Dried blueberries - an alternative to raisins

For once the title says it all.



Dried. Blueberries.

They are basically like raisins, certainly smaller, maybe a bit sweeter. Definitely a great alternative.

An important note, as always, is ALWAYS CHECK THE PACKET. The ones in Morrisons nearly caught me out - they add citric acid (Why????), but the ones from Tesco, they're good to go! Other stores are likely to carry the safe ones, too, but I can only vouch for places I've been.

Healthy (Breakfast?) Cookies

As a disclaimer, I did not create this recipe.

You can find the original here on Chocolate Covered Katie. 

I've tweaked her ratios and doubled the amount - her cookies must be tiny because I can never get as much out of mine as she does!

It is a good go-to recipe, as peanut butter never seems to contain citric acid. Obviously don't put raisins in, but some supermarkets sell dried blueberries that work just as well (ALWAYS check the packet on these). I've also found that chopped nuts work quite nicely.

Just a side-note, bananas DO contain some citric acid, so if you're dealing with anaphylactic reactions then you'll have to use the apple version I'm listing here.

Another point is that you'll probably have to make the applesauce yourself, as bought versions tend to contain citric acid. It is pretty easy to make, I just blitz an apple in the food processor with a bit of water and you're done! (Incidentally if your food processor is a wuss like mine, or you only own a smoothie maker, you can peel the apples and boil them until soft before blending. You can also add sugar to this if you like, but I don't bother)

So, what do I need?

• Cup oats
• Cup applesauce
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 6 tbsp dried blueberries (CHECK THE PACKET) or white chocolate chips or chopped hazelnuts
• Between 1 tbsp and 1/2 cup sugar, depending how sweet you want them

So, what do I do?

1. Preheat the oven to 160. 
2. Mix the applesauce and peanut butter, then add all other ingredients and stir, stir, stir.
3. Spoon out into cookie shapes on a greaseproof papered baking tray and bake for 10-15 minutes, depending how big your cookies are.

According to Katie's estimates you should get about 24 cookies from this, but on my sizes it is more like 14!