I’ve been dragging people, not going to lie. Last week, in addition to cooking for my usual weekly clients, I catered a four-course private dinner party on Friday, a bruncheon for 30 lovely ladies on Saturday, annnnd managed to pull myself together and go to a concert with my father on Sunday, complete with a few Bloody Marys at 7pm (don’t ask LOL). BUT I did not get to bed until 2am!! No bueno, no no bueno for this personal cheffy. Haha. So all day Monday I was draaaagging, to say the least.
I am sure everyone can relate to this feeling, whether it you are staying up late studying/cramming for a test, or work shift work/odd hours, have a baby who confuses nighttime for daytime, or are just running on overdrive all the time, some days are just rough…sometimes so rough that even coffee will not do the trick. So your body moves to its next vice: SUGAR. Well, at least that is how it is for me, when I feel extra exhausted I feel like I crave something sweet more so than usual. I think it is my body searching for some source of quick energy, and sugar will do just that…hit my blood sugar hard…and then crash even harder!
I am being a bit dramatic here, to be honest I really do not eat much processed sugar, especially during the day; if anything, a treat at night, but night or day, when I am extra tired I need something sweet. Which bring me to this post (FINALLY! LOL). Monday I had an extra can of chickpeas, and recently I have seen on Pinterest (as I am sure you fellow foodies have too)a no-egg/healthy cookie dough dip, and yes eating cookie dough sounded like a wonderful idea then! Now, many of those recipes do not have eggs and are healthier than eating straight up raw cookie dough batter, but “healthy” is truly an overstatement. Most are packed with a lot of sugar and calories, and some even have up to a stick of butter in them.
So I set out to create a very versatile clean/healthy cookie dough recipe, that if you were to eat the entire recipe (the basic/original recipe) you will get 21 grams of vegan protein and 24 grams of fiber (just about your daily recommended amount of fiber per day!) for around 400 calories! Plus, it’s a very large serving – volume food as I like to call it – about 2 cups! Oh, and all you need is like 4 ingredients and a food processor.
Read on for a few different variations:
Basic healthy cookie dough:
- Blend 1 can (14.5 oz.) chickpeas (drained and rinsed) with 1/4 cup of sugar-free/zero calories maple syrup (I love Walden Farms brand, it is my go-to for all my low-calorie/diabetic/low sugar clients, great product and does not taste SF at all! https://www.waldenfarms.com/products/syrup_pancake.html ).
- Blend, blend, blend in a food processor until nice and smooth (stopping and scraping down the sides). Add a splash of vanilla extract (about 1 tsp.) and about 1 tsp. cinnamon (or to your liking). Blend again.
- Place your “batter” into a bowl and fold in 1/8 cup of raisins. Refrigerate for at least an hour, but up to three hours to achieve a true “cookie dough” consistency.
This entire recipe is 21 g protein, 24 g fiber and 415 calories; throw some apple slices with this and you have yourself a yummy lunch, or only eat half for a protein-packed snack!
Variations:
For CHOCOLATE CHIP cookie dough, do the same thing with the chickpeas and syrup, but this time omit the cinnamon (STILL ADD VANILLA) and replace with 2 TBSP de-fatted peanut butter (such as PB2-https://www.amazon.com/PB2-Powdered-Peanut-Butter-6-5/dp/B002GJ9JWS). After blending, add 30 (yes count them if you want to keep this healthy and lower cal lol) semi-sweet chocolate chips. Stats: 29 g protein, 24 g fiber and 535 calories.
And if you are someone like me who is not a huge meat eater and struggles to get enough protein on the daily, then add a serving of collagen peptides. This will add 20 grams of pure collagen protein/peptides, for under 100 calories, without changing the taste or consistency at all, all while strengthening your joints and helping aid in healthy glowing, skin, nails and hair! (BOOM I should be in sales LOL) (I recommend this brand – https://www.vitalproteins.com/collections/all-products/products/collagen-peptides )
Enjoy and let me know what creative variations you come up with using my base recipe! Oh, and for those of you trying to gain weight, use full fat PB, pure maple syrup and 31 chocolate chips. 🙂
