oatmeal-flax chocolate chip cookies

Full disclosure: I snagged this one from the Food Network Magazine, and didn't change a thing. They are delicious and I couldn't even taste the flax! This would be a great way to sneak it into a kid's diet with one or two for dessert - just remember that they are still cookies and therefore still contain hefty amounts of butter and sugar! Enjoy.

Oatmeal-Flax Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1/4 cup flaxseed, finely ground in a spice grinder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Whisk the flour, oats, flaxseed, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a bowl.
3. Beat the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, about four minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low; add the flour mixture and beat until just combined, scraping down the bowl as needed. Stir in the chocolate chips.
4. Drop heaping tablespoonfuls of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, about two inches apart. Bake until golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Let the cookies cool three minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to racks to cool completely.

Pin It

banana-nut crumb muffins

A friend at work brought these babies in to share and I fell in love with them pretty much immediately (I actually ate it on the elevator between two floors ... yeah ... ). One morning this past weekend, two browning bananas were calling my name and I was kicking myself for not having asked her which recipe she used. A quick search gave me the one below, but I quickly modified it to make it heathier. Just as good, but with lots of extra goodies baked inside. Score!

Banana-Nut Crumb Muffins
Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or half whole wheat, half all-purpose)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 c ground flax
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 bananas, mashed (supplement apple sauce if you're short)
• 3/4 cup white sugar or sucanat (dried cane sugar - a minimally processed, natural sweetener)
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/8 c chopped walnuts or pecans
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon canola oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease 12 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and canola. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
3. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, nuts, cinnamon and canola. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean. 

carrot cake muffins for breakfast (or anytime)

Ok, so with a name like Carrot Cake Muffins, I bet you're thinking that these are super unhealthy, right? Think again. These orange-crowned little beauties are stuffed with whole wheat flour, flax, walnuts, shredded carrots and crushed pineapple, cinnamon and heart-healthy canola oil. It really is a breakfast of champions, especially because it's not too sweet. A good source of fiber, healthy fats and antioxidants, I topped mine with a dollop of my sister-in-law's homemade fig jam. Delish.

Carrot Cake Muffins
Makes 12
I think I might have made these up ... or it's a recipe that I modified a long time ago.

Ingredients

• 3/4 c all-purpose flour
• 1/2 c whole-wheat pastry flour
• 2/3 c dark brown sugar
• 2-3 tbsp ground flax seed
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp fine salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 c canola oil
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 4-5 medium carrots, shredded (2 cups)
• 8 oz can crushed pineapple in its own juice, drained

1. Preheat oven to 350*. Line 12 muffin tins with liners.
2. Whisk flours, brown sugar, flax, cinnamon, baking powder and soda, and salt in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, oil and vanilla. Quickly and lightly fold the wet ingredients into the dry with a rubber spatula. (The batter will be very thick and will seem dry at this point.) Fold in carrots, pineapple and walnuts. (The batter will become wetter at this point, but will still be thick.) Add to muffin tins.
3. Bake 25-30 minutes and remove from tin after 10 minutes out of the oven.

Need other healthy baked good ideas? Try these:

• Healthy, tasty banana bread
• Hearty cinnamon-raisin bread
• Whole-grain banana-coconut muffins that even coconut haters love
• The best zucchini bread in the world (seriously ... )
• Ugly little energy bars

healthy, tasty banana bread

When I was a girl scout, my mom and I made banana bread for a baking contest. The recipe won the blue recipe for taste, but not necessarily for health. Don't get me wrong, it was delicious, and is still a family favorite, but the loads of butter, sugar and white flour made it more of a dessert than a healthy bread loaf.

Since graduating college, I've been on the hunt for a better-for-you, yet still tasty, banana bread. Almost six years later, and somewhere between five to ten recipes discarded, I have found it. It goes easy on the butter and sugars, heavy on the whole wheat and spices, uses yogurt instead of oils and packs a health punch with the addition of flax.

Give it a try; you won't be disappointed. And your waistline will thank you, too.

Healthy, Tasty Banana Bread (very modified from Cooking Light)

• 1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (~2 large ripe bananas)
• 1/3 cup plain fat-free vanilla or plain yogurt
• 5 tablespoons butter, melted, or canola oil 
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar or honey (decrease the cooking time slightly if using honey)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 
• 1 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
• 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice 

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed. Add granulated and brown sugars and vanilla; beat until combined.
3. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through ground allspice). Add flour mixture to banana mixture; beat just until blended. Pour batter into a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 55 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven; cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Remove bread from pan; cool completely.