Rosemary and Oat Breakfast Cookies.

None-runner types might think that running millions of miles a week; plodplodplod, round the corner, eek there's a car, OMG will this hill EVER end, phew I'm pooped, might mean that biscuits for breakfast, scones for lunch and cake for tea becomes a more regular occurrence; the more miles you do and calories you churn through, the more the clotted cream comes out to play. 

But I don't think that is necessarily the norm. For me anyway, the more I run, the more obsessive I get and the more I pay attention to all the teenytiny variables...nutrition being a major one; it's not the biscuits I reach for before a hard sesh, but the spinach and the peanut butter...the game is 'how green can I make my smoothie and keep it tasting good'. A couple of Chocolate Teacakes are not going to see you up that beast of a hill without a wimp-out...and I no one likes a wimp-out.

However....my current state of affairs sees less sweating up hills and more groaning and moaning as I get up off the sofa like it's time for a stairtlift installation...my body is not playing the game...and while yoga and spinning are brill and I love them and are most definitely necessary at the mo, I just don't care quite the same. So basically, this is me, telling you, that right now is a biscuits for breakfast kind of time, hence today's offering.

Honestly though, I think these lend themselves well to being breakfast...there's oats, there's fruit, there's nuts and juice...helloooooo, is that not all the major food groups covered? I think so. It's not like eating Digestives for breakfast...these will fill you up with good stuff and have enough sugar and butter to cheer me up on beautiful morning when I'm stuck inside doing downward dog. So any hip specialists, I need your help, hit me up, any runners, have these on your rest day...and everyone else...breakfast. With Love and Cake.

Rosemary and Orange Cookies.

Adapted from a Women's Weekly recipe

A few notes:

• This recipe is easily adaptable as long as you follow the fundamentals...maybe you don't want coconut, well sub in more oats, maybe rosemary isn't your thing at all, you can happily leave it out entirely...the cookie world is your oyster.
• When these come out of the oven, they will look waaaaay underdone, but don't fret, as long as the edges have started to brown, you're fine, just leave them to firm up a bit on the baking tray...this way they'll end up a bendy cookie rather than a hard biscuit.

Makes 12-14

You will need

2xwell greased baking sheet, or cook is batches

125g butter, at room temperature

2 tsp orange zest

220g light brown sugar

200g self raising flour

100g chopped nuts, I used a mixture of types

100g sultanas

2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary

80ml orange juice, from approx. 1 orange

50g dessicated coconut

60g oats

• Preheat the oven to 180°c.
• Beat together the butter, orange zest and brown sugar until you have a smooth paste.
• Stir in the flour, followed by the rest of the ingredients.
• Pull off tablespoonfuls of dough and roll them into a ball. Flatten the balls slightly onto the baking sheets, leaving a good 5cm gap between each cookie.
• Bake for 15 minutes until the middle looks squishy but the edges are bronzed (see note).
• Leave the cookies to firm on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.