Chickpea Chocolate Chip Walnut Pumpkin Peanut Butter Cookies

Getting my kid to eat anything that isn't fruit or crackers is hard work. I keep trying, though, and here is one of my recent successes. Granted, it's dessert, but at least it has lots of good stuff in it besides chocolate. Garbanzo beans (chickpeas) are an excellent source of fiber, protein, and iron. The many health benefits are described in better detail here. This recipe uses a whole can! Not only are these cookies packed with good stuff, but they're also gluten and egg free! I found the original recipe here. In the spirit of the season, I used pumpkin peanut butter because I CAN! But it's still delicious with plain pb and no nuts as described in the original recipe. 

Ingredients:

• 8oz can Chickpeas
• 5/8 cup Peanut Butter (the fewer ingredients the better)
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 pinch salt of your PB doesn't have any
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup walnuts (optional ) 

That would be my processor smoking from exertion 

Directions:

Before rolling vs after rolling

• Preheat oven to 350
• Rinse beans and pat them dry
• Grind all ingredients except the chocolate chips and nuts in a food processor. 
• Be sure to scrape the sides and get it very smooth and creamy.
• Mix in chocolate chips
• With wet hands, roll into 2 inch balls and then smush flat.*
• bake 10-15 minutes

*Cookies will not spread or settle so how ever you put them in the oven is exactly how they'll come out. 

Thankfulness Book

Here's a fun Thanksgiving craft idea you can make with things you already have at home! It's a book made from brown paper bags. We made it with a holiday theme but the possibilities for personalization and materials are endless.

The idea was to make it look like a turkey, beak on the front and feathers sticking up around the back page, but my niece went her own direction with the idea and made fall leaves instead of feathers and the result was a precious peek into her sweet little world.


We cut out the feather/leaf shapes from empty boxes and packages headed for the recycle bin.The bright coloring and exaggerated images of every day items took on a unique pop-art look when we started deconstructing things. 
It was a great opportunity to discuss the topic of waste and recycling and the fun of finding ways to reuse and re purpose things we take for granted. Sure, we could have gone to the craft store for feathers and things, but it was much more fun to cut the shapes out of packaging we'd normally not take a second look at and turn them into something else. We also got to discuss the less obvious things we can be thankful for such as the box that keeps the Cheerios crunchy or the power that makes the toaster work for the Eggos.

Supplies:

• Brown paper lunch bags
• Empty food containers or waste paper for feathers
• Stapler
• Markers, paint, crayons, etc
• scissors

Instructions:

Little Brother got to make his own book

First decide how many pages you want your book to be.  

Stack the bags on top of each other and fold them in half.

Staple along the fold to make a spine.

Decorate!