Donny had his four week check-up yesterday afternoon and the surgeon was really impressed with his progress! He was really excited with how well Donny has done and says he heals really quickly. Compared to 70-year-olds I am guessing that’s true…. just kidding Donny, you do heal fast.
He thought his scar looked 8-10 weeks old, not 4 weeks old. Crazy! Plus he got his knee to bend to 102 degrees, which is awesome. His goal is 135 degrees like his right knee.
His appointment was in Loveland at 4:00pm and I kid you not, we were walking out of the clinic at 4:08pm. They are super efficient in that place! At his two-week check-up they had to do x-rays and we were still in-and-out in 15 minutes. He has another appointment in three weeks….any bets on time? 4 minutes? 3 minutes?!?!
His next check-up happens to be on my birthday! Pretty convenient… I will either go with him and we can go to dinner or maybe he will pick up take-out and we can spend my birthday evening in PJ’s. My favorite!
So I know the holidays are over and you probably have some resolutions or goals for 2016, but does it involve dessert? How about a clean-eating dessert? Does that fit in your plan?
Hopefully, because I have some Chai Spiced Oatmeal Cookies that need to be enjoyed.
I happen to love chai, but store-bought chai spice blends tend to have a lot of sugar and other non-clean ingredients, including sulfiting agents. Well, thanks to Oh Sweet Mercy, I now have a homemade chai spice blend that has neither sugar nor sulfiting agents!
This blend would be great to use in oatmeal or energy bites too…..I might have a few recipes to try now!
So one of the food blogs that I’ve discovered fairly recently is Amy’s Healthy Baking. She makes some amazing looking recipes that are all healthy! I shared her recipe for Skinny Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer and now I want to brag about her oatmeal cookies. Not only are they pretty to look at but they are delicious! I modified her Raspberry Oatmeal Cookie recipe a little bit for these Chai Spiced Oatmeal Cookies. I left a few ingredients out and then used less honey and substituted a little coconut sugar.
Amy has a science background so she is very smart when it comes to baking. She is good about explaining why she is doing what she is doing (like chilling the dough, the oven temp, etc). Check out her blog sometime and let me know if you try any of her recipes!
One thing to note, she is very adamant about measuring the flour and oats correctly. She actually weighs hers instead of using the measuring cup method. I chose to do the same thing, hence the amounts in grams compared to cups. If you don’t have a food scale then I suggest investing in one. They are not very expensive and are really helpful when trying to portion control. Plus, I’ve found that the more food items I weigh, the less dishes I have (no more washing all my measuring cups and measuring spoons).
It is the little things in life, right?!
- 100g (1 cup) quick oats
- 90g (3/4 cup) whole wheat flour
- 2 Tbsp coconut sugar
- 2 tsp chai spice blend*
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp cardamom
- 2 tsp ginger
- 2 tsp cloves
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
- 1/2 tsp allspice
- 1/2 tsp coriander
- In a medium mixing bowl stir together oats, flour, salt, baking powder, coconut sugar, and chai spice.
- In a large mixing bowl add honey, coconut oil, and egg. Whisk until well combined.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and gently combine. Place in refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Remove dough from the refrigerator and drop spoonfuls of dough onto the baking sheet, leaving two inches between cookies. Slightly flatten cookie with the back of a spoon or your hand.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Make sure to measure the oats and whole wheat flour exactly to avoid a dry cookie.
