is 3:03AM while i'm typing this sentence so i'm staying true to form.  all that to say that i completed a couple of projects very late this evening and i couldn't wait to share the results!  ready?!?!

tada!  i completely reinvigorated an old pair of shorts with the help of a little bleach gel, a stencil or two, and a lot of patience.  i got the idea from a t-shirt that i made at a jungle-themed vacation bible school when i was little.  it involved using a bleach pen to create animal designs on a colored shirt.  i wish i had a picture of it, but as far as i know there are none to be found.

anyway, i always loved that shirt and wanted to try it again...so i did and i'm pretty pleased with the result.  be forewarned that it did take me a few hours to complete this project, partly because it's just time consuming, and partly because my back was killing me from leaning over the project so i took a few breaks.  i think the time it took was totally worth it though! 

i started my project at Michael's, where many good projects start.  i bought some cheap angled paint brushes and a cute rose stencil.  i already had the shorts, paper plate, and bleach pen at home.

i decided to go with the paintbrush technique instead of just squirting the gel straight from the pen so i could have more control of the product.  i found that working with the gel in "batches" worked better than squirting it all out on the plate at the same time.  i would dole out a quarter sized blob onto the plate and let it sit there for about 10 minutes before using it so that it could firm up a bit, cause other wise it was too watery and would spread on the fabric.

i thought it would be good to have a good template of what i wanted the design to look like since i was only using bits and pieces of the stencil (which i eventually cut up).  it's not too fancy but it gave me a good starting point.

after that it was just a lot of stencil work.  i made sure to stay within the boundaries of the stencil and to wipe the stencil after each use so that i wouldn't transfer bleach to any unwanted places.  in this picture the more pinky design on the left is "fresh" and still wet.  the gel dries to a chalky white color, which you can see on the right.

these are the shorts right before i rinsed the dried gel off with cold water to deactivate the bleach.

after i rinsed the shorts i put them on a short cycle by themselves in the washer with a smidge of detergent and then dried them for about 15-20 minutes.

here's a close-up shot of one of the better designs.

i even did some detail work on the back pockets!  it's really easy to go overboard though, so be careful!

anyway, that's my amateur DIY for ya!  comment if you have any questions!  sometimes it's hard to know what makes sense to others.  enjoy and have fun :)