Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am always trying to perfect different types of cookies in the kitchen. And to help myself not feel to guilty about cooking up goodies, I try to make them as healthy as I can. And great news, I made THE PERFECT HEALTHY COOKIE!!!

I've tried about everything, and I've failed an awful lot. Trying to use no oil or refined sugar really makes things tough! I've tried substituting applesauce for the oil, but it often times makes cookies way too moist. I've tried putting yogurt in cookies, but sometimes it leaves a bad after taste. I've even tried melting down coconut oil and putting it in my cookies, but depending on the flavor I'm going for, it doesn't work all the time. Anyways, I'm here to tell you, I'm made a darn good cookie. I approve, and more importantly, so do my kids (and my husband!). It seriously won all of us over!!! It doesn't have flour, oil or refined sugar (and only a teaspoon of honey!!! so most of the sweetness comes from the natural ingredients). ***Please note that I do live in high altitude so I would suggest starting out with a little less oats than I did, unless you want a more dense cookie.

Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies
30 SERVINGS 
PREP: 15 minutes           COOK: 15-20 minutes            READY IN: 30-35 minutes

SIMPLE	HEALTHY	YUM

INGREDIENTS

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• 4 cups of rolled oats
• 3 ripe bananas
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup vanilla almond milk, unsweetened
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

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1. Preheat oven to 350º.
2. Take the rolled oats and grind them up in your food processor (or use oat flour if you want, but the measurement will most likely be different).
3. In a mixer, combine the ripe bananas, eggs, and milk until combined.
4. Add the ground rolled oats, baking powder, cinnamon, vanilla, peanut butter, and honey. Combine until all mixed together. The dough will not be completely stiff, it's more the consistency of a muffin mix. 
5. Add the the chocolate chips and mix together.
6. Line cookies sheets with parchment paper, and place the cookies on the sheet (I used a cookies scooper to put on my cookie sheets).
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes, let cool and enjoy!

NUTRITION FACTS

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    1 cookie    77 calories   2.3g fat   12.3g carbs    2.2g protein    3.2g sugar   

Enjoy!

Indulgence Moment: Pumpkin Spice Cookies

I sure hope nobody's tired of my pumpkin spice obsession quite yet, because I'm not done (almost, but not quite!) I just can't move onto the next season's ingredient (watch out cranberries, here I come!) before I leave you with one more amazing bit of pumpkin spice goodness. Funny thing about these is they are all about the pumpkin spice - no pumpkin at all, just the spice. Which, I'll admit, is fine by me. I mean, I like pumpkin cookies just as much as the next pumpkin-lover, but adding pumpkin to cookies does end up making them into little pumpkin cakes that are fluffy and cake-like rather than chewy and cookie-like. These little guys are great, because by leaving out the pumpkin and being very generous with the pumpkin spice, you get a fantastic cookie-like cookie packed with all that spicy pumpkin flavor that it's really all about anyway.

I made these smaller than the traditional cookie - kind of like little two-bite cookies. This made them very shareable (and I like how eating small things makes them feel like they go that much further!) But, they would make perfectly lovely cookies of "typical" size as well. However you bake them up, I know you'll love this final (I think) salute to pumpkin!

Pumpkin Spice Cookies
3 1/2-4 dozen bite-size cookies (or about 1 1/2 dozen regular sized cookies)  
PREP: 15 minutes (+3 hours to refrigerate dough)     COOK: 8 minutes            READY IN: 3 1/2 hours (with chilling dough)

SIMPLE	HEALTHY	YUM

INGREDIENTS

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• 1/2 cup butter, softened (I use salted - if using unsalted you may want to add a pinch of salt to taste)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice (you could reduce the spice slightly if you prefer less, but I went all the way and it was heavenly!)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons corn starch
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

DIRECTIONS

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1. In a medium-sized bowl, cream together butter, sugar, and egg until the dough is light and fluffy (5-7 minutes with an electric or hand mixer).
2. Add the honey, pumpkin pie spice, and vanilla. Mix, scraping the sides of the bowl, until smooth.
3. Add flour, cornstarch, and baking soda. Mix until just combined.
4. Cover and refrigerate dough for at least 3 hours (or up to 5 days). 
5. Once the dough is chilled, form heaping teaspoons of dough into balls and place on a baking sheet, spacing them 2 inches apart and flattening each ball just slightly. Place into an oven preheated to 350ºF and bake for 8-10 minutes. 
6. Let cookies cool 5 minutes, then remove from baking sheet. 

NUTRITION FACTS

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    2 mini cookies   106 calories   4.2 g fat   16 g carbs    1.4 g protein    7.4 g sugar   

Enjoy!
Recipe adapted from Averie Cooks.

Date-Sweetened Apple Pecan Cookies

One of the pleasant surprises I encountered when we first moved to the California Bay Area was that, although we enjoy gorgeous weather year-round, there are also still distinct changes in the seasons. They are different than the usual four season changes that I was used to (we seem to skip winter altogether and just go from fall to spring), but they are definitely there. Fall is particularly beautiful, with the days starting to cool off just enough, the trees turning beautiful shades of red, orange, and yellow, and the pine cones and acorns which start to fall from the trees and line the sidewalks. I tell you this, of course, because all of these signs of fall make me start to think of fall recipes and all the things that can be created with cinnamon, nuts, apples, apricots, pumpkins, zucchini, etc., etc., etc.

These cookies were born from recent musings on fall baking as I was out enjoying the cool fall air on a walk with my daughter. I wanted to find a way to use dates as the primary sweetener in a cookie. Building on a recipe I found at Anja's Food 4 Thought, my first attempt, I have to admit, came out not quite sweet enough for my taste. I decided to add in just a bit of honey to boost the sweetness, along with a very light coating of cinnamon and powdered sugar so that it still felt like a cookie rather than a very small biscuit. These apple-pecan cookies were the result. They are a mildly sweet, cinnamony cookie, with hints of the apple and pecan coming through. The texture is somewhere between a shortbread and biscuit if you eat them the same day, but if you have the will power to let them sit until the next day (something I, my husband, and my preschooler struggle with!) they become more of a shortbread, allowing the crunchy pecan texture to come through even more.

Date-Sweetend Apple Pecan Cookies
Makes 15-20 cookies
PREP: 20 minutes    CHILL: at least 60 minutes       COOK: 12-15 minutes            READY IN: 1 hour 40 minutes

SIMPLE	HEALTHY	YUM

INGREDIENTS

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• 1/2 cup dates (10-12 dates), roughly chopped and soaked in water for about 20 minutes
• 1/4 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/4 cup chopped pecan pieces
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 egg
• 1 cup white whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup diced dried apple pieces (or dried apricots)
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon powdered cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

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1. Drain most of the water off of the dates (they should be somewhat soft). In a food processor, pulse the soaked dates with the butter to a smooth consistency.
2. Add the pecan pieces, and pulse about 30 seconds to break down the pecans into fine pieces.
3. In a bowl, combine the dates, butter, and pecans with the vanilla, honey, cinnamon, egg, and flour. The dough may be sticky, but should hold together and not be at all runny. Mix in the dried fruit pieces.
4. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 60 minutes. Preheat oven to 350º.
5. With the chilled dough, form balls about 1 inch in diameter. Place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper (they won't grow so they can be placed fairly close together).
6. Cook for 12-15 minutes, until the cookies no longer look shiny on top. Remove and let cool just a couple of minutes. Combine powdered sugar and cinnamon, and roll warm cookies in the cinnamon-sugar mixture until lightly covered.

NUTRITION FACTS

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    1 cookie    84 calories   4 g fat   11.3 g carbs    1.5 g protein    5.3 g sugar   

If you're willing to splurge a little more with the butter, these could even be transformed to be more like a riff on Mexican wedding cookies. Because I was trying to keep these still within the mostly-healthy realm, I decided to save that experimentation for another day.
Happy Autumn!