The holiday season is here, along with the food. Whatever holiday you celebrate it is always fun to bake and enjoy special holiday foods. Whether it’s a big family dinner, or a special treat you make once a year (like a gingerbread house). Holidays are fun, but can be busy so a great excuse to get your friends together is a cookie exchange. However this is not your ordinary cookie exchange, this is what I call a Healthy Cookie Extravaganza.

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What is a Healthy Cookie Extravaganza?

So let’s talk first about what this event is all about? Since many of us work hard to stay healthy and watch what we eat, why should we let this all go down the drain just because the holidays are here. I can’t tell you how many times I here “oh well its the holidays, I’ll go on a diet on January 1st!”

But why do this to ourselves? Why ruin our hard work we do all year just over a holiday? Now I am not saying sit on the side and watch everyone eat your favorite foods and you just dream of them, while your mouth is drooling and you feel deprived. No No No…eating healthy is about enjoyment and celebration and being part of it all, however not putting your body in havoc because you over indulges and eat crap just because it’s the holidays.

So here is what we do…we make a Healthy Cookie Extravaganza! Invite your friends and family, celebrate the holidays however do it with a twist! Celebrate you cookie exchange with rules and challenges. Ask your guests to bring their favorite cookie to exchange that are healthy! We all like watching cooking shows and contests so make this one a challenge to all and may the healthiest cookie win!

Rules

Now what does healthy mean? Healthy can be very vague, and very different to everyone. Since you are the host you get to decide. You can tell your guests for example the challenge is to make cookies that are clean with real ingredients and no refined sugar. Another option is to say no refined sugar, no gluten and no dairy. Or simply say all cookies cannot contain more than 1/2 cup or less of sugar and only healthy fats. These are just some ideas, but make it fun and think about what you would be happy to eat and not feel guilty about. Oh and don’t forget cookies must be delicious, just because their healthy doesn’t mean they have to taste bad.

Aside from the health challenge, each guest must bring a batch of at least 15-20 cookies, a printout of the recipe, and a little make card of their cookie name. On the day of the party, set out the cookies each guest brings and everyone can try them and take a few home (depending on how many people there are).

Things you need to host a cookie extravaganza

As a host you don’t really need to do much since everyone is bringing the cookies. Just make sure you have a big table to put all the cookies out on, and some serving trays or plates. I would also get some bags or boxes for your guests to be able to take cookies home. Here is a link to some great inexpensive packaging ideas. As well you could make some refreshments and set out some plates and napkins.

Once everyone arrives, you set out the cookies with a name tag for each, and for fun you could let each guest tell about their healthy cookie and any challenges or funny stories they had while baking!

Now if your friends are not so into this and you still love to bake healthy, you can make a few types of healthy cookies and wrap them up in a pretty jar or box and give them as gifts. Don’t forget to include recipes so they can make them if they like them. These make great teacher gifts too,

Recipes and Ideas

Since some people find this idea overwhelming I wanted to set you up with lots of inspiration and recipes. I have compiled a few of my favorite healthy holiday recipes (one is brand new) as well as some tips and ingredients you can use to replace the less healthy ones. Hope you enjoy this idea and celebrate with health, happiness and joy. This will be the last blog of the year, as I prepare for 2020 with bigger and better things for you! Happy holidays and Happy cooking!

Ingredient replacements

For healthy eating the most basic and easiest change to make is replace refined sugars, white flours and use healthy fats. So to help you I will suggest some replacements to use so that you can take any recipe and just swap them out for healthier ingredients.

Sugars

We all know too much sugar is not good. Most of us without even realizing eat more than what we should and this causes disease, health issue and weight gain. Of course sugar is sugar even when it’s healthier and less processed, however when using maple syrup, honey, or coconut sugar you have more nutrients and less processing so there is some additional nutritional value. That said, we still should watch the amount used.

Other alternatives to sugar that still sweeten but have no negative effect on our body are stevia, or monkfruit. These are natural sugar substitutes that have almost no calories and no effect to the blood sugar levels. Most of these substitutes can be used 1:1 ratio and you wouldn’t even know the difference.

Flours

White flour has no nutritional value. It is what stripped from the shells where all the fiber and nutrients are and is highly processed. It turns into sugar in our bodies, causes weight gain, not to mention all kinds of other health issues. The alternative is to use whole wheat flour or white whole wheat flour which is less strong in taste but still has all the nutrition.

If you are feeling ambitious and want to experiment, there is a whole world out there of other flours to use from other grains, nuts and plants. Some examples are quinoa, chickpea, brown rice, almond, tapioca, arrowroot, and coconut, These all have different flavors and properties but when used and combined together they taste very good and make a great low carb alternatives. For more details on how to mix and how to use each flour check out my cookbook Switch It Up!

Fats

Many fats we use can be harmful to our health. The way to make things healthier is sticking to the healthy fats. For baking my favorites are coconut oil or ghee. Both of these are super healthy, packed with nutrients and health benefits and help our bodies thrive. Other healthy fats are olive oil, avocado oil and nut oils. You want to use oils that come from real things – i.e. olive oil comes from olives, etc.

Recipe

Here is a new recipe I just developed hot of the press – healthier ginger snaps! It’s a great healthy treat great for the Healthy cookie extravaganza. They are sugar free, grain free and lactose free. Bursting with holiday flavors and super easy to make. This recipe makes 26-28 cookies.

ingredients

1/2 cup of ghee

1/2 cup monkfruit

1 egg

2 tbsp organic molasses

2-3 drops of ginger essential oil (see notes below)

1 tsp pumpkin pie blend (ginger, cinnamon, cloves)

1 cup almond flour

1/2 cup arrowroot flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp monkfruit

1 tbsp cinnamon

directions

Preheat oven 350 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a bowl, mix ghee and monkfruit to make a creamy paste. My ghee is usually pretty soft so no need for a mixer. If your ghee is hard, then use a mixer to cream together.

Add in eggs, molasses and ginger essential oil and mix well (you can use 1 tsp of ginger powder if you do not have ginger oil).

Add dry ingredients – pumpkin pie blend, almond flour, arrowroot, and baking soda and mix well. Make sure flours are incorporated well.

Refrigerate for 1/2 an hour until dough hardens. In the meantime you can mix up the monkfruit and cinnamon in a small bowl.

Remove from fridge and form balls with a teaspoon. then roll them in cinnamon sugar and place on baking sheet. Please leave room between each cookie as they spread out while baking.

Bake at 350F for 8 min and remove. Note they will be very soft when you remove from oven. Do not touch or move them. They will harden up slightly once cooled.

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More recipes

Here are a few links for some of my favorite healthy cookies for your healthy cookie extravaganza.

Paleo Dark Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies by fed + fit

Sesame Tahini Thins by Wellbeings Coach

Paleo Cranberry Orange Scones by Skinny GF Chef

Mint Chocolate Macaroons by Danielle Walker

Coco-nutty dark bark by Nom Nom Paleo

Homemade chocolate blueberries and macadamia nuts by Celery & Sage