“Mom Cookies” in Costa Rica
Mom Cookies started out as breakfast cookies long before they were dubbed “Mom Cookies”. That name was given them in Costa Rica much later. “Mom Cookies” are a green snack at our house. Keeping healthy, homemade snacks around is an easy way to reduce the amount of packaging we have to dispose of and the types of chemicals found in processed foods we consume. This is one of my go-to recipes for bake sales at church and other community events and one way I can introduce others to lower sugar, organic baking.
In 2008, I was recently single and finances were tight. Both my girls were in college and I needed something to send in care packages that was “healthy”, relatively inexpensive and easy to make. I found a recipe online and promptly modified it to suit my needs. That was the beginning of experimentation to find something my older daughter, Carli, could eat in a pinch. Envision a poor college student with food allergies making food from the cafeteria unsafe and difficult to eat. Add to that, she was a Performing Arts major and danced 30 hours per week so eating enough calories necessary to maintain her weight was important. It was a scary issue and we both felt so much better when we knew what the ingredients in her food were. This recipe has solidified into the one I use today with organic ingredients, full-fat butter, whole eggs and non-refined sugar options.
That’s the background of Mom Cookies. This story is more accurately about my younger daughter, JaeLyn. She is our free-spirit and has so much more courage than I do. In Spring of 2016, Jae announced that she was going to Costa Rica with a friend for a almost a month. The announcement included that they were not really making any housing plans and were going to take it one day at a time using Air B&B when feasible. Knowing my daughter and what type of funds she most likely would have available, I immediately started to worry. My 26 yr old, 4ft 11in, feisty, free-spirited daughter was going to a foreign country with no real plans and limited funds! My mind kicked into mom mode. I could at least make sure she had emergency food.
When asked if she would be able to take a batch of breakfast cookies with her, Jae responded with an immediate “Yes”, but Joe, her friend is vegan. HMMM, I am not vegan and have never cooked vegan. Sure, I can make a batch of vegan cookies! Let the research begin! I chose to substitute the butter and eggs with avocado and bananas. Mainly because those ingredients are used in other recipes and they were already on hand but also because I just wasn’t comfortable with flaxseed for a first attempt at converting a recipe.
Fast forward to a week later, Brian and I met up with Jae in Portland and handed over 2 batches of breakfast cookies. 48 total, and 24 of those clearly labeled as Vegan, individually packaged in zip lock baggies. We packed them into her backpack and the next day, she and Joe set off for Costa Rica
My Kitchenaid makes mixing fast and easy!
This is the regular version, the vegan version is darker
“Mom Cookies” are 4 inches in diameter
Jae was good about checking in once a week via Facebook and their pictures were amazing. Half way through their trip, it turns out those cookies became a commodity. They had traded some cookies for housing. Not quite sure how I feel about my daughter trading cookies for housing in a foreign country???
The term, “Mom Cookies”, was dubbed when they met a man from New York who had become vegan. He shared with them the thing he missed most after going vegan was his mom’s cookies. Jae and Joe immediately pulled out some breakfast cookies. I now have a man from New York, living in Costa Rica who loves me. “Mom Cookies” became official. I’m happy to have reminded a man of his mom. I hope he contacted her and they had a great conversation. JaeLyn wanted to make sure I shared this in my story.
Writing this story, it occurred to me I’ve never written the final recipe for “Mom Cookies” down. In addition, while all three of my children have helped me make them, none of them know my recipe. Well, thanks to you, “Mom Cookies” will soon be ready to share. Watch for an email with instructions to claim your own copy of how to make the World Famous (well, in Washington and Costa Rica) Mom Cookies.
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