Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gluten free, dairy free, guilt free and DELICIOUS!

As a nutritionist, I am constantly playing with ingredients and altering recipes to try and make them a little more healthful. If you are familiar with me or my website, you know that I am a HUGE advocate for whole-food nutrition: using REAL foods in their least processed form.

DESSERT! but make it ~nutritious~

Typical cookie ingredients that I decided to replace or remove altogether were-

Refined Flour- good quality flour isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, a lot of flour mixes use low quality grains that are genetically modified, sprayed with pesticides, have added gums and thickeners, etc. The oats in this recipe act as the starch to thicken it up.

Refined Oil- typical vegetable & seed oils are highly processed, rancid, oxidized, and overall just not worth it when there are so many great alternative fats. I use unrefined & cold pressed coconut or olive oil, tallow, butter, and ghee as whole food nutritious sources of fats. For this recipe, the peanut butter provided enough oil to keep the cookies nice and gooey! I recommend peanut butter that contains JUST PEANUTS! Many are loaded with vegetable oils and corn syrup.

Refined Sugar- corn syrup and white sugar seem to be in EVERYTHING these days. Between the effect they have on blood sugar control, hormones, & energy levels, I avoid these highly processed sugars altogether. Raw cane sugar is definitely better, but it is still a concentrated form of sugar- so I try to use high quality whole foods sources like fruit, honey, maple syrup, or coconut sugar as often as possible.

Instead of giving you my entire life story, lets just get on to the recipe :)

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

Dry Mix

• ¾ cup Rolled Oats – gluten free if preferred/needed

• ½ tsp Baking Soda

• 1 Crack Salt

Wet Mix

• 1 cup Peanut Butter – no sugar/oil added

• ¾ cup Coconut Sugar

• 1-2 tsp Vanilla Extract – to taste

• 2 whole Eggs

• ⅔ cup Chocolate Chips – I love HU kitchen

Directions:

1. Combine the dry mix ingredients- ¾ cup rolled oats, ½ tsp baking soda, crack of salt- until well combined.

2. In a separate (bigger) bowl, cream together the wet mix ingredients- 1 cup peanut butter, ¾ cup coconut sugar, 2 whole eggs, 1-2 tsp vanilla- until well combined.

3. Add the dry mix to the wet mix, & stir until well combined.

4. Add 2/3 cup chocolate chips to the mixture.

5. Make 2 inch balls of dough and place about 2 inches apart on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

6. Squish each ball flat to your desired thickness.

7. Bake for 8-12 minutes at 350°