Dr. John Day, Cardiologist

You get all of the rich nutrients of the pumpkin and avocado in a super creamy shake without even knowing the avocado is there. This is a great alternative to pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving and anytime you desire a   Pumpkin treat. It is naturally sweetened with banana and dates. If you want it sweeter you could add another date or a packet of Stevia. It also has a mild flavor.  I kept the pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice amounts about where I like it, but you’re welcome to add more if you want an bolder flavor. I served this room temperature, but if you’d like it cold, you could blend in an ice cube or two. You could also warm it, if that’s what you’re craving. Sometimes I like having chunks in my shakes, which I can achieve by throwing in unsoaked deglet dates, but if you want yours without chunks, you could presoak the dates, use medjool dates, or blend the dates until completely smooth. Experiment!

If you love vanilla yogurt and don’t want all the added sugars and other ingredients, this is a simple and great way to go! Use your favorite organic plain unsweetened yogurt, and just add stevia and pure vanilla extract.  Creamy yum!

Feeling like just a spoonful of cookie dough? This “cookie dough” is sugar free, flour free, and dairy free. Intrigued? This tiny treat is made from cashew butter, stevia, vanilla extract, sea salt and stevia sweetened dark chocolate chips. When you’re looking for just enough and just the right ingredients, it sure beats making a batch of cookies!

I cooked up a big batch of cannellini beans, and John asked, “What are you going to do with all of those?”

“I’m not sure, but I’ll figure out something,” I replied.

I decided to use them to make chocolate chip cookies.

I am ever at work to figure out a healthier option for a food I love.  The key for me is to balance nutrition and taste.  I want it to resemble the beloved food enough to enjoy, yet contain healthy ingredients so that it doesn’t create an insatiable craving to eat the entire batch.

Chocolate chip cookies have always been the epic quest.

This experiment yielded a soft, slightly sweet, high protein, high fiber cookie.

At my prodding, John sampled the tiniest corner of one and told me, “People are going to want these to be sweeter.”

When I asked if I should warn people that the recipe wasn’t really all that good. John told me that I didn’t need to go overboard with disclaimers–it wasn’t that bad.

My 7 year old daughter told me, “If people grow up healthy and don’t eat a lot of sugar, they will think this cookie is yummy.”

Both of my sons give this recipe 4 out of 5 stars.

This is a recipe I will definitely keep experimenting with and will let you know what I come up with.

I hope you enjoy this healthy, low sugar, high protein, high fiber chocolate chip cookie!