"C is for cookie and cookie is for me"

- Cookie Monster

Sometimes in life you just need a cookie. Cookies make us think of our childhood, wrapped in warmth and steaming from the oven, too hot to eat but we can't help ourselves. they are comforting and can ease a bad day, dispel a rotten mood and calm the soul. However, just because you need a cookie doesn't mean you need the sugar, butter, and flour that go along with it for we have all had that stomach ache after indulging in just one too many of our freshly baked treats.

Nothing beats a good old fashioned sugared up cookie but if you are like me and are sensitive to sugar and find that your sweet tooth becomes unmanageable when you indulge that you need an alternative for those days in which a cookie is mandatory.

I will be the first to admit that for the majority of my life I was addicted to sugar, I craved it all the time, cookies, candy, cakes. Even though I was a vegetarian I wasn't eating very healthy and instead was living on sour patch kids, it also didn't help that I loved to bake! As I broke my sugar addiction and vowed to clean up my diet I started to only consume items with natural sugars and even though I do occasionally indulge in a sugary treat I now find that often it has an unnatural overly sweet taste that instantly gives me a headache. You might think that you cannot give up sugar but give it a try and feel how amazing it is to not flood your body with processed foods!!

Now back to the cookies - these cookies are filled with whole goodness, bananas, applesauce, flax, maple syrup, walnuts, oats, raisins, and 85% dark chocolate. They have protein and fiber and aren't cloyingly sweet. They have a nice chewy texture and are so satisfying that I actually eat them for breakfast! I really hope that you give them a try and kick that sugar addiction to the curb!

Vegan baking tips: There are a lot of substitutions when trying to bake without dairy and eggs and I just wanted to you a few so that you could experiment with other recipes that you may be looking to convert....

1 cup of bananas = 1 cup of butter

1 cup of unsweetened applesauce = 1 cup of sugar, vanilla extract can also be used to sweeten

An egg can be replaced with banana or applesauce but flax is an awesome binder;

1 tbs ground flax + 3 tbs water = 1 egg

Vegan Oatmeal Raisin, Walnut, and Dark Chocolate Cookies

3 Ripe Bananas (aprox. 1 cup)

1 cup Unsweetened Applesauce

1 tbs Vanilla Extract

2 tbs to 1/2 cup Maple Syrup, depending on your tastes

1 tbs Ground Flax + 3 tbs Water

3/4 cup Oat Flour (you can make your own by processing oats in your food processor)

1/4 cup Coconut Flour

1 Tbs Baking Soda

1 tsp Pink HImelayan Sea Salt

2 tbs Cinnamon

1 tsp Cayenne Pepper

1 cup Rolled Oats

1/2 cup Chopped Walnuts

1/2 cup Raisins

1/2 cup 85% Dark Chocolate, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the ground flax and water in a small bowl and stir, let sit until congealed, this is a flax egg and great for binding.

In a mixing bowl or stand mixer, mix the bananas, apple sauce, vanilla extract and maple until well combined making sure the bananas are mashed. Add the flax egg continuing to mix until incorporated.

In a small bowl combine the flours, baking soda, salt, and spices and stir. Add to your banana mixture and stir until combined and the dough begins to hold together, add in the rolled oats walnuts, raisins and chocolate, stirring together.

Using a large spoon, drop dough onto a cookie sheet. The cookies will not spread like regular butter cookies so you can leave them as drop cookies or shape them into circles if you would like. Bake in the oven for 10 or so minutes or until the bottoms are browned. Remove from the oven and cool.

Enjoy and healthy eating!

I love a good veggie burger, not those store bought hockey pucks, but one that is bursting with flavor, has a number of textures and is colorful to boot. I think a lot of times that people have the misconception that veggie burgers are difficult to make but in reality all you are doing is mixing a few things together and binding it up before cooking them. As far as simplicity goes, if you make a big batch and freeze them then you will always have a quick dinner on hand.

I have a favorite veggie burger, one that is my old standby. It has beans and habanero peppers so its got a kick that sets your mouth on fire, but in a good way. I also love my beet burgers because beets are amazing and I wish I could eat them everyday and sweet potato burgers are delicious as well. i think there is just something about a patty of wholesome goodness that speaks to our need for versatility and eating using our hands.

Even though I have so many veggie burgers that I just love, I felt the need to experiment with something knew. Experimentation is the zest of life, and in actuality this experiment had more to do with using flax as a binder as opposed to an egg. Eggs are amazing binders, they keep everything together and do not change the flavor or consistency of your creation, however, I am always looking for a vegan alternative and flax eggs have recently been all the rage.

Flax, when combined with water creates a gel that binds quite nicely my only issue is that sometimes the texture is off, its almost as if it doesn't cook all of the way and can be slightly slimy. In order to combat that texture issue, I added slightly under cooked quinoa for crunch and placed the pan in the oven after pan searing.

I hope that you enjoy these great burgers and continue to experiment on your own as well!

Vegan Chipotle Red Quinoa and Zucchini Burgers with Broiled Pineapple

Makes 4 Burgers

1 Small Onion

3 Cloves Garlic

1 can Chickpeas

1 cup Cooked Quinoa

2 small Zucchini, Shredded and drained

1 Chipotle Chili in Adobe

1 tbs Chili Powder

Handful of Fresh Parsley

Pink Himalayan Sea Salt to taste

1 tbs Ground Flax

2 tbs Water

4 tbs Olive Oil

4 Pineapple Slices

Optional: Hamburger Buns, Goat Cheese, Avocado, Tomato, Spinach

Shred the zucchini and place into a colander with a sprinkle of salt in order to get eliminate some of the moisture. In a small bowl combine the flax and water until a gel forms

In your food processor add the onion, garlic, chickpeas, quinoa, flax egg, chipotle pepper, parsley, and chili powder. Pulse until combined and then place in a mixing bowl.

Squeeze the water out of the zucchini and then add to the bowl, combining all of the ingredients and adding salt to taste. Form into 4 patties.

Preheat the oven to broil while heating the oil in a frying pan. Broil the pineapple slices until browned and sweetened. Change the oven to 350 degrees.

Once the oil is hot, add the patties and cook until browned on each side, about 5 minutes each. .Place the frying pan into the oven and bake for another 15 minutes or until the patties seem solid.

Top with pineapple, avocado and goat cheese if desired. These are great because you can eat them on a bun, in a pita, in a wrap, or topping a salad. Enjoy and healthy eating!