So, my husband’s cousin is a serious baker…which I find utterly amusing since she eats about as strictly within her diet as anyone I’ve ever met in my life. Coincidently, one of my best friends who also follows a strict eating regimen is also a serious baker. Maybe there’s something to it.

Anyway, our cousin is at our house just before our baby was born and I was mentioning to her that my girlfriend sent me an email with a recipe for “LACTATION COOKIES”

You read correctly…Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies that are supposed to help you produce more milk! Well, since i’m nursing I could use all the milk I can get and I showed this recipe to my husband. When he glanced at it, he showed me that the recipe called for flour and a lot of sugar. I wouldn’t mind eating these as a cheat but they definitely weren’t healthy.

So I tell our cousin about it and I ask her if she could make a healthy version of these cookies. She took this task quite seriously. It took her 2 weeks to show up at my house with these cookies because she made several batches trying to make them just right. But what she presented to us this last Saturday was MAGICAL!!!!! Absolutely delicious. And a healthy alternative!

This was her recipe:

• 1 cup coconut oil (melted)
• 1 cup coconut sugar
• 1/4 cup Stevia 
• 4 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons flax seed meal
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups of almond flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons brewer’s yeast
• 2 tablespoon of fenugreek
• 2 cups oats
• Semisweet chocolate chips (see instructions below for amount)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350° and make sure that one wire rack is positioned in the middle of the oven.
2. Mix the flaxseed meal and water and let sit for 3-5 minutes.
3. Mix coconut oil, coconut sugar, and stevia well.
4. Add eggs and mix well.
5. Add flaxseed mix and vanilla, mix well.
6. Sift together flour, brewers yeast, fenugreek, baking soda, and salt (a.k.a. the dry ingredients).  Instead of sifting you can also put all the dry ingredients in a food processor and pulse for 5 to 15 seconds.  Please note that sugar is NOT a “dry ingredient.”
7. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredient mix (i.e. the coconut oil, coconut sugar, stevia, eggs, etc.).
8. Stir in oats and semisweet chocolate chips.  I add chips according to the individual consumer’s taste.  I like a lot of chips, but some people may not like many.  Decide ahead of time and eye-ball it.
9. Scoop onto baking sheet.  Try to scoop even-sized cookies, so that they cook evenly.
10. Bake for 12-13 minutes. The heat varies in different ovens (and cookie sizes may vary), so you may have to bake the cookies longer than 12 to 13 minutes. . If you have to bake longer, monitor the cookies closely, so that they do not burn.  Increase the time in one minute increments and check the cookies after each minute.
11. Let set for a couple minutes then remove from tray.

From what I understand what is supposed to help with the lactation is the Brewer’s Yeast, Fenugreek, and Oats. I can’t say for sure my milk supply increased by eating them but I did enjoy them thoroughly. And I think it is absolutely wonderful that I could enjoy, (and offer to my guests) a sweet treat that despite containing sugar, had beneficial vitamins and nutrients as a result of its ingredients.

For example:

• Brewer’s yeast contains folic acid, B12, Potassium, Thiamin, Niacin, and Chromium. It is known to help improve certain conditions including: Diabetes, Hypoglycemia, High Cholesterol, Eczema, Nervousness, Stress, Carpal Tunnel,  Anemia, and Constipation 
• Fenugreek is a medicinal herb that is used for arthritis, cancer treatment, diabetes, gastrointestinal disorders, high cholesterol, inducing childbirth, infections, inflammation, lactation stimulation, lymphadenitis, muscle pain, promoting urination, skin ulcers and wound healing. PLEASE NOTE: because Fenugreek can cause uterine contractions, pregnant women should NOT consume Fenugreek!!!! 
• Flaxseeds are high in Omega 3 fatty acids, fiber, and phytochemicals (antioxidants) including lignans which tend to balance female hormones among other benefits.
• Coconut oil can boost thyroid function helping to increase metabolism, energy and endurance. It increases digestion and helps to absorb fat-soluble vitamins. It also can help to fight off yeast, fungus, and candida.

This girl is so wonderful that she actually did some research on coconut sugar. What she found was that even though coconut sugar is still sugar, it appears that it scores lower on the glycemic index than regular sugar because of its soluble fiber content. Additionally, she discovered that adding coconut oil also reduced the insulin spike that you would normally get from consuming sugar.

Naturally these are not diet cookies and if you are trying to lose weight I wouldnt suggest eating them regularly. But for those who simply want to eat whole foods instead of processed stuff, isn’t it amazing that you can have a delicious cookie which only has ingredients you can pronounce? That is the beauty of making things at home.

So do they help the nursing mother lactate? Who knows and who cares! They were delicious!!!!