Recipe At-A-Glance
Cookies for breakfast? Absolutely! These whole-grain, lightly-sweet Oatmeal Raisin Breakfast Cookies are a great way to kick your day off right.
Breakfast has been my jam lately. It’s almost entirely because my morning sickness (what a terribly misleading name) is actually afternoon/evening sickness. I feel awesome when I first wake up! And since I’m itching to get in the kitchen and create things—and onions and garlic are still on the please-don’t-bring-these-anywhere-near-me list—it means my creations are focusing pretty solidly on sweet breakfast foods.
I haven’t been stressing too much about my eating during pregnancy. In fact, my midwives have told me that with continuing morning sickness like mine (going on week 24—yay?), getting in any food and keeping it down is more important than the quality of food.
What I have been doing is trying hard to front-load my days with healthy eats. I try to get in as many healthy fats, whole grains, fruits and veggies as I can before noon, because on most days, come about 3pm, all bets are off.
These oatmeal raisin breakfast cookies are a great way to help me get in some goodies before my body decides it wants to boycott eating in the afternoon. They are entirely whole grain, they are sweetened with all-natural honey and applesauce—oh, and they’re way tasty. If you’re a big fan of sweet treats for breakfast (think: donuts, pastries, scones, muffins), these breakfast cookies are a nice way to ease you into a healthier sweet breakfast option. They’re sweet, but not eating-cake-for-breakfast kind of sweet. And with that sweetness, you’re getting a ton of fiber, healthy fats, and even a nice dose of Omega-3s, thanks to some ground flax seed.
Of course, these oatmeal raisin breakfast cookies aren’t just for breakfast. I’ve also been grabbing a couple of them with a piece of fruit as an on-the-go snack. Basically, these cookies will work for just about any meal of the day. Except dessert. I mean, sure, they’re called cookies, but they’re not dessert cookies.
A bit of a tangent here: for years, when I would try to lose weight, I thought being “healthy” meant that everything I consumed had to be totally, 100% healthy. It was all or nothing. If I happened to slip up and eat a mini-Snickers bar at work, I had ruined everything (drama queen, what). It led me to trying to healthify absolutely everything. I wouldn’t eat dessert if it wasn’t sweetened with applesauce only. I wouldn’t eat pasta unless it was the whole wheatiest, crunchiest, hippiest pasta in the store. I wouldn’t even go near a restaurant unless it had healthy organic options on the menu. It wasn’t sustainable.
Of course, that just totally set me up for failure. Because life isn’t about everything being healthified. Life is about enjoying a piece of birthday cake that your mom handmade for you (with, gasp, real butter, sugar and white flour). Or eating a big salad of veggies fresh from your garden. Or digging into a bowl of melty, cheesy, gooey mac and cheese after a really rough day at work. Or eating applesauce-sweetened, whole grain oatmeal raisin breakfast cookies.
It wasn’t until I realized that the world of applesauce-sweetened cookies and the world of melty, cheesy, gooey mac and cheese could actually co-exist that I started to get really healthy. And that’s, obviously, the philosophy that led me to start this blog of mine.
Anywho, I know that sweets aren’t all that important to some people, but because I have such a raging sweet tooth, part of my food philosophy is that, if I’m going to have dessert, I’m going to have dessert.
I’m going to do it right. And as delicious as these breakfast cookies are alongside coffee and orange slices in the morning or as a grab-and-go snack, they are not dessert cookies. Promise me you’ll go out and get yourself a hunk of chocolate or a little bowl of ice cream or a piece of cheesecake and not eat these cookies for dessert, k? You deserve a better dessert than these.
Oatmeal Raisin Breakfast Cookies
Cookies for breakfast? Absolutely! These whole-grain, lightly-sweet cookies are a great way to kick your day off right. If you're pressed for time on most mornings, make up a big batch of these on a slow weekend and freeze. A few seconds in the microwave, and they're just like fresh-baked!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup melted coconut oil (or other mild-flavored oil)
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup raisins
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the coconut oil, eggs, vanilla extract, applesauce and honey until well combined. Set aside
- In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the flour, oats, flaxseed, baking soda, cinnamon and raisins until well combined. Add in the wet ingredients and stir until completely mixed. The batter will be wet. Allow the batter to rest for 5 minutes (this helps thicken it a bit).
- Spoon rounded tablespoons, two inches apart onto the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown around the edges. Let cool 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then remove to cooling rack to cool completely.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 18 Serving Size: 1 cookieAmount Per Serving: Calories: 156Total Fat: 8gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 21mgSodium: 45mgCarbohydrates: 19gFiber: 2gSugar: 7gProtein: 3g
At Wholefully, we believe that good nutrition is about much more than just the numbers on the nutrition facts panel. Please use the above information as only a small part of what helps you decide what foods are nourishing for you.
