Yeah for dessert! Do you eat dessert every night, every meal, or just with a cup of coffee? Dessert doesn’t have to be just “dessert”. You don’t have to eat it after dinner so it is the last thing in your belly before bed. Redefine what, or rather when, dessert is in your house. If you are like us and eat rather late, you may want to consider this. Eating dessert as the last thing you put in your belly for the day may make you sleep poorly, give you heartburn, and just simply set you up for some habits that are hard to break. If it is a dessert day, which is usually once, maybe twice a week, we often do dessert before dinner. Now, I don’t mean spoil your dinner. We usually do an afternoon dessert or combine it with lunch. This way we are not super hungry, so we won’t scarf it down, and since we aren’t eating after dinner, we’re not overeating.
This is one of my favorite cookie recipes. It is so fast and easy to make. I encourage you to get a food processor for your kitchen if you don’t already have one. I will have some of my favorite kitchen items coming on my blog soon- follow me for future posts.
Makes 12-15 cookies
Ingredients:
1 Cup Unsweetened Coconut
4 oz dried pitted dates
1 cup old fashioned oats
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
¼ tsp baking soda
1 egg
Preheat oven to 350*
Start with Coconut in the food processor and let mix while you get out your other ingredients. This is breaking down the Coconut which is used as the fat of the recipe, replacing butter. Next add your Dates. Make sure to squeeze each date before adding it to the food processor to ensure they do not have pits or stems.
Once the dates have combined with the coconut and started to form a ball, add oats, egg, vanilla, salt and baking soda. You may have to pulse until the egg combines with the dates and coconut. Then mix until all looks well blended.
Use a teaspoon to drop onto cookie sheet.
Bake at 350* for 10 minutes
Use a teaspoon to push down middle gently when they come out of the oven or if you’d rather, leave as a ball shape. Let cool on pan.
Optional: Once cookies have cooled, melt 1/4 cup dark chocolate and dip bottom of cookies. Let cool on wax paper. So good! (No longer sugar free though)
Enjoy!
Brands to try in your pantry:
Coconut- Nature’s Promise Organic Unsweetened Coconut is typically found in the baking aisle of the grocery store. This is a rather inexpensive ingredient to have on hand in your pantry. Always buy unsweetened! I absolutely love the flavor of unsweetened coconut in my recipes. I didn’t think I liked coconut until I realized that I had only ever had the sweetened coconut. Unsweetened Coconut can be used to flavor your baked goods, but it can also replace butter which makes it dairy free and to me, belly friendly!
Dates- Dried, unsweetened dates are not exactly the most eye appealing fruit, but it does wonders for your taste buds! They are rather sweet. I have tried many different brands. The best ones to use in your baking recipes are ones that are still soft. If they are hard, they will take longer to break down and we want them sticky. For this recipe, I used Sun Sweet brand. Always check the ingredients to make sure you are just getting dates, no need for added salt and sugar.
Chocolate (optional)- For Chocolate, I stand behind Enjoy Life Foods. Their dark chocolate is delicious and so rich tasting. Best of all, it is dairy free!
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