So my mother is **** bent to have a family cookie bake-a-thon this Xmas amongst the women of our family. Each branch has to bring two sets of cookies and enough recipes to share and go around. Though our branch of the family IS making some of my grandma's legendary flaky cookies, I was thinking maybe I could do a "not as bad" set of cookies... problem is, I don't have a recipe like that! Anyone got any suggestions??

Go to cookinglight.com and search for "lemon honey cookies"-- they're 86 cals each and delicious-- they're almost like scones. I made them last weekend for the first time and they were a big hit!

I don't have any recipes that I've tried, but here are a few I've found that I might try.

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives...es-recipe.html

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes_me...cookie_recipes

http://www.allhomemadecookies.com/re...ealcookies.htm

Of course you could try and take your favorite cookie recipe and making it healthier by subbing out ingredients. Try looking at some vegan substitution -- they use bananas a lot instead of butter.

This isn't a cookie, but it looks like something I'd like to try making some time:

http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/cook...ter-dream-bars

i used to make vegan cookies from cook books like vegan with a vengance and la dolce vegan. They were delicious, no one could tell the were vegan, and given the lack of egg and butter I think they'd be light options. You might want to check them out!

To me cookies always spell t-r-o-u-b-l-e

If you've got to bake and it seems as if you do, I would make a strict NO BLT (bites, licks, tastes) rule. Chew some gum (helps to eliminate batter winding up in your mouth), keep a glass of water handy and remember that the holi-day, that would be the single, solo day of xmas is still a couple of weeks away. I'd bake those babies, then bag them up TIGHT and freeze them.

For me, and yes we're all different here - one cookie is too many and a dozen are not enough.

To go along with Robin, I made the CL ones (above) for an exchange, and brought all of the cookies that I got from the exchange to work. I even left them in my car overnight to avoid having them in the house, as my cookie philosophy is similar to Robin's.

I'm baking some biscotti this morning. Most of them will go to a neighbour whose Christmas party we're going to tonight. However, I find that they're a good cookie to keep around as you can't really eat a ton of them fast. ie. you really do have to dip them in something to soften them first. I'm weird in that I'll probably eat the leftovers with fruit salad at night.

http://realcdn-recipes.blogspot.com/...-biscotti.html

If you cut them into 48 they run 40-64 calories depending on which version you make. Since most of these are leaving the house today I'm making the chocolate cherry ones.

There are some AMAZING recipes for cookies, biscotti, desserts on the site for the show Cook Yourself Thin(it's on lifetime). I'd recommend trying it out!

I actually plan on indulging while I'm there (at my mom's house) only for that afternoon.... the majority of all the leftover cookies will be given away to the other family members. I can't NOT bring some home, because that's not fair to my grandma and brother who live with me.... but I'm going to stay away from the few we do bring. More than likely, what I usually do is allow myself one or two a night to keep from binging, and within a few days they'll be gone because my grandma has a sweet tooth from ****! (I usually buy her sweets she likes but I don't and that keeps me from touching because I don't have the urge! hehe)

Why is it the holidays have to be SO close to my goal time? I only have 1 month and 2 days to reach my goal date, and I'm still 5lbs away. On a regular month.. I'd say it's completely do-able.... but with the holidays... I'm not so sure. *sigh* Oh well, even if I don't quite hit that 50 by Jan... I'm still darned proud of myself!

I am going to do homemade Gingersnaps. I lessen the sugar, butter, oil in any recipe I make these days. People in my life have come to expect it. LOL.

I had the biscotti cookies in mind too. in fact, jenny craig used to use biscotti as part of their diet regime, what you'd get in your weekly food choice. I like the anise ones.

you might want to go over to the weight watchers forum, years ago I made a bunch of cookies using weight watchers recipes. my nephews scarfed them down. I bet the ladies there might have a couple of recipes on hand.

I was thinking about cookies the other day and looked at the Cooking Light lemon cookies the other day and they look delicious. I have also considered the shortbread lemon cookies. The calorie content sounded reasonable to me but I got to thinking. How many cookies would I eat? The answer was all of them, unless someone else helps me but the rest of my family will be eating more chocolaty things.

Even at 86 calories each, I would consume a large number of calories. At Thanksgiving I let myself have the last 2 cookies from the batch everyone was eating so that I would not eat 10 or 12 cookies. I think that if I have any cookies at all, they will be the last ones of a batch that my whole family is eating.

Macaroons are another choice for a lighter cookie, they are pretty when baked and you can use a low calorie sweetener instead of sugar.

make meringues, egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar. they are low fat and reasonably low calorie. they are always a hit at my house. if you want you can vary the flavour too!

I have made the one on the side of the Fiber One box (it calls for brownie mix) and they were VERY good and lower cal that other cookies. And they're chocolate.

I brought them to a cookie exchange and people ADORED them and asked me for the recipe. It was kinda hilarious.