It’s Fall/Autumn, leaves are turning colours and morning temperatures are beginning to cool.
Tis the season to drink pumpkin flavoured everything and lust after fabulous, knee-length leather boots.
When I had three children at home, I remember resenting September/October with a passion. It felt like going back into shackles when the school/extra-curricular/evening-Mom-taxi routine set in. I just so loved the relaxed and unstructured days of summer and never wanted to let them go.
I am now an empty nester and this year I am enjoying a more relaxed observing of the turn of the seasons. I do not have to get out of bed at 6am to drive kids to band practice and I am not on call for rides to the mall or extra curricular activities in the evening. I just get to watch the leaves change colour, wiggle into a soft roll neck sweater in the morning and lean into how much I love chai tea.
Interestingly, there are old routines and recipes that I still want to pull into my life in the Fall. Comforting foods that just ‘fit’ into Fall for me and enrich the season (spoiler: It does not come from Starbucks!) I have started making chicken bone broth on a weekly basis again so that I am ready for soup season and I a making my staple Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe that I used to lean on heavily for lunch boxes.
Chewy, dense and absolutely packed with nutrition, these cookies are not too sweet and more of a meal in a biscuit, designed to keep teens energized and satiated.
The beauty of making your own cookies is that you get to choose the nutrition you want for yourself.
I love pumpkin seeds because they are packed with protein. This slows the passage of sugar to the bloodstream. They also give me a healthy dose of zinc to support my skin and tissue health and boost immunity. This batch contains sliced almonds and goji berries but I encourage you to make this recipe your own and add nutritious nuts, seeds and berries that you love the most.
I also add blackstrap molasses for easily absorbed iron and this accounts for the dark colour of the cookie. We need adequate iron stores at midlife to support us when our periods get heavy or erratic, to boost our energy and to ensure the function of our thyroid gland. Our thyroid gland is more efficient at converting thyroid hormone T4 to active thyroid hormone T3 when our iron stores are fully stocked. Your thyroid gland is a master gland that has kept the rhythm of your menstrual cycle for decades, so it can get stressed when you move into the peri-menopausal dance. Give it some love and load iron, selenium and iodine rich foods into your diet.
The non-negotiable are the chocolate chips. Every bite of this cookie should be rich in chocolate.
After years of making these cookies weekly for my family, it is an absolute joy to make, bake and store in the freezer so that I can pull one out whenever I want the taste of Fall.
Ingredients
11/2 cups whole wheat or spelt flour
1tsp baking powder
1 cup butter or 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup coconut oil
1 egg
1/2 cup unrefined sugar or Sucanat
1/4 cup blackstrap molasses
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup coconut chips or desiccated coconut
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup pecans/ walnuts/ sliced almonds/ goji berries or cranberries
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
Instructions
Heat the oven to 350F/200C
Put all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly to a rubbly batter
Drop batter onto a parchment paper covered baking sheet using a tablespoon and form into an oval
Cook for 12 minutes until just done.