I love waking up to this face.

Serafina is always so smiley, especially in the morning.

I didn’t love waking up to this though.

Snow in March is never too pleasant.

Going for our usual walk was out of the question this morning, so instead we stayed in and worked on the doodle art.

By the time the afternoon rolled around I was getting seriously bored, so I decided to bake some cookies!

Cookies make everything better! 🙂

I couldn’t decide what kind of cookies to bake. The girls were saying chocolate chip cookies, but I felt like something a bit more healthy, with oats and my favorite cookie ingredient, coconut.

This cookie was our sweet compromise.

I call these cookies cowgirl cookies because they are reminiscent of a traditional cowboy cookie, made with oats, coconut, chocolate chips and nuts. Cowgirl because girls outnumber boys four to one in this house!

Five including the cat! 😉

Cowgirl Cookies

These are my new favorite cookies! A crispy oat cookie with coconut, pecans and chocolate chips. Made with pure maple syrup in place of sugar and whole wheat flour these are a healthy treat. Swap the chocolate chips for raisins to make them even more guilt free! 🙂

Makes 24 cookies

Ingredients

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cup medium unsweetened shredded coconut
• 3/4 cup pecan pieces
• 3/4 cup dairy-free chocolate chips or raisins
• 1 flax egg (2 tablespoons ground flaxseed + 3 tablespoons warm water)
• 2/3 cup sunflower oil
• 3/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, oats, baking soda, sea salt, coconut, pecans and raisins (or chocolate chips).

Whisk together the ground flaxseed and warm water in a small bowl and set aside a few minutes to thicken.

In a separate medium mixing bowl, whisk together the sunflower oil, maple syrup and vanilla. Add the flax egg. Add the oil/syrup mixture to the large bowl with the rest of the ingredients and mix until combined.

Roll the dough between your hands into a tablespoon sized ball and press down onto the baking sheet.The dough is kind of fragile because of all the add ins so be sure to press it together well. Repeat to make 24 cookies.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until very lightly browned. Allow to cool completely before removing from the pan.

I have made this recipe three times now and today I tried a batch with raisins in place of chocolate chips.

I preferred the batch made with raisins because I am really not a huge chocolate chip fan. I find that anything that contains chocolate chips just tastes like chocolate chips (too sweet and sugary). With the raisin batch you could actually taste the other ingredients.

I now have dozens of these cookies in my freezer. Anyone want to come and eat them with me? 🙂