Recipe: Gluten-Free Oatmeal Cookies using Almond Meal

I used this recipe for these cookies. I didn't have sesame seeds so used what was on hand. I really wish I had found the dried cranberries my husband bought for my oatmeal cookie making experiments because I felt they would have really made these cookies better, though my gluten-free friend who came for dinner loved them. I found them kind of heavy due to the almond meal and coconut...


The measurements are mostly the ones from the website I got this from, to be honest, I put a little less almond meal, a little more oats, slightly less coconut, a teaspoon or so more almond butter and coconut oil. I am not much for measuring.

1 3/4 cups almond meal
1 cup oats
1/2 cup of coconut 
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup sucanat 
3 eggs 
2 tbsp almond butter (woodstock farms organic)
1/4 cup coconut oil 

MIx the dry ingredients together and then the  wet (eggs,  almond butter, and coconut oil). Combine both the wet and dry ingredients. Form into 1 inch balls and flatten with a fork onto a greased cookie sheet. 

Baked at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. 


I think they taste best warm out of the oven.

Foods that Help Milk Production

I can't stand the smell of mother's milk tea and I only managed a sip of the fenugreek tea I bought which I had also heard helped milk production. Luckily, my postpartum nurse mentioned that oatmeal and oatmeal cookies helped milk production.  I'm sure you already figured out what I chose especially since my fabulous mother-in-law was her for a almost two weeks to help us. She made two really great batches of oatmeal cookies that I liked even better after they had been in the freezer. Now that she is gone I am having to make my own oatmeal cookies and I am intent on trying to make them healthier if I am going to be eating them on a regular basis. Stay tuned for recipes.

Meanwhile in my search for foods that help with milk production, my acupuncturist mentioned that barley was a another good choice, so I made a big batch of beef and barley stew and froze it in mason jars in meal size servings. I really wish I had written down the recipe I made up for the crockpot beef and barley stew, but since I  used some random grass-fed beef rib meat which I will probably never randomly have in my freezer again, I'm not sure I could recreate it anyway. I will try to make sure to post my next version of crockpot beef and barley stew.

Meanwhile, I did a search on good foods for milk production. Who knew that these foods had a special term or two... Lactogenic foods which are also called Galactogogues (which is Greek in origin).

Most Galactogogues happen to be herbs...
Check out wikipedia for a list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactagogue
I will definitely be trying some burdock and nettle.
I drank some raspberry leaf tea while I was pregnant, but in general it seemed to not work for me like most teas, part of my throwing up for 30 weeks.

For more lactogenic foods...
My mom left a great message on my answering machine after I gave birth to the effect of Chinese people eat lots of ginger and garlic after they give birth "very good for you, eat lots" sadly I erased the message so I can't really approximate the accent or strangeness of the message. This website on lactogenic foods and herbs also mentions garlic and ginger. I'm planning on eating more almonds and cashews which I also seemed to want a lot of in my last few weeks of pregnancy and also after I gave birth and adding some macadamia nuts to my diet, all of which would be great in cookies. I was pretty anti-carrot until the last couple of months of pregnancy and after I gave birth and then it became one of the major vegetables I've been eating. Nice to know that my body was already craving the right milk producing foods before I even gave birth maybe that is why I was leaking colostrum starting at week 33 and my milk came in full-bore so early. Then again who knows. I'm willing to try anything natural that may help keep my milk production up.