Reinventing the Cookie

2017 was a year of pain.

It got worse in 2018.

In 2017 my husband had a terrible year at work. His job as a Criminal Investigator included long hours and high stress. Many peoples’ lives depended on his ability to do a good job.

He frequently found himself in dangerous neighborhoods serving papers, interviewing witnesses, and dealing with some of the worst people you never want to meet.

Faced in the year of 2017 with three homicide investigations at once had him feeling the stress more than usual. Finally, one day he said, "Hon, I cannot do it anymore. I have to retire at the end of this year.”

It was a mad scramble to fill out paperwork for Social Security and a pension plan and start severely cutting our budget. We knew that his retirement would cut our income by about two thirds, yikes.

With a sigh of relief, he cleaned out his office on December 30th of 2017.

We thought he would feel better. I knew it would take a few months for him to settle into a new routine and start getting his energy back. But without so much stress every day, his health would return, right?

Wrong.

By March of 2018, he was pretty much bedridden, losing weight, and miserable. He refused to go to the doctor. He was too disheartened to move.

It took me a while, but I finally found a doctor who would come to him. Really! A doctor who did house calls, even though we live 25 miles from the nearest city. That Doctor saved my husband’s life.

After some consultation and lab work, the diagnosis was a severe kidney infection and type II diabetes. The doctor persuaded my husband to go to some specialists, do lots of medical tests, and take three rounds of antibiotics. His health began to improve.

Now, I was facing a new challenge; how to cook for a Diabetic.

My husband has a huge sweet tooth. He was wretched. No sugar!

Not ever!

To top it off, I have to be on a gluten-free diet. It was a double challenge.

Thank goodness for the internet!

I discovered during my research that one way to balance a person’s blood sugar was to add more fiber, protein, and fat than carbohydrates to each meal and snack. But this does not translate to cubes of butter and steak every meal! Think healthy fats, like olive oil, coconut oil, seed, and nut oils. And for protein, the doctors recommended a limited amount of red meat and lots of chicken and fish.

Guess who will not eat chicken or fish? Yep, my husband claims fish are stinky, and chickens are dirty birds. He will not touch them.

I needed to do more research.

It turns out that nuts and seeds are not only full of good fats, but they are also high in protein and fiber. Yes! I felt like I was getting somewhere!

I then turned to my favorite recipe site, Allrecipes.com. And there was the answer. Gluten-free, almond flour, chocolate chip cookies! The original recipe calls for sugar, but with some experimentation, I came up with the following recipe full of protein and fiber. These are healthy sugar-free treats:

Chocolate Chip Sugar-Free Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookies

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

• ½ cup stevia powder (I buy the great value brand from Walmart https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Granulated-No-Calorie-Stevia-19-4-oz-Pouch/319881197) or use any other sugar-free sweetener that you like.

• ½ teaspoon of baking soda

• ¼ teaspoon of salt (optional)

• 1 teaspoon of baking powder (put in 2 teaspoons if you live at a high altitude)

• ¼ cup of plain applesauce or butter or coconut oil or a combination of the three (I usually put in half butter and half coconut oil)

• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

• 2 eggs

• 2 Tablespoons of milk or water

• 1 and ½ cups almond flour (I buy this at Walmart https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Superfine-Blanched-Almond-Flour-2-Lb/896217647)

• ½ cup of garbanzo bean (sometimes called chickpea) flour (I get this from Vitacost https://www.vitacost.com/bobs-red-mill-chickpea-flour)

• ½ cup of gluten-free, sugar-free chocolate chips (Available at Vitacost https://www.vitacost.com/lilys-baking-chips-dark-chocolate. If I can't find the sugar free chocolate chips, I use regular chocolate chips and place only three or four chips in the top of each cookie before baking. That way, my husband won't end up eating a cookie with a dozen chips in it, which would send his blood sugar to the moon.)

Using a hand mixer or a food processor, combine the wet ingredients with the stevia first.

In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients. You can add a little more flour or a little more milk or water if the dough does not feel quite right for cookies.

Add the chocolate chips. (Or wait until you form the cookies and count out the individual chips for each cookie as described above.)

I always use either a silicone baking mat or parchment paper on my cookie sheet. It makes the cookies bake nice and even, and it is easier to clean up. You don’t have to do that; bake the cookies as you would normally bake any other type of cookie.

Scoop the dough into one tablespoon-sized balls and slightly flatten them on the cookie sheet. The cookies don’t spread much, so they can be as close as an inch and a half apart.

This recipe makes approximately two dozen cookies.

Bake the cookies for approximately 10 or 12 minutes or until the bottoms are slightly browned.

Let the cookies cool and enjoy!

These are not as sweet as regular cookies, but they are satisfying and healthy for anyone, not just diabetics! Even my granddaughter enjoys them.

Thanks to several great doctors, lots of research, and my husband’s determination to get well, he is doing fine. His blood sugar is stable. His kidney function is normal, and he is getting his energy back. This year he is even filling our wood rick with firewood himself!

It is music to my ears to hear that chain saw going again and knowing that the years of pain are mostly behind us. He remains retired and keeps himself busy cutting firewood and working in his woodshop building toys for our granddaughter.

We have learned to live within our budget despite the increase in living expenses. I spend a lot of time baking cookies and developing new recipes to keep my husband's sweet tooth happy and his blood sugar normal.

Life is good again.