It’s a mistake a lot of people make. They try to replace all the bad stuff in their diets with fake bad stuff.  It’s a better plan to focus on eating good, whole, healthy food. Your taste buds will come around and soon you will be enjoying fruits as a tasty dessert.

But what about the times you HAVE to make a “real”  dessert?  You are detailed to make cookies for the church fellowship, or are having folks over and need something to serve.  Here is a cookie recipe made as healthy as possible.  And it’s a good way of getting the sweetener that might help keep your hair from going gray — molasses.

I don’t know if molasses will really do that.  I suspect it is one of those folk legends.  But my grandfather ate copious amounts of blackstrap molasses every day in “wagon dope” (molasses and butter mixed together) on biscuits.  His hair was black until the day of his death in his late seventies. Not a scientifically proven fact that the molasses was responsible — but interesting!

Anyway, here is a recipe for molasses cookies that turned out pretty tasty, even though you probably won’t see a difference in the color of your roots tomorrow.

 Ingredients:

2 tablespoons ground flax

1 egg

1 banana

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup almond meal

1 cup old fashioned oats

1/2 cup blackstrap molasses

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. ground ginger

1 tsp. baking soda

 Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flax and egg. Set aside.  Using a fork, mash the banana in a large bowl. Add flour and oats. Mix well. Add flax mixture and molasses, mixing until everything is combined.  Add the rest of the ingredients, mixing well.  Scoop out rounded spoonfuls of batter onto a baking sheet.  Bake for 25 minutes.

Enjoy — in moderation!

Eating to live and living for Christ,

Susan Jordan Brown