Go Green

For St. Patrick's Day, of course.  

Honestly, I've never been a big fan of St. Patty's Day.  I'm completely Italian, and I know that "everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day", but even when I was younger, I never really bought it.  My mom loves it, green bagels, Irish Soda Bread, etc.  My husband is half Irish too, but its just not my thing.  Even in college when it was just another excuse to drink a lot...I mean, I never needed an excuse for that (yes, my college experience was like that...maybe why I had an extra 30lbs to lose by my junior year).  

Anyway, the fact that my breakfast tomorrow will be "green" is a happy coincidence.  I ran out of breakfast cookies today, and was trying to make use of the stuff left in my refrigerator...like spinach.  Into a breakfast cookie it went.

Green (I swear, I know they don't look that green) Breakfast Cookies

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup protein powder

1 cup flax meal

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp coconut oil

6 tbsp maple syrup and/or agave nectar, or any combination of the two

2 tbsp applesauce

1 tbsp molasses

2-4 tbsp water

1 cup spinach

  

The process, if you haven't memorized it by now, is pretty simple.  In a big bowl, mix the first four ingredients.  In a smaller bowl, liquify the coconut oil.  Add that, plus the rest of the ingredients (sweetener through spinach) into a blender/food processor/whatever (I use my magic bullet, super convenient for jobs like this), and blend.  Add the wet to the dry, mix, and form into 8 cookies.  

Serves 4

Nutrition Information:  433.8 Calories;  17.9g Total Fat;  6.3g Saturated Fat;  0.0mg Cholesterol;  48.1 g Carbohydrates;  11.3g Fiber;  26.6g Protein

As always, the nutrition information largely depends on the protein powder you use. 

These are so good.  I love that green stuff tastes so good.  I know a lot of you are into the green smoothie, which isn't my thing, but its just such a cool concept..greens for breakfast! 

You can easily raw-i-fy these too.  Replace the rolled oats with another cup of flax meal.  The protein powder can either be hemp protein, or you can also use the flax meal for that too.  I'm sure molasses isn't raw, you could use more maple syrup or agave for that.  The molasses is just good for hardening it for the "put in your pocket" factor.  You could use any pureed fruit instead of the applesauce.  

For all of you who DO enjoy the tomorrow's lovely Irish holiday, I hope it treats you well!  Tomorrow should be an easy day for me.  We're so close to the city, so everyone is going to the parade instead of school.  In other news though, life has been stressful, which is why I haven't been posting much.  I'll talk about it more later on, but I've been at least trying to keep up with you guys!