World Health Day cookies baked with garbanzo bean flour, flax meal, oat/rice bran, and almond meal

April 6, 7:56 PMSacramento Nutrition ExaminerAnne Hart

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 Celebrate World Health Day by baking a more nutritious cookie using garbanzo bean flour, flax seed meal, raw oat meal, rice bran, and almond meal. Instead of transfats or saturated fat, try using extra virgin olive oil or grapeseed oil.

If you're vegan, substitute for eggs 1/2 cup of tofu blended with an equal amount of water to form a thick paste. If you want to substitute the oil for another type of 'fat', try two or three tablespoons of lecithin granules mixed with chopped or pureed prunes. It takes the place of 'fat' in a cookie.

So you can celebrate World Health Day by serving a cookie made of whole grains and legumes and sweetened only with chopped dried fruit, ground nuts, and if you really need more sweetness, a tablespoon of apple juice concentrate or a 1/4 cup of mashed, ripe banana.

Mix these ingredients together
• 1 half cup of flax seed meal
• 1 half cup oat bran
• 1 half cup raw oat meal
• 1 half cup rice bran
• 1 half cup garbanzo bean flour (such as Bob's Red Mill available at many health food stores
• 1 half cup of almond meal (optional). Make your own by putting raw almonds in a masticating blender using the crush screen or blend with a small about of water in a regular blender and drain out the water.
2 egg whites or 2 whole eggs
• 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil or grape seed oil
• 3 tablespoons of lecithin granules
• 1/2 cup chopped prunes
• 1/2 cup safflower seeds, cashews, or raw unsalted nuts of your choice.
• 1/4 cup of raisins or chopped pitted dates.
• 1/4 cup chopped dried nectarines or apricots (or any other dried fruit)
• Water, almond milk, or fruit juice to wet the meal until it forms a crumbly paste to shape into cookies
• Cookie sheet oiled with 1 tablespoon or more of olive or grape seed oil to coat cookie sheets
• One handful of sesame seeds
• One handful of shelled raw unsalted sunflower seeds. Sunflower seeds go in the batter. Sesame seeds are sprinkled on top of each cookie just before baking.

Optional: sweeten more if needed to taste with either some mashed ripe banana or a tablespoon of apple juice concentrate. Add 1/4 cup of olive oil or grape seed oil(optional) to the meal and also the two whole eggs or just the two egg whites, depending on whether you eat whole eggs or just the whites (as they do in a spa breakfast).

Vegans can use lecithin and prunes to substitute for oil or fat in the cookie and ½ cup of tofu blended with ½ cup of water, liquefied to a thick paste consistency to substitute for the eggs. Add water, almond milk, or fruit juice to make a paste.