Healthy No Bake Cookies

ShaGun's Note:

I played around with my family's No Bake Cookie recipe and produced a single portion of this cookie that I feel is healthy enough to eat as a meal. They’re still very good but are much healthier. I keep getting asked for the recipe, so I finally decided to measure out the exact portions and post the recipe. THIS RECIPE IS VERY FLEXIBLE! When I make them I NEVER measure out anything and I often add more or less of ingredients and they still taste great. I sometimes leave out the wheat germ and flax seeds and just add more oatmeal. I have made these replacing the sugar with about 3 tablespoons of honey. I have changed the recipe from 1 tsp. to 1 Tbsp. of cocoa powder.

• Total Time: 8 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 3 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 12

Yield: 12.0 cookies

• 3 tablespoons skim milk
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/3 cup crunchy peanut butter
• 1/8 cup wheat germ (heaping)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground flax seeds (optional)
• 1 cup quick oatmeal

Directions:

1. Heat milk, sugar and cocoa powder over high heat until boiling, stirring constantly.
2. Take off heat and stir in vanilla and peanut butter; stir until peanut butter has melted completely.
3. Stir in wheat germ and oatmeal.
4. Drop by large spoonfuls onto wax paper or eat immediately.
5. *As I noted above, this recipe is VERY flexible. If you don't have wheat germ or flax seed, just use more oatmeal. The recipe above should work out just perfectly and does most of the time, but if your cookies come out crumbly, use less oatmeal next time. If they never set, use more oatmeal next time.

Reviews

[KM from Boston]

These were great! so quick and easy and flexible. And for those of you with kids with nut allergies I made this with sunflower seed butter and they are yummy! Also - I didn't have quick cooking oats so I used "old fashioned" and they still were good! (didn't use wheat germ b/c we didn't have any but did use flaxseed meal). Easier and probably more nutritious than homemade granola bars!

[perennialtiles]

I just whipped these out in five minutes, and I can tell they are going to become one of my favorites to make and eat. I used creamy all-natural peanut butter, and skipped the flax. I didn't measure anything and they've come out perfect. Thanks for the recipe!

[SAHS]

Made as written and was extremely disappointed. You can really taste the bitterness of the cocoa powder and I probably would have liked the original that only had a teaspoon of it. Will not bother trying again.