Making milk is a superpower! ||{healthy lactation cookies}||

First off, this is a completely “MOM” related post- if you couldn’t tell by the title.  I do realize that many of my posts have “shifted” since the birth of my blessing, – but hey, my hips have shifted too. Life isn’t fair   ……I am sharing this because of a few requests and the fact that I didn’t find a healthy lactation ‘cookie’ while in my search.  I searched high and low, sifting through all sorts of pins on Pinterest—–only to find unhealthy options……  So I’m sharing my own! Who knows, maybe I can help a mom out!

Making milk is superpower, truly.

Sadly, it is not a superpower I possess easily. It is hard work for me. Darn hard work. I’m a wannabe superhero milk producer.

Yep, I’m a wannabe.

I envy all the women that have gallons of breastmilk stored in their refridgerators for their little blessings to enjoy. I really envy them….. like the way I envied Rebecca on Full House because she got to kiss Uncle Jesse. Yep, that kind of envy. That is neither here nor there. Back to the nursing talk.

I take about 30 supplements daily, drink lactation tea 3-5 times a day, and drown myself with water all for the sake of producing juuuuust enough milk for my little one. All of this is doctor approved and suggested; don’t think I’ve went off the deep end here. (but sometimes I feel like I have!) While I’m at work, I also pump every time my son would eat—–> just to keep up.

Then, there is this other little thing I do—- eat lactation cookies!

I can’t lie to you and tell you that they are the best thing I’ve ever eaten, they’re not. However, they do help me eat healthily in a pinch and provide some good things that support healthy lactation. I’m telling you, I do EVERYTHING I can to make milk for my little superhero!

Healthy Lactation Cookies

• 1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 1/3 c. rolled oats
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground sea salt
• 2 Tbsp cinnamon (I probably put in waaay more cinnamon, I’m a cinnamon junkie!)
• 3/4 c. unsweetened applesauce
• 3 overripe bananas (the waaay ugly black/brown ones)
• 1 c. ground flax
• 6 Tbsp brewers yeast* (can add as little as 2 T)
• 1/3 c. water
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/3 c. brown sugar (I use dark)
• 1 Tbsp good quality vanilla
• 2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350°.  Mix the flour, oats, soda, salt, and cinnamon thoroughly in one bowl. In a seperate bowl mix remaining ingredients and mix well, mix very well.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and dollop the cookies on in whatever size you’d like. Bake for 12-14 minutes. (always 13 minutes on the nose in my oven!!)

*note: most recipes I saw only had about two tablespoons of brewers yeast. I just thought that didn’t seem like much for a whole batch of cookies, so I just kept dumping it in!

Many other recipes add peanutbutter & chocolate chips to make them more ‘cookie like’. But, if some of you recall, due to some “issues” south of the border, I can’t eat those things. So, mine ended up being UBER healthy. They remind me more of a muffin than a cookie. But their cookie nature makes them easy to grab and go for me personally. Plus, I can make varied sizes of cookies that way; something a muffin tin won’t allow!

I am in no way, shape, or form saying that these are a cure all for a low milk supply. For some women , eating lactation cookies can really help; while for others it really doesn’t do much. I like to think that they aid me in healthy lactation but more importantly, they aid me in a healthy lifestyle as a busy mamma! Because I choose to nurse Jackson over my lunch time on MWF while he’s in the same town as me, I have very little time to eat lunch at work, we’re talking 5′ish minutes! I grab one or two of these and know that I’m getting in some whole grains and something that can help with lactation.

WHY these are supposed to help:

• Oats are shown to aid in lactation as well as just be darn good for you.
• Brewers Yeast is shown to give some women’s milk production an extra boost.
• Flax is sometimes shown to help as well, depends who you are asking.

So, these are winners for me and I find myself making them each and every week.  I do hope those of you  out there that are breastfeeding mammas, I hope you easily come by the superpower of making and abundance of milk………… ………But, for those of you like me, the PROUD WANNABES, cheers! Grab a cookie!

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