Will Run For Macaroon Breakfast Cookies

Did you know that it's not a great idea to cram when it comes to running?  So maybe doing my Thursday run on Saturday and my long run on Sunday wasn't my best idea ever.  Adding a Monday morning workout also not brilliant. 

 It's not like I wore cotton socks.  

I had breakfast cookies, an updated playlist and a borrowed Garmin.  It was a running party!  Well, it was a party on Saturday.  On Sunday it was a cold, snowy death march followed by cookies.

Macaroon Breakfast Cookies

A bowl of oatmeal in cookie form.

(8 cookies)

2 over ripe bananas 

1/2 C quinoa flakes

1/2 C oats (whirled around in the coffee grinder for a few seconds)

1 T cocoa (Camino is my favourite)

1/4 unsweetened shredded coconut

1T peanut butter or nut butter of choice

Preheat oven to 350 F.  In a medium bowl mash bananas.  Add quinoa flakes, oats, cocoa, coconut and nut butter.  Stir until well combined.  Bake for 20 minutes on a baking stone covered in a silicone mat to prevent the cookie from fuzing to the cookie sheet.  Gobble up pre or post run.

keeping the bed warm and thankfully not drooling on my pillow

Will Run For Almond & Chocolate Chip Quinoa Cookies

happy second breakfast

Last week over snacks with team spartan quinoa cookies came up.   I'll pretend it was an, "oh my,  quinoa cookies would be so delicious" conversation instead of a "what in the world are quinoa and cacao nibs and where do you find these strange things" kind of conversation.

For the record there was a run involved as well.  Long Limbs Rowlinson has been posting some pretty fast couch to 5K times and we wanted to see how she was doing.  Fine.  Truth be told we wanted to see if we were going to embarrass ourselves on actual race day.

If anything was embarrassing it was the way that we were walking after our 18K run today.  Walking is a term that I used loosely.  Hobbling would probably be more accurate.

On that note these cookies make a great second breakfast cookie or a post run cookie.

Chocolate Chip Quinoa Cookies

(6 cookies plus one sample cookie)

1 C ground oats

1/2 C ground quinoa

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 T brown sugar

2 T chocolate chips

1 T cocoa nibs

2 T chopped almonds

4 T unsweetened soy milk (or milk of your choice)

1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste

2 T olive oil

Preheat oven/baking stone to 375 F.  In your coffee grinder or blender grind 1 C oats and 1/2 C quinoa.  Place ground mixture in a medium sized bowl and add baking soda, sugar, chocolate chips, cocoa nibs, and almonds.  

nibs, chips and nuts

In a small measuring cup combine soy milk, vanilla bean paste and olive oil. 

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients.  Combine thoroughly.  Dough will seem slightly dry but will stick together.

cookie dough

Form 1/4 C of cookie dough into cookie shapes and bake for 8 minutes.

yum

Will Run For Cranberry Pecan Cookies

It's never too early for a cookie!

There is nothing quite like waking up on a Friday morning to find two dozen cookies with paper signs that read "crunchy" & "chewy" on your counter.   Life is good.

There is also nothing quite like making fun of the fact that Farmer gets a little punchy when she asks for a glass of water and you bring her a glass that's two thirds full (or half or three quarters full)  only to find out that she's wrapped around the toilet bowl and she overheard you making fun of her.  Life was not so good.

Luckily Farmer made a full recovery.  This of course had nothing to do with me.  Note to self: when someone asks for a cool cloth don't bring an old painting rag (even if it's clean) that's covered in red paint stains especially if your Farmer has just finished drinking a very berry smoothie.  This will alarm your housemate and she may not want to share her cookies with you.

A's cookies were delicious but not exactly the kind of cookie that I could justify eating for breakfast (not more than once anyway). 

   

Cranberry Pecan Cookies

(10 large cookies)

1/4 C olive oil (butter or earth balance)

1/4 C brown sugar

1 flax egg (1 T of ground flax + 3 T let sit for a few minutes or warm slightly in the microwave)

1/4 C apple cider (apple juice or white grape juice will work as well)

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

3/4 C wholewheat pastry flour

1/4 C ground flax

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 freshly grated nutmeg

2 C rolled oats (not quick cooking)

1/4 dried cranberries

1/4 chopped pecans (or your favourite nut/seed)  

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Mix oil, sugar, flax egg, apple cider and vanilla in a small bowl.

In a separate bowl combing flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, spices and oats.

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients.  Stir until combined.

Roll into large balls or drop by the tablespoon onto a preheated baking stone (if using a baking sheet you would likely want to oil it).  Flatten with your hands or a fork.  Bake for 8-10 minutes.

dough ball

breakfast

Incase you are trying to figure out how many cookies you want to have for breakfast according to MyPlate they contain 243 calories per cookie, 4.75 g of protein & 5 g of fibre.

Will Run For Triple Ginger Crackle Cookie Ice Scream Sandwiches

Triple Ginger Crackle Cookie with Pumpkin Ice-Scream

I love everything ginger, everything cookie and everything ice cream!  I've reworked my favourite gingersnap recipe from Homemaker's magazine (don't ask) with some help from Jae Steele's Get It Ripe From Around Here  and Mama Pea from peasandthankyou.com .

I won't lie. I was half expecting the cookies to either turn out like cardboard or a mushy mess.  I figured worst case scenario I would just eat the dough out of the bowl (what isn't there to love about molasses, three kinds of ginger, and brown sugar?) or freeze it and add it to my pumpkin ice scream.  Luckily the cookies were delicious!

TRIPLE GINGER CRACKLE COOKIES
Makes 24 + 3 (the ones that you need to taste test)

Ingredients

1/4 C crystallized ginger (finely chopped)
1 Tbsp fresh ginger (finely chopped)
2 C whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 earth balance (or butter/margarine)
1/2 C demerara sugar (or brown sugar)
1/2 C granulated sugar ( I used Camino Golden Cane Sugar) * save 1/4 C for rolling
2 Tbsp molasses (fancy)
1 flax egg (equals 1/4 C)
1/4 C pureed pumpkin (I used canned pumpkin)

Preheat oven to 350F

In a medium sized bowl (save your biggest bowl for the wet ingredients) combine flour with baking soda, ground ginger, finely chopped fresh and crystallized ginger, cinnamon and salt.

In a separate bowl beat Earth Balance with brown sugar and 1/2 C of granulated sugar with an electric mixer (if you have one) until smooth.  Add molasses, pumpkin and flax egg mixing until also smooth.   Placing the bowl in the refrigerator for a few minutes makes it much easier to roll the cookies into balls.

Place remaining granulated sugar in a large shallow bowl.  Form small dough balls (eat one of two or maybe three).  Roll balls in sugar.  Place on cookie sheets (I used a baking stone that I preheated in the oven).  Flatten with a fork or your hand.  Place about 5 cm apart.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Let cool on baking sheet for about 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.

Enjoy soft chewy goodness!

finely chop ginger

finely chop crystallized ginger

make sure there are no ginger clumps...hot!

add dry ingredients to wet ingredients

roll balls in granulated sugar

remember to flatten with fingers or fork

oh my goodness!

If you manage not to eat all of the cookies ice-scream sandwiches are the next step. 

 PUMPKIN ICE-SCREAM

(2 large servings)

I mostly just throw everything in the blender until it "looks right" (said in my grandmother's voice) but here is a tasty recipe.

Ingredients

*2 C frozen pureed pumpkin

2 C soy, almond or dairy milk (I use So Nice Unsweetened Soy)

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg (I used freshly ground)

1 tsp allspice

2 tsp vanilla paste (or use vanilla bean or worst case scenario vanilla extract)

**2 scoops PC Vanilla Soy Protein Powder (optional)

Blend everything together in your blender.  Blend, blend and blend some more until it has the consistency of soft serve.  Whatever you do make sure there are no pumpkin chunks because that's enough to send anyone over the edge.  Or you could make sure that there are chunks and then you'll never have to share again.   I like to add 1 3/4 C milk and then add the last 1/4 C as needed.  Elbows out and enjoy! 

 If you are making ice-scream sandwiches it can be helpful to place the ice-scream in the freezer for 10 minutes or so until it firms up.  You can store these tasty treats in the freezer for a few days if you wrap them in wax paper.

* I freeze pureed roasted pumpkin in silicone muffin cups in 1/2 C portions.

** If you choose not to use the protein powder you might want to add maple syrup or molasses as a sweetener or use a sweetened soy milk or add a very ripe frozen banana. 

Pumpkin ice-scream on it's own

blend

save some for ice-scream sandwiches

hide in freezer behind frozen tempeh