Superfood Breakfast Cookies

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

It gives our body the fuel it needs to conquer the day, so it’s important to choose foods that will nourish the body so that we’re provided with enough energy until the next meal.  One of the best nutritional pieces of advice I’ve ever received was from an old boss, who told me that her father always believed the first meal of the day should consist of healthy carbohydrates and proteins. After all, you’re breaking the fast that your body endured after dinner and during sleep, so chances are it’s been 12 hours since you last ate.

I’ve always believed that breakfast should be the largest meal of the day, as you’re able to spend the rest of the day expending the energy you’ve consumed. That being said, I know plenty of people who opt not to eat anything at all for breakfast, which would explain why they’re starving when lunch time finally rolls around, and they end up gorging on unhealthier food choices. This in turn of course, usually leads to a slower metabolism, and the need for these people to continually yo-yo diet…and unfortunately perhaps choosing weight-loss supplements or diet meal replacement shakes in search of a quick fix to losing the weight.

Luckily for those people, I’ve discovered a simple way to eat breakfast — in the form of cookies! Everyone enjoys a warm ooey-gooey cookie, and the convenience of these healthy treats means there won’t be any excuse for not eating breakfast.

These cookies were actually somewhat of an accidental discovery when I realised I’d cooked too much porridge on the stove. Curiosity and ingenuity led to me dumping all of my superfoods into the food processor, and then mixing the concoction into the warm oats in the pot. After playing with oven cooking times and temperatures, I took the guess-work out for you, and lo and behold: my Superfood Breakfast Cookies!

 

INGREDIENTS

Porridge:

• 1 ½ cups Rolled Oats
• 1 cup  Almond Mylk
• 2 Tbsp Cacao
• 2 Tbsp Maca Powder
• 2 Bananas, coarsely chopped
• 1 Tsp Organic Vanilla Extract
• 3 Tbsp Honey

Superfoods Blend:

• 1 Tbsp Flax Seeds
• ½ cup of Bran Flakes
• ¼ cup Raisins
• ¼ cup Goji Berries
• 1 Tbsp Bee Pollen
• 1 Tsp Chlorella
• 1/3 cup mixture of Brazil Nuts, Pecans & Cashews
• 2 Tbsp Chia Seeds
• 5 Prunes (can be substituted for dates to use as sweetener)
• ¼ cup Hemp Hearts
• 1 Tbsp Acai Powder
• * Coconut Water (use sparingly)

 

DIRECTIONS

Combine the oats, almond mylk, cacao, maca powder, bananas, vanilla extract and honey in a medium sized sauce pan, thoroughly mixing everything together. Cover pot with lid, and leave on medium heat until mixture begins to thicken and oats are soft, about 10 minutes.

While oat mixture is cooking, combine the remaining ingredients into a food processor or blender. To keep the mixture from sticking, add small amounts of the coconut water until the mixture has the consistency of crunchy peanut butter.

Once oats have finished cooking, remove from heat and add the blended nutty superfood mixture to the pot, and stir. The batter should resemble that of oatmeal cookies. If the result is too runny, add more chia seeds and allow the mix to sit while the seeds gel. If the mixture is too thick, add small amounts of coconut water.

Space cookies far apart from each other, and be sure to flatten

Preheat the oven to 175*c / 345*f and line 2 baking pans with parchment paper. Form the sticky batter into balls, then place on the baking pans, flattening them out into a cookie shape. The cookies will rise and taste more like a muffin if the batter isn’t spread flat enough on the sheets.  Ensure that cookies are not touching each other.

Once oven is hot enough, place the cookies on the middle rack and bake for 10 minutes. When the edges begin to look slightly browned, remove the pan from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes.

Next, you’ll need to flip the cookies so that they can get crunchy on the underside.

For optimum chewiness, flip the cookies mid-bake

Place back in oven for an additional 7-10 minutes, or until cookies begin to look hard. Remove from heat, and let cool.

As the cookies may still retain some of their moisture inside, they store best in the fridge, uncovered in a container and are best consumed within 5 days. If you can’t eat 36 cookies in 5 days though, they also freeze well.

MAKES: 36 cookies

PREP TIME: 10 minutes

TOTAL COOKING TIME: 30 minutes

Nutritional info per cookie:

 

The Most Important Meal of the Day

break·fast // brekfəst

The first meal of the day, generally consumed during the morning (unless you have a bizarre work schedule or really slept in late). The act of “breaking the overnight fast you had while sleeping.”

My father was a firm believer in never letting my sister and I leave the house without a belly full of food. I grew up with breakfast not only being the most important meal of the day, but also the largest. Generally he’d make a feast of eggs, hashbrown potatoes, bacon, & toast, and we weren’t allowed to leave the table until our plates were practically licked clean. We were late for school numerous times because we simply had too much food to eat and couldn’t chew fast enough. Looking back, this helped my metabolism significantly. Think about it: you’re consuming your highest number of calories first thing in the day, meaning you have a full day to work everything off. Breakfast provides you with the energy you need, and for a growing kid that loved to horse around at recess and pretty much ran everywhere instead of walking, this was vital. 

Now that I’m no longer aiming for a growth spurt (physically), I’ve dialed back the amount of food for my weekday breakfasts. I’ve never been much of a morning person, nor do I have someone to scold me and insist I eat before I leave the house for work. Instead, I usually end up bringing my food to the office. And although I have actually tried bringing a full sized breakfast in with me (eggs, toast, and at the time turkey bacon), it’s pretty messy and gets cold quick when I get preoccupied with my work tasks.

My usual workday breakfast will vary depending on the season. During the warmer months, it’s easier to sip on a cool smoothie or chia seed pudding. In the cooler months, I’ll opt for something with complex carbs like oatmeal or a parfait.

Weekends are when I get wild, and go back to my roots. Breakfasts will be massive so that I have the energy to walk 3km to the farmer’s market afterwards for my week’s worth of fresh fruit & veg, walk back home to tend to the gardens, clean the house and then prepare lunch and dinner for the night (and if it’s Sunday, meal prep for the rest of the week).  Pretty much everything finds its way onto my plate on Saturday and Sunday mornings, with the aim of covering at least half of my plate with a combination of fruits and vegetables. Farm-fresh omelets, hashbrown skillets,  3 ingredient pancakes, or fruit salad & avocado toast are not only simple to make but delicious and leave you with the fuel you need to start your day.