Eggless Whole wheat Almond Meal Cookies

School reopens tomorrow! The almost 6 year old will be transitioning from Kindergarten to 1st Grade which means he will gone for almost 8 hours!  Which is a first! He seems ready, but his Ma definitely is not! I have mopped around a little, whined to the husband a little (and got royally teased by him - totally uncool!) and then made a list of lunches and snacks to send to school! I prefer sending lunch and snacks from home but he will definitely get to buy lunch at the cafeteria a couple of times a month with his buddies!

Tomorrow it is going to be a cold pasta, baby carrots and these Baked Chicken Nuggets for lunch.

For snacks: (his teacher asked the parents to send in two snacks)

#1. One Whole Wheat Almond Meal cookies & a String Cheese (for the early morning snack)
#2. Grapes & Cereal Bar for later

Ingredients: (Yield - 10 large-ish or 20 smaller ones)

• Whole wheat flour - 1 Cup
• Almond meal - 1/2 Cup (see below)
• Granulated Sugar - 1/3 Cup
• Butter - 1/2 Cup or 1 stick (at room temperature, unsalted)
• Green Cardamom Powder - 1/4 tsp
• Salt - a fat pinch
• Milk - 2 tbsp (for kneading, I used almond milk)
• Almonds for garnish (optional)

To make the Almond Meal at home, you have to pulse whole almonds in your food processor till it starts resembling whole wheat flour. Do not over-grind it. For 1 Cup of Almond Meal, you will need about 1/4 pound of whole almonds. Sift the almond meal just to make sure that there are no bigger chunks.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a bowl, whisk together whole wheat flour, almond meal, green cardamom powder, salt and sugar. Add the softened butter and knead till you get a smooth dough. Pinch out equal sized balls from the dough. Shape them by rolling between your palms and then flattening them gently.
I flattened them using the back of my turner and then used a flower shaped cookie cutter to give it a little pizzazz.
Garnish with whole or finely chopped almond. Transfer to parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes at 350 F or till the edges start turning golden brown. Baking time will vary, so keep an eye after the 10 minutes mark.

Once baked, transfer the cookies to a wire rack using a spatula/turner. On cooling, store them in an airtight container. These will stay fresh for 4 days.