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Women’s Work and a Recipe: Quinoa Flake Cookies (Gluten Free)

I had a really wonderful chat with a friend tonight about women’s work and what that means. Did you know yesterday was International Women’s Day?

I don’t consider myself a feminist, at least not in the traditional sense. I don’t think that women should have to have high-powered executive jobs or wonderful exciting careers to prove that they are just as capable as men. I do think that the work women do for their families should be considered just as important as the work that a CEO does (if not more important, actually). I think the feminists of the 60s and 70s got it wrong, and I think they actually made life harder for women of my generation.

I have a few career goals, but I also have family life goals. And in the meantime, here are some things I might do if I could do whatever I wanted all day:

  • Review a macrobiotic diet plan (this was such a fun experiment).
  • Make new creations with PB2… (PB2, where are you?? I ordered a new box over a month ago.)
  • Experiment with rice cooker recipes (I’m on this weird mailing list for rice cooker recipes – I don’t know why they send me recipes all the time, but I’m actually kind of glad for it!)
  • Bake more! I have been meaning to make these black bean brownies that I made a long time ago.

In an effort to use my womanly baking skills and show off a bit, I made these cookies for my office last night. Monday was a rough day and baked goods are always good for cheering up. I enjoy baking even if it’s not as “important” as working in an office.

Quinoa Flake Cookies (Gluten Free)

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 cup quinoa flakes
  • 1/4 cup coconut oil
  • 1/4 cup peanut butter
  • dash of salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 egg

Directions

Preheat oven to 375F.

Mix everything together. You can mix the dry together and the wet together separately if you want, but I didn’t and they still came out good.

Drop onto a baking sheet – heaping spoonfuls – and bake for ~15 minutes. Make sure they don’t burn! Soft yet crispy – see:

What would you do all day if you could do anything you wanted? I forgot to mention I would also play with my fats…

Fat cat in a bag (we didn’t put him in; he just likes it).

This is the other fat cat on a couch.

Anyway… What would you do all day if you could do anything you wanted?

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Green Monster Madness

Have you ever tried a green smoothie? Angela has been making them for breakfast, and I got very curious, so I decided to try my own.  It was surprisingly good.  I had to add a few teaspoons of honey to sweeten it up at the end, but after that it was great.  And it’s a wonderful way to get some veggies early on in the day.

Maggie’s Green Smoothie

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Ingredients

  • 1 small banana, sliced
  • 4-5 strawberries, sliced
  • spring mix (got a huge box at Costco and I’m trying to use it up) – 1.5 cups, packed
  • chopped collard greens (couldn’t find kale) – 1.5 cups, packed
  • 1 cup unsweetened chocolate almond milk (but you could use any non-dairy milk)
  • 2 teaspoons natural peanut butter, warmed up so that it mixes better
  • 2 teaspoons honey
  • I just thought of another thing that would be good, but I didn’t put any in – wheat germ! (1-2 tablespoons)

Directions

  1. Add the fruit, milk, peanut butter, and honey to the blender/mixer.  Then add as many greens as will fit.
  2. Blend until the greens are pureed.  Keep adding more greens and blending until you’ve fit them all in.
  3. Serve in a nice tall glass.  Eat it with a spoon if you like!

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Mine came out pretty thick, so I did end up eating it with a spoon.  I’m hoping it will hold me over, but I’m not sure – I usually have carby breakfasts and I don’t get full on liquids.  So we’ll see.  It was delicious though, and very voluminous!  I don’t own a blender so I made this in my mini food-processor.

This morning I did some old favorites – YogaDownload’s 20-minute Power Vinyasa #4, and The New Method 20/20 Perfect Pilates (40 minutes).  I really do love YogaDownload.