Why do oatmeal cookies conjure up warm, fuzzy memories of Grandma’s cookie jar? They just seem so wholesome and innocent. They’re like the cookie equivalent of a yellow lab puppy. Of course, their wholesome reputation is mostly an illusion – I mean, they’re still cookies loaded with sugar. Then again, the soluble fiber in oatmeal does lower cholesterol. There, I’ve justified this treat as being heart-healthy. Damn, that was easy.

My fairly low fat, vegan version of oatmeal cookies includes molasses and toasted pecans for a deep, dark flavor, and the optional chocolate chips complement the molasses nicely. Best of all, they’re crispy on the outside and soft in the middle, so they won’t cause any fistfights between the crunchy cookie people and the chewy cookie people in your house. Grandma would be happy about that.

Backstory: When I first developed this recipe, it contained twice the oil, twice the nuts, and half an egg instead of the vegan “flax egg.”  The result was delicious – but I felt that the cookies were too high in fat to post on my heart-healthy blog. So I made some adjustments and brought both versions to my office of trusty testers. Surprisingly, most everyone liked the lower fat version as much as or even more than the original. So I’m declaring the low fat cookies a big winner!

Vegan Oatmeal-Pecan Cookies

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 ¼ cup rolled oats (old fashioned, not quick)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Scant ½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4  cup chopped pecans (or substitute macadamias or walnuts), toasted
1 tablespoon ground flax mixed with 3 tablespoons water
½ cup brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons unsulphured molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup organic canola oil
¼ cup dark chocolate chips, optional

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk together the flax and water, and heat in a microwave for 1 minute, or simmer for a minute on the stove. Combine flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and nuts in a bowl.

In separate bowl, whisk together flax mixture, brown sugar, maple syrup, molasses, vanilla, and oil. Add to dry ingredients and mix well. Stir in the pecans and optional chocolate chips.

Drop by the tablespoon on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from the cookie sheet while still warm and place on a rack or a plate to cool.

Makes about 30 cookies

Blood Orange and Watercress Salad from the blog Leek Soup. Photo: Dina Avila

After a month of holiday gorging, I am craving salad. I especially love those that include winter fruits like pears, oranges and pomegranates. Here are five of my latest favorite fruity winter salads from fellow bloggers.

A Celery Root and Apple Salad from Recipes to Save a Marriage By

Lettuce with Oranges, Fennel and Pomegranate from Good Life Eats

Blood Orange and Watercress Winter Salad from Leek Soup

Tropical Winter Salad from Diary of a Nutritionist

Winter Quinoa Salad with Squash, Pears and Almonds from Daily Unadventures in Cooking

I love french toast, and it has been one of the things I’ve missed the most since switching to a more heart-healthy diet. For years, I’ve hesitated to make a lowfat or vegan version for fear that it would be disappointing. But the other day my cravings got the best of me and I gave it a shot. Many vegan french toast recipes call for tofu to give the batter body, but tofu is not something I want in my french toast. Instead, I used a combination of oats, flax and banana to create a thick, rich batter based on almond milk, and added orange juice and cinnamon to boost the flavor.

The result isn’t exactly like traditional french toast, since it doesn’t have the same kind of eggy crust. However, it’s delicious in its own right, with the banana creating a nice caramelization on the outside. Add maple syrup  and fruit, and you’ve pretty much achieved breakfast nirvana.

Note: choose bread that is airy enough to absorb the liquid; if you use a very dense and heavy whole grain loaf, this won’t work quite as well. And it’s better to cut your own thick-ish slices here rather than using pre-sliced bread. I used an artisan whole wheat loaf that was crusty but light.

Vegan Banana-Oat French Toast

2 cups vanilla almond milk
1 tablespoon ground flax
1/4 cup quick oats
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 banana
8 slices whole-grain bread
Organic canola oil
Fresh fruit of choice and maple syrup, for topping

Combine the almond milk, flax, oats, orange juice, cinnamon and banana in a blender and process until well blended. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and soak the slices of bread for a minute or two on each side,until the liquid has completely penetrated the bread. Rub canola oil onto a griddle and heat on medium-high. (Note: if you have a nonstick griddle, do not use cooking oil spray, because the soy lecithin in it does ugly things to nonstick surfaces!) Cook until well-browned on one side, then flip and brown the other side. Serve with fruit and maple syrup.

This is it, friends. The day when you resolve to make all those changes you’ve been putting off.  So it’s the perfect time to take a good hard look at your diet and make five simple resolutions that can have a big impact on your heart health.

1. Eat more vegetables. Yeah, obvious, right? But I’m always surprised at how few vegetables most people actually eat.  A little salad with some lettuce and a couple tomatoes and cucumber slices doesn’t count as a vegetable in my book. Make a resolution to eat more green vegetables like kale, broccoli, chard, cabbage and collard greens. I like to have a big serving of cooked greens on the side with whatever I’m eating for dinner each  night – even if there are already vegetables in that dish. Here are a couple of simple vegetable recipes to start you off:

Slow-cooked Vegetarian Collard Greens from Wasabimon
My own Swiss Chard with Currants, Raisins and Pine Nuts
Vegan Broccoli Slaw from I Eat Trees

2. Expand your whole grain repertoire. Whole wheat bread and oatmeal are great, but how about branching out this year? The whole grain world is large and diverse, so now’s the time to get up close and familiar with quinoa, barley, farro, amaranth and the like. Try these whole grain recipes:

Farro with Broccoli and Shiitakes from Umami Girl (I would leave out the cheese, or most of it)
Millet Stuffed Golden Squashes from Nava Atlas
Easy Creamy Barley Tomato Risotto (vegan) from Oh She Glows

3. Eat your fatty acids. Wild Atlantic mackerel, rainbow trout, U.S. sardines and wild Alaskan salmon are among the fish that can help boost heart health with omega-3 fatty acids, and are also some of the more ocean-friendly fish choices. If you’re a vegtarian, get your omega-3’s from ground flax seeds, chia seeds, eggs, canola oil, walnuts and other sources. Dive in with these recipes:

Pomegranate Balsamic Glazed Salmon from Pink Parsley
Trout with Creamy Avocado Sauce from No Red Meat
Strawberry and Banana Smoothie with Chia Seeds from Green Lemonade

4. Use low fat dairy products and dairy substitutes. As I’m always saying (and saying and saying), you don’t need loads of artery-clogging cheese and cream to make delicious dishes.  Ingredients like nonfat yogurt and almond milk can provide a rich, creamy taste that will please even the biggest dairy-heads at your table. These are some of my faves:

Vegan Almond Pudding from Not Easy Being Green
My own Vegan Lasagna Bechamel
Ginger Orange Carrot Soup with yogurt from Christie’s Corner (substitute olive oil for the butter here)

5. Cut out the processed foods. Of course, a heart-healthy diet is not just what you eat, but what you don’t eat. Get (re)acquainted with my Supermarket Foods to Avoid guide so it’s top of mind when you hit the grocery aisles.

Of  course, these resolutions aren’t just for your benefit, it’s for mine, too. Contrary to popular belief, my diet is not perfect. It’s pretty damn good, but I do want to eat more vegetables and explore some new whole grains this year. Hopefully that will translate into some great new healthy recipes for you!

Happy New Year and Happy Eating,
Cathy

If you’re getting ready for a New Year’s Eve bash, this butternut squash hummus is a nice alternative to the usual dips. I had seen recipes for hummus that called for both chickpeas and butternut squash – but when I was making this batch, I stopped and tasted it before adding the chickpeas and decided it was perfect as is.  You’d think this would be super sweet, but it’s actually surprisingly hummus-like, thanks to the garlic, tahini and lemon. And of course, you can feel good about eating it because butternut squash is rich in fiber, antioxidants and other good stuff. This is delicious with pita chips or spread on baguette slices. You’ll have fun making people guess what the secret ingredient is!

Smoky Southwestern variation: substitute lime juice for the lemon, use one small chipotle pepper from a can of chipotles in adobo in place of the cayenne pepper, and stir in two tablespoons of chopped cilantro at the end.

Butternut Squash Hummus

1 small butternut squash, halved, seeds scooped out
1/4 cup tahini
3 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Brush the squash with oil and place on a baking sheet, cut side down. Roast for about an hour, until the squash is very tender.  Scoop out the flesh and place in a food processor along with the remaining ingredients.

I found this Linzer Macaroon cookie recipe on Epicurious a few years ago, and it’s become my go-to holiday cookie. While they are very sugary and not really low fat, the fat comes solely from almonds rather than butter or eggs, and that makes me feel better. (C’mon, let me have my holiday delusions!)  These cookies are also great for anyone following a gluten-free diet, as they contain no flour. They’re basically just almonds, sugar, egg whites and raspberry jam.

This is an example of a good cookie with a poorly written recipe, so I’ve corrected the problems here. First, the original Bon Appétit recipe called for cooking them for 18 minutes, which turns them into hard crunchy discs rather than chewy macaroons. Second, it called for watering down the raspberry jam too much. You just need to add enough water to make it more easily spreadable on the delicate cookies. Third, you really must rinse your hands between every couple of cookies you form – otherwise you’ll have a hard time making the gooey dough into balls. Relax, it’s easy. Just follow the instructions and you’ll end up with simply irresistible cookies.

I recommend using a raspberry jam that’s not overly sweet – or you could substitute lemon juice for all or part of the water when making the jam filling. I haven’t tried that, but I bet it would make for a nice tangy contrast with the sweet cookie. Oh, I guess I’ll just have to make another batch and find out.

Linzer Macaroon Sandwich Cookies
Adapted from Bon Appetit

1 2/3 cups blanched slivered almonds
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 large egg whites
1 teaspoon almond extract (I like half almond, half vanilla, but if you love almond flavor, go for all almond)
1/3 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup raspberry preserves
1 tablespoon water (see note above for alternate suggestion)
Powdered sugar

Put the jam and the water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about five minutes, then cool completely (place in the refrigerator if necessary – the filling should not be too runny.)

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Put the slivered almonds and the sugar in a food processor and grind well. Add the egg whites and extract(s) and process until very well blended.

Dampen your hands and form teaspoons of dough into balls and place them on the sheets an inch apart, flattening just slightly so that the diameter is about 1 1/4″.( Be sure to rinse your hands with warm water between every couple of cookies so the dough is easy to handle.) Press a couple of sliced almonds onto the top of each cookie.

Bake until just barely golden, about 13-14 minutes. Slide the parchment paper off the baking sheets and cool. Use a metal spatula to remove the cookies to a work surface, arranging them flat side up. Spoon 1/2 teaspoon of jam onto one cookie, then top with another. Repeat until finished. Sift powdered sugar over completed cookies.

Makes about 20 cookies

Some other holiday cookie recipes I can’t wait to try:

Crackly Spice Cookies from She’s In the Kitchen

Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles from M Loves M
(Note: I discovered that the original recipe is actually from the book Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar: 100 Dairy-Free Recipes for Everyone’s Favorite Treats)

Life-Changing Vegan Thumbprints from The Kitchn