Go Go Gadget Tornado!

Last night we had a tornado warning in the county, and while I did not get hit, I did take shelter in the basement.  And by ‘take shelter’ I built a nest out of blankets and pillows and continued to watch Game of Thrones on my laptop and occasionally answered texts from my Mom letting her know I was not get sucked up into the sky.

Tornadoes are scary, and I have been through them before, so I probably should not joke about them, but…

So, like any normal American, as soon as I got home from an evening meeting last night (Sunday…really? L), I immediately put on lounge clothes, which usually for me includes my Vikings yoga pants and a t-shirt.

Fun fact about Kim: she buys t-shirts in the boys section of Target, because a) they are AWESOME and b) they are about half the price of men’s t-shirts.  Which is why I own an assortment of random Batman, Twins and Vikings shirts.  And it is also why I own a particularly comfortable Inspector Gadget t-shirt.  Which I happened to be wearing last night.  So, as I’m all nestled against the wall in the basement, listening to the storm and Tyrion Lannister (awesome monologue, am I right?), I had a thought.  If the house gets destroyed, and they find me alive, but buried in the rubble, I will be wearing this shirt.  And I think that’s awesome.

I thought, if I get hit, and the news is here when they pull me out alive (#EvilTheo would be dead of course...so sad), it's going to be so awesome that they show that t-shirt on NBC Nightly News. If you don’t know who #EvilTheo is, you are a lucky person. And you obviously don’t follow me on Twitter.

I digress…so…I made cookies tonight!

I wanted to see if I can find a gluten free and vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe that works using ingredients I already have. I went to the Google machine and found Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I had to make one change, since a lot of baking recipes use applesauce, and I can't have it, so I'm substituting mashed banana.  Also, since I can't have peanuts, peanut butter is out, but I have almond butter so I'm trying that out instead.

          

                           Dry ingredients

Wet ingredients

I really like these two products as well.  I use Justin's Almond Butter instead of peanut butter for toast and dipping pretzels.  I like the Maple version (it's the only one I've had) and it tastes pretty delicious.  The Enjoy Life chocolate chips are what I use for anything that calls for chocolate chips or melted chocolate and it works well for both. 

Update: the cookies are in the oven and they smell very good!

Update 2: Batch One is out of the oven and they really smell good.

Right before Batch One goes under fire

Update 3: Batch One has been sampled. Now, these are the first soft cookies I've had in a while.  The banana taste is pretty strong, but I think my other option would be pumpkin which would be even more overpowering.  They taste very cinnamon-y also, so might do a little less of that next time. But there will be a next time because overall, they're pretty good.

Final product.  Bite sized oatmeal chocolate chip goodness.