So it seems that the holy grail of breastfeeding is a surefire way to increase your supply, without medication (domperidone). Lets face it, Mother's Milk tea (fenugreek) is just plain gross, and can have the side effect of lowering your blood sugar too much, or so the lactation consultant at the ER told me. I love oatmeal, but eating it 3-5x a day is not on my list of things I like to do. Of course you have to drink tons of water, take your vitamins, and get plenty to eat, but everything else is a crap shoot.
Then I came upon this recipe for
Lactation Cookies. Hmmmm, cookies you say? I can deal with that! The ingredients that differentiate these from regular oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are the brewers yeast and flax meal, which have special properties that are supposed to support lactation. I thought I'd give them a try.
Notice the first ingredient is butter, however. I, and some of my fellow lactators, try to reduce dairy in our diets for the purpose of helping our babies have less gas and general yucky tummy. I read several articles lately about the health benefits of using coconut oil in low temperature cooking applications, in the place of butter or other oils. Apparently, the healthiest one is the virgin coconut oil, but it still tastes like coconut. YOu can get possibly hydrogenated coconut oil from large manufacturers like LouAna, but that was not recommended in the articles I read, even though those more processed oils have less coconut taste. I'm not a fan of coconut, but I figured I'd give it a try.
I altered the original recipe to include some natural sugar substitute, and take out the chocolate. I also added raisins and pepitas (dry roasted, unsalted pumpkin seeds). I just plain like raisins with oatmeal, and the pepitas have more protein than any other seed/nut available in the bulk section of my local grocery. I also added a bit of peanut butter, just because... well, why not! I plan to use these as breakfast bars so I don't have to actually make oatmeal to eat in the morning. Between feeding, pumping, and getting us both ready to get out of the house, I need something quick and nutritious.
So without further ado:
Preheat oven to 350
In a small cup, mix 2T flax meal and 4T water
Cream together:
3/4c Virgin coconut oil
1 c white sugar
3/4c brown sugar
2T Stevia + 2T molasses (or another 1/4c brown sugar)
1/4c peanut butter (we use fresh, just crushed peanuts, no salt or sugar)
Add in :
2 large eggs
1 t vanilla extract
flax meal slurry
and cream until fluffy.
Mix in a separate bowl:
2t sal
1t baking soda
2c unbleached all purpose flour
1/4c brewers yeast or nutritional yeast flakes
Add wet ingredients to dry and mix well. Add in:
3c old fashioned oats
1c raisins
1/2 c pepitas
Spread mixture into a parchment lined sheet cake pan or cookie sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes, until browned. Cool completely and cut into 24 bars.
The nutrition info didn't turn out like I thought it would, but you have to remember that while the coconut oil is technically a saturated fat, its a different type of saturated fat (medium chain) from normal animal fats (long chain) and are therefore better for you.
They ended up tasting pretty good, but a little cakey for my taste. Next time, I'll probably go with just a cup and a half of flour, and add more oats. Also, the pepitas were a bit overpowering, so I might use almonds even though they don't have as much protein. I may also experiment by decreasing the white sugar and increasing the stevia and molasses combination, as that would also help the iron content.
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| Vitamin A | 0.5 % |
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| Vitamin B-12 | 0.7 % |
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| Vitamin B-6 | 1.7 % |
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| Vitamin C | 0.3 % |
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| Vitamin D | 0.8 % |
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| Vitamin E | 0.3 % |
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| Calcium | 2.7 % |
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| Copper | 4.0 % |
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| Folate | 3.9 % |
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| Iron | 8.4 % |
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| Magnesium | 2.7 % |
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| Manganese | 4.6 % |
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| Niacin | 3.0 % |
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| Pantothenic Acid | 0.2 % |
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| Phosphorus | 1.8 % |
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| Riboflavin | 1.3 % |
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| Selenium | 0.8 % |
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| Thiamin | 4.0 % |
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| Zinc | 1.5 % |
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