Recipe: Everything Cookies

These are basically oatmeal cookies, but with some improvements and additions. They vary a little every time I make them, since I usually use what's on hand, so this recipe can be tweaked to your taste.

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Dash of cinnamon

-

1 stick of unsalted butter

½ cup coconut butter

1 cup white sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon maple flavoring

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

-

½ package chocolate chips

¾ cup dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, apricots, etc.)

½ cup chopped nuts

3 cups oatmeal or other rolled grain

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°f

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter, coconut butter, and the sugars. Add the eggs, one at a time, followed by the maple flavoring and vanilla extract.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and dash of cinnamon.

3. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture until fully combined.

4. Add the oatmeal (rolled rye and barley are great, too!) and dried fruit, followed by the chocolate chips and nuts.

5. Make golf ball-sized balls of cookie dough and place 1 to 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack or plate and let cool.

Notes:

These can be dairy-free by using all coconut butter instead of regular butter, but make sure the chocolate chips are dairy-free, too!

Needless to say, if you have a nut allergy, leave out the nuts!

Breakfast basics made better

-The Basics-

Oatmeal, eggs, toast. Pretty basic breakfast fair, but it doesn't have to be boring or bland. Here are some ideas to switch up your morning routine!

Oatmeal

Try different grains! Most oat-alternatives aren't much more expensive than your regular rolled oats and are especially affordable when bought in bulk at places like Whole Foods Market.

Try rolled rye, barley, Kamut, or spelt. Steel cut oats are another delicious, high-fiber option. It takes a little longer to cook, but has a nicer texture than the rolled variety.

Try new toppings!

-Miss Melba: Dried apricot, raspberry, almonds and yogurt (pictured above)

- Cinnamon Roll: Cinnamon, brown sugar, raisins, butter and low-fat milk

-Maple Walnut: Toasted walnuts & maple syrup or a little bit of maple flavoring

Tip: Cook dried fruit, such as apricots & raisins, in the grains. They plump up really nicely!

Eggs

In my opinion, eggs are pretty much perfect. I like them all ways. My mom turned me onto a different way to eat my poached eggs: Wrapped in crepes! They're amazing! Of course, that tends to happen when you wrap things in crepes. A little salt and pepper is all that's needed.

 I recommend the Jacques Pépin crepe recipe my mother has been using for years

French Toast

I usually put a little vanilla in the egg batter, but these other flavors are delicious too:

-Maple flavoring

-Lemon flavoring

-Orange flower water

 (my mom used this last flavor to death, so I don't like it any more)

-OR- use coconut butter to fry the toast. It tastes delicious and is not any worse for you than butter (remember there's no such thing as low-fat fat)

Warning: this next tip is not low-fat!

One time I was making french toast and I ran out of egg mixture. I had a couple dry spots on the slice of toast I was trying to fry, and the only thing left in my fridge was a half-pint of heavy whipping cream. One thing led to another and I was soon eating the most amazing piece of whipping cream french toast! So the next time you're planning a birthday breakfast or just really feel like calories don't matter, try using whipping cream in your egg mixture instead of milk!