For whatever reason, I often have a difficult time eating breakfast because I am just not hungry in the early morning before I head out the door. To deal with this, we have been making healthy breakfast cookies the night before so I can just grab two or three of them, sometimes with my morning coffee, sometimes to eat on the way.
As with any recipe, you can modify it to suit your taste. Some people say to use Greek yogurt to add a creamier texture to the cookies. We will grate up whatever fruits and veggies we have in the fridge to add to these healthy breakfast cookies. Got an apple on the counter? Grate it up.
Here is the basic recipe for the healthy cookies:
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1/4 cup non-fat plain yogurt
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
- 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
- 3 cups of quick cooking oats (we have also used long cooked oats after pureeing them)
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup carrots, shredded
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries
- 1 banana – mashed
- 2 tablespoons of ground flax
- 1/2 a zucchini – grated very fine
And the instructions;
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Beat the butter, yogurt, brown sugar, and white sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth.
- Add the eggs, one at a time.
- Beat in the vanilla extract. This statement reminds me of old people saying they would “beat some sense into someone. Does that really ever work?
- Mix in flour and baking soda until just incorporated. You don’t want to over-do the mixing.
- Fold in the oats, walnuts, chocolate chips, carrots and cranberries.
- Roll the dough mixture into walnut sized balls and place 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets. We always place ours on parchment paper that can go in the oven.
- Then, you bake in the preheated oven until cookies are golden brown – takes about 12 minutes.
- If you can wait, let the cookies cool on a baking sheet for five minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely.
That’s it – great healthy breakfast cookies.
