Flu season is here, but I have a solution to shove the aches and pains out the door. Flu fighter cookies, packed with healthy oats, ginger, lemon, and antioxidants.
It’s that time of year where if you don’t have the sniffles, someone you know does – and you’re avoiding them like the plague. Each of us has a little secret up our sleeve, on standby for if we ever do come down with a cold to make us feel better and get back up and running.
I ripped out an article in Rachael Ray Magazine (November 2011) talking about our symptom ‘crushers’ and asking “The Doctors” (a show I had never heard about before) whether or not they work.
The first one was sleeping on onions. Ew. And you guessed it, no. Sleeping on onions won’t cure anyone of anything. Then someone asked about Vicks VaporRub on your feet, and once again the doctor shot it down. I hadn’t heard of either of these personally. Isn’t VaporRub for your chest? The quote does go to say that it can cause irritation in small children, so keep that in mind if you are a parent.
Neti Pots, chicken soup, and echinacea are also discussed, along with my favorite cold and flu fighting tool (along with a proven effective general stubbornness to admit I’m ill) hot tea.
Tea and honey. I swear by it. Whether it just be because the moment I get a sniffle I stop drinking crap (Pepsi max) and start downing natural tea and honey, thus getting some goodness in me or if there really is some illness curing flu fighting benefit to the hot drink, it doesn’t really matter. It just works.
These cookies aren’t really going to ward off any cold or flu, but packed with the healthiness that they are, it certainly can’t hurt to munch on a few if you aren’t feeling 100%.
Flu-Fighter Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 teas baking powder
- 3/4 teas baking soda
- 3/4 teas ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teas freshly grated nutmeg
- Pinch of ground cloves
- 1/4 teas salt
- 1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1/4 cup low-fat plain Greek yogurt
- 1 tbs freshly grated ginger
- 2 teas finely grated lemon zest about 1 lemon
- 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
- 1 1/4 cups golden raisins
- 1 1/4 cups dried cranberries
- 1 1/4 cups roughly chopped walnuts toasted
Instructions
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Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt in a medium bowl.
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Beat the butter and brown sugar in a large bowl with a mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Add the molasses, yogurt, ginger and lemon zest and beat until smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the flour mixture to make a sticky batter (do not overmix). Fold in the oats and half of the raisins, cranberries and walnuts. Mix the remaining dried fruit and nuts in a small bowl and set aside.
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Drop heaping tablespoonfuls of batter onto the prepared baking sheets. Top each with some of the reserved dried-fruit-and-nut mixture and chill for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
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Bake the cookies until dark golden but still soft, 10 to 12 minutes; cool on a rack. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
Recipe Notes
Food Network Magazine October 2009
Do you have family remedy, long time trick or anything that you have to have to make you feel better when you start to get a little under the weather?
Go and check out all of the other holiday goodies being shared in this weeks 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies link up!
Glorious! I am dead-sick right now, maybe I should put on my baker’s hat 🙂
LOL Sleeping on onions! Eww. I like y inions in my belly- not in my hair thank you very much. These cookies are so healthy that I might actually justify eating 2. or 3? That’s pushing it probably.
Umm- can you tell that I haven’t had my coffee yet? It’s like I am in second grade. Go right ahead and see if you can decode my previous comment. 😉
I’ve heard of these before, but now I totally want to try them – they look gorgeous!
Hey – if this will help me fight a cold – I am so ready to have my share.
Ha, love the name! They sound delicious.
Well darn! I thought you had this awesome flu prevention cookie and was so excited that it would be an easy and tasty solution. Much better than a shot (which doesn’t work anyway)!
I hate tea. Can you believe it? I don’t like any part of it; hot or cold. When I feel the beginning tickles of a sore throat coming on (which is how all my colds start), I take a swig of vodka or some other hard liquor. I can’t stand the taste, but I figure if we use alcohol to kill germs topically, maybe it can have some effect internally as well.
Whatever the case, you use golden raisins (my favorite) so these are on my to-make list. Thanks so much for the recipe!
I have a friend with a cold and fever – she deserves these cookies. Thanks.
These cookies are a great idea. I have had a few sniffles the last couple of days. Definitely enough to warrant a batch of these!
I’ll take two of these and a glass of Emergen-C, then I’ll call you in the morning and let you know. I’ve been fighting one that doesn’t want
I totally suck when I get sick because I don’t change anything. I just keep doing what I’m doing which means, of course, that I’m sick for a month at a time. Next time I’m sick I’m making these though. Like you said, can’t hurt!
I just drink a lot of fluids and sleep more. But maybe I will add these cookies to the list!
What a wonderful way to celebrate cold and flu season! M family (myself included) has been sick for over a month – passing it back and forth (ugh!). I’ve been having to stick to baking and detailed recipes, because I still can’t entirely taste anything properly. It’s getting better though, now and these cookies, i’m sure will help me get through the last few days of sniffles and coughing. Thanks for a great recipe!
Forget theraflu! Dr. Kita says I can have cookies!! YAHOO!!
Those look amazing, but I wouldn’t wait until I have the flu – I can’t taste anything when I get all stopped up! Better to make them when I can enjoy every last bite…
I need these to kick this cold outa me pronto!
When I was a kid my dad would give me the tea and honey but he also added some whisky, looking back I’m not sure if he done this to put me to sleep and he could kick back or if he was unwittingly trying to turn me off from the Scotch when I was all grown up. I think it was the latter because I really can’t stand the stuff…my god thankfully he didn’t do it with wine!!!!
Take care..
These look SO GORGEOUS!!!! I love your photos Kita, they are so pretty!
These look amazing! And I love the idea of eating cookies to ward off a cold! 🙂
Sleeping on onions? Wtf. I would much rather chomp on these bad boys… even if they end up being equally ineffective 🙂 Either way they look delish and you can’t go wrong with some of those ingredients!
These look lovely! I am feeling in need of a good healthy cookie right now!!
You gotta love a cookie that cures sickness! I better eat lots of cookies to make sure I don’t get sick 😉 Better than sleeping on onions!
I swear by tea and honey too! It works great for those deep chest coughs.. And I bet tea and honey would be great with these cookies! 🙂
Oooh, delicious! I’d much rather take two of those and call you in the morning!
I always try to drink a lot of tea when I’m sick too, along with homemade chicken soup. I might have to add these to the rotation too though!
I hate flu and having two kids is more common to have it at home. But some days ago I was with that terrible ill, thanks God only me and not all my family, anyway, I feel better now…and I need you cookies…do you have an international delivery?
Your cookies are GORGEOUS! I just like cookies, but some of these with hot tea when I am sick would be perfect. We swear by oregano drops (they have them in capsule form) when we feel a sickness coming on and it has cut down illness in my house nearly 75%. (rough estimate) Honey and cinnamon on a spoon seem to help when combined with red tea, honey and lemon. 🙂
I’ve never heard of vinegar soaked socks but I’ve heard of Vicks on the bottom of feet for a cough in children. I really LOVE these gorgeous cookies. I could use a dozen here this week. :)xx
The cookies look great. I would totally use it for breakfast.
I have to make these!! I love how they look very genuine! I’ll link back when I make these 🙂
Hot dang Kiti! I love that second photo! Those cookies sound like they could cure a great many things and maybe cause world peace at the same time.
Hot dang Kita! I love that second photo! Those cookies sound like they could cure a great many things and maybe cause world peace at the same time.
Very timely, I’m under the weather today. Really miserable. But I’m the cook! Who’s going to bake cookies?
Some of those remedies sound like traditional German remedies. I’m surprised I ever survived childhood. The theory behind German folk remedies seems to be that your body knows what it is doing, so just help it along. Whatever symptoms afflict you, there’s a means to increase your misery.