I made these cookies for a friend who is a new mom because everyone told me new moms need protein and fiber. And that's what these cookies have. They have the added bonus of being inexpensive and yummy. And when I say yummy, I mean Joe and I ate 3 dozen of them in two days.
The recipe is from my friend Heather - mom to three humans, two dogs, and a cat named Trouble - but she doesn't have a blog even though she really should because she's hilarious, inspiring, down-to-earth, and a good judge of cookies.
She got the original recipe from It Must Have Been Something I Ate and tweaked it a bit. I tweaked it a teeny-tiny bit more. Not because there's anything wrong with her recipe, but because I am the sort of person who doesn't read recipes carefully before shopping and who ends up desperate to make the cookies but without the exact ingredients.
Heather's Improved Healthy Breakfast Cookies Recipe
Makes 40 cookies for about $3 - $4
INGREDIENTS
2 cups powdered quick oats (I used regular oats, which didn't seem to cause a problem)
1 cup nutrigrain flour -- (Honestly, I have no idea what she's talking about here. Is it a Canadian thing? Even Google didn't know. I used half whole wheat and half bread. I'm not saying that's an improvement. I'm just saying, it didn't destroy the recipe.)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt (I used about as much as fits in the bottom of a 1 teaspoon spoon without it looking like it filled half the spoon. Because I couldn't find my 1/4 teaspoon spoon.)
540 milliliter can white kidney beans, drained and rinsed
(I used the garlic kind. I don't recommend this, but if you find yourself in a pinch, just be sure yours are drained and rinsed and rinsed and rinsed and rinsed and don't tell your husband until after he has eaten 3 and pronounced them delicious. Note, as I mentioned above, that Heather is Canadian and uses crazy terms like milliliters. If, as an American, you go to the store, you will see that your can of beans also says milliliters on it, but don't worry, the ounces are right there on the can as well. Five-hundred-forty milliliters converts to about 18 ounces, but I think American cans come in 16ish-ounce sizes. It's not important. Get the one closest to 540 ml. Just don't get the one that says seasoned on it.)
3/4 cup fat free vanilla yogurt (I used however much Greek yogurt was left in the container, somewhere between less than a cup and more than a half cup.)
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup margarine (I used butter 'cause I didn't have margarine)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla (homemade!)
1 cup chocolate chips (I used a whole lot more than that, which I actually don't recommend because the chip/dough ratio was off and made the cookies more prone to fall apart.)
2 tablespoons ground flax seed(I used 3, just because I'm like that.)
I also added honey because another friend - who does have a blog and is a really good mom and dog-trainer and totally wouldn't mind if you said "I do that with my dogs!" when she's talking about teaching her kids because she does too - said she added honey to her cookies. About a drizzle's worth. You decide what a drizzle is.
DIRECTIONS
Mix the first set of ingredients in the food processor until the oatmeal is powdered. Pour in a big bowl. (I ground my oatmeal in the Magic Bullet because I don't have a food processor.)
Puree the second set of ingredients til smooth and add to the dry . Mix together. (Again I used the Magic Bullet, but I had to do it in three batches. I recommend breaking out the blender to begin with, if you don't have a food processor.)
Bake at 325 or 350 for 15 minutes-ish. (One batch came out at exactly 15 minutes, most came out somewhere around there, and another batch was forgotten about and left in for almost 40 minutes. If you have a stoneware bar pan from Pampered Chef, which you can buy from my friend Jessica here, you don't have to worry! They won't burn! Seriously. I would not be able to have homemade cookies if I didn't have my stoneware bar pan to save me from black bottoms.)
To make these even cheaper and totally avoid potential garlic after-taste, make your own beans. A 1 lb bag of white kidney beans is less than $1 and makes several pounds worth of cooked beans.
Approximate cost, assuming you buy items on sale but do not necessarily try to go as cheap as you can: $2.75 - $3.55
2 cups oats - 35 cents
flax seed - 20 cents
honey - 10 cents
vanilla - 15 cents
canned beans - $1 (dried beans 20 cents)
flour - 25 cents
baking soda/powder - 10 cents
brown sugar - 30 cents
butter - 40 cents
eggs - 20 cents
yogurt - 50 cents
Heather says you could use applesauce instead of yogurt, or you could do as she did today and use prune-pear baby food and top off with yogurt to reach 3/4 cup. It certainly sounds as though you could do as you like in the fruit/yogurt category. I'm thinking of trying 1 banana and topping off with yogurt.
UPDATE: Heather says the flour is Robin Hood brand Nutri-flour. It is a Canadian brand.
5 comments:
Awww, thanks for the props. :) But no thanks for reminding me that I still have some of these in my freezer. Now I have to pretend that they're not there. And BTW - they are awesome just out of the freezer. You know, if you put them there so you don't get tempted by them, but then go over and get them anyway.
I loved all of your side notes. It made for very entertaining reading. Beans are such an unexpected ingredient, they don't add much taste (unless they are garlic flavored), but they add great texture and nutrition.
Thanks for the comments! JRM, you totally should NOT have told me that. I'm making and freezing some today!
Kristen, thanks for stopping by. I've been browsing your blog, and I've already bookmarked a couple of recipes!
Oh good I was going to ask you for this recipe! :) delicious!
Carrie - Heather said the oats and flax supposedly help with breast milk production too (though she didn't necessarily notice a difference). So they're good for E as well! :)
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