It’s healthy, so the calories don’t count

Has another year come around again? How does that even happen?

Anyway, once again, that Reluctant Bitch is having her annual cookie recipe exchange. And since I’m still doing that “healthy” thing, here’s another one of my takes on a healthy Xmas cookie. This one is actually more like a Cliff Bar, but those of you who are more inclined to this kind of thing will thank me.

So…

The Ingredients:

1 cup of almond butter *
1/4 cup chocolate whey protein powder **
1/3 – 1/2 cup honey ***
1/4 cup of flavor/texture ****
1 large egg *****

* You can use peanut butter, too. Just use the all-natural stuff, with no added sugar, corn syrup, maltodextrin, etc. I just use almond butter or else it will sit in the jar for the next three months.

** I happen to use a whey isolate powder which is easier on my gut than whey concentrate. But if you are not lactose intolerant, then use anything you want. ON is a good brand, but pick up something at the local grocery store.

*** Start low and add until the protein powder is mixed thoroughly. Some powders will clump up, and some will actually fight back.

**** Just a little bit of something to make it interesting. Shredded coconut, raisins, chopped nuts, etc. Or skip them entirely, and see if I care.

***** Large, extra large, whatever you have in the fridge. It’s just an egg, for crying out loud.

 

The Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Dump the solid ingredients in a bowl, mix them up, and start adding honey. If the protein powder is clumpy, throw everything out and mix up some protein powder with a little bit of water first, and *then* mix that with the solids.  Whoops, sorry.

Add the egg. Protip: Just the inside part of the egg. Keep mixing.

Put some wax paper parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Read the label on the box; wax paper and parchment paper look alike, but don’t act the same in the oven. Trust me on this.

Use a tablespoon to put a glop of batter on the paper, making sure they are spaced apart a little bit.

Put them in your 350ºF oven (you already had it heating, right?) for 8 to 10 minutes.

Cook until the edges just start to crisp. They should look golden brown. You may need to open the oven to check them.

Cool for 10 minutes. They should firm up a bit, but a slight give in the center* is normal.

*Like a well-toned booty.

 

The Yield:

You should end up with about 2 dozen cookies (or bars) from this batch. Plan on making extras because they’re good for you, so you can eat more of them.

The Nutrition Data:

Seriously?

 

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And just to get into the spirit, here’s some good, old fashioned cheesecake that sort of crosses the streams:

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And now that you’ve stopped looking at Santa Elvira, here’s a list of the other peeps on the cookie crew:

• abby
• Ashly
• Bleu (private blog, also posted here)
• Blondie
• blossom
• Cat
• CollaredMom
• Ms. Constance
• Ella
• greengirl
• Julia
• Jz
• Lindy
• little monkey (private blog, also posted here)
• Maggie
• Misty
• nilla
• ronnie
• rose
• Ryan
• Sassy
• Terpsichore
• Tom