Banana, oat and date cookies

My two year old toddlers absolutely love these! It's so cute to see their faces light up when I mention the word cookies! They love helping me make them too. This is such a simple recipe that they probably could make them without me! It still amazes me that just four ingredients can produce such a delicious cookie!

3 large ripe bananas
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup pitted dates, chopped
0.25 cup vegetable oil



1. Preheat oven to 180 C
2. In a large bowl, mash bananas. Stir in oats, dates and oil and mix together.
3. Place tablespoonfuls of mixture onto tray lined with baking paper.
4. Bake for 20mins or until lightly brown. Allow to cool before the munching begins!

Bacon and broccoli macaroni cheese

When I am looking at recipes, I steer clear of those ones where the ingredient list takes up the whole page or/and I haven't even heard of half of them! This is definitely not one of those dishes.
I think all kids love macaroni cheese and my kids are no exception. By adding broccoli, using wholemeal pasta and reduced fat dairy products this becomes a healthy, tasty dish for the whole family.


250g wholemeal macaroni pasta
60g butter or reduced fat spread
0.3 cup plain flour
3 cups reduced fat milk
1 cup grated reduced fat cheddar cheese
150g bacon pieces
1 brown onion, finely chopped
1 broccoli head, cut into small florets, stalks removed

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Cook pasta in a large saucepan of boiling water, following packet instructions until just tender. Add broccoli to pan for the last 5 minutes of cooking.
2. Meanwhile cook onion and bacon in a medium saucepan over medium heat until onion softens. Set aside.
3. Melt butter in same pan, add flour and cook stirring for 1 minute. Add milk and cook stirring constantly until mixture boils and thickens. Remove from heat and stir in cheese.
4. Combine pasta, broccoli, bacon mixture and cheese sauce and place in an oven proof casserole dish.
5. Cook for 15 minutes or until golden. Serves 4