A Healthy Twist on Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are some really yummy cookies! Best thing is I've made them a little more healthy! My favorite thing lately is to modify recipes to make them more healthy. A great way to do this is by substitution. When a recipe calls for shortening or butter you can substitute applesauce (this recipe I did half shortening and half applesauce). When it calls for all purpose flour, do half all purpose and half wheat. Another thing is you can usually cut some of the sugar out and still be fine with thing still being sweet, I also like using brown sugar rather than white. Just experiment, sometimes thing won't turn out, but most of the time you'll find you like the healthier version better.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients:
1/4 cup shortening (no tans fat)
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
Mix the above ingredients together. Then add:
1/4 and 2 TBSP wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 to 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Mix well then add:
1 cup Quick Oats
Mix then stir in:
1 cup of chocolate chips (if you would like you could do 1/2 cup chocolate chips and 1/2 cup white, peanut butter flavor, or butterscotch chips, or you could do raisins)

On a lightly sprayed cookie sheet place large spoonful of cookie dough and flatten out slightly with back of spoon. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Makes 1 and 1/2 to 2 doz cookies (depends on size you make them).

Healthy, Low-fat, Low-carb, yummy cookies

Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies

Ingredients:
¼ cup brown Sugar
¼ cup white Sugar
¾ cup natural unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup sifted all purpose flour
¼ cup wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
1 cup rolled oats
½ cup seedless raisins

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix together sugars and applesauce and vanilla. Then mix in the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. When combined, add oats and raisins. Stir until combined. On a lightly greased cookie sheet, drop dough by spoonfuls. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 10 minutes.

Low fat Pumpkin Cookies

1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup brown sugar (could use less)
1/3 cup applesauce
3 cups oats
1 ½ cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp ginger ½ tsp cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking oil. Mix together the pumpkin, sugar, and applesauce. In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients, then add to the pumpkin and mix well. Drop by spoonfuls onto a baking sheet. Bake for 13-15 minutes.

Delicious Healthy Breads (Low-Fat Banana Bread & Honey Wheat Bread)

Low-Fat Banana Bread

1 Cup Flour
1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
½ Cup oat Bran
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
½ cup brown sugar
1 egg
½ cup applesauce (unsweetened)
¼ up milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 mashed ripe bananas
½ tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375 Degrees F. Spray loaf pan with cooking spray. In mixing bowl combine both flours and oat bran, baking powder and soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir well to mix. In a separate bowl whisk together the sugar, egg, applesauce, milk, vanilla, and bananas. Fold the flour mix into the wet mixture, be careful not to over mix. Pour batter into the loaf pan. Bake for 45-60 minutes, until well risen and a tooth pick into the thickest part of bread comes out clean. Cool a little and then enjoy!

Honey Wheat Bread (This is a lot like Old Grist Meal’s Bread)

3 cups warm water
2 TBL yeast
1/3 cup honey or sugar

Put ingredients in bowl and let sit for 5 minutes, it should be bubbly and yeasty smelling. Add 5 cups of whole wheat flour. Mix well and let it rise for about 30 minutes. This is called a sponge.

Add:
3 TBL oil or melted butter
1/3 cup honey or sugar
1 tsp salt
4-5 TBL vial wheat gluten (Don’t skip this!!)

Gradually Add:
2-3 cups more flour (white or wheat) until the dough firms up.
Knead until smooth and firm. ( If you are using a mixer with a dough hook you can let the mixer do the work. Or if you do not have a dough hook you can do the kneading by hand. I actually prefer this. What you will need to do is instead of adding the 2-3 cups of flour into the bowl just put it onto your counter and kind of make a little hole in the middle. Then pour your dough onto it and just start kneading in the flour. Once almost all the flour is incorporated knead for 5 minutes or so. The dough should be firm and smooth.) Then let the dough rise about 30 minutes. Then punch down and divide into 2 large or 3 medium loafs. Form and put into sprayed loaf pans and let rise another 30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 24-30 minutes. Tip place a bowl of water in the oven to help the crust not get hard. Bread is done when you can tap on the top and it sounds hollow.