I have been compensated by General Mills for this post; however, I am sharing my own thoughts. All opinions are my own.
This week has been a bit hectic, so being able to make a one-stop shop was pretty key early in the week. I stopped into my local Walmart to pick up a few things for around the house and was also able to grab some great snacks while I was there. If you didn’t already know, Walmart carries a number of natural and organic brands like LARABAR, Annie’s, and Cascadian Farms which makes grabbing snacks that I can feel good about pretty easy.
I picked up Annie’s Bunny Fruit Snacks which I found in the Cereal, Granola, Hot Cereal, and Syrup aisle of my local Walmart. These fruit snacks are delicious in and of themselves, but I decided I wanted to play around. I’ll be totally honest, it was hard hiding enough of them from my niece (she’s obsessed) to even make it into a recipe, but I somehow managed it. I was initially thinking some sort of trail mix or bar because they’re generally guaranteed to be toddler approved in my house, but I decided to take it a step further, cookies. Let’s be real, these are definitely a better for you option to normal cookies. I just knew that there was no way that my niece would say no to cookies, especially ones that had her favorite fruit snacks as a major ingredient.
So I got to cooking, well, not necessarily because these cookies don’t require an oven. They’re super easy to make, have minimal ingredients, and the most time consuming part is tossing them into the fridge to harden for about 20 minutes. It’s also probably the most difficult part because waiting on cookies is always the hardest part. But they’re definitely worth the wait, and if you can’t wait that long, they still taste just as good when they’re a little bit gooey.
Here’s What You’ll Need:
-One 4 oz box (5 pouches) of Annie’s Bunny Fruit Snacks
-1 ½ cups rolled oats
-1 cup dates, pitted
-1/4 cup unsweetened almond butter
-1/3 cup honey
-3/4 cup almonds, loosely chopped
-1/4 cup shelled pumpkin seeds
Instructions:
Optional – Toast the rolled oats for about 15 minutes at 400 degrees in the oven.
Process or blend the pitted dates and about a spoonful of the oats in a food processor or blender for about a minute.
Add the almond butter and honey to a saucepan on the stovetop and warm over low to medium heat, stirring regularly.
Add the contents of three (of the five) Annie’s gummies pouches, oats, almonds, pumpkin seeds, dates, and almond butter/honey mixture into a large mixing bowl.
Mix together all ingredients with hands or a mixing spoon, distributing ingredients as evenly as possible.
Form small balls from the mixture (about ¼ cup each) and flatten into a cookie shape, topping each with 1-2 gummies from the remaining two Annie’s pouches, and placing the cookies on a plate or cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Once the mixture is totally used (makes about 12 cookies), top the cookies with more parchment paper and place in the fridge to harden for about 20 minutes.
Serve, and enjoy!
Let me know what you think in the comments below, and I’d love to hear about any fun and creative ways you incorporate the natural and organic products you’ve picked up from Walmart.