My wife’s family shared this recipe with me and I just love them. Bananas, oatmeal, sugar, and chocolate chips! Whats not to love.

My wife has always been afraid of using a kitchen mixer, like it is complicated or something, so she always does it with a mixing spoon or hand mixer. I watched her make these last well week in her way and it looked like too much work for me. So I made them this week with my mixer and video taped it to show just how easy it is with the right kitchen tool.

Banana Oatmeal Cookies Recipe

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

13 mins

Total time

18 mins

 

Author: Food Prepper

Ingredients

• 1 cup soft butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 cups oatmeal
• 3 eggs
• 4 ripe crushed bananas (3 if large)
• ⅔ cup milk
• 4 cups flour (I use 2 cups white flour 1 cup pearled barley flour)
• ½ salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp cloves
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• ½ tsp allspice
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1½ pkgs chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Cream butter and sugar together in a mixer bowl.
2. Add oatmeal, crushed bananas, milk and eggs into mixer bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, combine remaining dry ingredients and whisk together.
4. Add dry ingredients to mixer bowl and mix together.
5. Add chocolate chips and mix until evenly distributed.
6. Bake at 375 degrees for about 13 minutes.

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Using a kitchen mixer is so easy and makes your life easier. Don’t be afraid of using one, they are really quite simple once you try one. I also hope you enjoy this cookie recipe and don’t make them the hard way if you can avoid it.

I also ground some pearl barley in my grain mill for this recipe, I love to add whole grains to recipes and this is definitely one you can get away with it.

So I was browsing for something new to try with my WonderMill grain mill and I found this recipe for chocolate cake using 100% barley flour? Ya, barley flour. I had to try it and now that I have tasted it I have to share it with you.

She bought the barley flour at the store but I decided to make my own. I bought pearled barley at WinCo in the bulk food bins for just 48 cents a pound and milled it into flour in the WonderMill on the pastry setting, it came out super fine and fluffy.

I have to say that the cake came out very tasty, I think I am going to love Barley Flour and I can’t wait to experiment some more with it. I also topped it with my wife’s recipe for chocolate buttercream frosting.

Barley Flour Chocolate Cake

 

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Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• ½ cup avocado oil (or any oil you want)
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 3 cups pearled barley flour
• ¾ cup cocoa powder
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ cup powdered buttermilk
• 2 cups cold water

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9×13 inch baking pan or 2 round cake pans.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat the sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla for 2 minutes until it is creamy.
3. In a separate large mixing bowl whisk together the remaining dry ingredients.
4. Add ⅓ of the flour mixture and ⅓ of the water at a time to the sugar mixture and whisk until just combined before adding another ⅓ until all ingredients have been added and combined, don't over whisk mixture.
5. Pour batter into baking pan and bake for 35-45 minutes, until a tooth pick comes out clean.
6. Let cake cool in the pans.
7. Top with your favorite frosting and enjoy your whole grain cake.

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Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

 

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Author: Food Prepper

Ingredients

• ½ cup softened butter (1 stick)
• 1½ cups powdered sugar
• ½ tsp. vanilla
• ⅛ tsp. salt
• 1½ tbsp. heavy cream
• 2 tbsp. cocoa powder

Instructions

1. Add all ingredients, except the powdered sugar, to a mixing bowl.
2. Whisk with a hand mixer on medium speed and add powdered sugar in slowly until all sugar is added.
3. Turn up to high speed to cream it together well.
4. Top your cake and enjoy.

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I also found this website that has several other great recipes for whole barley flour http://gobarley.com/

I have owned many humidifiers in the past purchased from the big box stores and they have always been loud or not effective enough. Many of these humidifiers didn’t last long either, always had issues. I decided last winter that we needed to get a nice humidifier with more options. I had to wait a while to buy one because we had other needs for our money.

I was leaning toward the Humio Cool Mist Humidifier but the guys at Kitchen Kneads showed me the new Blue Rose Humidifier, and it was awesome for less. After seeing the Blue Rose in action, we decided to buy it. Kitchen Kneads sells both the Humio and Blue Rose Humidifiers if you are interested in either of them.

The Blue Rose Humidifier is also a cool mist humidifier, like the Humio, that uses ultrasonic technology to create the mist. This method takes very little power when compared to the warm mist humidifier, like the VICKS brand has, and other types of humidifiers.

What impressed me the most about the Blue Rose is the wide range of humidity settings it has. Some humidifiers have these setting but they usually don’t work that well. The Blue Rose’s setting go from barely running to pumping out so much vapor that it looks like it is smoking big time, plus it does every setting in-between.

In the summer, we run the fan on our central air all the time to rotate the cool air from the basement to our main flour. Having the fan running continually seems to dry out the air so we decided to turn on the humidifier during the hot months also to keep our air from drying out. The Blue Rose is super quiet, even quieter than the Humio, so I don’t mind that it is running most of the time.

I really like that it doesn’t have any filters to change as these cost money and can mold. It is recommended, but not required, that you use distilled water in the Blue Rose Humidifier. I am currently using tap water but I plan on getting some distilled water to use for it instead.

My wife has recently gotten involved with essential oils with a near by neighbor and they seem to really help our son who has autism. The Blue Rose has a bottle with a wick, that inserts into the bottom of the humidifier, that you can add scented oils to. The Blue Rose pushes those scents into the air giving you the benefits of breathing them in and feeling better. This seems to work quite well. If you are considering using essential oils I think you will be happy with them.

The Blue Rose also has a mood light, which probably works better in the white model, that I find works well at night and late evening. The mood light is not that noticeable during the day but my kids still sit there and stare at it while it rotates colors.

I am very happy with the Blue Rose humidifier and I find that I use it more than our humidifiers of the past. I am sure that you couldn’t go wrong with the Humio humidifier either if that is the route you decide to go.

** Disclosure: I did receive a discount on the Blue Rose Humidifier for doing some product photos for Kitchen Kneads, such as the photos in this article. **

UPDATE January 13th 2014: We have been using this humidifier constantly this winter as we have had to kick the heater on. We keep it running 24 hours a day for the past 2 1/2 months and it is still running like a champ. We use the essential oil ONGAURD in this humidifier with the oil bottles and wicks, I would have to say that it has helped to keep our kids from being sick as much, and when they get sick they get over it much faster. I recently bought a second humidifier to go in our basement to help us cover the whole house. My in-laws also purchased 2 of these humidifiers for their home. Since we run the humidifier 24 hours a day, the auto shut off feature has been very nice; It has a red light that also signals that it ran out of water to help remind me to refill it. I am still loving this humidifier and highly recommend it to anyone.