http://www.lawrence.com/users/photos/2014/jan/27/268085/

So far this month, I’ve written about tricks for eating healthy, frozen food helpers, the pros of eating dessert and how to plan healthy snacks.

I thought I’d end this month’s healthy eating pep talk with a delicious treat that works as both a snack and dessert. And — bonus — this treat has protein (from the almonds), healthy fats (from the almonds and coconut oil), iron (from the molasses) and contains no refined sugars.

Oh, and it’s a delicious treat/snack/healthy choice.

I’ve been making these every couple of weeks since the fall and find the taste to be perfectly sweet and spicy and the texture is nice and chewy. In fact, the only downside to these cookies is that you have to wait 30 minutes for the dough to firm up.

But it’s worth the wait. I promise.

Helpful note: You want to start with all your ingredients as close to room temperature as possible. This is because the coconut oil solidifies at 75 degrees. So, if you mix it with cold ingredients, it clumps a bit and this can drastically alter how your cookies come out. Trust me, I’ve been impatient before and the cookies I got were flat and off.

Grain-Free Ginger Cookies
1 1/2 cups almond flour

2 tablespoons coconut oil, liquid

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Combine all of the ingredients in a medium bowl, and mix until a thick batter is formed. Chill the batter for 30 minutes in the fridge to make sure it’s nice and firm before scooping.

Preheat the oven to 350 and drop the batter by rounded tablespoons onto a baking sheet lined with a Silpat, or parchment paper. Use a wet fork to flatten each dough mound, into your desired cookie thickness. If you’d like a sugar topping, try sprinkling a bit of low-glycemic coconut crystals over the tops before baking.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until firm around the edges, but still soft in the center. Allow to cool on the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Serves 12.

• Recipe from www.detoxinista.com