YUM! I love living a healthy nutritiously Well-Fed lifestyle, omitting the T.R.A.S.H. in our everyday eating. (See below. This is my Number 1, First Step to living a healthy lifestyle. Take out the T.R.A.S.H. and you will feel tremendously better!!! You’ll have more energy, less fatigue, less inflamation, your metabolism will get a boost and so many positives will result from simply taking out the transformed, processed, refined, artificial, fake foods!)
That might worry some into thinking they can never enjoy cookies again! YOU CAN! Simply making regular recipes healthy Nutritiously Well-Fed recipes, you can have your cookies… and eat them too!
I have made these sweet potato cookies many times now and they are gobbled up fast! Everyone loves them! Kali, Nico, myself and my husband! I have made them with just a few chocolate chips on top (which if you do add chocolate chips, those will have some refined sugar in them thus you are adding sugar, but you don’t need them!). I have omitted the chocolate chips and only used pecans, and I have to say I prefer the pecans. They compliment the sweet potato perfectly!
Begin with roasting a few sweet potatoes.
Just to remind you, complex carbs are good for you!! And Sweet Potatoes are an excellent complex carb, they are anti-inflammatory, they are a fantastic source of vitamin A (in the form of beta-carotene), making for healthy skin and eyes! They are also a very good source of vitamins and minerals such as vitamin C, B1, B2, B6, manganese, copper, pantothenic acid, potassium, fiber, niacin and phosphorus! I’ve heard people (and some actual nutritionists) refer to them as “sugar-and-starch bombs”. THIS is where confusion sets in and why people don’t understand how to eat healthy. A Sweet Potato will not cause blood sugar spikes! Their high fiber content makes them a slow burning starch—meaning they won’t spike blood sugar and insulin levels. One cup of baked sweet potato provides around 6 grams of fiber. They provide a great source of potassium… more than twice the amount in a medium banana, which helps to remove excess sodium and fluid out of the body, in turn lowering blood pressure!
Something more interesting… about 12% of the starch in sweet potatoes is a resistant starch. A Resistant Starch? What is that? Well, typically when starches arrive in the intestine, enzymes in your small intestine digest them and turn them into sugar. Resistant starches move through the stomach and small intestine undigested! Thus a resistant starch is a filling, fiber-like substance your body doesn’t digest and absorb. When the resistant starch arrives in the colon intact, it acts more like a prebiotic than a typical starch! Your good gut bacteria known as probiotics eat prebiotics! Therefore, our good bacteria feeds on the starch, producing what is known as butyrate or butyric acid, a short-chain fatty acid that strengthens your brain and your gut. And even better… there are studies that have found replacing just about 5.4% of total carbohydrate intake with resistant starch resulted in a 20 to 30% increase in fat burning after a meal. Resistant starch also tells the body to pump out more satiety-inducing hormones, allowing you to feel full. Here’s a great screenshot explaining more from bulletproof.com
So on that note, when you hear people say to stay away from carbs, ask them really as to WHY? Because there are some fantastic nutrition in healthy complex carbs such as sweet potato. And yes, this knowledge can be a bit… complex, which is why some “diet experts” or “nutritionists” will not understand the complexity of it. So by knowing the true health benefits of a well-balanced nutritiously well-fed eating routine, you will have the knowledge and POWER! For this recipe I use 1 or 2 sweet potatoes, depending on size. You’ll need about 1 1/2 cups to maybe 2 cups of sweet potato.
Then adding quinoa and amaranth flour, this keeps our cookies gluten free, but also adds some powerhouse nutrition! Protein from the quinoa flour and a great source of vitamins and minerals from the amaranth!
I think by now most of us are aware quinoa is a healthy food! It’s actually been called a superfood and having it as a flour makes for more versatility in its use! Here we are baking with it! Adding nutrients and protein to our cookies! Look at this great infographic courtesy of draxe.com
As for Amaranth, from the wholegrainscouncil.org, look at the nutrition powerhouse this gluten-free grain offers! We only use about 1/4 cup in this recipe, but I have an apple pie crust recipe that uses this amaranth flour along with some other recipe ideas. Soooo many better options than just plain ol’ simple unhealthy refined white flour.
The additional ingredients are 2 tbsp coconut oil melted, 1/4 cup Pure Maple Syrup to make these cookies sweet, and by using pure maple syrup you’re adding more minerals! Not shown is the cinnamon, which I am rather generous with this, about 1-2 tbsp. Then about 1-2 tsp nutmeg, and 2 tsp pure Vanilla extract. And that’s it! No eggs, no milk!
Mix everything together, or have your helper do the honors.
Then scoop onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and top with chocolate chips or what I prefer the pecans. You can also mix in pecans so you get more of that sweet pecan flavor in every bite!
And what’s great is you could actually eat these before baking but they’re easier to hold once they’ve been through the oven.
Bake at 350F for about 20-25 minutes and then cool and serve! Cake-like soft healthy nutritiously Well-Fed Sweet Potato Cookies!
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- 1 1/2 - 2 cups smashed cooked sweet potato
- 1/4 c pure maple syrup
- 2 tbsp coconut oil melted
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1-2 tbsp cinnamon add 1 tbsp, see how you feel. I add closer to two!
- 3/4 cup quinoa flour
- 1/4 - 1/2 cup amaranth flour
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips optional
- 1/2 cup pecans optional. You can add only on top or mix into the batter
Ingredients
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- Preheat Oven to 350F
- Combine all ingredients to mixer and blend.
- Scoop out spoonfuls onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Top with organic semi-sweet chocolate chips or pecans. Honestly, I prefer just the pecans!
- Bake for about 20-25 minutes. Let cool and then serve!