My most favorite cookie: Classic Oatmeal Chocolate Chip.

Gluten-free option | Dairy-free option | Soy-free | Nut-free

Oh, Classic Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways:

I love you before you ever get into the oven. I love you straight out of the oven. I love you 3 days later–though you rarely last that long.

I have loved you dairy-free.

I have loved you with a bit of flaxseed added to the dough when my milk supply was suffering.

I loved you in Switzerland with chopped-up Swiss chocolate bars when we were desperately homesick for something that tasted familiar.

And now, I love you gluten-free.

Suffice it to say, friends, these cookies are favorites around here. And I have made them SO many different ways during SO many different phases of our lives, and they’re always delicious. One of the many things I love about the recipe is how easy and straightforward  it is–almost everything is whole cups or teaspoons, so it dirties fewer utensils and I now have the recipe memorized–so I don’t want to make it too unnecessarily complex with lots of different measurements. I’ve been trying to think of how to best post this recipe with all of the variations we’ve done to accommodate various changes in diet over the years, and I hope that this is the best solution. Bear with me!

Classic Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Original recipe here

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 cups flour
• 2 3/4 cups old-fashioned oats (if you live in a humid climate, like I do, where cookies are prone to spreading, I’ve found that 2 cups old-fashioned plus 3/4 cup quick oats help the cookies maintain their shape and thickness best)
• 2 cups chocolate chips (we use half milk, half semisweet)

Nursing variation (has helped me and several friends boost breastmilk supply):
Substitute up to 1/4 cup flaxseed meal for up to 1/4 cup of the oats (quick oats, if using).

Dairy-free variation:
Substitute Earth Balance soy-free buttery stick for butter. Decrease salt by 1/4 tsp. Substitute 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cup Enjoy Life semisweet mini chips for the chocolate chips.

Whole-grain variations:
Substitute whole-wheat pastry flour for all of the all-purpose flour, or use 1 cup white whole-wheat flour and 1 cup all-purpose flour.

Gluten-free variation:
For the flour, substitute 2 1/4 cups (note the extra 1/4 cup) gluten-free baking blend and ensure that all remaining ingredients are gluten-free. Because we’re always trying to get more fiber into this new gluten-free diet, we use 1 1/2 cups Cup 4 Cup brand all-purpose flour (the blue bag) plus 3/4 cup Cup 4 Cup brand Wholesome Flour (the green bag) because it contains brown rice flour and flaxseed for more fiber.

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line baking sheets with parchment.
2. In your stand mixer, cream together butter and sugars. Beat in eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy.
3. Mix in salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
4. Add all remaining ingredients and mix until just combined.
5. Spoon 2-Tbsp-sized balls of dough (I use a dough scoop) onto cookie sheet and bake 10 minutes or until golden around the edges and set in the middle. Cool on the cookie sheet a few minutes before transferring to cooling rack. Makes about 3 dozen.

Whole-wheat blueberry pancakes.

Friday night has become pancake night at our house. The girls love their pancakes, & it makes my meal planning easier knowing that pancakes will always be that night. But pancake night brings with it 2 challenges: 1) How not to get sick of the same recipe every week, & 2) How to make a carb-heavy meal hearty & healthy. So let’s just say you’ll probably be seeing lots more pancake recipes on here in the future… (If you haven’t seen my banana walnut pancakes yet, go there now. I’ll wait. You can thank me later.)

The base of these whole-wheat blueberry pancakes is remarkably similar to those banana walnut pancakes. It has me thinking that I could probably interchange fruit mix-ins with very little changing of the recipe! Once again, I’ve subbed some Greek yogurt into the original recipe for added protein, & flaxseed for fiber, omega-3s, & general awesomeness. If you still have blueberries in your grocery store, hurry & make these before you have to wait until January for the Chilean ones!

• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 2 Tbsp. flaxseed meal (pour into a 1-cup measuring cup, then add flour below)
• 1 cup (minus 2 Tbsp.) all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup buttermilk (make by adding 1 Tbsp. white vinegar to a 4-cup measuring cup & filling with milk to the 1-cup line & waiting 5-10 minutes before adding remaining liquid ingredients)
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3 Tbsp. butter, melted & cooled
• 1 cup Greek yogurt
• extra milk for thinning batter (about 1/4 cup)
• blueberries

1. Whisk dry ingredients together in a medium bowl.
2. Combine liquid ingredients in a large measuring cup, then pour into dry ingredients & stir gently until just combined (batter will be lumpy). Stir in milk to reach desired consistency.
3. Heat a griddle on medium to medium-low heat, then spray with cooking spray. Ladle 1/4-cup portions of batter, then sprinkle several berries in each (extra points from your Munchkins for smiley faces). Let cook until bubbles form in the batter & edges are set, then flip & cook on the other side a few more minutes or until golden brown & done in the middle. Because the batter is relatively thick, a lower temperature for longer may be your best bet.
4. Repeat with remaining batter & berries, spraying the griddle between every batch or two.
5. Serve immediately as desired (with additional berries & some cream, or just with plain old maple syrup). Extra pancakes can be frozen & reheated in the toaster.

Lunch bag: Healthy No-Bake Peanut Butter Balls

Dairy-free option | Soy-free | Gluten-free option | Clean-eating option

My 4-year-old’s preschool asks parents to pack healthy snacks that feature at least 2 food groups. This being my first year packing anything resembling a school lunch, of course I’m going over the top looking for fun, healthy snack ideas she’ll eat. This has been my first great victory: they’re easy, she loved helping me make them, they travel well, they’re not messy, & even My Husband The Suspicious Of Anything Labeled “Healthy” gave them his stamp of approval.

UPDATE: This is my new go-to to take to new moms. The oats and flax are great for breastmilk supply, and the quick energy is awesome for those early weeks of nursing All. The. Time.

• 2 cups quick oats (use certified gluten-free if needed)
• 1 cup Rice Krispies*
• 1 cup flaxseed meal
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips**
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter (we use Natural Jif or Skippy)*
• 2/3 cup honey
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 Tbsp. coconut oil

1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, mixing gently to not crush the cereal, until well coated.
2. Use a tablespoon or soup spoon to scoop out tablespoon-sized portions & roll them into balls between your hands. Place them on a parchment- or waxed-paper-lined cookie sheet.
3. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours. You can serve them now, or place them in a Ziploc bag in the freezer to portion out in your kids’ lunches. They’ll keep a week in the fridge or a few months in the freezer.

* If you want to keep it 100% clean, use a less-processed brown rice cereal, or sub 2/3 cup more of quick oats, and use fresh-ground peanut butter (though that will make it much harder to mix) or another brand of jarred peanut butter that doesn’t contain refined sugar.

** For dairy- and soy-free, use Enjoy Life brand chips.

Original recipe here.

Linked up at Mommy Solutions

Double-chocolate avocado whole-wheat muffins.

That’s quite a mouthful of a title, isn’t it? Let’s give them a tastier (i.e. not healthy-sounding) nickname: Happy Chocolate Muffins. Or something.

Who else has a picky eater in their house? My 15-month-old is ours. She won’t drink milk, so we’re still nursing (even at night – woo-hoo!), & though she’s consistently at around the 90th percentile for height, over the past 6 months we’ve seen her weight drop from 50th… to 30th… to 14th. One month we learned she lost a pound. Yikes! So under doctor’s orders I’ve been trying to find creative ways to incorporate the healthy fats she’s not getting from whole milk or the many foods she won’t eat into foods she will eat. I plan to post some of the tips & tricks I’ve been learning in the near future, but in the meantime, here’s my latest discovery:

Using avocado instead of butter or oil in baked goods.

Huge revelation!

Avocados are amazing. According to WebMD, “Avocados are a good source of fiber, potassium, and vitamins C,K, folate, and B6. Half an avocado has 160 calories, 15 grams of heart-healthy unsaturated fat, and only 2 grams saturated fat. One globe contains more than one-third daily value of vitamin C, and more than half the day’s requirements of vitamin K.”

So after one particularly scary weight check at the doctor’s office, I bought an avocado on sale & then asked my friends on Facebook for ways to sneak it into a picky toddler’s diet. I got tons of great ideas! Smoothies, mashed with bananas (that worked, like, once), & baked into stuff. One friend sent me the recipe below.

On the first try, these were tasty… if a little dense. The original recipe called for using all whole-wheat flour. The girls didn’t seem to mind, but, my husband said it tasted like a “chocolate bran muffin.” I remade them last night with half whole-wheat, half all-purpose, & they were an even bigger hit! If you’re concerned that your kids (or your husband!) will suspect & thus not eat the “healthy” muffins, start with the proportions below; then, if you want to make it healthier, gradually increase the proportion of whole-wheat. And don’t say anything about the avocado; you can’t taste it, & it’ll just give them a reason to turn up their noses at these. There’s no point if they won’t eat them, right? I also added flaxseed for more healthy fats, omega-3s, lignans, & fiber.

The original recipe was for mini-muffins, but since I don’t have a mini-muffin tin (what?!), mine are regular-sized. Mini-muffins are a perfect size to put in your little one’s lunchbox when school starts next month.

• 2 Tbsp. flaxseed meal (pour into 1-cup measuring cup before adding the flour & then fill the rest with the flour)
• 1 1/3 cup (minus 2 Tbsp.) all-purpose flour*
• 1 1/3 cup whole-wheat flour*
• 1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp. cocoa powder
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 large, ripe Hass avocado
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 cup chocolate chips (if making mini-muffins, use mini chocolate chips)

* The original recipe calls for all whole-wheat flour, but my family is more likely to eat them this way.

1. Preheat oven to 375. Spray wells of muffin tin generously with cooking spray. (I tried using papers, but they stuck like crazy. So don’t be like me.)
2. Sift together dry ingredients.
3. Beat the avocado & sugar together around 3 minutes, or until smooth. Isn’t that beautiful?
4. Beat in liquid ingredients. Slowly add dry ingredients, stirring until incorporated.
5. Fold in chocolate chips.
6. Spoon into wells of muffin tin. Bake for 18 minutes for regular muffins, or 15 minutes for mini-muffins. Makes 2 dozen regular muffins or 4 dozen mini-muffins.

Healthed-up banana walnut pancakes.

If you were to ask my 4-year-old what she wants for dinner, you’ll almost always hear one of three things: pizza, spaghetti & meatballs, or pancakes. I try to indulge these requests, but those foods aren’t exactly healthy most of the time, so I try to smarten them up a little. We almost always have ripe bananas & walnuts, so I found this recipe & thought of ways to make it a little more nutritious. Whole-wheat flour, flaxseed, & Greek yogurt add fiber, protein, & omega-3s important for developing bodies.

My little girl was so excited that when she blessed the food that night, she said, “Thank thee that we can have banana walnut pancakes.” Frozen & then defrosted, Eggo-style, in the toaster, these babies just put me in contention for Mom of the Year when I told her she could have pancakes for breakfast on a weekday. They’re even tasty without syrup if you need a quick, hearty, on-the-go breakfast for the kids. I make a few without the walnuts for my 1-year-old so she doesn’t choke, & she prefers them without the syrup.

This is our new go-to pancake recipe; I hope it’ll become yours too!

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour (if desired, do 1 cup each of all-purpose & whole wheat)
• 2 Tbsp. flaxseed meal
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup buttermilk (make this by pouring 1 Tbsp. white vinegar or lemon juice into a large measuring cup, then fill to the 1-cup line with regular milk & let sit 5 minutes)
• 3 Tbsp. butter, melted & cooled (I stick it in the freezer a few minutes)
• 1 large egg, slightly beaten
• 1 cup Greek yogurt
• 2 small ripe bananas, smashed with fork
• optional: milk for thinning batter
• walnuts, roughly chopped

1. Whisk together dry ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside.
2. Make your buttermilk in a large (4-cup or so) measuring cup. Add butter & egg; mix well. Stir in yogurt.
3. Make a well in your dry ingredients, then pour in the liquid ingredients & stir a couple times. Just before it’s combined, stir in bananas. Batter will be lumpy. Don’t overmix. Optional: add a little milk to thin the batter if desired.
4. Heat a griddle on medium-low to medium. Spray with nonstick cooking spray & use a 1/4-cup measuring cup to pour batter onto your griddle in 4-inch circles. Then sprinkle walnut pieces onto the pancake batter.
5. When large bubbles begin to appear, flip the pancakes & cook until golden on the other side as well. Remove to a warm plate lined with a paper towel & keep warm.
6. Repeat with remaining batter (don’t put walnuts in all of the pancakes if you have a child under 3), spraying the griddle between every batch or two.
7. Enjoy with maple syrup, or just plain! Freeze leftovers & toast in the toaster (use the “frozen” setting if you have one) for breakfast!