Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies are one of my absolutely favorite treats, and I love munching on them, hot out of the oven, with a glass of milk! It is especially fun to make them with friends or family, and when everyone can enjoy them together!

When people often talk about making cookies "healthier", they look at reducing the sugar, fat, or other "bad for you" aspects of cookies. While this is great, why not also add ingredients that are good for your health, so you have both a cookie with less fat and sugar as the regular alternative, but also one that is healthy for your heart, mind, skin, and blood sugar levels?

The four superfood ingredients in these cookies are ground flax, algae powder, cinnamon, and coconut oil, in addition to whole wheat flour! Flax seed has been around for thousands of years; in fact, in the 8th century, King Charlemagne required his empire consume flax seeds because of the health benefits! If only we could do the same today haha! :) Anyways, flax contains omega 3 fatty acids and fiber, protects against breast and prostate cancer and diabetes.

The health benefits of cinnamon are incredible, since it lowers blood sugar levels, reduces cholesterol levels, contains fiber, calcium, magnesium, and iron, helps regulate hormones, and reduces pain linked to arthritis! Spirulina algae helps reduce hypertension, prevent cancer, reduce stress, prevent diabetes, and can be used to "detox". For this recipe, I had a jar of HealthForce SuperFoods Vitamineral Green, which is a green powder that has spirulina and chlorella algae, in addition to a lot of other superfoods!

While coconut oil may not be as well known, it is excellent to cook and bake with, since it can withstand high temperatures and won't reach it's smoke point (at which oils can become toxic), but it has an amazing array of benefits! It helps burn fat, prevent infection, reduces hunger, reduces seizures, and improves cholesterol, for starters.  You might be thinking, doesn't coconut oil have a lot of saturated fat? Well, yes, it does. But, did you know that the way our bodies metabolize saturated fat from animals (like those in cheese and meat) and saturated fat from plants (like those in coconut oil) is completely different? Saturated fats from plants are not unhealthy at all! In fact, these saturated fats are broken down like fatty acids, and can even have healthful impacts on the brain. It can even be applied topically as a moisturizer and mild sunscreen, or even used as a mouthwash!

Anyways, now let's get to the good stuff!

This recipe made about 20 cookies, but you can make more with smaller cookies!

You will need:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup coconut oil
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt
1 tablespoon algae powder (you can put in more if you like, I didn't want my family to be too grossed out by a green color!)(I used this!)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Mix together the sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, and coconut oil. Then, mix together the flour, ground flaxseed, baking soda, sea salt, cinnamon, and algae powder.
3. Combine both the wet and dry ingredients, add the chocolate chips, and mix until incorporated. Do not over-mix.
4. Spoon the cookies onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes, or until golden brown.
Enjoy!!