♡ olive oil oatmeal cookies ♡

♡ heart-healthy olive oil oatmeal walnut cranberry blueberry raisin cookies ♡

Taste With The Eyes is four-and-a-half years old and it’s time to celebrate! No, not because of the mini-milestone, we’re celebrating the first cookie recipe on this blog, ever. And they’re not colorful, festive, nor particularly sweet…and they are definitely not tied up with ribbons and bows.  I’ll leave those fabulous gussied up holiday cookies to the baking experts. These are brown, irregular, crunchy, a little chewy, heart-healthy, and great with black coffee. My kinda cookie. I know this is a long shot, but perhaps, yours, too?

After all these years without a cookie in sight, what motivated me, a rather savory gal, to bake cookies?

Well, I received a generous gift of fancy holiday cookies from a client at my office the other day. They were shipped from a popular local bakery. And they were very very pretty. With lots of icing, and red and green sprinkles. They were aptly named “Sugar Rush.” The label indicated each serving contained 25 mg of cholesterol. I gave them away to a delighted colleague, then sent a thank you note to that gracious client.

With cookies on my mind, instead of a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, I thought an oatmeal cookie might be a good change of pace. A cookie the opposite of  “Sugar Rush.”  So at 6 AM, I pre-heated the oven to 350°…and with the Quaker Oats box recipe as a rough template, baked what turned out to be surprisingly satisfying heart-friendly cookies.

• 1/4 c. + 2 T.  mild-tasting olive oil
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1/4 c.  egg whites
• 1/2 t. vanilla
• 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
• 1  t. baking powder
• 1/2  t. salt (optional)
• 1  1/2 c. old-fashioned oats
• 1/2  c. mixed golden raisins, dried cranberries & blueberries
• 1/2  c. chopped walnuts

With an electric mixer, combine olive oil and sugar in a large bowl. Then add egg whites and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture to the bowl and mix well. Then mix in the oats, and lastly the fruit and walnuts. Drop cookie dough onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes or until light golden brown. Let cool one minute then transfer to a wire rack. My recipe makes one dozen large high-fiber, anti-oxidant-rich, zero-cholesterol cookies. 

Breakfast was an olive oil oatmeal cookie, black coffee and a small cup of non-fat Greek yogurt.
Very nice for a change.

A Cookie Exchange – Fall Fest Special Edition

“In honor of the holiday season, Food Network and Fall Fest contributors
are gathering together to share 
favorite cookie recipes at our Communal Table.”

What’s Gaby Cooking: Peppermint Bark Chocolate Cookies
CIA Dropout: Walnut Wimpy Balls
And Love It Too: Snowball Cookies (Grain-Free, Dairy-Free and Vegan)
Jones Is Hungry: A Cookie for Chocolate Lovers
From My Corner of Saratoga: Gooey Butter Cookies
The Sensitive Epicure: Speculaas Dutch Windmill Cookies
Napa Farmhouse 1885: Salted Chocolate & Dulce de Leche Fudge
Virtually Homemade: Chocolate Mint Snowballs
Sweet Life Bake: Polvorones de Chocolate
Daily*Dishin: Cherry Topped Cream-Drop Cookies
FN Dish: Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip-Bacon Cookies
Thursday Night Dinner: Peppermint Bark Cookies
Dishin and Dishes: Pecan Sandie Thumbprints With Cherry Frosting
Mooshu Jenne: Biscotti
Cooking With Elise: Sweet and Salty White Chocolate Cranberry Oat Cookies

♡ Wishing you a happy healthy holiday season! ♡