Friday, December 19, 2008

Healthy Cookies



For a christmas tea, I was looking for something that is not necessarily low-cal, but at least very healthy, and very tasty, of course. These cookies are flour-less, egg-less, butter-less and almost sugar-less, thus, vegan and low-glycemic, but they taste like out of this world.

3 large, ripe bananas, well mashed (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup coconut oil, barely warm - so it isn't solid
2 cups rolled oats
2/3 cup slivered almonds
1/3 cup coconut, finely shredded & unsweetened
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
6 - 7 ounces chocolate chips or dark chocolate bar chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, racks in the top third.

In a food processor, ground the almonds to a fine, sand-like consistency. In a little sauce pan, melt the coconut oil to a liquid consistency (don't really heat, just melt). Add to the food processor. Also, peel the bananas, break into pieces and add to the food processor. Add vanilla, shredded coconut, cinnamon, and salt. First pulse, then mix the ingredients to a mousse-like consistency.

In a large bowl, whisk together the oats, and baking powder. Add the wet ingredients from the food processor and stir until combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks/chips.The dough is a bit looser than a standard cookie dough, that's ok. Drop dollops of the dough, each about 1 tablespoon in size, an inch apart, onto a parchment (or silicon mat) lined baking sheet. Bake for 14 - 16 minutes. I baked them until I could see some light brown coloring on the oats.

makes about 60 cookies a 50 kcal.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Peach Oatmeal Cookies



1 NS maple sugar oatmeal
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 c Fiber One bran (pulsed in food processor)
1 ts brown splenda
2 dried peach halves, diced
2 TB egg beaters
1 ts Parkay spreadable butter
1 TB (real) maple syrup

Preheat oven to 400 F. Mix all dry ingredients in small bowl, then add in wet ingredients and combine well. Scoop cookies on to sprayed baking sheet; it made six reasonably sized cookies for me. Bake cookies until lightly browned and slightly crispy (ca 12 min).

1 breakfast entree + 1 fruit



Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

1 NS maple sugar oatmeal
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 c Fiber One bran (pulsed in food processor)
1 ts brown splenda
1 TB dried cranberries
2 TB egg beaters
1 ts Parkay spreadable butter

Preheat oven to 400 F. Mix all dry ingredients in small bowl, then add in wet ingredients and combine well. Scoop cookies on to sprayed baking sheet; it made six reasonably sized cookies for me. Bake cookies until lightly browned and slightly crispy (ca 12 min).

1 breakfast entree + 1 fruit