These little cookies hit the spot if you are looking for something sweet, yet full of protein and nutrition. Peanut butter and oats give the cookies lots of nutrients, taste, and texture, and they are easy to eat as a satisfying snack or dessert. These peanut butter-oatmeal bites are going so quickly around here, next time I make them I’m going to double the recipe!
With my kids’ spring sports schedules starting, I am once again looking for snacks that taste good, can be eaten quickly, and that also have nutrients to give my active kids good energy. I am very happy with this recipe, which I adapted from one in my Dr. Cookie Cookbook by Marvin Wayne and Stephen Yarnall. There’s just enough sweetness from the brown sugar to make the cookies taste like a treat, but enough substance to make them more than just sweet. If you are looking for an easy, protein-rich cookie, this is a great recipe to try.
It is the very last day of March today, and I must say I am really looking forward to April! Although it’s still chilly here, it’s such a great time to be outside, with the fresh wind, green grass, and trees and bushes budding. The spring peepers have been peeping really loudly at night, and I love to sleep with the window cracked open so I can listen to those frogs all night long. There is a feeling of new life and excitement in the air–I can sense it just from watching the birds in the sky.
Yesterday evening, I picked our first herb of the season–chives to chop and put on top of our macaroni and cheese. I had forgotten how convenient and fresh it is to walk outside and snip some herbs to add to our dinner. Soon there will be more and more things growing and blossoming, and more and more recipes to make! In the meantime, these little peanut butter-oatmeal bites are tiding me over very nicely.
I hope you all have a great weekend! I’m going to take a plate of these cookies over to Angie’s Fiesta Friday #113, co-hosted by two bloggers whose blogs I really admire: Sonal @ Simplyvegetarian777 and Laurie @ ten.times.tea.
Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Bites
Ingredients:
- 1 large egg
- 2/3 cup of packed brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup of natural peanut butter, creamy or crunchy
- 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 1 cup of unbleached, all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup of old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a large mixing bowl, vigorously stir the egg, brown sugar, butter, peanut butter, and vanilla until well combined. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, oats, and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to to wet ingredients, and stir until well combined.
Drop the batter by rounded teaspoonfuls onto a baking sheet, about 12 cookies per baking sheet. Bake in your 350-degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until cookies are golden. Cool the cookies on a wire rack. Repeat until all the cookies are baked. Enjoy!
This recipe is adapted from the Dr. Cookie Cookbook by Marvin A. Wayne and Stephen R. Yarnall.
The recipe I use for these muffins is based on one from my well-loved Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, Tenth Edition, that I have had for many years. The only thing I change when I make these, is that I use melted butter instead of cooking oil, because I really like the flavor of butter from grass-fed cows. Frozen blueberries work great, when fresh ones aren’t available. And the lemon zest adds a great blast of flavor, which we really appreciate. If you don’t like lemon, you can certainly leave that part out.
If you live in a northern climate like I do, spring takes her sweet time to truly settle in, and winter does not give up without a few fights. We are in such a situation right now, where it is cold, gray, and wet. The only indication that it really is springtime is that the birds are singing loudly and beautifully, and the crocuses are proudly carrying on, despite the cold rain. And I am really grateful for that! However, during this time of year, I often feel depleted of energy and nutrients. The longing for spring and all that it brings is strong, yet we are not quite there yet.
So to remedy the situation, I have been eating this salad for lunch for the past few days, and it is really helping my energy level and my overall feeling of health. Even if greens are not growing in my own garden yet, they are growing somewhere nearby, and fresh greens are appearing at the grocery store more and more as this month progresses. And mandarin oranges have been on sale at the grocery store lately, so the orange zest salad dressing seemed like a good idea. There are so many nutrients in leafy greens and they are so well known, that I don’t feel the need to list them all. The rest of the salad is from staples I like to keep on hand, and though I sometimes take them for granted, these ingredients are full of really good stuff. Dried apricots are known for their potassium and iron content, walnuts for their omega 3s and vitamin E, and roasted pumpkin seeds for their zinc, manganese, and magnesium. And that’s just mentioning a few of the minerals found in these foods.
For me, it can be easy to get sidetracked and just graze on some pretzels and cheese for lunch, so eating this salad has been a boost to my nutrient intake, which helps my energy level and outlook on life. The recipe below is for two servings–feel free to double it or whatever, depending on how many you are making. And just a note–in my photos, the dried apricots look like bacon! (Not that bacon would be bad in this salad–it would probably taste really good!) They are actually organic dried apricots, so they aren’t the bright orange that some of the dried apricots are when they have preservatives to retain their color.
