I love peanut butter and I don't care who knows it!

Yes, they aren't the prettiest girls at the dance, but they're SO fun to be around!

So, I'm off sugar. For the first time in my life, I've gone more than the stretch of a week without consuming one form or another of the processed sweet stuff. Well, maybe when I was on the low-carb kick, I may have not had any, but I made up for it in bacon fat. Now, I'm not OCD about not eating sugar. I will have it on occasion, but in my day-to-day, it's a no. I will allow myself maple syrup, honey and my new obsession, agave syrup*. So, being that my sweet tooth almost never can be tamed - she can be put in the stable for awhile, but she inevitably breaks free - this has been a challenge. Well, they say necessity is the mother of invention, and I've come up with many successful - and not so successful - dessert recipes that have no processed sugar (I'm talking about the white stuff that I crave like a crack addict; therein lies the problem). I'm also trying to ban processed flour. That's a bit more tricky, cause I love me some sourdough bread (as does my entire home-front crew), and all the other white bread-based yumminess. I'll share a lot of my recipes in future posts, but for today, here's my experimental peanut butter cookies I made today that weren't half bad. I added oats for texture & to thicken up the dough - the agave made it too thin - but you can omit the oats and just add more peanut butter. You can also throw in nuts, raisins, flax seed...anything, really. I've included the original version of cookies I modified to veganize & desugarfy, which came from my husband's aunt. The originals are hands down the easiest, best peanut butter cookies you'll ever have. I'm dead serious. My substitute will work for us vegans (and those who want to get away with giving your kids "cookies" for breakfast - these are far more healthy than any commercial boxed cereal I know).


Vegan Sugar Free Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies


Preheat oven to 350


Mix together:


1 cup peanut butter (I use Kirkland Organic from Costco (http://www.costco.com/) ...it's yummy, cheap and has no sugar added)
2/3 cup agave syrup
2/3 cup oats
1 egg substitute (I use 1 tablespoon flax seed flour {organic, at Costco, too!} mixed with 3 tablespoons water...works like a charm)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt

Scoop generous tablespoons of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet (we all know from Martha to use an ice cream scoop for this, right?). These little babies don't spread like other cookies, so I smash them flat with the bottom of a glass coated with vegetable oil.

Bake for about 8 minutes, let cool & enjoy!


The Best Peanut Butter Cookies You Will Ever Have

preheat oven to 350

mix together:

1 cup peanut butter (traditional sugar-laden creamy works best here)
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt

Scoop generous tablespoons of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet, press those little criss-crossy ticktacktoe things on the top with the prongs of a fork (no smashy-smash needed here...these girls spread. Um...that came out wrong.) and bake for 8-10 minutes, let cool & enjoy!

*So, about agave syrup. My fellow health food friend Lily introduced it to me, and I was sceptical at first. Wasn't agave what they used to make tequila? Didn't I have a life-altering run-in with that liquid sin back in 1994? I'd walk by the agave at Costco and immediately get nauseated, remembering what that stuff did to me on my high school graduation trip to Hawaii. Alas, I was desperate to find sugar substitutes that weren't invented in a lab, and I gave it a try. You know what? LOVED IT! It's like thin, very mild honey. The best part about agave - and the reason I'm so obsessed - is that it does not effect your blood sugar level like other sweeteners. Translation: no sugar crash. I was sold. Oh, and the stuff works great in drinks (lemonade, tea, coffee...anything).

Tomorrow? Ice Cream!