Recipe: Breakfast Cookies

Breakfast cookies are filling, and so ooey gooey. And a great treat to have while I focus on lowering my blood pressure.

My whole family loves breakfast cookies. I make a batch most weekends and just leave them out on the counter. As the day goes by, they disappear. While there’s rarely any left by nightfall, I sometimes manage to sneak one into the fridge to eat the next day.

One of the things I love about this recipe is that you can throw in whatever nuts and seeds you have in your pantry. Have a half-full mason jar that you need to empty so you can fill it with something else? Just put it in the cookies!

Heart-Healthy Ingredients

Oats

Benefits: Soluble Fiber for healthy digestion, Antioxidants, Manganese, Vitamin B1, Magnesium to reduce stress and anxiety, Zinc, Iron, Resistant Starch, Protein, Anti-Inflammatory.

Not the brown packets of instant oatmeal you ate in the 90’s, but basic oats. Nothing added. Try to buy organic if you can.

Banana

Benefits: Potassium – so good for blood pressure – also Fiber, Folate and Vitamin C, which are all good for heart health.

Cinnamon

Benefits: ALL the Anti’s: Anti-viral, Anti-bacterial, Anti-fungal, Antioxidants, Anti-inflammatory, also Prebiotics for gut health.

Pumpkin Seeds

Benefits: One of the best natural sources of magnesium, a mineral that’s important for keeping blood pressure in check. Also a good source of several other minerals, unsaturated fats, and fiber.

Flax

Benefits: Good source of fiber, omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants. Can help lower the risk of constipation, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, cancer, and other conditions.

Honestly, I’ve made this recipe a hundred ways, with different ingredients each time. Think of this recipe as a guideline – a jumping off point, if you will. Make it with whatever nuts or seeds sound good to you at the time. I’ve also used shredded coconut before and it turned out great. Customize it to your family’s taste.

As you can see, I’m not especially picky about how perfect the cookies look. That one above that isn’t exactly round? It still tasted fantastic. Don’t be worried about crowding the tray, either. These cookies aren’t going to rise. In fact, after you ball them, you’ll have to smash them a bit on the baking sheet to get them to look cookie-esk. Also – a note on the banana. While it will work better if it’s ripe. I’ve used a green banana before and it’s not that big of a deal. Just make sure you smush it into the oatmeal really well, so there’s no big banana lumps.

Nobody likes banana lumps.