Holiday Cookie Recipe Makeovers

Chocolate Chip Cookies

If there’s one cookie you can count on being at every holiday party, it’s the classic chocolate chip. This year, wow your friends and guests with this tasty recipe from Dawn Jackson Blatner, R.D., author of The Flexitarian Diet: The Mostly Vegetarian Way to Lose Weight, Be Healthier, Prevent Disease, and Add Years to Your Life. This one uses canned pumpkin (use up those leftover cans sitting in your pantry from Thanksgiving!) and coconut oil instead of butter, as well as flaxseeds for a slight nutty and healthy touch. Bonus: These cookies are vegan, gluten-free and just one cookie is considered an excellent source of vitamin A.

Better-for-you recipe

Makes 18 cookies:

• 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed soaked in 2 tablespoons warm water
• 1/4 cup virgin coconut oil, at room temperature/liquid
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup almond meal
• 1/2 cup oat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (such as Enjoy Life brand)

MORE: Eat Pretty Over The Holidays

Instructions:

Make flaxseed/water mixture (it will become sticky/gel-like in 5 minutes). With an electric mixer, combine oil and brown sugar until creamy. Beat in pumpkin, vanilla and flaxseed/water mixture. In a separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients: almond meal, oat flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and sea salt. Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients. Then stir in mini chocolate chips. Refrigerate dough for 15 minutes and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking dish with parchment paper. Bake 14 to 16 minutes, until golden/firm. Allow to cool completely.

Note: Store cookies in refrigerator for up to 7 days or freeze them.

Nutrition (per cookie):

• 110 calories

• 7 g fat (4 g saturated, 0 g trans fat)

• 50 mg sodium

• 9 g sugar