Snack Attack!

My kids are snackers.  When we have "good" snacks in the house, they have been known to go through several boxes in one day.  Their definition of "good snacks" equals primarily name brand snacks (I buy a lot of store brand items!), cookies, especially Oreos and potato chips.  We do buy in bulk, but often end up throwing out that ginormous bag of veggie straws half way through because it has gone stale and the kids are sick of them.  I have also bough the individual bags of snacks, but really do feel like you end up paying more for the packaging.  We do keep plenty of healthy snacks on hand too.  These are always at easy to reach spots for them: goldfish, cheerios, carrot sticks, apple slices, etc.  We recently purchased a hot air popcorn popper.  Did you know that one cup of freshly popped popcorn (when using this type of machine) only has 20 calories per cup?!  We use the popper several times a week and the kids are having fun experimenting with toppings.   The other morning I was so happy to see one of my twins get a plastic cup out, then go to the fridge and fill it with baby carrots.  He did this all by himself, too!  (I was watching from around the corner!)  Independence and smart choices!

On Friday afternoon the twins and I made homemade oatmeal raisin cookies.  I was trying to accomplish a few things:
-surprise our big kids when they got off the bus with baked goods
-have something somewhat healthy for a snack
-come up with a breakfast cookie recipe that my oldest could have on mornings when we are running late for the bus

I found a recipe on the back of the Old Wessex Ltd. Irish-Style Oatmeal carton and adapted it.  This is what I made on Friday.  It was very easy and the twins were able to do most of the work! (with assistance of course!) 

Ingredients:
3 cups uncooked Irish Oatmeal
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup agave nectar
3/4 cup softened butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1/2 cup raisins

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.  Combine dry ingredients in one bowl, set aside.  Mix agave nectar, vanilla and butter until smooth.  Add egg.  Blend dry & wet ingredients.  Once mixed add in raisins.  Place on greased cookie sheet, bake for 10 minutes.  Makes approximately 4 dozen cookies.

The cookies were okay.  They were very dense.  My taste test group was split - I had 6 kids try them.  My four, plus two neighborhood kids.  Half the group thought they were not sweet enough/crunchy enough.  The other half said they were fine.  Not great.  When I make these again, I am going to try adding in the following ingredients:  dried cranberries, Cinnamon, replacing the agave nectar with honey and replacing the flour with whole wheat flour and reducing to 3/4 cup.  You could also add in nuts.  We are nut free since we have a "peanut allergy kid".

I would love to hear from you!  Please share what works in your house for snacks.  How do you keep the kids happy without spending a fortune!  Also, if you have any easy "healthy" cookie recipes you would like to share, we would love to see them!

Thanks & enjoy the rest of your weekend!