Carrot-Raisin Muffins & Easy Pleasin' Oat Bars

Liv loves to help in the kitchen, and I'm pleased that she enjoys cooking. My little kitchen helper is especially good at stirring the dry ingredients while I mix the wet. I usually call off the items as I measure and toss in the bowl, and she gets especially excited when I start working with the teaspoons. When I say "teaspoon" she hears "tastespoon" and wants to sample everything with these cute little spoons that must be for tasting. It tickles me so much. Here she is concentrating very hard on keeping the flour, sugar, etc. in the bowl.




Her favorite thing to cook is muffins, and I decided on the 'Carrot-Raisin Muffins' in VwaV. It's a good stand-by recipe because we usually have all the ingredients on hand, and they were good. They aren't the most exciting muffin I've ever tasted, but they were all gone before I cleaned up the kitchen. Sometimes good is better than exciting when you're really hungry.





I had 2 overripe bananas, and like a sleep-walker, I opened up Vive for the 'Banana Oat Bundles', but I glanced at the 'Easy Pleasin' Oat Bars' and decided to toss the sorry bananas and make these instead. Why? Well, I had made the bundles quite a bit, and had never made these. Plus, I think it'd be kinda cool to have made every recipe in Vive before Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan! comes out. It'll be a toughie, because it's hard not to get stuck on one recipe and make it over & over instead of trying a different one. Anyhow, with the Oat Bars, Dreena suggests adding different flavors and textures, so I added Let's Do Organic coconut and chocolate chips. These easily pleased me! They are delicious & nutritious.