Care Package #14 - Don't try this at home...

This whole "healthy snacks" thing is proving harder than I expected. See, I grew up with a mom who used margarine in everything and lots of refined, white sugar for any type of treat. I also grew up with a mom who showed her love by feeding her family, feeding us a lot. Seriously. When I was planning on coming home for a visit she would start asking me about meals weeks before my arrival, even though she had two fully stocked fridges and a huge, bursting-at-the-seams pantry.

I personally struggled (who am I kidding, I still struggle) with reconciling healthy lifestyle habits like eating whole foods with a heart-deep desire for rich and sweet comfort food. This struggle is at the center of my care packages to Brian. I really want to send healthy things because I believe that being healthy is really important. Oh, right, and he asked for healthy things and I would like to honor that request. But I also have this very deep-rooted instinct that showing love requires chocolate and sugar, which feed the soul in a way that oatmeal and bran just can't.

So last week I tried a recipe that my co-worker passed along for Oatmeal, Walnut and Dried Plum Cookies. It's from Alicia Silverstone's cookbook for The Kind Diet. I'll admit, I did a few substitutions (below is what I actually did as opposed to the original recipe here). The result was, well, it was kinda sad. The cookie dough was oily and hard to handle and the baked product was crumbly and had an almost cornmeal-like texture. I couldn't even bring myself to take a picture of it. Brian said it was good, but supposedly anything tastes good compared to Army food, so that's not saying much. I think I may eventually try it again but actually stick to the recipe and see if that makes a difference. In the meantime, this is not something I would recommend.

Ingredients
• 1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
• 3/4 cup unbleached brown rice flour
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/2 cup safflower oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon molasses
• 1/4 cup chopped dried apricots and cranberries(or other dried fruit)
• 1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips (I thought this would help, but it didn't...)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Combine the oats, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the syrup, oil, vanilla extract, and molasses. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir to combine. Fold in the dried plums and nuts. Using your hands, roll tablespoon-size scoops of dough into balls. Place the balls onto the prepared baking sheet and press down slightly on the balls to flatten the tops. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Transfer cookies to a baking rack to cool completely.