to the recipe thread above? Please only post if you've actually eaten them and can vouch that they are good! I'm trying to get the dd's to eat healthier "treats" and thought of making these from scratch instead of the crap the grocery stores sell. Oatmeal has so much great protein in it, and I guess even if I had to do the traditional recipe from the box, that for them it wouldn't be too bad. But I'd really like to be able to eat more than 1 or 2 too!

Healthy oatmeal cookie recipe? Isn't that an oxymoron? I've always thought of oatmeal cookies pretty much like carrot cake and pumpkin muffins ... they sound healthy but really aren't. I have a fabulous recipe but unfortunately it's not remotely healthy, though you could try and tweak it with WW flour, egg whites, Splenda etc. Still, I have to believe that homemade is better than store bought any day of the week!

Anyway, I was intrigued by you saying that oatmeal has 'so much great protein in it'. I've always thought of oatmeal as a good carb source but never for protein. Maybe it's the kind I buy? Mine (good old Quaker) only has 5g of protein per serving and it's an incomplete protein ... do you know of a super duper high protein kind? Do share!!

Hi Fran -

Hmm, I'm hesitant to post the recipe for the oatmeal bars I made this weekend. . .*I* thought they were good, but I somehow don't think that a man used to full fat full sugar desserts would find them adequate, y'know?

This is true more & more of what I eat. . .Mel posted somewhere about something that "tastes like muffins - at least as close as I remember to what a muffin tastes like!" and i thought, oh how true! It's a big head game where I convince myself that something isn't really all that different. But then - I remember at a bbq last summer when I had a bowl of full-fat full-sugar ice cream for literally the first time in YEARS - and it wasn't even a good brand, just store brand - and let me tell you, it was DIFFERENT!

No Meg, I'm wrong, that's the same label I'm looking at. I guess in the world of chicken nuggets, mike & ikes, and mac & cheese, it looked like a good way to force feed (trick) more protein to the kiddies.

Regardless of how much protein oatmeal has in it, it sure beats any of those things hands down!

Fran: I love oatmeal raisin cookies.

I don't have a special recipe to share, I just use the recipe on the lid of the Quaker guy. I have a tip though if you are using raisins. (Yeah, I know they are just sugar bombs) Boil the raisins in water first. They get all nice and plump then drain them and add them to your batter. They get nice and big and then release a little moisture into whatever you are baking to keep the cookie or bar soft. Yummmm. It's a trick I learned from a friend's grandmother during a Christmas baking party. Something else I don't do anymore.

Have a good time at your swim meet. I really hope that you have good weather for this. Who knows, maybe the flakes will miss you...

Hi Lydia, I actually don't care much for raisins myself altho dh loves em. We were actually told by the ped. dentist to keep them out of the house because the sugar and sticky factor reaks havoc on my littlest ones teeth. You're right, they are sugar bombs! lol I'm actually going to put chocolate chips in them as a way to trick the dd's into trying them. These are going to just be chunky c/c cookies, right? lol

Mmmm. Chocolate Chips. Works for me.

Oatmeal cookies are healthy? Huh? Since when? Nobody told me.

As far as healthier treats for your dd, how about:

-veggie sticks, carrots, cucumbers, red peppers with a little (lite) salad dressing on the side for dipping or chumus for dipping
-jello sugar free pudding with a squirt of fat free whipped cream and sliced strawberries
-60 calorie fat free yogurt, sprinkled with a little kashi go lean crunch cereal
-part skim mozzerella string cheese
-sliced apple with some peanut butter on the side for dipping
-mixed berries with a squirt of fat free whipped cream
-banana with 1 tsp peanut butter
-100 calorie bag of microwave popcorn.

I have found that my kids have become very adaptable to my new lifestyle. They have a new sense of what a "treat" is. It might take some time, but why not give it a try? Because I really don't think that oatmeal cookies are all that healthy. Though of course, anything in moderation. The moderation part is where I always went wrong unfortunately

RockinRobin: Those are some great suggestions. I also found that when we traveled last summer the protein pancakes were easy to eat in the car too. DS liked his with a thin layer of peanut butter on top. They were filling and a good way to sneak in a little extra protein. It also helped me to avoid all those food traps along the freeway.

How I wish I would have instituted these snacks when my kids were little. They are old now, 19, 17 and 15. I wish they would have grown up with all this healthy food. I blew it. So I'm doing my darndest to try and make up for it now. Although oddly enough when they were very young and all through elementary school I always tried to make sure that THEY had good and healthy food to eat. It was certainly more do as I say, not as I do in our house. Somehow they managed to escape their mother's weight problems. Thank G-d.

And yes, traveling is VERY difficult. Imagine what truck drivers must go through? Yikes.

UPDATE: Made the cookies per the label, no substitutions. Tried one, but it just wasn't my thing. DD the swimmer gobbled them up all week, which was really the goal, to get her to eat that vs wanting ice cream or oreos or doritos. She set all new personal best records in the swim meet this weekend. It was a fast pool, but I also will thank the oatmeal!! lol We have to carb them up somewhat so that they can swim 5-6 sprints in the same amount of hours. She does also eat healthy snacks like you suggested Robin, but I was trying to squeeze out the desire for the junky cookies with a healthier option, but that would still be a cookie. One cannot live on grapes, carrot sticks and yogurt alone! (Especially if one is 7!)

We have this challenge too. When one is 7 one needs a lot of good food. Carbs are essential. Periodically, I make banana bread, half wholewheat chocolate fairy cakes (= cup cakes) and occasionally muffins (not really in my DNA but I'm learning). Also mince pies. And puddings: rice, fruit and nut crumble and sometimes steamed syrup pudding. Horrific, isn't it?

The Boy doesn't eat junk, he just eats a lot of Real Food and he's certainly not stout! I'm a big fan of Real Food!

No kidding. I just have to ask you to bear with me while I post this photo. I want to look like HER when I grown up (HER being my 7 yo). She's definitely doing something right. Nice shoulder and back development and visible hamstrings..... too bad I sink like a rock in the water.

Keep working at it. You'll get there. (And she looks great!)