A Better Bite

Gah!

The Biggest Loser finale is in just a half hour!

I'm so excited.

I've kind of been looking forward to it all day. Does that make me totally lame?

You know what does NOT make me lame?

The fact that today, was one of those days where I just felt like I got it right. Probably because my house was full of friends and family ALL day (from 9-5 ish) and because I ate tasty, though perhaps not nutritious, snacks all day (thanks Cait!).

Speaking of snacks, let me tell you about my cookies. 

So you all probably know that I am not a cookie maker.  

But lately I've been seeing the benefit of baking snacks at home. I especially love muffins.  I feel like I can stuff them full of good-for-me ingredients and they still taste yummy.

So last night, I got a hankering for some oatmeal cookies.  In my head the oatmeal cookies were going to work sort of like the muffins.  A little fudging on the recipe to take out the "bad" stuff and add in some "good" stuff. No big deal. 

Unfortunately, as cookies, they were a bit disappointing. 

However, as a breakfast bite, they were pretty passable.  I served them to two different people and got fan reviews,  so won't give up on it yet.  Perhaps with a little more trial and error, I will perfect a yummy and body-friendly oatmeal cookie, or at least a better breakfast bite. 

If you want to try your hand at making a better oatmeal cookie, I'll catch you up on what I tried and you can keep me up to date on what you try.  Together we can save the world through a better bite.  Or something like that.

Original recipe:

3/4 Cup butter, softened

1 Cup packed brown sugar

1/2 Cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (optional)

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 3/4 Cup all-purpose flour

2 Cups rolled oats

mix, bake (375 for 10 minutes), yahda yahda yahda

What I did:

1 Cup canned pumpkin

1 Cup packed brown sugar

1/4 t baking soda

1 t baking powder

1 t cinnamon

2 eggs

1 t vanilla

1 Cup whole wheat flour

3/4 Cup unbleached all-purpose flour

2 Cups oats

1/3 Cup flax seeds

1/2 Cup raisins

The results: a little dry and not very sweet. I thought the pumpkin flavor would have been stronger, but it was pretty unnoticeable. I think I actually needed a little salt to make all the flavors "wake up." I made half a batch w/o the raisins and flax, and the half with the addition was much better than the half w/o.

I have heard that coconut oil would be a good substitute for the butter and that using a portion of tapioca flour instead of so much whole wheat flour would lighten them up.

So go ahead friends. Give it your best shot and let me know what you come up with. Better yet, bring them over for a chat and let me try them in person! You know I love a good visitor!

I also love the Biggest Loser, so I'm off to start my tivoed episode and cry over how good all the players look.