Whiteley Creek Homestead

It was a rainy cool day today, so my garden planting came to a screeching halt. Not to be discouraged, I made plant markers and baked a batch of cookies using a recipe I received yesterday in a Clean Eating e-newsletter. (I was able to shoot this photo in between rain showers when the sun peeked through the clouds for a brief moment.) I can normally count on the Clean Eating people pumping out good recipes, but I tweaked this one a bit. Next time around, I'm going to tweak it even more by reducing the Sucanat to 3/4 cup instead of 1 cup and the oil to 4 tbsp instead of 6 tbsp. I think it would still be a very good cookie with even fewer calories and fat.

Oatmeal Cookies from Clean Eating e-newsletter May 2009

Makes 24.

¾ cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp cloves

1 cup *Sucanat

6 tbsp canola oil

¼ cup unsweetened applesauce

2 egg whites 1 egg white

½ tsp vanilla

2 cups old-fashioned oats **Bob’s Red Mill Old Country Style Muesli + ¼ cup oatmeal

½ cup unsweetened raisins, dried cherries, or other dried fruit

Preheat oven to 375° and oil two cookie sheets. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer or hand mixer, combine Sucanat, oil, applesauce, egg whites, and vanilla and mix on medium-high to blend well. Add flour mixture and mix on low until just short of combined. Add oats and dried fruit and mix until just combined. Scoop heaping tablespoon-size dough onto cookie sheets. Bake 12 -14 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool. *Sucanat is a free-flowing coarse granular brown sugar that adds a slight molasses flavor. **I chose to use muesli because you get more bang for your buck nutritionally. It is a combo of rolled oats, wheat, rye, triticale, and barley along with dates and raisins, sunflower seeds, almonds, and walnuts. I reduced the 2 egg whites to 1 egg white because the muesli has less oatmeal to absorb the liquid compared to using straight oatmeal.

May 5, 2009

Today's mileage: 2-mile walk

Total mileage for May: 7 miles

Bible reading? Yes.