I am super excited to introduce today’s guest poster, Kelsey. Kelsey is a friend from Iowa, who I personally think makes some crazy awesome recipes {several of them being “healthy sweets”}. Plus, she’s a dog lover and understands my blight of battling with doggy bed hogs.  
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My husband’s mouth has a radar that instantly detects a healthified snack. If I replace oil with applesauce, he knows. If I trade all purpose flour for whole wheat, he knows. If I reduce the sugar, the man definitely knows.

Until last week, when I made magically healthy oatmeal raisin cookies. Why are they magical? Because he didn’t know.

My husband had to make a late run into work, and my assignment was to concoct a filling, yummy, but fairly healthy bedtime snack. I started with a trusted recipe from Smitten Kitchen. She confesses that she actually reduced the sugar when she made the recipe. I reduced it a little more. (And to tell you the truth, when I make them again, I’ll probably reduce it just a little bit more.) Add in whole wheat flour and flaxseed meal, and I had a fairly healthy but sweet-tooth satisfying bedtime snack.

After we had eaten a few I asked, “Are they sweet enough?” My husband gave me a “What did you do to these?” look, but responded, “Yeah, they taste great!”

The next day, after work, I even got a completely unsolicited, “Man, those cookies are good!” It was music to my ears.

I recommend eating these with a glass of milk while snuggling and watching Cheers on Netflix. They just might taste better that way.

Magically Healthy(er) Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) butter, softened
1/3-1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 egg or 1/4 cup egg whites
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup flax seed meal
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt (reduce to 1/4 if you like less salt)
1 1/4 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)


Instructions:


Preheat the oven to 350*F.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together. Stir this into the butter/sugar mixture. Stir in the oats, raisins and walnuts, if using them.
Scoop the cookies onto the cookie sheet or plate and put in the freezer for 15 minutes. You can skip this step, but it might affect the texture or spreading of your cookies.

Bake the cookies about 2 inches on a parchment or silpat-lined baking sheet for 10-12 minutes. (Mine took 12. They are done when you see golden brown along the bottom, even if they don’t look all the way done on the top.) Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool. Makes about 30 cookies with a 2 teaspoon scoop.

Visit Lisa at Blessed with Grace for more Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.

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Kelsey is a wife, teacher, Christ follower, and lover of all things baked. When she’s not at school or in the kitchen, she loves reading, snuggling with her puppies, and photography, which she posts at rocketsteady photoblog. She blogs at Mrs. Dexter about her pursuit of debt freedom and ethical eating.