Cut It Out!

While sprinkling pieces of chocolate into my yogurt this morning, I realized that it was time for an intervention.

Though my daily diet is quite healthy, sugar is the one thing that I have never really been able to control. It's not so much an inability to control my sugar consumption that I've been suffering from, but an inability to acknowledge it as a problem. Sugar makes me happy. Aren't things that make you happy generally good for you? Okay, I take that back. Sometimes things that are blatantly wrong sound right in your head until you verbalize them.

So intervention it is, huh? Do it with me...I think I've actually found a way to make it relatively painless. I'm starting with cookies ;)

I know what you're thinking, but my strategy entails pursuing a goal in moderation. Sugar has snuck its way into the cookie recipe below, but it comes in the form of natural sugar. Yes, honey, orange juice, and even peanut butter do contain sugar, but these ingredients also contain vitamins and minerals that table sugar, or sucrose simply does not. Also, since honey is inherently sweeter than sucrose, we don't have to use as much.

The lesson at hand - sometimes you can feel good about eating cookies, as long as they are the sum of their healthy parts (and as long as they taste good of course).

Peanut Butter & Jelly Thumbprints
(yield: 16 cookies)

3 tbsp margerine, melted
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup chunky peanut butter
1 cup All-Purpose flour
1 cup oats (quick-cooking)
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2 tbsp sugar-free strawberry jelly


Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a large sheetpan with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, combine first 4 ingredients, until a smooth mixture forms.

Mix together flour, oats, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Add the dry mixture into the wet mixture in 3 increments, mixing just until combined. Roll heaping tablespoonfuls of the dough into balls, and place onto prepared pan, spacing the cookies about 2 inches apart.

Using the back of a wooden spoon, make holes in the center of each cookie, making sure not to pierce through the bottom. Fill each hole with 1/4 tsp of jelly, reserving whatever remains of the jelly for later. Bake 14-16 minutes. Once cool, spoon a little more jelly into the hole of each cookie.