Fondue Night, "Fudge Babies" and "Quick and Easy Tastes Like PB Cookies"

Daddy was a little late getting home last night so we ate dessert first!
I told the kids we were going to make cookies, and they went upstairs to get their aprons and chef hats. The boys came down in their sailor hats. Sissy had my old Martha Washington cap(from my 6th grade Constitution play). They said they couldn't find the others', but they didn't seem to care at all. Tornado and Sissy had their Lowe's Build and Grow aprons. At least, Dash had his actual cooking apron (from his swap partner - thanks, Kaden!). We had two cooking stations going on, for two different kinds of cookies.

We made these "Quick and Easy Tastes Like PB Cookies" I saw on Rawdorable's blog, a new place I've discovered. Here is the recipe. It's basically just almond butter (we had to throw in a little cashew butter because we didn't have enough almond), nuts, flax, and agave. I'm telling you, my kids gobbled these up as quickly as they would any cookie with sugar and margarine. Daddy loved them, too (although I had to finally hide some away for him before the little cookie monsters ate them all). He said these were his ideal kind of dessert.
I had to use my tiny food processor to make the "flour" because I was already using my other one. Next time, I will try to pulverize the nuts even more. I am definitely going to be trying out more of Rawdorable's cookie ideas. Look at these fun Play-Dough cookies. This is a different post about how she made them.I got this idea from Chocolate-Covered Katie, a very fun blog. You can check out her recipe she created; it's just walnuts, dates, vanilla, and cocoa powder. Look, chocolate is very important to me, and I'm not usually quite so satisfied by any raw type of dessert. However, this tastes GOOD (although I only ate a couple myself - "I" don't need as much "healthy fat" as the kids do). And you don't even have to cook them.

Dates are seriously amazing. I only started using them this past year. Before that...they FREAKED me out. I thought they looked like little roaches or something. It was Ryan always telling me how good they are - and reading about all of these healthy, raw recipes - that helped me get over it and try them. Now, I don't think they're "freaky" at all. They sweeten your recipe without sugar and help it all stick together.

We shaped them like cookies because I thought it might entice the kids more to call them "cookies." We barely had any dough left, by the time it came to shape them. I definitely need to tripe/quadruple this recipe, too.

Dash said, "Mine don't look as good as yours!"
"That's okay!"

How about mixing the two?

Or how about a little Fudge Baby Sandwich?

Daddy's idea was to make fondue and eat it on our bed (tablecloth thrown on top of the covers!), while we watched a show about dinosaurs he had recorded. My little pajama-wearing Brachiosauruses were thrilled. We dipped toast chunks, olives, grape tomatoes, bell peppers, baby carrots, fava beans (givin' them another chance...and no, not because they are apparently a "natural viagra," according to Cary...I just needed to finish up the bag.), baked tofu, kielbasas, and broccoli. I used the Swiss Fondue recipe out of Jo Stepaniak's Ultimate Cheese Cookbook.

This is one of the cookbooks I use the very most.