Saturday, February 18, 2012

Toddler Approved Healthy Cookies


I was on a mission yesterday to find a cookie that met 2 serious requirements: They had to be healthy, and they had to be something I could make WITH my 22 month old toddler. I found the recipe at shape.com. Yesterday I made the quinoa and stored it in the fridge overnight. Today my little guy and I made the cookies and it was such a great experience! Here is the recipe:


Peanut Butter Quinoa Cookies

Ingredients
2 c. quinoa, cooked and cooled (this is about 1 cup dried quinoa)
1/2 c. natural salted peanut butter
1/3 c. raw honey
1 c. rolled oats
1/2 c. dried, unsweetened, shredded coconut
1/2 c. raw cocoa nibs (I substituted for raisins - didn't want to risk the caffeine in a toddler ;-)

Directions
Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Flatten tablespoons of the mixture onto parchment paper and bake for approximately one hour.
Makes 24 cookies



I made a few adjustments: I kept the oven at 225F because it seemed like the cookies would never "dry up" and I substituted raisins for cocoa nibs (which are really healthy but contain some caffeine).

Since quinoa is full of protein - and it's a complete protein, there are no refined flours or sugars in the recipe, and the honey content is minimal (less sugar) and it's raw (huge health benefits to the immune system) I don't feel guilty whatsoever giving these cookies to my toddler for snack. 

...and in case you are wondering, these cookies definitely passed the yumminess test!

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