Healthier oat cookies with dark chocolate nibs, walnuts and cranberries

As much as something sweet but not too sweet can be healthy, anyway.

Ingredients for about 20 large cookies:

100 g walnuts or hazelnuts 
80 g dried cranberries or raisins
40 g shredded coconut
30 g dark chocolate cut into small pieces 
140 g rolled oats
220 g flour
1 heaped tablespoon of cocoa
2 tablespoons hot water
1 teaspoon baking soda
50 g butter + 40 ml light olive oil
1 egg
100 g brown sugar
2 tablespoons rum 

1. Preheat the oven at 160 C.
2. Toast the walnuts in the oven for 10 minutes.
3. Soak the cranberries in hot water for a couple of minutes.
4. Sift the flour and mix it with the rolled oats, chopped toasted walnuts, cranberries, coconut, cocoa and chocolate.
5. In a small pan melt the butter and add the olive oil, baking soda and the 2 tablespoons of hot water.
6. In another bowl beat the egg with the sugar, until the sugar dissolves and the pour the butter  mixture plus the rum.
7. Mix  the liquid ingredients with the solid ingredients. The batter will be quite sticky but no worries, it should be like this.
8. On a lined baking tray arrange the cookies, leaving enough space between them.
9. For my oven 14 minutes was the perfect spot but you should watch them carefully. They will be soft to touch but they will set when cool. Very important, put them to cool on a wire rack.

They keep well in an airtight jar for 3 days or you could freeze them. If you are the type of person that can have only one cookie and stop ( probably you hate dolphins anyway).

Blueberry, ricotta and chia seeds pancakes

Ingredients for about 12 pancakes:

250 ml milk
3 eggs, separated- yolks and egg whites
100 g flour
30 g oats
1 tablespoon chia seeds (optional- just use 20 more grams of oats instead)
1 tablespoon flax meal (optional, you can use also almonds)
1 teaspoon vanilla paste (optional)
1 teaspoon baking powder
150 g ricotta
125 g blueberries

How it's made :

1. Mix the egg yolks, the milk, the flour, the oats, the chia seeds, the flaxmeal  and the baking powder in 1 bowl and let it rest for at least 15 minutes.
2. Beat the egg whites to soft peaks.
3. Fold in the batter the egg whites, carefully so you don't loose all the air trapped in the egg whites.
4. Fold in the ricotta in.
5. Pour the batter in a hot, buttered pan, forming small disks of about 12 cm diameter. Press in the blueberries, so you get the result seen the pictures. Turn on the other side when you see bubbles forming.

Pour some maple syrup on and enjoy!

Banana and oats pancakes with fruits and maple syrup - no flour

the guilt free yumminess.

Ingredients

(for about 8  12cm diameter pancakes)

2 cups of oats

1/2 cup of regular milk ( I used almond milk) 

1/2 cup of yogurt

2 eggs

a pinch of salt

a pinch of cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla paste

1 mashed banana

2 -3 tablespoons of coconut flakes

1 tablespoon of chia seeds ( optional )

How it`s made 

1. Beat the eggs with the mashed banana.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients one by one and stir well. 

3. Leave it to rest for 15 minutes.

4. Prepare 2 nonstick pans and wait until they are hot ( important step) but not smoking.  With a big salad spoon form your pancakes and flip them after you see some bubbles forming.

Enjoy them with fresh fruits, yogurt and maple syrup.