Cookies for Thought

The cookie recipe I present to you today included in its description the instruction to “[e]njoy with a glass of cold soymilk and dunk away without guilt [emphasis mine].”

No food is inherently “guilty;” we bring that emotion to the table ourselves.  The truth (and lots of sugar) will set your teeth free.

Oatmeal Date Chocolate Chip Cookies

Modified from http://www.health.com/health/recipe/0,,10000001701576,00.html

1/3 cup sticky rice flour

1/3 cup teff flour

1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups GF rolled oats

1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted

6 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup Sucanat

1/4 cup water

1 tablespoon ground flaxseed

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup dates, chopped

1/3 cup mix of soynuts and whole almonds

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line two baking sheets with parchment.  In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.  In a food processor or blender, blitz the wet ingredients (including Sucanat) until combined and frothy.  Pour the wet ingredients on top of the dry, stir, and fold in the chunks.  Dollop by two-tablespoon spoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets and flatten with a  fork dipped in water.  Bake for 13-14 minutes or until they spring back when touched and they are browned on the bottoms.  Cool on the pans for five minutes then remove to a rack to cool completely.  Makes about 3 dozen.

“Enough is great riches,” is a Dutch proverb of which I am quite fond.  I was reading in Linda Kavelin Popov’s A Pace of Grace this week about healing one’s finances.  One of her points about binge-spending resonated with me (oh, jeez, don’t you love how I can’t shake that precept-speak habit of saying something “resonated with me”?), how binge spending indicates a lack of trust in one’s higher power to provide for one.  It is not my intention to shame myself or others for a lack of trust in one’s higher self or higher power for when we binge eat with the attitude of “this isn’t enough, I’m not getting fed (emotionally, spiritually, artistically, physically).”

Let’s talk about eating enough healthy food to crowd out the “bad” stuff, while remembering that ultimately nothing is bad or good; it’s how you eat it that makes the difference.

Enjoying one of these warm from the oven was the tops.  Of course it didn't hurt that I made these cookies less extreme so that I'd have a healthy backup snack in the freezer for whatever comes down the pike.