Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie

It’s Fall/Autumn, leaves are turning colours and morning temperatures are beginning to cool.

Tis the season to drink pumpkin flavoured everything and lust after fabulous, knee-length leather boots.

When I had three children at home, I remember resenting September/October with a passion. It felt like going back into shackles when the school/extra-curricular/evening-Mom-taxi routine set in. I just so loved the relaxed and unstructured days of summer and never wanted to let them go.

I am now an empty nester and this year I am enjoying a more relaxed observing of the turn of the seasons. I do not have to get out of bed at 6am to drive kids to band practice and I am not on call for rides to the mall or extra curricular activities in the evening. I just get to watch the leaves change colour, wiggle into a soft roll neck sweater in the morning and lean into how much I love chai tea.

Interestingly, there are old routines and recipes that I still want to pull into my life in the Fall. Comforting foods that just ‘fit’ into Fall for me and enrich the season (spoiler: It does not come from Starbucks!) I have started making chicken bone broth on a weekly basis again so that I am ready for soup season and I a making my staple Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe that I used to lean on heavily for lunch boxes.

Chewy, dense and absolutely packed with nutrition, these cookies are not too sweet and more of a meal in a biscuit, designed to keep teens energized and satiated.

The beauty of making your own cookies is that you get to choose the nutrition you want for yourself.

I love pumpkin seeds because they are packed with protein. This slows the passage of sugar to the bloodstream. They also give me a healthy dose of zinc to support my skin and tissue health and boost immunity. This batch contains sliced almonds and goji berries but I encourage you to make this recipe your own and add nutritious nuts, seeds and berries that you love the most.

I also add blackstrap molasses for easily absorbed iron and this accounts for the dark colour of the cookie. We need adequate iron stores at midlife to support us when our periods get heavy or erratic, to boost our energy and to ensure the function of our thyroid gland. Our thyroid gland is more efficient at converting thyroid hormone T4 to active thyroid hormone T3 when our iron stores are fully stocked. Your thyroid gland is a master gland that has kept the rhythm of your menstrual cycle for decades, so it can get stressed when you move into the peri-menopausal dance. Give it some love and load iron, selenium and iodine rich foods into your diet.

The non-negotiable are the chocolate chips. Every bite of this cookie should be rich in chocolate.

After years of making these cookies weekly for my family, it is an absolute joy to make, bake and store in the freezer so that I can pull one out whenever I want the taste of Fall.

Ingredients

      11/2 cups whole wheat or spelt flour

                     1tsp baking powder

                     1 cup butter or 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup coconut oil

                     1 egg

                     1/2 cup unrefined sugar or Sucanat

                     1/4 cup blackstrap molasses

                     2 cups rolled oats

                     1 cup coconut chips or desiccated coconut

                     1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

                     1/2 cup pecans/ walnuts/ sliced almonds/ goji berries or cranberries

                     3/4 cup dark chocolate chips

Instructions

      Heat the oven to 350F/200C

      Put all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly to a rubbly batter

      Drop batter onto a parchment paper covered baking sheet using a tablespoon and form into an oval

      Cook for 12 minutes until just done.

Golden Energy Balls

Look at these gorgeous balls of sunshine!

I adapted a recipe by Joy McCarthy of Joyous Health to make these energy balls and they are simply delicious.

Packed with anti-inflammatory and gut healing ingredients these little golden nuggets only took me ten minutes to make and have stashed away in my refrigerator for a post walk or workout snack.

This is easy and nutrient dense eating.

Oats, hemp seeds and apricots form the base of the ball, making this a fibre rich snacking option. Fibre is the midlife womans best friend as it supports her liver to clear excess hormones from the peri-menopausal dance out of the body.

Hemp seeds are a beautiful source of plant based protein, oats are a ‘slow burn’ carbohydrate and apricots are packed with vitamin A for health eyes and tissues and also energy boosting plant sourced iron. (plant sourced iron does not constipate)

Coconut provides a gut healing healthy fat to the mix and helps to ignite our metabolism, so that it is easy to feel satiated and maintain a healthy body weight and turmeric offers depression busting anti-inflammatory and anti-cancerous properties.

I tweaked the original recipe to add Brazil Nuts. Packed with the mineral selenium that is a co-factor for thyroid hormone conversion, Brazil nuts deeply support the health of our thyroid gland at midlife. This is important if we want to feel confident, energized and comfortable in our bodies as we navigate hormonal change.

This recipe could not be simpler as we whizz all of the ingredients into a ‘dough’ in the blender.

If you are experiencing exhaustion and overwhelm, gut health issues such as gassiness and bloating after eating or have issues with your thyroid gland such as hypothyroidism or Hashimotos disease, this is your go to snack.

The recipe tells me I should make 15 energy balls but could only manage 14, which tells me that I like my balls a bit larger!

Victoria Beckham has the nickname of Golden Balls for David, so I did have a little giggle as I made rolled the dough.

Ingredients

1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

1/4 cup hemp hearts

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup dried chopped apricots

1 tsp ground turmeric

4-5 Brazil nuts

2 tbsp lemon or lime juice

Instructions

Add all of the ingredients to a high powered blender and whizz on high until a ‘dough ‘ is formed.

You may have to keep pushing the ingredients down the side of the blender with a spatula.

Put the energy ball ‘dough’ on a chopping board and using a teaspoon measure out into 15 balls.

Roll with your hands to make 15 even balls

Refrigerate for up to a week and freeze for up to 3 months.

Chocolate Avocado Mousse

What do you do if you want a sweet treat and do not want to spike your blood sugar?
Balancing daily blood sugar levels is important for the midlife woman as our cells become more resistant to insulin as our hormones estrogen and progesterone diminish.
When our blood sugar levels are balanced, our hormones are balanced, our mood stays balanced, our microbiome remains balanced and we have even energy throughout the day.
But we all want dessert every once in a while and life is for living and sharing and enjoying!
Healthy eating is not all about being a kill-joy or always eating salad! It is about making sensible choices from nutritious options of real, nutrient dense food.

Enter this recipe for Chocolate Mousse which uses avocado as its base.
Anti-inflammatory avocado is packed with healthy fats that slow the passage of sugar into the blood stream as this mousse is being digested.
Smooth and rich, chocolaty and delicious, I challenge you to ask your family to guess the hidden healthy ingredient.
Serve with antioxidant rich seasonal berries for a sweet treat that packs a nutritional punch and fits perfectly into The Nourished Midlife Womans menu plan.

Ingredients

3 ripe avocados peeled and with the stone removed

1/4 cup raw cacao

1/4 cup melted organic dark chocolate chips

3-4 tbsp milk of choice (I used coconut milk)

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/8 tsp salt

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

Instructions

Place the chocolate chips in a glass bowl over a small pan of simmering water and gently melt the chocolate. Or use a microwave to melt the chocolate chips.
Place all other ingredients into a blender.
Pour the melted chocolate over the ingredients and blend until smooth.
Serve with fresh berries of your choice.

If like me you are an avocado lover and you want more of this anti-inflammatory fruit in your diet, you might enjoy this recipe for Guacamole