Almost Vegan Spiced Oatmeal Cookies

These are by far, my most favorite cookies. Everytime I make them, I tweak the recipe even more!  They are great raw and even better cooked! They make a quick & healthy breakfast or afterschool snack. To up the protein, you can substitute a little flour for a couple spoonfuls of protein powder (my kids can always tell, so I usually skip it).

Spiced Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 cup 50/50 Smart Balance Butter Blend**

1/2 cup Agave Nectar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. cloves

2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 tbsp. wheat germ

1 cup coconut*

1/4 cup crushed pecans*

1 cup oats

1/2 cup multi-grain oats

*optional

**substitute the butter blend and you'll have a full-on vegan treat!

1. Beat on medium speed until blended: butter, agave, baking powder & soda, cinnamon, cloves, and vanilla.

2. Beat in flour & wheat germ.

3. By hand, mix in: coconut, pecans, and oats/muli-grain oats.

4. Press into a 9x9 pan OR

5. Make into 1 inch balls (pack like a snowball!), press flat and place on cookie sheet.

6. Bake in a 325 degree oven for 9-11 minutes. 

7. Enjoy!

Friday Food Frolic! Breakfast Biscuits

One of the things we've been doing at home, is taking our favorite store bought foods and making them from scratch. My oldest likes to compare the ingredients in the store bought to the ones in our recipe. For example, canned biscuits have some 20 ingredients, from scratch only 7. She is amazed at how much better it tastes and takes pride in creating healthy-for-you foods. It makes for fun Saturday mornings and is something I look forward to each week.
So, our first recipe of this blog will be for breakfast biscuits. If I tweak too far from what the girls are used to, they won't eat it, hence the butter stays. During the week, my youngest will eat breakfast, but my oldest doesn't like to eat that early, so these are great for before school.

Breakfast Biscuits

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups organic unbleached flour

3/4 cup organic whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon rice protein powder (can be omitted)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup organic butter (we like Horizon)

3/4 cup organic milk (we like Horizon or Organic Valley)

Directions:

~Pre-heat over to 450 degrees~

1) Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.

2) Cut butter into chunks and use a fork to blend until crumbly.

3) Add the milk and stir until dough forms.

4) Knead dough until smooth (5-10 times).

Tip ~ the less handled, the better.

5) Two choices here: roll the dough out and cut into 3 inch circles

or drop by tablespoonful onto a cookie sheet.

6) Bake for 10-14 minutes on a cookie sheet in the preheated oven,

until golden on the bottom. 

The less time baked, the softer the biscuit.

This recipe is really versatile!

Switch it up by adding cheese or garlic or your own herbs.

Bon Appetit!

**vintage clip-art taken from Karen's Whimsy