Have you entered this giveaway yet? If you haven’t, you should.

But even if you don’t win, here’s a recipe to make you feel like a winner. These are my favorite cookies to make. They’re easy, delicious, and use normal, healthy ingredients you can feel good about eating any day. And because it’s so adjustable, I knew I could make it feel more like a Goji Gourmet cookie.

For the copycat, I used signature ingredients from the Goji Gourmet line including goji berries, chocolate chips, oatmeal, and almonds in the form of almond butter. You can certainly adjust the mix-ins in the batter, though chocolate chips never disappoint.

Goji And Chocolate Chip Oaties(adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients(Makes 24 cookies):

• 2 cups oatmeal, divided

• 3/4 cup almond butter

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 1/4 cup maple syrup

• 1/4 cup water Omitted because my batter was wet enough

• 1 (large)banana, mashed

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/4 cup chocolate chips(let’s just say I used more)

• 1/4 cup goji berries

Take 1 cup of oatmeal and process it in a food processor until it’s been turned into a flour. Add all of the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix. Then add the rest of the ingredients and mix until the batter has come together. Chill the dough for 10-20 minutes.

Preheat an oven to 325 degrees. When the dough is cold, break off chunks and roll them into 1-inch dough balls. Place the balls on lined baking trays and bake for 25-30 minutes until they’re firm to the touch.

I hesitate to call any dessert “healthy”, but with whole grains, dried fruit, and healthy fats from the nut butter, these certainly won’t break any New Years resolutions.

This time of year, cookie swaps are everywhere. Like I’ve mentioned, I’m not the biggest cookie lover. However, there are some that I tip my hat to. I love the standard peanut butter cookie. And I’ve already paid tribute to the pairing of chocolate and orange once this Christmas season. But when I saw Kaitlin’s recipe for chocolate orange cookies, I had to make them and make them mine. While I was worried how these would taste at first, they ended up being the perfect balance of nuttiness, citrus, and chocolate. They’re festive and bound to be a hit at any cookie swap.

Chocolate Chip Almond Butter Cookies With Citrus

Ingredients(Makes 18 cookies):

• 1 cup natural almond butter
• 3/4 cup cane sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt(omit if your almond butter is salted)
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips
• Zest of one orange

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Start by mixing together the almond butter, sugar, salt, egg, and baking soda until it has all emulsified.

Next add in the chocolate chips and zest in the orange. Continue to mix this until the mix-ins are evenly distributed. Roll the dough into 18 1-inch balls and lay them out on a lined baking tray about 2 inches apart.

Press down on the top of each dough ball gently with a fork to make a criss-cross pattern. Bake these for about 12-14 minutes or until the edges start to brown slightly.

These are so festive! I was pleasantly surprised at how well the orange flavor came through, and yet you clearly get the almond flavor and sweet chocolate, too. It was completely necessary to eat 2 out of the oven to make sure they were OK. But if you can wait longer, these are perfect to eat alongside a tall glass of almond milk. I bet you Santa has never had milk and cookies like this.

Like I mentioned yesterday(p.s. Have you entered the giveaway yet?), I’ve been doing some baking recently. I’m one of those people who like to jump the gun with holidays. If I had a house it’d probably have had a Santa Claus in the front yard on November 1st. So excuse me if it’s too early to be making gingerbread but I just couldn’t wait. I love this because it’s spicy and comforting on these cool Winter nights, especially with a cup of coffee for dipping. The ganache really puts it over the top and makes it something special.

Gluten-Free Gingerbread

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 6oz container plain yogurt
• 2 cups gluten-free all purpose flour such as Bob’s Red Mill’s(could use regular flour, too)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat an oven to 325 degrees. Mix together the brown sugar, eggs, yogurt, and vegetable oil until it’s emulsified.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and spices.

Pour the wet into the dry and fold until the batter comes together.

Grease a loaf pan and pour in the gingerbread batter. Drop the pan a few times on a flat surface to make sure it’s level. Bake for 50 minutes or until the center is cooked through.

Now, you could stop here. The loaf is moist with a nice spice and definitely a great breakfast bread. But why not push it over the top for a dessert and give it a simple ganache?

White Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients:

• 3oz(about 6 tablespoons) white chocolate
• 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon heavy cream

Melt down the white chocolate in a microwave or over a double boiler. Once it’s smooth and runny, slowly add the heavy cream and continuously whisk to incorporate it. It helps if your cream is room temperature or warmer when you start. Once the two are mixed, pour it over the gingerbread loaf and spread to form an even layer.

Perfect. The frosting is sweet while the bread is spicy. It has all the flavors of Fall and makes a great treat on a Winter weekend.