Whether you are looking to adopt a nutrient-dense, plant-based diet or are just trying to find healthier alternatives to some of your favorite dishes, we have great recipes on our site to suit your tastes! Some of our recipes can look a little intimidating, though. That’s why we created a weekly segment called RecipEASY — to make healthy eating easier. We (Kate and Kayla) make a recipe from our site and break it down to give you helpful tips and modifications. Since neither of us are professional chefs, we are always looking for ways to simplify healthy recipes!
This week we made…
Almond Oat Cookies with Fruit Filling (No Oven Needed!)
If you have a sweet tooth (and I mean, come on, who doesn’t?) these almond oat cookies with fruit filling are for you! And you don’t have to bake them, so they are perfect for any time of the year, especially summer.
Our shopping list included: rolled oats, dates, soy milk, almond butter, shredded coconut, and organic jam. This was the first time we stayed out of the produce section, but the ingredients were all still healthy! Kate and I also discovered the difference between rolled oats and steel cut oats when we were struggling to find them (hint: unless it specifically says steel cut oats, it’s probably rolled oats). Find full measurements here.
After grinding the oats into a powder with the blender (we love our blender), we combined all of the ingredients into a bowl. We found that we needed to add a bit more soy milk, otherwise the dough would have been too thick. It was a bit of a challenge to get the dough evenly mixed because the dates made it so sticky, but Kate was a champ and soon started forming the dough into balls and rolling them in coconut.
We made most of the cookies right away, but when we came back to finish the rest of the dough after lunch we found it was a lot easier to work with after being in the refrigerator. Next time we make these (and I am sure there will be a next time), we will probably cool the dough before forming the cookies.
For variety, we used three different kinds of jam: strawberry, raspberry, and grape. The recipe says the dough will make approximately 55 cookies, and we ended up with just about 50 cookies!
We had a hard time keeping the cookies on our tray to take to our company picnic, though, because everyone who walked in the kitchen wanted to try one! And everyone loved them! They are pretty filling, so we only had to eat one or two to be satisfied. One of our coworkers commented, “They don’t even taste healthy!” A common misconception with healthy eating is that everything always tastes “green” or bland-- but if you taste these cookies, you’ll see just how delicious healthy eating can be!
We also made gazpacho soup, so keep an eye out for our segment next week!
