Most of my readers know that we are gluten free here at the Tolson house. It is an eye opening journey that we have been on for almost 3 years. We are actually moving towards a grain free diet, because all of us feel better on it. I’m a big proponent of eating the food that makes your body feel good. And I mean energized, not sleepy, free of pain.. that kind of feel good. As a (recovering) emotional eater, I can attest to the pull of those foods that promise they will make me feel good, only to show their true colors an hour later. Goodness knows I crave me some Coke, chips, and cheese dip on a regular basis, which may or may not be connected to my hormones. Lol. I have to pray really hard not to give in to that craving. But oh, how I want to sometimes. Anyone relate?
Confessions of a Real Mom..
We eat fast food sometimes.
I am not perfect.
We do the best we can, and when we fail (aka get sick from yucky food), we pick ourselves back up and start again.
End Confessions.
What’s a tryingherhardesttobehealthy mom supposed to do when a kidlet asks to make chocolate chip cookies? She turns to Elana’s Almond Flour Cookbook because it rocks my socks!! I do modify it a bit, since we don’t do Agave Nectar anymore and I didn’t have grapeseed oil, but it still produced a warm, shortbread-ish, melt in your mouth cookie.
Oh, and also.. this is the toaster oven version because it is a billion degrees outside and my poor, failing a/c is having quite the time just to keep our house at 80. There is no way I would turn on the oven. Insanity! I should warn my husband that this doesn’t bode well for dinner tonight…
Confessions of a Thankful Mom.. Insert Here.
I am thankful my house is 80 and not 100 degrees.
I am thankful we have the ingredients and toaster oven to make said cookies.
I am thankful for a healthy 9 year old lovie who wants to make cookies with her mamma.
End Confessions.
List of ingredients – (And can someone say Trader Joe’s addict??)
You will need..
2 1/2 cups of almond meal (the recipes calls for almond flour, but I have found this stuff works just as good)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Mix the dry ingredients together. Set aside. Then..
1/2 cup coconut oil (her recipe calls for grapeseed oil, which is great, but I was out.. melted butter also works well here)
1/2 cup agave (I mixed a half a cup of warm water with coconut sugar.. maple syrup or honey would work too)
1 teaspoon vanilla (optional because I didn’t have any.. works without it too)
Mix the wet ingredients. It helps if you have a little helper who reads the recipe for you and wants to do all the stirring. Memory making.. we are memory making. 🙂 And her cheeks.. I die over her sweet cheeks. I kiss them multiple times a day. Just ask her.
Mix the wet and the dry and add 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (the only non-healthy addition) and then refrigerate for about 20 minutes. This step helps firm up the wet dough.. don’t skip it. If you do use coconut oil, it will firm up quite a bit in the fridge. I just used my hands to roll out little balls of the dough. And she says to use parchment paper so they won’t stick.. a step I highly recommend. I used wax paper and they slid right off after they had cooled a bit.
Bake in your toaster oven at 350 for 15-20 minutes. Her oven recipe calls for 7-10 minutes, but my toaster oven needed a bit more time to brown the cookies. Watch after about 10 minutes.. any kind of nut flour has the tendency to burn really easily.
Here is the result. She also says to cool for 20 minutes. Don’t skip this step either. The cookies fall apart if you try to move them before they solidify a bit. Trust me.. I was a bit too eager and lost a cookie or two. 😉
The smell of warm cookies filled our home this afternoon.. without the addition of a hot kitchen. Well, the kitchen was hot because of the dang weather, but we weren’t adding to it. 🙂
I encourage you to make memories with your bubbas, and document it if you can. Time is fleeting peeps.
Happy Toaster Oven Baking!!
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