“Nutritious” Monsters

      25 Comments on “Nutritious” Monsters

When I was growing up, my mom — bless her — felt it was important that anything and everything we ate should be “nutritious.”

Honestly, by today’s standards, I can say that most of what we ate as kids was “junk.” But in 1970s and ’80s mom-think, ‘nutritious’ was analogous to ‘contains oatmeal’ and ‘has raisins in it’. *laugh*

So since my A-to-Z posts this year are loosely about Health/y/ness, and since posting a recipe has become sort of a tradition during my alphabetical bloggy-ness, I thought I’d share one of the snacks my mom considered to be ‘nutritious’ in my youth. ‘Nutritious’ meaning: contains oatmeal. (Just nevermind about the chocolate!)

To wit:

“NUTRITIOUS” MONSTER COOKIES

(for feeding hungry cookie monsters)

monster cookies

Ingredients:

1/4 pound butter or margarine (1 stick)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup M&M candies
1 tsp corn syrup (I omit this; I don’t understand its point)
4 1/4 cups oatmeal

(These ingredients are actually 1/4 of the original recipe, which was designed to cookie-fy an entire day care and would yield over 150 cookies. So if you need a large batch cookie recipe, feel free to double, triple, or quadruple. It will still come out fine. 🙂 )

 

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Cream together butter with sugars.
  2. Beat in eggs.
  3. Stir in salt, soda, and peanut butter until batter is consistent throughout.
  4. Add in oatmeal, one cup at a time.
  5. Stir in chocolate chips and M&Ms.
  6. Spoon onto ungreased cookie sheets — I use a table spoon; if they are too big they won’t bake well. This is a fairly small cookie.
  7. Bake at 350 degrees (Fahrenheit) for approximately 8 minutes. But WATCH THEM. The bottoms will burn easily, and they’re ready to take out of the oven before they look ‘done’. It’s better to have them too soft than too hard. (And how often do we say that around here?!)
  8. Allow to cool fully before eating.

One nice thing about these cookies is that you can add or subtract things to your heart’s content. I’ve made them with coconut as an added binder when I didn’t have quite enough oatmeal on hand; my mother has made them with raisins (of course!); I’ve seen similar monster cookie recipes (this one, recently — and her site is worth a look if you like easy fixins) that call for peanuts. Being flourless, my monster cookie recipe is easily made to be gluten-free. And for those who have peanut allergies, cashew butter can be substituted without any measurement alterations.

My mom still thinks if a treat has oatmeal or raisins in it, it’s “nutritious.”

I don’t necessarily agree, but at least this recipe sort of meets that criteria. Because, peanut butter (protein) and oatmeal (fiber). *laugh*

So: “nutritious” monster cookies for healthy cookie monsters! 😀

Did you grow up with skewed concepts of “nutrition”?

Are you a cookie monster?

April A-to-Z Blogging Challenge: Letters MN

25 thoughts on ““Nutritious” Monsters”

  2. Olivia

    That’s so funny – I think I was “that” mom. I can remember buying a family meal of chicken from KFC and feeling very virtuous about it because it included fried chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, and biscuits. Fried chicken and biscuits – that’s perfect, isn’t it? But those cookies look amazing.

    Reply ↓
  3. Linda Curry

    I just made some mini muffins with sultanas and oatmeal Ha Ha. They taste so good with my coffee I’m having two. Once my order for whole meal flour arrives I’ll really be healthy. Planning to make a sour dough starter today. Hurray for carbs!

    Reply ↓
    1. Mrs Fever Post author

      Oh, I love my carbs! Especially when they’re home-baked. 🙂 I know you’re supposed to limit them, etc., blah blah blah… But I don’t care! *laugh*

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  4. Dok Urtybitz

    The corn syrup will add sugar which makes the cookie softer and moister (sugar attracts water in baked goods). The soft (chewy) cookies you find commercially made (I’m thinking soft chip ahoys) to be ‘soft’ will generally have more corn syrup in them for this purpose.

    Reply ↓
    1. Mrs Fever Post author

      That makes sense. These are already soft and chewy though because of the peanut butter, and I’m fairly anti-corn-syrup, so I just leave it out. 🙂

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  5. collaredmichael

    I’d leave out the corn syrup too. lol. I’d make your healthy cookies but then I’d have to eat them. And I’m in the process of getting smaller. I’m down 17 pounds since mid January.

    Reply ↓
    1. Mrs Fever Post author

      They’re actually pretty “good” in ways that matter, even though I joke about the “nutritious” bit.

      And they are very tasty! 🙂

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  8. Tom Allen

    But in 1970s and ’80s mom-think, ‘nutritious’ was analogous to ‘contains oatmeal’ and ‘has raisins in it’.

    Are you saying that my whole grain raisin oatmeal cookies are not health food?

    Reply ↓
    1. Mrs Fever Post author

      Right? I’m not so certain I buy into today’s ideas of nutrition anyway — I read a brownie recipe recently that called for avocados. Uhmmm… No thanks? *laugh*

      Reply ↓
  12. Tasha Duncan-Drake

    In the 80s it was all about the fat – low fat this, low fat that. My PT tells me never eat the low fat stuff, just have less of the one with fat in it, it’s better for me. I love cookies, but I am trying to cut right down on the processed sugar I eat (I was eating far too much crap), so am trying to go for alternatives. 150 cookies – at one time – OMG – I think the most I’ve made at the same time is about 30.
    Tasha 💖
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    Reply ↓
    1. Mrs Fever Post author

      I feel like “fat-free” was a big buzz word in the early ’90s. I remember when I was in college, people were like, “There’s no fat in these licorice sticks, so that makes them diet food!” *laugh*

      I like sugar, but not over much. Carbs, though… Pizza is my love language! 🙂

      Reply ↓
  13. selkiem

    tried these – but had lousy luck! They SPREADDDDD and were flat as hell – something I did but not sure what – but it IS me – I’ve had that issue before!

    Reply ↓
    1. Mrs Fever Post author

      Oh no!

      Here is my modified recipe, which may or may not work for you — but it’s what works for me:

      1 stick butter at room temp
      1 cup brown sugar
      1 cup white sugar
      Cream those ingredients^
      Then add…
      2 eggs
      2tsp baking powder
      Mix well^
      3 ice cream scoops peanut butter
      Mix until evenly textured^
      4 cups oatmeal
      Drizzle 2 Tbsp honey
      Mix again, will be slightly sticky^
      2/3 cup M&Ms
      1 cup choc chips
      1 cup raisins

      By the time all the ingredients are in, they will be like little balls when you spoon them on to the cookie sheet.

      Bake at 325°F for 7 minutes.

      Reply ↓

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