Gluten Free Breakfast Cookies

You're thinking one of two things:  No way do I want to start my day off with a sugary sweet! ....or..... Cookies for breakfast?  Heck yes!


The good news is that these gluten free breakfast cookies will please you no matter your viewpoint.  These cookies have barely enough sweetness to put them into the "cookie" category, but the sweetness comes from wholesome sources such as bananas, shredded coconut, honey and cranberries that will keep your tummy happy until lunch rolls around.

I, myself am not one to crave loads of sugar in the morning (don't worry, that definitely comes a few hours later right after lunch and lasts until, oh I don't know...bedtime?).  If I eat something sugary first thing in the morning that's all I'll crave the rest of the day.  Not sure why, but it happens every time like clockwork.....I eat a cinnamon roll for breakfast and by 10:30AM I'm dreaming of chocolate.

But these cookies fit the bill when it comes to my idea of a perfect breakfast.  Good quality natural ingredients that are both tasty and filling (due to the protein and fiber content) are what separates these cookies from those that you are likely to find at the grocery store: cookies with 20+ ingredients, many of which you have no hope of being able to recognize much less pronounce.

Do you want one or all four in

that stack?

The version below is gluten free, but if you wanted to add whole wheat flour in place of flaxmeal you certainly could.  Just know that it negates the gluten free factor.

Along those same lines, you could also switch up a lot of the ingredients below......olive oil for coconut oil, raisins or dried blueberries for cranberries, pecans for almonds.....you name it, it could probably be done and turn out just as tasty.

Thick and Chewy Cherry Almond Granola Bars

Granola is one of those foods that seems like a no-fail healthy option for breakfast or for a snack.  You've got plenty of fiber courtesy of wholesome oats, lots of good-for-you fruit, and heart healthy nuts like almonds.  It's a no brainer, right?

Wrong.  Oh my dear is it *usually* wrong.   A lot of processed granola that you'll find in the grocery store is swimming in sugar and yucky ingredients like high fructose corn syrup.  So much for a healthy  breakfast to get your day off to a great start.

While these bars do have some sugar in them (2/3 C for the whole pan), they have substantially less sugar than your average brand at Kroger and also use honey to add sweetness instead of just relying on granulated sugar.  And lord knows there isn't any high fructose corn syrup in these little guys.

Another favorite thing about this recipe is how infinitely adaptable it is.  You can use any fruit or nuts you like and can play around with using either almond or vanilla extract.  I used dried cherries, sliced almonds and then almond extract for my bars and have to admit that I thought they were a-mazing....even if I do say so myself :)  Put it this way...I took the pan of them up to my family's lake house one weekend not too long ago, and between just four of us we had polished off the whole pan in a day and a half.  Yikes!

My one gripe is that these were a bit crumbly and getting the sliced bars out of the pan was a bit of a cumbersome process.  Placing the pan in the fridge for a bit helped, but I still had to be very gentle with them.  Maybe next time I'll add a bit more peanut butter or honey to moisten them up even more and cut down on the crumbly texture.

The good news though...even if they crumbled to bits they still taste exactly the same.  And of course you could always completely forgo the bar route and just crumble these up into a bowl or sprinkle it on top of your favorite yogurt.

Dig in!  You won't regret making these.

Salted Honey Almond Butter

I know I've mentioned this before, but peanut butter is one of those foods I think I might have a slight obsession with.  There aren't many foods that I haven't tried putting peanut butter on or in......oreos, bread, crackers, m&m's, ice cream, oatmeal, pancakes....the long list is quite embarrassing.

My sister mentioned some time back that she had tried almond butter.  By the way, I must interject here and say that if you haven't already, you must check out her amazing blog here.  Seriously, she has a way with words.  Okay, back to my point.....almond butter?  I was so hooked on peanut butter that I wasn't sure I really wanted to branch out of my little comfort zone I had created and cheat on the peanut butter.

But then I came along quite an enticing picture of some salted honey almond butter on pinterest that came from the amazing Maria from Two Peas and Their Pod.  She had recently posted the recipe on Tasty Kitchen and it looked so easy I figured I had to give it a try.

And oh my dear and I glad I did!  This stuff was delicious.  So delicious that I ended up having to give quite a bit of it away because I couldn't quit eating it by the spoonful.  Oops.

PS I have to point out that the texture of almond butter is indeed different than that of peanut butter.  So don't be surprised.  It's not different in a bad way at all, but it is much firmer than peanut butter and doesn't spread quite as easily.  Just wanted to give you a heads up so you don't think yours turned out wrong!