Cashew oatmeal cookies and a story from the past that could be happening to someone right now

As I was baking these cookies the other day, I recalled a time in my life when I was entering my teenage years and used to flip over my older cousins’ magazines – they used to read a mag called Capricho, a Brazilian version of Seventeen. I remember reading something about a Brazilian model called Ana Paula Arósio and the 70+ magazine covers she’d been on till then – she was only fifteen. She was stunning and looked like a grown up, and she was only two years older than me.

One of the questions the reporter asked her was how she managed to stay “in shape”, to what she replied that she ate lots of fruits and vegetables (surprise!), and things like banana with oats and honey, because they were so good for you. My thirteen-year-old brain captured that information instantly, only to feel disappointed seconds later for I, too, ate lots of fruits and vegetables, and I, too, loved bananas with oats and honey, but I did not look like Ana Paula Arósio. At all. I was a thin girl, but not skinny, and I was short and my face and arms were covered in freckles (still are, actually). I did not have any fashionable clothes and my hair was pretty much in a ponytail most of the time. I did not wear lipstick or fake eyelashes – I did not even have boobs, for crying out loud. But I did not know back then everything there is behind a magazine cover, I just thought that there was something very wrong about me because even though I ate (and loved) my greens I did not look like a model. :(

All that crossed my mind while I baked these cookies because oats are, indeed, good for you, even though for a moment in my teen years I doubted that. They are wonderful with bananas and honey (and a pinch of cinnamon, yum), great in granolas and cookies.
Fruits and vegetables are excellent for you, too, and they taste delicious, which is always a plus. So let’s keep eating our greens and our grains to stay healthy and try to stay positive and shield ourselves from all the crap the media throws our way every single day.

Cashew oatmeal cookies
slightly adapted from the always gorgeous Delicious Australia

¾ cup (110g) plain flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
125g unsalted butter, room temperature
¾ cup (150g) demerara sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
110g rolled oats
150g salted cashew nuts, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Line two large baking sheets with baking paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and creamy. Beat in the vanilla, then the egg, and mix to combine. Scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally. On low speed, beat in the flour mixture and the oats, just until combined, then add the cashew nuts.
Place 2 leveled tablespoons of dough per cookie onto the prepared sheets, 5cm (2in) apart. Flatten slightly. Bake until golden around the edges, 13-15. Cool in the pan for 2 minutes, then slide the paper with the cookies onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Makes about 22