I realised that in my last blogpost I sent you off to the original inspo recipe for quinoa cookies and yet I have been baking them here with increasing frequency and with increasing deviation from the original recipe so… I’m back, with an updated and definitive recipe.

I couldn’t decide whether to call these iron-rich cookies; healthy breakfast cookies; fortified cookies…. you get the idea. These might not be the cookies you want as a decadent treat.
(These are):

Or… these are:

As it turns out I have a lot of options on the decadent cookies front. These, however, these iron/protein/vitamin E quinoa cookies, are a delicious snacking option that also just happen to be packed with nutritional value so you can feel virtuous when you (or your toddler) accidentally eat three in very short succession.

Quite unlike when you accidentally — secretly — furtively, open the Christmas Quality Street and eat all the strawberry creams while semi-hidden from your children in the darkness of the pantry before having to dispose of the wrappers. No virtue in that, or so I would imagine.

These cookies are also painfully, embarrassingly easy, for max smug and lazy points.
Ingredients
1 egg
1/2 cup nut/seed butter (I use a combination of almond, peanut, pumpkin seed butters – see, smug)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup apple sauce (one individual pot, in Canada)
1tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup quinoa flakes
1tsp baking powder
1tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
2tbsp optional extras (desiccated coconut, hemp seeds, etc)
Method
Mix, in the order listed. Bake in a preheated oven (180C/350F) for 15minutes.
Smug and lazy nod.
What else to report.
Mr tMatM has one-upped me on the blogging game with a series of exceptionally interesting articles on EdTech on Medium … I highly recommend having a read, and not just because the author is currently bringing me some oven chips and a glass of tonic water (living the dream at 9pm on a Thursday December night).
We finally visited the most famous part of the island (Butchart Gardens) and I will admit, it’s pretty lovely.



Also, they conveniently had a sleigh by a Christmas tree for photo ops, obviously I obliged:

Like everyone else, we were on board with an early Christmas tree:

And like everyone else with children under 3, I have spent the ensuing weeks collecting up discarded ornaments and sequins:

And we finally finished our first term of (voluntary) homeschooling, I will admit to being pretty ready for a few weeks of no school responsibilities on top of the casual keeping-five-children-alive-and-fed responsibilities. So carefree! So relaxed! So much free time for laundry!

And… I didn’t mark the date earlier this month, but December marks four years of theMumandtheMom. I’ve been more committed to this blog than I have just about everything else, barring my husband and children. Thanks for sticking with me even when it’s a bit quiet around here. xxtMatM