After a week without my second most important survival tactic-COFFEE-I am still alive.  I haven’t been the most patient or most perky mother every morning but my stomach feels better and I managed to get off the caffeine roller coaster I’d found myself on each day.  Every 3 hours I needed more coffee.  With a little cream and sugar.  So the calories were adding up and my stomach hurt from at least a half a pot a day of liquid energy.

Instead I drank two cups of Guayaki Yerbamate.  What the heck is that?  That’s what I thought when I bought a box last week.  But the tag line for the product said “Vitality. Clarity. Well-Being.”

Those are three things I’d like to have a bit of.  So I’ve been steeping myself some tea every day and it’s been good.

Along with that change, I have been bored to tears with our breakfast regime.  I make pancakes or waffles almost every morning.  Eggs sometimes too.  So I was delighted to find a recipe on one of my fav blogs for Breakfast Cookies.  I’ve tried to make these several times with several recipes.  None were good enough to make again.

Enter “Analiisa’s High-Protein Breakfast Cookies“.

Easy to make, full of awesome ingredients and absolutely the best ‘health cookie’ I’ve ever made.  As Caleb carefully measured each ingredient with me, the first sample of the dough told me we were in for success.  Caleb would like to eat a ZONE protein bar for breakfast, lunch and snack.  So my hope is to have these on hand and it will be far more economical even with the long-ish list of ingredients.

High-Protein Breakfast Cookies

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 c organic sugar
• 2 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 cup soy protein powder-be ready to shell out a few bucks for this one (not soy flour)
• 2 t baking soda
• 1 t baking powder
• 1 t salt
• 2 t cinnamon
• 1 t mace (I used nutmeg after I couldn’t find mace)
• 1 t allspice
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup water
• 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 3 eggs (I used 4 small eggs)
• 2 t vanilla
• 1 cup dried cranberries, blueberries, cherries (I used dried cranberries)
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans (or any other nuts-I did walnuts)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. In food processor chop dried cranberries till nicely small.  Then process nuts and oats if desired.  With kids, I prefer this to big chunks that they can pick out or complain about.
3. In a large bowl, mix sugars, flours, berry/oat/nut blend, soy powder, baking soda and baking powder, salt and spices.
4. Add oil, eggs, water and vanilla, and stir thoroughly until blended.  The dough should begin to gather in a ball in the center. Sometimes you have to add more water, depending on your ingredients. This recipe is not an exact science!  The dough will be sticky.
5. Place balls a little larger than a golf ball on cookie sheets covered with parchment paper. Flatten slightly.
6. Bake 8 to 9 minutes (do NOT overbake), and cool on a rack.
7. Store in a tightly covered container. These cookies freeze well.