Back to Basics 19 - Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Behold, the humble chocolate chip cookie. Is there a better dessert? I think not. You can make it crispy or chewy, thin or fat, fill it with whatever you want, and it comes in a nice little convenient package. All you need is one free hand to savor it and you're good to go.
My favorite is thick and chewy, with dark chocolate chips and nuts. And to make us feel less guilty, we make it with whole wheat flour and oats, we also replace some of the butter with canola oil. Perfection.
Now, stop drooling over that picture and let's see how you can make these.

Back to Basics 16 - Almond-Honey Power Bar

I've got a really great breakfast/snack recipe for you! This, no surprise, is an EatingWell recipe. I got it from my Simple Art of EatingWell cookbook. I make a batch of these granola bars at the beginning of the week for my boyfriend Eric to take with him in the morning as his breakfast.

These bars are very complex, filling and just sweet enough. They have so many tasty and healthy things in them! They're seriously amazing. Everybody that has tried them looovvesss them and begs me to make more.

Yields 8 bars

Breakfast Smoothie

This is a great smoothie for a breakfast on-the-go. It's VERY filling and it has a bunch of different perfect foods. In fact, this smoothie alone has 5 superfoods: oats, nuts, spinach, berries and almond milk. Although if you ask me, these are all pretty super.

Coconut-Almond-Cranberry-Chocolate Granola Bars

This is a recipe tweaked from Joy Wilson's cookbook. I got her book and was obsessed with it because of the beautiful pictures and the sweets. But once I saw this granola bar I realized how well-rounded it was. Not only does it have DELICIOUS deserts (that maybe aren't so low in calories) she also has some very California-ish healthy meals.

Oat, Coconut & Pumpkin Seed Cookies

*Recipe adapted from Whole Foods website*

This cookie is filled with healthy goodies but still manages to taste REALLY good. If you can't find pumpkin seeds, you can substitute with almonds, dried fruit or even chia seeds.