I have finally made the best gluten-free cookies in the world. I can’t believe they didn’t burn in our notorious oven and I can’t believe how moist they are inside and so super tasty with the extra heat of the ginger. These are the accumulation of all the knowledge I have built up over the last months making different granola bars each week. I have taken the ingredients which have performed the best and put them all together and hey presto, super cookies.
While I am here I just want to pass something by you all. On Pinterest there are millions of pins of uplifting sayings to make you feel good. You know the ones about following your dreams, live life to the fullest etc. But here’s the thing. Sometimes we read those sayings and they make us feel vaguely uncomfortable. Have you ever analyzed that? Well here’s what I think and I said this recently in a comment on a blog somewhere.
I think we put way too much pressure on ourselves to live life to the fullest – it makes us always feel like failures. Some of those sayings that seem so inciteful have a double edged sword and trap us into thinking we must pack heaps into our days or we are not really living. I don’t think we should put pressure on ourselves to live more of a life than we are capable of. If we are always striving too hard for something unreachable then we will always be discontent with where we are and will feel imprisoned by our lives. Now, I’m not saying that I have figured this out. I’m just wondering what you all think.
This recipe is not low Fodmap.
- ½ cup rolled oats
- ½ cup almond meal
- ¾ cup applesauce
- ¼ cup banana (mashed)
- ½ cup peanut butter
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ginger (powdered)
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp raisins
- 3 tbsp cranberries
- 3 tbsp shredded coconut
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- ½ cup chocolate chips
- Preheat the oven to 35o°F/180°C.
- Mash the applesauce and banana with the peanut nut butter and vanilla.
- Mix all the other ingredients in a second bowl.
- Mix the wet with the dry.
- Place a sheet of baking paper on an oven tray.
- Drop heaped teaspoonfuls onto the sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes.
These do look really good. They look moist and chewy and with that list of ingredients they must be full of flavour xx
The flavours are great – the ginger with the coconut is particularly good.
Suzanne
I think my son would love helping to make & eat these cookies!
To answer your question, I think I have to agree with you. At least it’s been my own experience with Pinterest, that the longer I’m on there, the worse about myself I start to feel (and maybe that’s simply that I have some deeper-seated issues I need to work out!)…My stuff’s never good enough, I’m not doing enough to make my house perfect, myself better, whatever. I try to keep it to searching for kitchen inspiration, things I think are funny, and basically leave it at that.
That’s probably the answer, to stick to a few things we are looking for and skim the rest. It’s sad if it makes you and others feel as if you have deep-seated issues because it’s probably not true. It’s just part of human nature to aspire to greater things but it’s not natural to be surrounded by the materialism and enormously high level of aspiration that Pinterest portrays. It’s too concentrated and perhaps we should use it in little doses.
Suzanne
These cookies look so scrumptious and packed with delicious mix-ins!
They are certainly very healthy.
Suzanne
I think you have to take it wit a grain a salt – take some, and leave some so you reach a place where the pressure is off but you still feel challenged. Easier said than done, but that’s what I aspire to live by! Those cookies look delicious by the way!
It’s certainly a tough balancing act because so much of what we are bombarded with on the net is unrealistic and only designed to make us feel inadequate. I am glad to hear you have it sorted however hard it is to maintain.
Suzanne
Nice recipe! It’s been fun reading all the cookies you’ve been making. If you say these are the best yet, I really have to sit up and take notice. Re your question, I always figure if people need those little sayings, they still haven’t found what they’re looking for. It’s the ordinary everyday stuff that’s real, and that you need to contemplate and appreciate (the whole stop and smell the roses thing). Live life to the fullest? I’d say making and eating these cookies is exactly that. Having a brass band playing won’t increase your enjoyment or pleasure – it’s learning what you can do without that makes life more satisfying, at least for me.
Nicely put. It is all about stopping and enjoying the moment every now and then and being truly present and that’s something quite achievable that we don’t have to beat ourselves up about.
Suzanne
I would agree with you Suzanne. I’m guilty of putting too much pressure on myself and trying to do too much at once. Maybe if we didn’t do that we’d have more time to really enjoy our lives and be thankful for what we already have. Food for thought.
Your cookies look perfect and I just love the flavors in them. Thanks for sharing:)
Yes, we’re always looking ahead to see what more we can achieve and not looking about ourselves to see what we have. I have trouble with my life standing still, like many people, and have to constantly tell myself to appreciate what I have and what I have achieved.
Suzanne
Suzanne, not only do these cookies sound like a success (moistness wise, etc.) they are also phenomenally healthy! Your ingredient choices are brilliant – love the use of apple sauce and banana as the primary sweeteners here – and such pretty styling too. I must try these…
I know what you mean about the inspirational quotes and especially about pushing ourselves to fulfill someone else’s vision – sometimes that can feel more alienating than anything else. On the other hand, if we view them as simple offerings, we are free to take them or leave them as we wish.
My boss is also enjoying them at work. They are a resounding success.
You are very wise, Kelly. They are just offerings and we can walk away from them if we wish.
Suzanne
I think you are right about society and the pressures we put on ourselves to achieve more, it’s as if the busier we are the more important we think we are. I have to admit I am my own worst enemy at always being busy, if I’m not ‘doing’ I feel like have wasted the day. Raro was good for reflecting, we had no internet and limited phone reception but it still took the best part of a week to relax.
Nice cookies for feet up with a cuppa ;o)
I have never been to Rarotonga and would probably take that long to relax too. I also need to be doing something or I feel something is wrong.
Suzanne
You are fabulous, y’know that?
Right back at you, Raine. Thanks.
Suzanne
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