Whole Wheat Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies - Made with RawMio Almond Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Spread

Anyone else out there a fan of all of the different varieties of nut and cookie butters? My personal favorite before switching to a more whole food based diet was speculoos cookie butter from Trader Joe's, so when RawMio offered to send me a jar of their Almond Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough spread I was so excited. My family and I have tried it a few different ways now, including straight off a spoon (because who can resist?!), on toast, and in the cookie recipe I'm sharing today.

This spread is seriously yummy and loaded with all kinds of super foods. I personally like it best when it's in a warmer form since it takes off a little of the edge from the raw almonds and takes on a little more of the dry-roasted almond flavor I love. In order to really highlight the cookie dough flavor of the spread I added cocoa powder to the cookies; the cocoa powder majorly enhances the flavor of the cacao in the spread.

The finished product!

Whole Wheat Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

Virgin coconut oil, softened 

2 tbsp raw honey (use maple syrup for vegan version)
½ cup RawMio Almond Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough spread
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 egg (use flax egg for vegan version - how to make a flax egg)
1 tsp vanilla
¾ cup white whole wheat flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ cup oats

Instructions

1.   Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease cookie sheet or use Silpat to line cookie sheet.

2.   Add the coconut oil and honey to a large mixing bowl, and cream using an electric mixer. Next, add cookie dough spread, cocoa powder, egg, and vanilla to mixture; mix until combined.

3.   In a medium mixing bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, and baking powder together; add salt. Stir to combine. Add the oats to the other dry ingredients, mix until combined.

4.   Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, stirring to combine as you add the dry mixture.

5.   Using a cookie scoop, form tablespoon-sized balls and place the balls on the prepared cookie sheet about 2” apart. Use a fork to flatten the cookies slightly and form a cross-hatch pattern.  

6.   Bake for 9 minutes on the middle rack of preheated oven. Remove from oven and let cool on the cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes before moving to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before enjoying. 

Stay tuned for more recipes using RawMio products.... If you would like to check out more of their products you can head over to their website http://rawmio.com/. 

Note: All featured products were provided free of charge, but the opinions are solely my own. 

Chipotle Black Bean Mango Salad

Lately I have been wanting Southwestern flavors non-stop, so I have been testing all kinds of new Mexican and Southwestern recipes to satisfy the craving. In my hunt I stumbled across this super tasty burrito bowl recipe from Damn Delicious. It is so tasty and a great substitute for my favorite Burrito Bowl from Chipotle, but it's a little heavy to eat as frequently as I want. I really liked the flavor combination and could seriously have eaten her burrito bowl everyday for lunch, so I have been tweaking her recipe and I finally came up with the perfect vegetarian salad I can eat for lunch everyday guilt-free. Here is my newest food obsession -

Chipotle Black Bean Mango Salad

Salad Ingredients: 

2-3 cups chopped lettuce of your choice, washed (I like red leaf or romaine)

1/2 cup black beans, rinsed

1 medium tomato, chopped

1/4 cup chopped mango

1/2 avocado, chopped

1/4 cup yellow or orange bell pepper, chopped (optional)

Cilantro for garnish, to taste (I'm a little heavy-handed with the cilantro as you can see)

Dressing Ingredients: 

1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt or sour cream

1/4 cup salsa of your choice (I like to use a fresh salsa)

1 tbsp fresh lime juice

1/8-1/4 tsp ground Chipotle pepper - more if you like it extra smoky (I use Penzey's) 

I'm heavy-handed with the Chipotle because I can't get enough of the smoky flavor. 

Instructions: 

In a salad bowl, layer the lettuce, black beans, tomato, mango, avocado, and bell pepper (if using). In a small bowl, stir Greek yogurt (or sour cream), salsa, lime juice, and ground Chipotle seasoning together until well blended. Pour the dressing over the layered salad, add cilantro, and toss ingredients until combined and coated with dressing. Enjoy! 

Because we all know I love my gadgetry, I just had to add a little plug for the value of a mango slicer. If you haven't invested in a mango slicer yet, you seriously should! I picked one up for $0.60 at St. Vinny's a few months ago, and we have eaten more mango in the past few months than I think I have in my whole life. It is SOOO handy; I just put it over the stem, press down, and voila - 2 perfect halves of edible mango. After it's cut, I just scoop the fruit out with a spoon, just like an avocado. Here's a photo from today (because I was, of course, making this salad for probably the sixth time in 2 weeks). 

Perfectly Sliced Mango!!

Sweet Potato & Ground Bison Sloppy Joes Recipe

Sloppy Joes are such an easy, quick, and kid-friendly weeknight dinner. While I always have these great aspirations to try something new with ground meat, 9 out of 10 times I come back to Sloppy Joes. ... and why wouldn't I? I know that they are nearly impossible to screw up even when left unattended for 15 minutes while I change a diaper or break up a fight, and  I know my kids will actually eat them, which is most often not the case for dinner at our house these days. 

I like to change them up by adding different root veggies or beans to the mixture. Not only does it add a little fiber and another veg to their plates, it also stretches the meat a little further. 

We currently have a whole bunch of sweet potatoes from our CSA farm share (read about what a CSA is here), so I took some inspiration from a Martha Stewart recipe and 100 Days of Real Food recipe to come up with this fantastic new Sloppy Joe recipe. This is my first time making "Real Food" rules approved Sloppy Joes and I will definitely be using this recipe from now on. 

Note: We like our Sloppy Joes to have a smoky flavor with a hint of heat; if you prefer a sweeter mix, you'll want to cut the amount of chili powder and cumin used. 

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium sweet potato, chopped
2 shallots, finely chopped (OR ½ small onion & 1 clove garlic, finely chopped)
1 pound ground bison (or any ground meat)
1 14.5 oz. can tomato sauce (no sugar added)
1 tablespoon honey
1½ teaspoons chili powder
1½ teaspoons cumin
Dash of cinnamon
salt & pepper

Directions

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add sweet potato, cook for about 3 minutes. Add shallot, and continue cooking until both sweet potato and shallot soften, 2-3 minutes.

Add ground meat to skillet and brown until no pink visible, breaking up meat with wooden spoon while it cooks. Season with salt & pepper.

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk together tomato sauce, honey, chili powder, cumin, and cinnamon. 

Add sauce to browned meat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, simmer for   5-10 minutes until most liquid has evaporated and mixture has thickened. 

Serve Sloppy Joes on whole wheat buns. 

*Adapted from 100 Days of Real Food Turkey Sloppy Joes & Martha Stewart's Turkey Sloppy Joes.*

Healthier Pumpkin Rice Krispy Treats

Our Halloween plans were changed last minute, so I had to try to figure out something for us to do this evening. We decided on a movie and treat, so I went to the store in search of something easy to throw together. My small town has limited health food stores, but we do have one grocery with a very small health foods isle. So, I picked up some organic brown rice crispy cereal and decided to make some version of pumpkin "rice krispy treats". I was not in luck with limited ingredient marshmallows, so ended up with the store brand. I need to check and see what Whole Foods has next time I am there.

(Side note: This cereal brand is allergen friendly, which was a great bonus!)

Now, keep in mind that I'm not very crafty, so it's ok to laugh at my finished pumpkin. ;) But, the important thing is that these tasted great and my kids loved them!

Ingredients:
6 cups of brown rice crisp cereal
4 cups of marshmallows
2 tbsp of coconut oil
1/8 to 1/4 cup pumpkin
1 tsp of pumpkin spice seasoning, (or just add to taste if you prefer)
A few chocolate chips for decorating (optional)

Directions:
Put the coconut oil in a large pan on low heat. Once it has turned to liquid, add marshmallows and stir. When marshmallows have melted, stir in pumpkin. Too much pumpkin will make them not as crispy, so somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4 cup works great. Also add seasoning.
Remove from Heat.
Add your rice cereal and stir well, making sure you get everything from the bottom stirred in.
Pour the mixture into a 9x13 and flatten with a spoon, making sure it's pressed into all the corners.
Once they are cooled they are ready to eat!

I ended up putting them in the fridge to get them good and cool. Then I used a small cup to cut out a couple of circles to make the boys each a pumpkin. Then we decorated them with the chocolate chips.  Well, they mostly ate the chocolate chips, but it was fun and the treats tasted great!! --C