Today was a glorious day on Denman Island, so we loaded up the kayaks first thing and headed down to the beach for a bit of a paddle.

Of course, when you’re retired, “first thing” means about ten AM–haha!

We paddled down the island for a couple of hours and were famished when we arrived home, so I made us a couple of avo-tomato-onion-lettuce-air-fried-tofu sammies on my no-knead white bread. The sandwiches were delicious, but I felt a bit guilty about the white flour business, so when James had a hankering for cookies, I decided to make a healthier version of an already healthy cookie recipe.

I had no apple sauce, so I had to use ripe mango…an adaptation I ran by my WFPB friends online since I’m not much of a baker. As I described my other adaptations to Chazz, she said, “That’s not a cookie…that’s an energy bite.”

And apparently, she’s right: as an energy bite, these are delicious; as a cookie….not so much.

I like them, however, and perhaps if I starve James of real cookies for long enough, he too will come to love them!

I’m posting the recipe here, so I can continue to make adaptations. Who knows? With enough adaptations, they might eventually find their way back to being cookies again!

Oatmeal-Raisin Energy Bites

Directions:

Throw in the Vitamix and blend until smooooooth:

• 1/4 cup natural peanut butter (or other nut or seed butter)
• 6 medjool dates
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup applesauce (or banana or super ripe mango)
• 1 TBS vanilla extract
• 1 TBS ground flaxseed

Sift together:

• 1/2 cup sprouted spelt flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt

Add the mixture in the blender to the flour mixture and mix. Once it’s smooth, add…

• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 3/4 cup raisins
• 3/4 cup pecans

Form into 24 cookies and bake at 350 for ten minutes.

I pressed them down (to fool James into thinking they were cookies), but next time, I’m going to leave them in little lumps like the energy bites they are!

And here’s James’ honest reaction. Keep in mind he was expecting a delicious fat-and-sugar-filled cookie!

Hahahaha!!

And the song of the day is Van Morrison’s “Coney Island” because whenever I use the word “famished,” I think of the line “Stop off at Ardglass for a couple of jars of Mussels and some potted herrings in case we get famished before dinner.” And then I think of the last verse of the song/poem, and it makes me happy because it’s a song about Morrison’s childhood and driving to Coney Island in Ireland with his mother: