A New Christmas Cookie for the Davis family

I was very excited to find a recipe for pumpkin applesauce cookies with oatmeal & raisins posted on epicurious.com (If you want to see the webpage, click here).  I was going to spare you all the results of my healthy cookie search, but then the cookies were actually really good.  (Especially with the nuts and chocolate chips I added.)

Pumpkin Applesauce Cookies with Oatmeal & Raisins

Start to finish: about 45 minutes

Ingredients

2 cups, all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups, quick oats
1 tsp, baking soda
1/2 tsp, salt
2 tsp, cinnamon
1/4 tsp, ground cloves
1/2 tsp, ground ginger
1/2 tsp, ground nutmeg
1/2 cup, unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup, natural applesauce
1 cup, packed brown sugar
1 cup, sugar
1 cup, canned pumpkin
1 large egg
1 tsp, vanilla extract
(note: cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg quantities can be increased if stronger flavor is desired.)

3/4 cup raisins

PreparationPreheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl, combine flour, oats, baking soda, salt cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg and mix well. In 2nd larger bowl, beat together butter, applesauce, brown sugar and sugar until light and fluffy. Add pumpkin, egg and vanilla extract and mix in. Then add flour mixture and mix well. Gently stir in raisins. Drop teaspoons of batter onto greased cookie sheets. Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until light brown on bottom. Let cool on wire racks, then store in an air-tight container.

(note: these are cake-light in texture and will not crisp up.)

They were amazing, but I highly suggest stirring in nuts and chocolate chips when you stir in the raisins--and we added extra raisins, too.  My helper-chefs are below:

Bird's Nest Cookies

The kids and I just finished making our yearly "Bird's Nest Cookies."  I didn't actually realize they'd be a yearly tradition until Micah started asking in the summer if we'd be making them at Christmas again.  Bird's Nest Cookies are not "cookies," in the strictest sense of the word, they are a Val creation of uncooked blended nuts, peanut butter, smashed dates, coconut, cocoa, craisins, and raisins.  But, hey, the kids love them.  We made an assembly line after I got the nuts and dates all squished together (with a tiny bit of water to moisten things).  I put the little nests on one plate, Jesse picked them up and dipped them in coconut and/or cocoa and gave them to Micah, who put the raisin/craisin eggs on top and put them on our pretty red plate.

For those with zucchini to use up . . . or to sneak in . . .

Zucchini Bread

(adapteded from a recipe from Mary Bailey on allrecipes.com)

3 eggs
1 cup applesauce

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cup wheat flour or ground gluten-free grains
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 cup wheat germ or flax meal

In a large bowl, combine eggs, oil, sugar, zucchini, and vanilla. Mix well. Add flours, baking powder, soda, salt, wheat germ, and cinnamon; stir to combine. Stir in raisins and nuts, if desired.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour, or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

A Bizzarely Healthy Applesauce Breakfast Cake

1 1/2 c oats
1 1/2 c applesauce
1/4 c flour (of any kind, really, I use gluten free blended grains)
2/3 c walnut or pecan pieces
2/3 c raisins
1 egg
(if you like things sweeter you might want to add sugar or honey)

Mix. Put in 8x8 or 8x11 greased baking dish depending on if you want thinner or fluffier cake, sprinkle top with cinnamin, and bake between 350 and 375 degrees for 45 min. to an hour.