Diet trends are something that has been a part of our society for decades. There’s fruit and juice diets, diets that ban carbs, diets that emphasize one or two super-foods, and diets that have a specific health goal in mind. However, one of the things that’s recently become popular are diets that go hand in hand with a lifestyle as well. Among the lifestyle diets, the Paleo community is by far one of the largest and fastest growing, in part because the focus is not losing weight.
Rather than encouraging its members to obsess over body image and scale pounds, the Paleo diet is all about eating the foods your stomach evolved to process by thinking about eating from a ‘caveman’ perspective. Meat, nuts, berries, and root vegetables are staples of this trend because they, far better than processed flower, sugar, and fat packed packaged food, ensure you get all the nutrients, healthy oils, and dietary fiber we need. But what about snacking?
If you’re dedicated to staying paleo this year, you’ll need a plan to deal with sugar cravings and, worse, friends tempting you with non-paleo sweets. When it comes to a diet, often the best defense is an amazing, sugar-packed offense in the form of specialty desserts. To fight the temptation of processed sugar, bleached flower, and partially hydrogenated corn syrup, consider breaking out the recipe book and wowing your friends with a few delicious paleo cookie recipes.
Paleo Gingerbread Cookies
Just because the holidays are over doesn’t mean that gingerbread cookies are ‘out of season’. Simply that you can now cut them into any shapes you want without the obligation to make and eat little people. Of course, nothing’s stopping you from using your gingerbread man cookie cutters either and delighting in biting off little heads and feet if that’s still your favorite part of the gingerbread cookie. While you may have given up grains, you can still have some amazing cookies (in moderation) made from scratch at home.
Ingredients
- 2 Cups Blanched Almond Flour
- 2/3 Cup Arrowroot Flour
- 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cloves
- 1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- 1/2 Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
- 4 Tablespoons Maple Sugar
- 1/2 Cup Molasses
- 3 Tablespoons Coconut Oil
To Make the Gingerbread Cookies…
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk together
- Boil molasses in a saucepan, then stir in oil
- Pour molasses and oil into the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon until a dough is formed
- Sprinkle arrowroot flour on a piece of parchment paper
- Roll out Dough onto parchment and cut circles or shapes
- Carefully peel away the excess dough and place the gingerbread men on a greased cookie sheet
- Bake for 10 Minutes
- Re-roll the dough and repeat until gone.
- Final dough can be pressed into circular cookies
Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate chip cookies are one of the most integral desserts in our culture and has quite possibly topped apple pie as the top national sweet. However, seeing as the paleo diet does not include grains, it’s fallen to us to figure out how to replicate that amazing soft gooey experience following a new set of recipe rules. Among all the possible paleo chocolate chip cookie recipes out there, this one is sure to convince your friends and family that your paleo diet might just be a good idea after all.
Ingredients
- 1 Egg
- 1/2 Cup Smooth Almond Butter
- 2 Tablespoons Coconut Oil – melted and cooled
- 1/2 Cup Coconut Sugar
- 1 and 1/2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 1 Cup Blanched Almond Flour
- 1/4 Coconut Flour
- 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1/8 Teaspoon Fine Grain Seas Salt
- 1/3 Cup Dairy-Free Dark Chocolate Chips
To Make the Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Preheat the Oven to 350 F
- Beat the egg, almond butter, oil, sugar, and vanilla together until smooth
- Combine the rest of the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk
- Mix wet and dry ingredients until a dough is formed
- Roll the dough into small balls and press flat
- Place flat dough cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet
- Bake for 8-10 minutes
This year, you can defeat the temptation for off-diet treats with a platter of each of these two classic treats. Your family won’t be able to believe that you made them completely without grain or dairy following the paleo rules. They might even be willing to try some of your more alien-seeming raw recipes after trying a few bites of gingerbread arm or your paleo chocolate chip cookies.