Almond Butter Cookies

Like the original article stated: "As a HUMAN, you are obligated to love, cherish and covet the beloved cookie." So true my friend, so true. I eat a Paleo Diet, but even within the Paleo Lifestyle there are debates about how non-Paleo, or Paleo some foods are. I use the tools and ingredients that are available to me in the Paleo spectrum and make stuff (very caveman-ish). I also just love the challenge of creating, or recreating recipes. Thats why when I found Enjoy Life Chocolate Mini Chips at a regular grocery store (and not overpriced) I had to find a recipe to celebrate with.

 Paleohacks.com shared  some great Paleo Cheat Day Recipies. I thought I would give one a try. I don't do cheat days BTW, I do a lot of IF (intermittent fasting).  I have very limited time to get in my calories. So I like to enjoy those few hours without blowing my calorie and sugar intake. I am writing this as the bake, and now are cooling so it could turn out very badly.
 I already had an almond yogurt today, you think I will turn into an almond if I have an almond cookie with almond milk? Here goes....Oh---my-- STARS! These are too good to be  for real. Toddler approved too!

I modified the original recipe and used some of the optional alternatives that were given. I will note those for you so you know what I am raving about. For this I will be in red.

What You Need:

• 2 cups almond flour (or 1 cup almond flour, 1 cup vanilla protein powder) *I used 1 cup of protein powder
• ½ cup raw almond butter
• 2 organic cage free eggs
• ¼ cup honey (or truvia for calorie free) *I used Stevia, would use just a scant  1/4 cup
• tsp baking soda
• tsp vanilla
• tsp salt *I used 100% natural sea salt
• 2 cups dark chocolate chips (Enjoy Life is dairy free and is my favorite brand.) * I so agree great brand BUT, I used 1 cup of the minis, and it was PACKED full of chocolate. I could not imagine using 2 cups!!!

What You Gotta Do:

• Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl.
• Roll dough into small balls and smoosh lightly onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
• Bake for 10-12 minutes in a 375 degree oven.

What I will do next time:

• Mix dry ingredients
• whisk eggs separately in a bowl, and then add the almond butter and vanilla
• add dry  ingredients into wet, and then mix in your chocolate chips.

The only reason I would do it like this next time was because the consistency of the mix. I thought I had mixed it really well, but I still had clumps of protein powder at the bottom. If you use a hand mixer for your almond butter and eggs first you will have a softer texture and dry ingredients will mix in more thoroughly.