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 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 Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal

I'm not sure why my cousins thought that ice-cream cake & homemade wine was a good idea but who was I to argue.  These are the same cousins that thought it would be a good idea (so I didn't exactly argue) to text a picture of a birthday cake and an inappropriate hand gesture to our cousin who forgot about his own cousins dinner.  Perhaps we shouldn't have let the cousin who had been drinking send the text....sorry Clare who knew J couldn't be trusted to type in a telephone number correctly.

So after too much ice-cream, wine, and a Sunday run I decided to skip out on mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and stuffing and instead make baked oatmeal with some of my favourite fall ingredients: pumpkin, cranberries and maple syrup.

baked pumpkin oatmeal with apple butter

oats, allspice, dried cranberries, cinnamon

soft silken tofu, vanilla, maple syrup, soy milk

30 minutes later baked oatmeal

Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal

ingredients

2 C old fashioned oats

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp allspice 

1 C soy milk

1/2 block soft silken tofu drained

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

1/4 C dried cranberries

3 Tbsp local maple syrup

1/2 C canned (or roasted or boiled) pumpkin

Preheat oven to 400 F.

In your favourite corningware combine oats, dried cranberries, cinnamon & allspice.

In your blender combine soy milk, pumpkin, drained tofu, vanilla, & maple syrup.  Blend until well combined.

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and combine thoroughly.  Allow to bake for approximately 30 minutes uncovered.

Top with apple butter, additional soy milk or maple syrup.  Maybe share with a friend.

This Thanksgiving I'm thankful for pumpkin, cousins parties, and two very sleepy dogs.

Will Run For Oatmeal Mango Pancakes with Coconut Citrus Sauce

Today I spent the morning in the kitchen with Mama Pea (her cookbook anyway).  It's amazing how much you can get done when you get up at 5:20 (thanks for nothing Hank). 

 A barbecue at pace bunny's was a great excuse to try out some of the recipes in my new cookbook www.peasandthankyou.com/peas-and-thank-you-the-book  Who needs face and mother when you can have chickpea strawberry mango salad with cinnamon vinaigrette (I might start drinking this stuff for breakfast) or mango cupcakes with coconut cream icing?

Mango cupcakes with coconut cream icing were a great excuse to make oatmeal mango pancakes with coconut citrus sauce.  These are a "stick to your ribs" kind of pancake.  Imagine your bowl of oatmeal in pancake form but with all kinds of yummy extras (I'm not the only person that is excited by the thought of this am I?).

Oatmeal Mango Pancakes with Coconut Citrus Sauce

(serves 2 not so hungry people or one really hungry person)

ingredients

1/2 C light coconut milk (I used 1/4 C soy and 1/4 full fat coconut)

1/3 C oats

1/3 C whole wheat pastry flour

1 Tbsp demerara sugar (regular brown sugar works as well)

1/8 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 flax egg (1 Tbsp of flax ground with 2 Tbsp of water let sit until it thickens)

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp vanilla paste

1/4 C diced mango (I thawed frozen PC mango)

1 recipe Coconut Citrus Sauce

In a small saucepan heat coconut milk until hot and steamy, add oats, bring to a boil and immediately remove from element. Cover and let sit approximately 10 minutes until the oats have softened.

hot and steamy

While you are waiting impatiently in a bowl big enough to accommodate wet and dry ingredients stir together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and ginger.

In a small bowl stir together the flax egg, oil and vanilla.  Add the oat mixture and the flax mixture together then combine with the flour mixture.  Fold in 1/4 cup of diced mango.

Lightly oil your skillet.  Allow your oil to heat thoroughly before adding pancake batter (otherwise the pancake absorbs all of the oil).  Cook for 4 minutes on each side at medium heat or until brown and cooked thoroughly.  Flip pancake when you see bubbles forming.  You may need to add additional oil.

Coconut Citrus Sauce

(1 Cup)

ingredients

1/2 C orange juice
2 Tbsp coconut milk

1 tsp cornstarch

1 C diced mango (again I used PC frozen mango that I thawed)

pinch of cloves

In a small sauce pan stir together orange juice, coconut milk and cornstarch over medium heat.  Continue to stir until mixture is thick and bubbly (about 2 minutes).  Add diced mango.  Lightly mash mango with potato masher (or wait patiently until the mango breaks up).