Snapshots of Life: Food and Family: Animal Adventures, Peanut Butter Banana Cookies, Homemade Pesto, and Berry Sticky Buns

On the plate: Peanut butter banana cookies, homemade pesto, and berry sticky buns

Soundtrack to cook to: Animal by Ke$ha (Alex is a HUGE Ke$ha fan!! {Joseph is not pleased about that}). Personally, it makes me snicker that Alex can be throwing a complete tantrum, I'll turn on some Ke$ha, and he immediately calms down. Too funny.

We enjoyed Joseph's last week of freedom by visiting Animal Adventures in Bolton, MA. It's an animal rescue facility that takes you on a tour of all of the exotic animals they have and the kids get a great hands-on experience with all of them. How many times in your life can you say that you were able to pet an armadillo, crocodile, hairless rat, and a skunk all in one day? We enjoyed sharing this field trip with our neighbor Kate and her twins Lucy and Sanders.
Unfortunately, something else visited our household and that was the dreaded head cold. All three of us fell ill and were incredibly stuffed up for the majority of the week (my head cold held on a little bit longer, unfortunately). It's never great getting sick, but it's even worse when you're pregnant because you can't take anything to help yourself out. For the rest of the week, we stayed indoors in order to recuperate.

Alexander and Joseph, petting a baby goat.

I thought the pigs were really cute.

Alexander and Joseph petting a tortoise. They were free range in the backyard.

Alexander checking out another large tortoise.

These were some of the smaller ones.

A lynx just chilling outside.

A cute little fox

Alexander and Sanders, checking out an owl.

Alexander, petting a chinchilla. He still talks about how much
he enjoyed petting the soft chinchilla.

A little arctic fox - it was quite anxious that we were there.

Alexander, petting a skunk. No worries, it had its little stinker removed
(that's its scientific term, I'm sure).

This one cracked me up! Here's a baby kangaroo,
lying on its back and relaxing in its cage.

Alexander, petting a ferret.

Yikes! They had 15 alligators!

Alexander, petting an alligator that the keepers wrangled up.

A cute little lemur.

Yikes! Crocodiles!

Alexander and Lucy checking out the turtles.

Alexander, petting a rabbit.

The room of reptiles! Every square inch of this room has some sort
of reptile in it. Once again, I had to act brave and not show that I
was somewhat skiddish of these creatures. I was a trooper and pet
all of the animals to show Alexander that it was okay.

A baby armadillo! It was 1 year old and was super cute. I had never
seen an armadillo up close.

Alexander, checking out a lizard. He seemed incredibly interested, right?
HA!

Eh, it's just another lizard. Woopty-doo. :-P

Alexander, playing one of his favorite new games - hide and seek.

Alexander, modeling my hair clip.

I decided to make a healthy treat for the family and was intrigued by a recipe that I found on Pinterest for peanut butter banana cookies. I LOOOOVE peanut butter and had some bananas that were about to go, so I thought to myself, why not?

Mash up two ripe bananas (I used a potato masher because I felt
it did a better job than a fork would). Then combine with the rest
of the ingredients:
1/3 cup peanut butter

2 tbsp 2% milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp agave nectar

1 large egg

2 1/2 cups quick-cooking or rolled oats

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

Dash ground cinnamon

Drop the cookies on a greased cookie sheet or a silpat and bake
at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes.

The cookies spread only slightly, so you can definitely fit more
cookies on a pan.

Eh, let's just say that they tasted healthy. Alex loved them, but I was hoping for more of a peanut butter flavor with a little bit more sweetness. Next time (if there is a next time), I think I might add 1/4 cup of mini chocolate chips or peanut butter chips to add some more sweetness. They weren't terrible, but they definitely didn't satisfy the sweet craving that I had.

These cookies would actually be a really great breakfast to grab on the go, as they really reminded me of a granola bar. OOH! Just got an idea, maybe even adding some almond slivers and dried cranberries, shape them differently, and VOILA! You have your very own, homemade granola bars. There we go, making lemonade out of lemons.

Alexander, doing his silly dance.

That weekend, I HAD to redeem myself and I just HAD to satisfy my sweet craving. So, I saw a recipe on The Chew that was still somewhat healthy and claimed that it was delicious.

I sprayed a 9 inch cake pan with non-stick spray. Then, I creamed
together 4 tbsp of room temperature butter, 2 tbsp honey, and 1/4 cup
of brown sugar. Then, I spread the mixture evenly on the bottom of
the cake pan.

Then, I sprinkled 1/2 cup of chopped pecans on top of the
butter and brown sugar mixture.

After that, I took a package of whole wheat pizza dough, sprinkled
some flour down on some wax paper, and rolled the dough
until it was about 1/4 inch thick. After that, I took 1 tbsp of melted
butter and brushed it on the dough's surface. (You really only need 1 tbsp,
and not 2. There just needs to be something wet for the brown sugar to stick to.)

I sprinkled 1/4 cup of brown sugar and 1 tsp of cinnamon over the dough,
and then took 2 cups of blueberries and sprinkled them over the sugar.

Then, take one end of the dough, and roll the dough like a jelly roll,
making sure to keep all of the blueberries inside of the dough as you're
rolling. Once the dough is rolled into a tight log, cut the dough in half
and then into smaller equal parts. I cut my dough into 10 pieces.

Place the small rolls into the prepared cake pan and bake in a
350 degree F oven for 30-35 minutes.
*Tip: As the rolls were cooking, the juices from the blueberries
overflowed and made a mess in the bottom of my oven. So,
when you place the cake pan in the oven, make sure you have
a cookie sheet with foil on it on the rack underneath in order
to catch all of the juices.

The delicious and beautiful end result!!

I had a cute little spy who smelled something delicious cooking
in the kitchen. :)

Once the pan has cooled slightly, place a plate over the pan and flip
the rolls onto a serving plate. Now THIS is the beautiful end result!
It definitely satisfied my sweet craving and if you make 10 rolls, they're
only about 200 calories per roll (not too shabby, huh?). The sweetness
from the brown sugar mixed so well with the juicy and slightly tart blueberries,
while the pecans added a nice crunch to the roll. This is definitely a dish
that will impress for breakfast or for a delightful dessert.

We went to one of our favorite Italian restaurants for lunch after Alex's gym class. It's called Sweet Basil and is in Needham, MA. They start you off with their incredibly delectable homemade basil pesto and bread and I always have to restrain myself from wiping the little bowl of pesto clean. It's that good. Thus, I was inspired to make my own and found that making one's own basil pesto is actually REALLY easy!

Toast 1/4 cup of pine nuts with 3 cloves of garlic. Be very careful
not to burn them - otherwise you'll have to start over again.

Place the pine nuts and garlic in a food processor.

Place 2 cups of fresh basil leaves into the food processor and
pulse the food processor until the mixture makes a paste. While
you are pulsing, drizzle 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil into the
mixture. Afterwards, season with a little bit of pepper.
*I chose not to add any salt, because the cheese is salty enough.

Freshly grate 1/2 cup of pecorino cheese and mix together with
the basil paste.

Here you go! Your own, freshly made basil pesto, in about 10 minutes!
You can toss it into your favorite pasta, place it on a grilled
chicken breast or shrimp, or enjoy it on a nicely toasted, crusty
piece of toast.