Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Traditional Versus Healthy

Wow, how I have changed.  Throughout the last three years, I have slowly started to look at how SAD the Standard American Diet really is and have started to slowly make more natural, more healthy choices for myself as well as my family.  Although, I am still not where I need to be with my weight, I can say I am healthier than I was 5 years ago.  

Today I took a journey with a friend and her children.  We made a total of 8 batches of cookies.  One batch used the traditional ingredients we have all grown to love along with the traditional amounts of sugar.  All in all, a batch of traditional cookies contained 4 large eggs, 2 1/2 cups of butter, and 3 cups of sugar.  Then we made "Healthier" cookies.  The changes were just a few simple substitutions.  I replaced the eggs with 2 tablespoons of flax and 8 oz of water, the butter with apple sauce, and then reduced the amount of sugar in 1/2.  The other change was I used wheat flour for 1/4 of the amount of flour called for.

The biggest difference was the texture of the cookies.  The healthier cookies were a little more like cake than cookies, but the flavor was huge and a perfect sweet spot filler.  Overall, by making those simple changes, I managed to cut the calories of the cookies in half and the fat to 1/3 of the traditional fat.

So here is the how to for your Healthier Bake a thon!
1.  Gather dry ingredients and zip lock bags (gallon and quart).  The ziplock bags are to pre measure all ingredients so the little one can help you and you have a smaller mess.
2.  In the gallon size bag, measure 4 cups of flour, 4 teaspoons of baking powder, and 1 teaspoon of salt. (If you want chocolate cookie dough, add 1/4 cup of cocoa)
3.  In a quart size bag, measure 1 cup packed brown sugar, and 1/2 cup raw granulated sugar (you can use traditional sugar if you want).  Zip and put in the gallon bag with the flour.
4.  In a second quart bag, dump 1 small (regular) size of chips (your choice, we used heath bits, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and white chocolate chips).   
5.  Repeat for each type of cookie you want.   

The day you bake:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Remove the quart bags from the first batch of cookies.
2.  Put into a big bowl, 2 1/2 cups of apple sauce, 1 cup of warm water, 2 tablespoons of vanilla, and empty the bag of sugar.  Blend until sugar is dissolved.
3.  Slowly pour the flour bag into the mixture and stir/ mix.
4.  Mix in chips from chip bag.
5.  Use a teaspoon to drop on cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.
6.  Repeat with each batch until your prepackaged cookies are done!
7.  Eat two cookies and know if you added the other ingredients that you could only have 1!

Many thanks to my own little ones, The Briggs little ones, and their Mommy Sara!