I mean, constantly trying to dream up ways to add them into recipes is a dead giveaway right?

I wasn’t sure if my gang would go for this peanut version of the choc-chip biscuit, so I did half the batch without the peanuts.

The peanut-less batch paled in comparison, with a unanimous vote from the whole family for the peanut version!

I think it’s that extra little crunch and saltiness that does the trick.

No, you probably can’t pack these in your kids school lunchboxes (save them for after school) but lucky for you you can grab 40 sweet and savoury, nut-free and refined sugar-free, school-friendly lunchbox ideas in my Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes recipe ebook here (the Coconut Rough Cookies are to die for!)

Many of the ingredients in this recipe can be sourced from my one-stop-favourite, organic wholefoods online store, The Wholefood Collective. They go to great lengths to ensure everything they source is amazing quality, they stock all my favorite products and I don’t even have to leave the house! Oh and the cherry on the cake is they donate profits to improve food security for vulnerable Aussies.

Here are some of the ingredients you’ll need:

Rapadura sugar
Vanilla
Spelt flour
Baking powder
Dark chocolate chips

Print

Peanut and Choc Chip Biscuits

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 25 minutes

Author Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

• 180 grams butter room temperature
• 2/3 cup rapadura sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups spelt flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 100 grams roasted salted peanuts, chopped (I bought them already roasted but sprinkled with sea salt myself)
• 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 170 C.
• Line two baking trays with parchment paper.
• Put butter into a medium-large bowl and soften. Add sugar and beat with an electric mixer until pale and creamy (approx 2 mins).
• Add egg and vanilla and beat through on low setting.
• Sift in spelt flour and baking powder and fold through until just combined (I actually get my hands in and mix it together)
• Add peanuts and choc chips and fold thorugh
• Put tablespoons of the batter around 4 cm apart onto the tray and gently flatten
• Bake 10 minutes, spin trays around, bake another 5 minutes until just golden.
• Cool on trays for a few minutes allowing them to set slightly.
• Cool completely on wire rack.
• Store in airtight container.

If you make this recipe please do take photos and send them to me.

If you share them on instagram, remember to tag me @brendajanschek. Otherwise feel free to pm me your photos via Facebook. I get a total kick out of seeing you bring my recipes to life. 

And remember, if you haven’t already, grab your copy of Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes here.

You might also like to try my recipes for Peanut Butter Slice and Chocolate Choc Chip Cookies. 

Bren x

And they couldn’t get enough of them in their lunch boxes so lucky the recipe makes a huge batch!

You can easily make your own jam, or I used St Dalfour’s Strawberry Fruit Spread which has only strawberries (55%), grape juice concentrate, fruit pectin and lemon juice, while many of other jams or fruit spreads on the market contain additives, colours and other nasties.

I’ve made these biscuits in cooking lessons with kids  and they have absolutely loved making them, putting in their finger print and filling the hole up with jam! So recruit your kids to give a hand when making these delightful little morsels of joy!

Are you following me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest?

Have you signed up to my FREE BREAKFAST EBOOK HERE to get on my mailing list and have free recipe updates and special offers delivered to your inbox.

If you’re looking for more recipe inspiration take a look at my ebook, Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes. It’s packed with 40 delicious nut-free, refined sugar free sweet and savoury recipes which have all been kid-tested and approved and take the guess work out of what delicious, healthy food to make your kids for lunch!

Many of the ingredients in this recipe can be sourced from my one-stop-favourite, organic wholefoods online store, The Wholefood Collective. They go to great lengths to ensure everything they source is amazing quality, they stock all my favorite products and I don’t even have to leave the house! Oh and the cherry on the cake is they donate profits to improve food security for vulnerable Aussies.

Here are some of the ingredients you’ll need:

Rolled oats
Rapadura or coconut sugar or brown rice syrup
Vanilla powder
Spelt flour
Desiccated coconut or almond meal
Baking powder

Print

Jam Drops

Author Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 125 grams softened butter
• 1/2 cup rapadura or coconut sugar or brown rice syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 cup spelt flour wholemeal or white
• 1 cup desiccated coconut or almond meal
• 1 teaspoon baking powderJam or fruit spread

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 175 degrees C
• Grease and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper
• Process oats in a food processor until it's a fine flour
• Cream butter, sugar and vanilla on high speed until light and fluffy (approx 3-5 minutes), add egg, beat until just combined.
• Add oat flour, spelt flour, desiccated coconut (or almond meal), baking powder and stir until just combined. Pop dough in the fridge for 30 minutes.
• Drop tablespoons of cookie dough into your hand and roll into a ball, then place onto the baking sheet around 4cm apart. With clean hands, use your pointer finger or thumb to gently make a hole in the middle of each cookie.
• Using a teaspoon, spoon a small amount of jam into each hole, pop into the oven and bake for around 10 - 15 minutes or until cookies are golden brown.
• Allow them to cool and set on the trays then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Notes

Add in an extra egg if your mixture is too dry.

I popped the jam drops into the kids lunch boxes as a healthy treat along with their favourite mini-quiche recipe, I was guaranteed lunch would be eaten that day!

If you know someone who could use some lunch box inspo, please share this recipe with them!

And please take photos and send them to me, or if you share them on instagram, remember to tag me @brendajanschek

You might also like these Ginger Cardamon Molasses Cookie Hearts or Chai Date and Sesame Biscuits.

With the fullness of life there seems to be less opportunity for good, focused one-on-one time with the kids. But when the opportunity arises, I love nothing more than snuggling up with them on the lounge, looking through recipe books for inspiration, and creating recipes together based on their favourite flavours before heading into the kitchen to test them out.

As the high school workload steals my son away from the kitchen, my daughter has stepped up and staked her place in there with me as well.

She was the inspiration behind this latest recipe. Highly focused on using her favourite flavours as the base for the biscuits, and no doubt instinctively following the colder season by her choice of warming spices and flavours, the Ginger, Cardamon & Molasses Cookie Hearts were born. She’s thrilled to see her name credited on the recipe too!

The ingredients are super-warming and packed full of goodness…

Ginger – great for digestion, anti-inflammatory, and helps with coughs and colds.

Cardamon – helps with coughs and colds, sore throats, eases gastrointestinal disorders, while being good for digestion and metabolism.

Molasses – contains vital vitamins and minerals like iron, calcium, magnesium, B6 and selenium.

These Cookie Hearts are a hit with our whole family, and have become a staple in the kids’ lunch boxes. We hope you love them too.

Print

Ginger, Cardamon, Molasses Cookie Hearts

Prep Time 10 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Author Brenda and Yasmeen Janschek

Ingredients

• 175 grams stoneground wholemeal flour or wholemeal spelt flour
• 175 grams white spelt flour
• 110 grams rapadura sugar
• 1 teaspoon bicarb soda
• 2 teaspoons ginger powder
• 1 teaspoon cardamon ground
• 100 grams cold butter
• 3 cm piece root ginger peeled and finely grated
• 1 large egg lightly beaten
• 50 grams molasses

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 175 degrees C
• Line two trays with baking paper. I prefer to use If You Care brand
• Sift flour and bicarb into a mixing bowl and add sugar, ginger and cardamon. Stir well.
• Chop in the cold butter and rub into the dry mixture until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
• Mix the egg and molasses and grated ginger together in a bowl.
• Pour into the dry mixture and stir through, then continue to mix with your hands until it forms a stiff dough.
• Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to approx 1/2 cm and cut out desired biscuit shapes using a cookie cutter and place on trays.
• Place trays in the oven and bake for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly cooked. Turning trays half way through.
• Allow to cool on trays for 5 minutes then transfer to cooling rack

Notes

Perfect for lunchboxes or with a cuppa for afternoon tea.

Bren x

Once the sweet gingery aroma hits your nostrils, it will feel just like Christmas.

Many of the ingredients in this recipe can be sourced from my one-stop-favourite, organic wholefoods online store, The Wholefood Collective. They go to great lengths to ensure everything they source is amazing quality, they stock all my favorite products and I don’t even have to leave the house! Oh and the cherry on the cake is they donate profits to improve food security for vulnerable Aussies.

Here are some of the ingredients you’ll need:

Spelt flour
Baking powder
Ground cinnamon
Salt
Coconut or rapadura sugar
Maple syrup

Print

Ginger Snap Cookie Shapes

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Author Berleena Eberle for Brenda Janschek Health & Lifestyle

Ingredients

• 2 cups spelt flour
• 1 tspn baking powder
• 1 tsp - 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tbsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tspn sea salt
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• ¼ cup of coconut or rapadura sugar
• ¼ cup of maple syrup
• 1 large egg well beaten
• 1-2 lemons zested

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 180 degree. Line 2 trays with unbleached baking paper.
• In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ground ginger, and salt.
• In separate bowl mix together the melted butter, coconut sugar, maple syrup, egg and lemon zest.
• Pour butter and sugar mixture over the flour and mix together to form a dough. If dough is too wet add a little more flour, if too dry add a little water.
• Dust some flour over a clean and dry bench top. Using a rolling pin, roll dough to 1 cm thick. Use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes of approx 20 +cookies laying on pre prepared baking paper.
• Bake for 7-10 minutes or until cookies slightly darken and become fragrant.

Notes

Lunchbox friendly

If you make these and share them on instagram, remember to tag me @brendajanschek.

Otherwise feel free to pm me your photos via Facebook. I get a total kick out of seeing you bring my recipes to life!

If you’d like to see a round up of our favourite holiday celebration food recipes just click here.

Berleena has been the wonderful recipe developer helping me create a series of delicious recipes, here’s a bit more about her…

Berleena Eberle — Food Mindset Coach
Berleena specialises in helping her clients develop a healthy relationship with food and their body. Her clients know how to deal with food triggers, let go of guilt, identify cravings and make healthy eating simple again with nutrient-rich, real food. Berleena strips back nutritional confusion to develop an intuitive eating approach.

Usually on the weekend, if time permits, the kids and I will get busy in the kitchen making food for the lunchbox.

I always like to pop in something fun into their lunchbox each day. We don’t ‘do’ dessert at home, so once a day at recess my kids look forward to their healthy treat.

They are almost always made from scratch ( I have a stash of our fave packaged options for those insane days), from the best ingredients I can afford, and as nutrient dense as I can make them.

For more lunchbox inspiration check out my Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes eBook filled with 40 of my children’s favourite nut-free and refined sugar free sweet and savoury recipes. All kid-tested and kid-approved!

Here are some of their fave lunchbox treats.

Rich and delicious chocolate muffins (with vegetables) by Brenda Janschek

Sweet potato and choc chip muffins by Mummy Made it – gluten free

Beetroot, quinoa and chocolate muffins by The Holistic Ingredient

Sweet potato brownie by Slim Birdy – gluten free

Chocolate Orange Truffles by Brenda Janschek (if nuts are allowed)

Leftover porridge cakes by Lisa Corduff

Date, oat and seed bars by Brenda Janschek

Nut-free chocolate and coconut no bake bars by BecomingNess

Coconut slice by Homemade, Healthy, Happy

Chai, date and sesame biscuits by Brenda Janschek

Vanilla Apple Chia Pudding by Brenda Janschek

Cinnamon, turmeric custard by Low Tox Life

Banana Pancakes by Brenda Janschek Health & Lifestyle

Pancakes 3 ways by Quirky Cooking

Super smoothie by Brenda Janschek

Brownie Cake by Brenda Janschek

Raw Cacao Balls by Brenda Janschek (nut free)

Find the best 10 Savoury School Lunchbox Ideas here

For more lunchbox inspo, grab my new Easy Wholefood Lunchbox recipe eBook with 20 savoury and 20 sweet recipes filled with simple wholesome ingredients to meet your kids nutritional needs and fuel their learning and play, giving them the brainpower and energy they need to get through the day.

These little puppies sure kept them quiet for a while. Well, until the next day, that is, when they forcefully relayed their expectation that more cookies would be appearing in their lunch boxes!

The banana kinda replaces an egg as the binder, giving it its chewiness, and extra sweetness. The dark chocolate gives it some delicious texture and a touch of decadance on top.

Banana and chocolate – a match made in heaven!

Many of the ingredients in this recipe can be sourced from my one-stop-favourite, organic wholefoods online store, The Wholefood Collective. They go to great lengths to ensure everything they source is amazing quality, they stock all my favorite products and I don’t even have to leave the house! Oh and the cherry on the cake is they donate profits to improve food security for vulnerable Aussies.

Here are some of the ingredients you’ll need:

Honey
Whole Spelt Flour or White Spelt Flour
Dark Chocolate Chips
Rolled Oats

While you’re here you may like to check out my recipe ebook to give you some lunch inspiration, Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes.

It’s packed with 40 delicious nut-free, refined sugar free sweet and savoury recipes which have all been kid-tested and approved!

Print

CHEWY CHOC-BANANA COOKIES

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Author Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

• 110 g unsalted butter softened
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 banana mashed
• 1 cup spelt flour sifted
• ¾ cup rolled oats
• ½ cup desiccated coconut
• ¼ cup dark chocolate chopped (I used 70% lindt, approx 4-5 squares) or dark choc chips

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 175 C & line 2 large baking trays with non stick baking paper.
• Beat the butter, honey and vanilla until pale and creamy. Stir in the banana.
• Add the sifted flour, oats, coconut and stir until well combined. Add chocolate and mix well.
• Roll tablespoons of the mixture into balls and place on baking rays and flatten..
• Place in oven and bake for approx 10-12mins or lightly golden.
• Leave on trays to cool.
• Thermomix Instructions
• Blend banana, butter and vanilla together on Sp 4 for a few seconds.
• Add the rest of the ingredients and mix on Sp 4-5 for 10 seconds.
• Scrape down the sides and mix on Sp 4-5 for 6 seconds
• Press roughly chopped chocolate onto top
• Roll tablespoons of the mixture into balls and place on baking rays and flatten..
• Place in oven and bake for approx 10-12mins or lightly golden.
• Leave on trays to cool.

Steal one for yourself with a steaming cuppa, the kids won’t even notice. But if they do, you’re on your own…

If you make this recipe and share on instagram, remember to tag me @brendajanschek.

Otherwise feel free to pm me your photos via Facebook.

Some other easy healthy treat ideas you might like are Peanut and Choc-Chip Biscuits and Healthy Anzac Biscuits.

And when you can sprout forth on such diverse topics as antioxidants, flavanoids and LDL while going weak at the knees upon hearing the words mousse, ganache, or even cake, you know you are a servant to your dark master.

But it’s not a guilty pleasure, and you don’t need to step behind the big pot plant to consume it, even if moderation is advised (as in all things, except chocolate……..just kidding!).

The best thing about dark chocolate is that it gives you yet another reason to drink red wine, as if you needed one! You could even follow that up with another uncontrollable slip about antioxidants.

C’mon people, I know I had you at ‘chocolate’.

Many of the ingredients in this recipe can be sourced from my one-stop-favourite, organic wholefoods online store, The Wholefood Collective. They go to great lengths to ensure everything they source is amazing quality, they stock all my favorite products and I don’t even have to leave the house! Oh and the cherry on the cake is they donate profits to improve food security for vulnerable Aussies.

Here are some of the ingredients you’ll need:

Honey
Vanilla powder
Spelt flour
Rolled oats
Desiccated coconut
Dark choc chips

Print

Choc-Chip Cookies

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 25 minutes

Author Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

• 110 g unsalted butter softened
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1.5 – 2 cups spelt flour sifted (use the extra half cup if the final mixture is too wet)
• ¾ cup rolled oats
• ½ cup desiccated coconut
• ¼ cup dark choc chips

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 175 degrees C & line 2 large baking trays with non -stick baking paper.
• Beat the butter, honey and vanilla until pale and creamy. Gently beat in the egg.
• Add the sifted flour, oats and coconut and stir until well combined.
• Add choc chips and gently fold in.
• Roll tablespoons of the mixture into balls and place on baking rays and flatten slightly.
• Place in oven and bake for approx 12-15 mins or until lightly golden.
• Leave on trays to cool.

Bren x

These loving women wanted to make sure that their dear ones would have a long-lasting nutritious snack as they travelled for weeks by sea to the front.

The humble Anzac biscuit is a delightful tasting biscuit and extremely easy to make. I’ve replaced a few of the standard ingredients to make them even more nutritious than the original.

I’ve replaced golden syrup (a by product of sugarcane refining) with maple syrup, commercial wheat flour (subjected to bleaching agents) with spelt flour and brown sugar (not really different to white sugar) with coconut sugar or rapadura sugar.

Make a batch or two of these easy biscuits to share with family and friends on Anzac day. Be sure to bake extras and keep in the freezer for lunchboxes too!

If you’re looking for more recipe inspiration, take a look at my new recipe ebook, Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes.

It’s packed with 40 delicious nut-free, refined sugar free sweet and savoury recipes which have all been kid-tested and approved!

Thanks to my friend Danielle from Keeping Up the Holsby’s for this picture of a batch she made and loved!

Print

Anzac Biscuits

Lunchbox friendly, nut-free,egg-free, can be dairy free by replacing butter with coconut oil

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 25 minutes

Author Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

• 125 grams butter
• 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons boiling water from the kettle is fine
• ½ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• 1 ¼ cups spelt flour
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup desiccated coconut
• 1/2 cup rapadura or coconut sugar

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 175 degrees celcius or 160 degrees fan forced.
• Grease or line oven trays.
• Melt butter with maple syrup in small saucepan over low heat until smooth.
• Mix flour, oats, coconut and sugar in a medium bowl.
• Combine bicarbonate of soda and boiling water and add to saucepan and stir.
• Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and stir well.
• Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls and place them on baking tray/s and flatten. Space well apart.
• Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden.
• Cool biscuits on trays.

If you make this recipe please do take photos and send them to me.

If you share them on instagram, remember to tag me @brendajanschek. Otherwise feel free to pm me your photos via Facebook. I get a total kick out of seeing you bring my recipes to life.

And remember, if you haven’t already, grab your copy of Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes here.

Other similar recipes you might like are Peanut and Choc Chip Biscuits or Ginger Snap Cookie Shapes.