Easy Breakfast Cookies

These are my go-to breakfast cookies! They are healthy enough to munch on a couple for breakfast, but  tasty enough for dessert too. Nobody wants to eat cardboard cookies, no matter how healthy! These are made mostly with nuts, oats, and flaxseed, and are sweetened with agave nectar, banana, and a touch of brown sugar. Each cookie is studded with dried cranberries, chocolate chips, and pumpkin seeds for a nutritious and scrumptious bite!

Hi everyone! I know it's been a super long time since we've chatted and I truely am sorry for that. Please forgive me as I've been a little preoccupied of late. The last several months haven't found me cooking a whole lot; mostly just eating fruit which is pretty boring and I confess would make an absolutely terrible blog post, but I've missed you all! If you happen to be at all curious as to what is seriously going on with me that I could have abandoned you for so long, there might be a little confession on my Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds, so be sure to check it out. Eeek! 

However, things will be picking up here again I hope and I'll be getting back into the cooking/blogging world a little more. One of the things I have been making are these breakfast cookies. Each time I whip up a batch they are different and lend beautifully to substitutions. I use different flours, seeds, nuts, and fruit depending on what I have on hand. I love them so much I figured it was about time I put them up here to share with you all as well! These cookies are so super scrumptious and embarrassingly easy to make. I hope you enjoy them as much as this cookie monster! 

Easy Breakfast Cookies

By Kathleen Henry @ Produce On Parade

Published 01/04/2017

These are my go-to breakfast cookies! They are healthy enough to munch on a couple for breakfast, but tasty enough for dessert too. Nobody wants to eat cardboard cookies, no matter how healthy! These are made mostly with nuts, oats, and flaxseed, and are sweetened with agave nectar, banana, and a touch of brown sugar. Each cookie is studded with dried cranberries, chocolate chips, and pumpkin seeds for a nutritious and scrumptious bite! NOTES: *If your peanut butter is a bit runny, you may need to add more flour as necessary.

Ingredients

• ½ cup raw walnuts
• ½ cup raw pecans
• 1 ½ cups old-fashioned rolled oats (not the quick-cooking kind)
• ⅓ cup whole wheat flour (or flour of choice)
• ½ cup ground flax seed
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp kosher salt
• ½ cup peanut or almond butter*
• 2 tbsp coconut oil, room temperature
• 1 medium ripe banana
• ¼ cup agave nectar or maple syrup
• ¼ cup lightly packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp maple extract (optional)
• ½ cup dried cranberries (or blueberries, cherries, etc.)
• ½ cup vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 2 tbsp pumpkin seeds (or seeds of choice)

Instructions

1. In a food processor, process the walnuts and pecans until very fine; transfer to a large mixing bowl and stir in the oats through the salt with a wooden spoon.
2. Add the peanut butter through the maple extract to the food processor and pulse until smooth; transfer to the mixing bowl along with the cranberries, chocolate chips, and pumpkin seeds. Stir until the dough is just combined; the dough should be somewhat sticky.
3. Preheat the oven to 375°F and line two cookie sheets with non-stick silicone mats or parchment paper. Drop 12 cookies on each sheet (they shouldn’t spread much) and bake for about 12-14 minutes on the two middle oven racks, switching the sheets places halfway through. The cookies should be golden brown around the edges, but care not to overbake.
4. Allow the cookies to rest for 5 minutes on the sheets before transferring to a wire cooling rack. Store in an airtight container. I like to put mine in the fridge.

Yield: 24 Cookies

Rhubarb & Raspberry Nut Crisp

Taking advantage of the backyard bounty, this is healthy and deliciously tart and sweet crisp is a breeze to whip up. Oats and nuts lend their nutrition to make one scrumptious dessert, bursting with sweet and juicy raspberries and puckering rhubarb.

In my world... where there's rhubarb, there's crisp. My love for crisp knows no bounds. Using fresh rhubarb just plucked from the garden and berries that Todd and I picked last summer, there's certainly no better summertime dessert.

This recipe is a deviation from my standard crisp. It's a little healthier; with an all nut crumble and I use erythritol in place of regular sugar for Todd (it aggravates his RA). We had raspberries from my Grandparent's garden on hand in the freezer and though I'm stodgily a strawberry-rhubarb gal, they worked great. 

Perfect for dessert or the most divine breakfast, you really can't go wrong here. I hope you enjoy this scrummy little recipe as much as we did!

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. ”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Rhubarb & Raspberry Nut Crisp

By Kathleen Henry @ Produce On Parade

Published 05/23/2016

Taking advantage of the backyard bounty, this is healthy and deliciously tart and sweet crisp is a breeze to whip up. Oats and nuts lend their nutrition to make one scrumptious dessert, bursting with sweet and juicy raspberries and puckering rhubarb.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups frozen raspberries
• 1 ½ cups fresh rhubarb (about 3 stalks), sliced
• 2 tbsp ground flaxseed, divided
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• splash of lemon juice
• ½ cup raw almonds
• ½ cup raw pecans
• 1 cup rolled oats
• ¼ cup room-temperature coconut oil
• 2 tbsp agave nectar
• 2 tbsp erythritol or vegan granulated sugar
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• pinch of kosher salt

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and coat a pie dish with a nonstick cooking spray.
2. Mix the raspberries, rhubarb, 1 tbsp ground flaxseed, vanilla, and lemon juice in the pie dish with your hands to combine; spread out into an even layer.
3. Process the almonds and pecans in a food process until a flour-like consistency. Pulse in the remaining ingredients until just combined. We don’t want the oats to be processed too much.
4. Spread the crumb mixture over the berry mixture and bake for about 30 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the juices are bubbling. Serve warm.

Yield: 4

Yum

Read all about how the folks behind the Impossible Food Beyond Burger create that perfect, vegan burger in this totally fascinating interview from Science Friday. 

Turmeric & Cinnamon Pumpkin Pancakes and Food52 VEGAN Cookbook Review

These light and fluffy pumpkin pancakes are spiced with cinnamon and turmeric for a seasonal flair and a boost in antioxidants. A two-bowl recipe that's about as easy and quick as they come! Vegans and omnivores alike will agree this breakfast is a keeper.

Todd is a breakfast man. Each weekend, we embark on the journey to make a decadent feast to break our fast. Oftentimes it's more for his sake than my own. I've never claimed to eat breakfast with any regularity, however, these pancakes I would gladly eat each morning! 

I adapted these pumpkin pancakes from Food52's cookbook simply titled, Vegan. I cannot tell you how excited I was to receive this book to review and how many things I've many from it already. This is one of those cookbooks that confidently sighs and claims a coveted spot among your other trusty cookbooks. It's a keeper for sure, take my word on that.

Vegan is written by the very talented, Gena Hamshaw, host of ChoosingRaw.com and contributer to Food52. The cookbook is filled with no-nonsense recipes featuring whole food ingredients. With classics like Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese and Lentil Sloppy Joes, the book also features more unique dishes such as Eggplant Tagine with Millet and  Preserved Lemon as well as a Raw Citrus Cheesecake.

The cookbook is divided into the classic, Breakfast, Appetizers & Snacks, Soups, Salads, Main Dishes, and Desserts chapters. It also features a neat Vegan 101 section where the different components such as A Tempeh Tutorial and Give Millet a Chance are incorporated into the applicable recipes. I thought this was kind of neat as one doesn't always read these bits before embarking on a recipe. It was fun to see them spread out amongst the recipes, where needed. There is also a Basics chapter that features recipes for a couple different milks, an egg replacer, and a few cheeses. 

Vegan is filled with beautiful photographs in the usual, moody Food52 style which I really adore. The images are just so simplistic and modern, featuring neutral colors and a matte finish.  The entire hardcover is elegant and understated, not boastful; you can tell it's solid.

So far I've made the Go-To Pancakes, Five-Minute No-Bake Granola Bars, and the Mushroom, Pecan, and Lentil Burgers. All were absolutely scrummy! I can't recommend this cookbook enough! Right now get Food52 Vegan: 60 Vegetable-Driven Recipes for Any Kitchen (Food52 Works) for almost half off at Amazon.com! That's less than $13 for this hardcover. I hope you love it as much as I do. 

Okay, now onto these delicious pancakes. You definitely don't want to miss these, they are too easy. I decided to make Gena's pumpkin version because... you know... it's my favorite season-pumpkin season!! Of course, I couldn't just well enough alone though. 

Todd sprained his ankle while we were working on our home building and it had swelled pretty huge (thanks rheumatoid arthritis, *sad face*) and was obviously paining him a great deal. Turmeric is supposed to help with inflammation and considering that's basically what RA is, I add it to pretty much everything upon discovering the finger-staining stuff. These pancakes were no exception, and could not escape my heavy-hand when it comes to turmeric. Plus, see as these are pumpkin pancakes, the turmeric aided in enhancing that very orangey-pumpkin hue. It was decided that cinnamon would be an excellent compliment to both the turmeric and the pumpkin and so it was that these pancakes were born. Now I crave them almost every weekend. 

Unfortunately, in the end, Todd had to have his one knee drained but I like to think these helped at least a little...

Turmeric & Cinnamon Pumpkin Pancakes

Recipe by Kathleen Henry @ Produce On Parade and adapted from Food52's cookbook, Vegan

These light and fluffy pumpkin pancakes are spiced with cinnamon and turmeric for a seasonal flair and a boost in antioxidants. A two-bowl recipe that's about as easy and quick as they come! Vegans and omnivores alike will agree this breakfast is a keeper.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp vegan granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp table salt
• 2 cups unsweetened nondairy milk
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 3 tbsp melted coconut oil, refined or unrefined
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• pat of vegan butter (for serving)
• splash of maple syrup (for serving)

Cooking Directions

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour through the salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients. Whisk the wet mixture into the dry mixture until smooth.
2. Heat a cast iron pan or grill over medium-high and coat with a nonstick cooking spray. Once hot, pour on about ¼ cup of the batter. Once bubbles have formed all over the surface, flip and cook on the other side until just golden. Repeat with remaining batter and serve hot with maple syrup and vegan butter.