(Recipe adapted from The Gracious Pantry)

My mom is really into sending me recipes on Pinterest lately, which is a great way for us to share our love of healthy cooking from across state lines. She’s always been an adventurous eater and I’ve followed suit, hearing myself reuse her catch phrases in my adult years of, “You don’t know you don’t like it until you try it,” and “If you can follow directions, you can cook.” My mom is the queen of no excuses.

I try to recreate at least one of the recipes she sends me weekly. This week my sweet tooth was having a total heart attack, so I decided to indulge it with a clean eating treat. Meringues!

Ingredients:

• 6 egg whites
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 TBS vanilla extract

Directions

Separate 6 egg whites and mix with a hand mixer until the mixture has “stiff peaks.” “What’s a stiff peak?” you may ask. That just means that the egg whites are still enough and whipped up enough to stand in a little peak. When you get to that point, add the maple syrup and vanilla extract little-by-little.

Put the mixture into a pastry bag – or a plastic baggy and cut off a corner. Pipe the mixture onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Fill up your cookie sheet or sheets.

Put into the oven for 30-45 minutes. When your meringues are done, they’ll have a light-brown color and won’t have any moisture on the inside or outside of the cookies. Leave on the parchment paper until they’ve cooled!

I swear this is easy – it just has a few elements that might feel intimidating – but I swear, like my mom says, “If you can follow directions,” you can make meringue cookies.