Vegan and GF chocolate chip cookies.

Vegan and GF chocolate chip cookies.

Happy Martin Luther King Day and Monday… yes, we meet again.  Everyone but my husband is off today so it was a bit of a lazier morning for everyone, well except that I got up with my husband at 5:30.  I was planning on taking a rest day after my run yesterday – more on that later.  Plus I had my orthopedist appointment today to check out the progress of my finger.

I’ve been working, tirelessly, on the perfect vegan and chocolate chip cookie.  You know that kind that isn’t gluten free and vegan that you once loved?  Yeah, that kind.  And let’s face it… Monday’s can always use a good chocolate chip cookie break built-in.  Ha ha. So finally, yesterday, I gave it another attempt and success was achieved.  I was quite pleased.  I normally don’t eat cookies but I had one… contemplated 4 more but walked away.  Yet as I type this… they are calling my name again.  Actually my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Okay so in the spirit of giving…. here you go!  I hope you love these as much as we do!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of almond or peanut butter (I used Justin’s)
1/2 cup of cashew or almond milk, unsweetened
3 tablespoons of coconut or vegetable oil
1/2 cup of coconut palm sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup of Bob’s Redmill 1:1 Gluten Free Flour

3/4 cup of Bob’s Redmill gluten free rolled oats
1/4  teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup of vegan chocolate chips or chunks

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  In your stand mixer, paddle attached, blend your nut butter of choice, milk of choice, oil, sugar and vanilla.  In a separate small bowl, blend the flour, oats, salt and soda.  Then add that to your stand mixer and blend.  Mix in chocolate chips by hand.  Scoop out onto a baking sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Remove and let cool. Devour immediately.  I’ve found that these are best right out of the oven- warm and gooey.  If you need to store, they do seem to soften a bit  -not that the flavor suffers.  We stored them in a cake stand that was covered.

This weekend was crazy!  My daughter was off Friday from school – done with mid terms.  We did a lot of primping for her Sadie Hawkins dance Saturday.  I finished out my running for the week on Friday so I could take Saturday off and spend the morning with my husband.  He’s been house hunting for another fixer upper on weekends.  So for a total, I completed 30 miles of running and 3 days of weightlifting/core/balance work.

Saturday night I went to bed early because rain was expected at 8am on Sunday.  I knew I wanted to get a long run in and planned to wake up at 5:30 and head out. I had no idea, which is typical for me, on what I was going to run but knew I had to do more than 10 that I had done three days prior.  When I went out, my legs felt like cement from mile 1-3 but then I got into a groove. The ice was still on the roads, it was dark and windy but I managed to get 14 miles done.  I was very happy with that as it is my longest run in about 2 years.

And yes I beat the rain!

Now how to help heal sore and tired muscles… Wear your compression socks all day post run and yes even to bed.  They will help reduce swelling. Help blood flow to healing muscles and I swear my legs don’t hurt the next day at all when I wear them!  And get sleep, of course to help recover.

So this week is off to a good start:

Sunday:  14 miles
Monday:  Rest day

And on a really positive note… my bone seems to be fusing in my finger!!!  Doc was quite happy today.  He’s hoping I can have one more X-ray and be done next month and be released. I cannot tell you how happy I’ll be not to see the inside of my finger anymore or this screw.  Ha ha.

Sorry for such a long post.  Happy new week to you!  ~oxo

— Knead to Cook