It’s easy, especially on-the-job, to surrender to a cookie craving. Such treats are an invited distraction in the workplace. They hinder work performance by not allowing the body to benefit from the phase of digestion after a meal that allows us to settle into clear thinking and allows the body digestive rest. We give into a hankering and there begins our mental resolve to keep it healthy the rest of the day, while the physical body dodges sugar bullets. Whether cookies come dressed in a printed package or are presented freshly baked, their visual presence expertly masks this sweet saboteur’s hidden agenda – to promote cravings and fat storage and to put a wrench in productivity.
We’ve been conditioned since early childhood to take comfort in such indulgences. They’re a simple pleasure that rewards, consoles and falsely promises to take the edge off a particularly rough day, but at what cost? Packed with energy-draining and mood-compromising ingredients, they often contain a considerable sugar and fat load, are devoid of nutrients – the vital raw materials that fire up the body (and mind) to function at full throttle, and what’s with the ‘enriched’ wheat? Why would wheat need to be enriched unless it was stripped of vital nutrients in the first place?
So what’s a cookie-lover to do to keep stamina and cravings in check on the job? Sink your teeth into a cleaner cookie.
This delicious high performer is prepared without eggs, dairy or gluten, if using gluten-free oats. It’s vegetarian and vegan-friendly and kid-approved. The basic cookie dough is just three ingredients: bananas, oats and nut butter.
Smart Cookies
Ingredients:
2 1/2 ripe bananas
2 cups rolled oats, blended into a coarse flour
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
Pinch of coarse salt
Chocolate chunks or chips
Optional: walnuts, pecans, cinnamon and/or splash of vanilla.
Directions:
Mash bananas in a bowl. Add oat ‘flour, nut butter and additional optional ingredients. Drop by large mounds onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Clean cookie tips:
1. Bananas should be super ripe!
2. Bigger cookies with 2-3 optional ingredients added are most interesting to eat.
Bake at 375 degrees for 18 minutes. Cool.
Store in freezer individually wrapped.
Nestle one in your briefcase as you head to work.
Reheating these cookies in the office microwave will revive their fresh-from-the-oven consistency. They’re delicious simply defrosted as well. Add more dried fruit, seeds and nuts and you’ve got a breakfast cookie that will run circles around those candy bars in the market masquerading as ‘energy’ bars.
It takes a smart cookie to bake one.
Ronna