The Best Damn Lactation Cookies You'll Ever Eat

Now, I am the first person to admit that cooking is not my forte. In fact, the closest my celebrity has ever come to a celebrity chef is being the warm up comic for a television pilot that Paula Dean was a guest on. And just for the record she IS as sweet in person as she is on TV and she loves butter just as much as you think she does- I don't care how much she's changed her diet post diabetes.

But that's neither here nor there. This blog entry is dedicated to the "Milk Mommies",  the ladies who like myself are doing their darndest to keep the milk flowing for their little nursing ones.

I applaud all of you who are part of this club. Breast feeding is SO not the easy task that one might think it is nor does it come as second nature or as naturally as it seems it should. It's hard work made harder when the baby you so wish to nourish doesn't have an abundant milk supply. Some women's boobs runneth over. Others of us must use supplements like Fenugreek, Blessed Thistle, Goat's Rue, etc...but the tastiest thing I've come across thus far is Lactation Cookies- that I swear on my cracked nipples work.

There are several recipes out there, I've take a bit from here and there, but this is my own recipe that has made some of the best batches of cookies me and CJ, my non-lactating husband have ever had. Oh, and these cookies were a hit at "Baby Breastfeeding Bootcamp" so I can vouch for them.

Here is goes...

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of old fashioned oatmeal (NOT instant)
• 2 large eggs 
• 2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 and 1/2 cups of brown sugar
• 1 cup of chocolate chips (I prefer the milk chocolate morsels)
  
• 1 cup of butter (I prefer salted)
• 4 table spoons of water
• 2-4 tablespoons of Brewers Yeast (be generous)
• 2 tablespoons of Flaxseed Meal (I've used plain and the milled Flaxseed from Trader Joe's with blueberries)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda (yes like Arm & Hammers)

IMPORTANT! Do not substitute the brewers yeast… that’s the ingredient which makes them work.

Method:

Preparation time is around 15-20  minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350F.
1) Mix together 2 tablespoons of flaxseed meal and water, set aside for 3-5 minutes.
2) Cream (beat well) butter and brown sugar. Add eggs one at a time, mix well.
3) Stir flaxseed mixture and add with vanilla to the butter mix. Beat until blended.
4) Sift together dry ingredients, except oats and chips.
5) Add to butter mixture. Stir in oats then chips.
6) Scoop or drop onto baking sheet. The dough is a little crumbly, it might be easier if you use a scoop- I just use a spoon- no need to get too  fancy.
Bake for 8-12 minutes, depending on size of cookies. Makes approximately 6 dozen cookies.

*Again, I can only vouch for myself, but this definitely increased my milk supply and it was a delicious treat that was easy to make. A HUGE plus when you're crazy busy with a newborn.

**Where to Get Brewers Yeast
You can get brewers yeast from health food stores, or in the health food isles of supermarkets. It’s a bit cheaper to buy brewers yeast from supermarkets than from health food stores.

***While these cookies most definitely helped my milk supply it was only temporary (the more lasting affect was my ass getting bigger- these suckers are addictive so be careful.) My real saving grace came about 4 months later when I was introduced to doTERRA Essential Oils. I was told to use Basil Oil topically to assist with my milk supply. I was super skeptical as most of us would be, but IT WORKED. I wrote about it here in my other blog entry: It's a Miracle #2: Basil Oil Cured My Breastfeeding Blues.

As Paula Deen and I would say, HAPPY NURSING Y'ALL!!!