Over the summer our family fell off the "clean eating" wagon. Life circumstances hit and it was quickly moved to the back burner. Not to say that that was the smart thing to do, but that's what happened. I'm not here to pretend to be perfect, judgemental, or holier-than-thou. For about a month and a half, we ate whatever was in front of us, I made quick trips to the store for random necessities and somehow ice cream and Chips Ahoy ended up in my cart. How did that happen?
While that month and a half reminded me of how good crappy food is, it definitely did a number on our bodies.The kids started having digestive problems again (which is a nice way of saying their poop turned green), I started getting pimples all over my face and gaining weight (shocker there - gain weight eating Fruit Loops everyday? What?), and Chad just generally felt like crap.
Needless to say we have been in bad shape. It bums me out, but I also know that life happens and you can't blame yourself for things you can't control. It also reiterated to me that we NEED to eat this way. It's not a fad, it's not bcs all the cool kids are doing it, it's because our bodies function better when we put real food into it. And now I have the proof I need to continue this food journey.
So what does this have to do with the ooey-gooey cookies pictured above? I have a sweet tooth. Well, most likely they are all sweet teeth, but the point is, I love sugar. LOVE it. And for anyone that loves sugar, you know that it is extremely hard to quit eating it. Over the last year I had learned to control my sugar carvings and even managed to go without anything sugary for a few months. Now that I have re-indulged in things like sugar cereals, ice cream, and cookies, it is going to be very hard to transition back to a sugar-free lifestyle. So these little beauties are going to help me do that!
They are mainly comprised of oatmeal, almonds, and honey with a few other ingredients.
Throw all of your ingredients, minus the chocolate chips, in a food processor and blend it.
Once everything is blended, transfer to a mixing bowl and stir in the chocolate chips. The dough is very wet, sticky, and a bit chunky. If you want, you can put the almonds in the processor first to grind them up. If you don't mind some chunks of almond then put all ingredients in together.
Spoon them onto a cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes.
The original recipe came from The Gracious Pantry, big surprise, I know. But of course I tweaked the recipe a bit. I added cocoa powder and extra oatmeal. I also doubled the recipe because it doesn't make very much, and cookies don't last long in our house!
So here's the the original recipe. I'll post my version below.
Clean Chocolate Chip Cookies
- 1 1/3 cup almonds
- 1 cup cooked oatmeal (1/2 cup uncooked)
- 6 Tbsp honey
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/8 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 1/8 unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup grain sweetened chocolate chips (or regular if you want)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Blend everything except the chocolate chips in food processor.
Scrape into a medium mixing bowl and stir in chocolate chips.
Spoon onto cookie sheet - either lined with parchment paper or spray sheet with cooking spray or olive oil
Bake for 20 minutes.
Enjoy!
I will be using these to ween myself off of my sugar dependency. Don't get me wrong, they are clean but they still aren't "healthy"!
But I'm ok with that.
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