We don’t need to tell you that eating breakfast is important. Study after study has shown that eating breakfast improves memory and cognitive function, kickstarts your metabolism and, perhaps most-importantly to the people around us, makes us nicer people.
When we don’t eat breakfast, even the best of us can get a little hangry (aka “the mean growlies.”) You know how it is – you race out the door and by your second errand you’ve had exactly enough of everyone and everything. Believe us, we have been there.
To help combat the growlies, we came up with these delicious, chock-full-of-awesome Breakfast Cookies. Each cookie is a meal in itself, full of oats for slow-releasing energy. These babies are going to get you through all of your errands, and then some.
When we were developing this recipe, we had a couple challenges. One was making enough – they all seemed to disappear as soon as they hit the cooling rack – and the other was keeping the sugar in check. We want you to feel good about eating these, so we made sure they have way less sugar than most store-bought breakfast bars. The applesauce took care of that quite nicely and, as a bonus, helps to keep them nice and moist.
After much research by way of sampling, what we came up with is a delicious breakfast that you can hold in the palm of your hand. We started with oats, of course, and then tried to cram in as much good-for-you stuff as possible. We added nuts, seeds and dried fruit, and kept adding until there wasn’t any room left; then we snuck in bit of dark chocolate. It’s funny how there’s always a little room for chocolate.
You can make these cookies our way, or change up the mix-ins to suit your tastes. If you don’t like dried cranberries, try dried cherries or chopped dried apricots. You can even use your favorite unsalted trail mix in your cookies – just be sure to chop up any larger nuts before throwing them in.
These are a true grab-and-go breakfast. You can make the cookies on the weekend, or a weeknight when you’re feeling ambitious, then keep them handy in a sealed container. You’ll be thanking yourself in the morning when a healthy and convenient breakfast is ready to grab on your way out the door. You might even start leaving your car keys by the cookie jar.
You can also wrap the cookies individually and freeze them for up to three months. No worries if you forget to take them out – they’ll thaw quickly at room temperature, so you can also grab-and-go straight from the freezer.
With “no time for breakfast” breakfast cookies, there’s no excuse for being hangry!
“No Time for Breakfast” Breakfast Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole wheat flour (250 ml)
- 3 cups rolled oats (750 ml)
- 1 tsp baking soda (5 ml)
- 3/4 tsp salt (3.5 ml)
- 1 Tbsp cinnamon (15 ml)
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg (1 ml)
- 1/2 cup almonds flaked, (125 ml)
- 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds (125 ml)
- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds (125 ml)
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips semi-sweet (125 ml)
- 1 cup cranberries dried, (250 ml)
- 2 eggs lightly beaten
- 1/3 cup canola oil (160 ml)
- 1 cup applesauce unsweetened, (250 ml)
- 3/4 cup brown sugar (180 ml)
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract (15 ml)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Line two large baking trays with parchment.
- In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients – flour, oats, baking soda, salt, spices, nuts, seeds, dried fruit and chocolate chips.
- In a separate bowl beat together eggs, oil, applesauce, brown sugar and vanilla.
- Add wet ingredients to dry, mixing well until all dry ingredients are incorporated.
- Using a 1/4 cup cookie scoop (or ice cream scoop), measure out 24 balls of dough onto prepared baking trays.
- Flatten each cookie with a fork to a uniform thickness (approx. 1/2” thick).
- Note: cookies do not spread in oven.
- Bake for 15 minutes until lightly browned.
- Transfer cookies to a cooling rack. Once cooled completely, transfer to an airtight container for storage. Cookies will keep at room temperature for one week, or may be frozen for up to three months.