Heavenly Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Reader meet Pamela’s Products, Pamela’s Products meet Reader.

Pamela is all about nutritious, whole, gluten free, treats.

One of my favorite things about Pamela’s Products: you can get most of the mixes at Jewel or your local grocery store.

I first met Pamela’s Chocolate Chunk Cookie Mix when one of my paleo friends decided to switch up my habit of going through a whole 36oz tub of Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie dough once a week.  At the time, I didn’t discriminate against baking ANY sort of chocolate chip cookies so I was game for some gluten free ones.

The smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies wafted through our apartment and, as always, my roommate popped her head out of her room and strolled to the kitchen.  “Are these REAL cookies?” She muffles as crumbs fall out the side of her mouth.  “Cuz’ they don’t taste like our normal REAL cookies.”

I on the other hand, thought they weren’t bad.  Looking back, that night was just the beginning of my food awareness journey.  My own paleo chalange, many doctor visits, and food experimenting followed because I decided to listen to my body and it’s digestive issues.

Since I’ve first met Pamela’s Products, we’ve spent many hours together in the kitchen.  I’ve tweaked Pamela’s mix so many different ways, dairy free, egg free, vegan…I played and tweeked until one evening my roomate muffeled, “These actually taste real, I approve.”

I got the roommate seal of approval, which let me tell you is hard to come by.  She is by far my toughest taste critic.  The recipe that won the seal of approval: Heavenly Chocolate Chunk Cookies.  This recipe is by far my favorite of all my tweeks.   Gluten free and vegan (even the chocolate chunks are dairy free-soy based) here’s the recipe to enjoy:

• 1 bag of Pamela’s Chocolate Chunk Cookie Mix
• 1 small banana or 1/2 of a long/large one
• 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 egg (you could omit this and add a 1/3 cup olive oil instead of the suggested above)
• mix and scoop out into small blobs, place on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 11 minutes.
• tidbit: they taste the best when cooled down, one may even say the second day.
• disclaimer: if you’re like my grandma and like crispy cookies, this recipe is not for you.  These cookies hold their moisture!

One silver winner: the coconut variation

• Instead of a banana and egg, use 1/4 cup plain apple sauce.  (I use Whole Foods’ 365 organic unsweetened apple sauce. no added sugar)
• Instead of olive oil use coconut oil, roughly the same amount.

The second silver winner: the almond butter variation

• Instead of olive oil use 1/2 cup of freshly ground almond butter (make sure it doesn’t have added sugar) and 1/4 cup of water

Be sure to also check out Pamela’s other mixes. Until next time happy digesting and manifesting…