It is nice to have a treat in your lunchbox from time to time. We find ourselves seeking out treats that are lower in fat or higher in fiber than standard cookies. However, many pre-packaged items are costly, and sometimes we just want to be able to whip up our own healthy snacks. A few tweaks to our favorite recipe and we created a new family favorite, Chocolate Mint Cookies.
We compared the nutrition data of this new family favorite to Kashi’s Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Cookies. All values are rounded to the nearest whole number.
| Chocolate Mint Cookies | Kashi Oatmeal Dark Chocolate | Newman’s Own Double Chocolate Mint Chip |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 162 | 130 | 160 |
| Fat (g) | 4 | 5 | 8 |
| Sodium (mg) | 73 | 65 | 70 |
| Fiber (g) | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| Sugars (g) | 13 | 8 | 11 |
| Protein (g) | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Our cookies compare favorably with these Kashi and Newman’s Own cookies for key nutritional categories like fiber, sodium, sugars, protein and calories. To compare the cost per serving for each of the cookies, we used prices from our hometown Wegman’s store in Ithaca, New York. We priced organic flour and organic eggs, and the remainder of the ingredients were conventional.
- Kashi: $.31 per serving
- Newman’s Own: $.41 per serving
- Our Mint Chocolate Cookies: $.19 per serving
At roughly half the price of pre-packaged cookies, these quick-to-make cookies are a fun activity for the whole family. Make a double batch and freeze them for quite a few lunchbox treats or bring them in for a special party snack if your school allows home baked goods.
Watch our blog for more posts on home-baked healthier treats. This was our first attempt at improving the nutrition of the standard pre-packaged cookie. We were pleasantly surprised at what the addition of wheat bran and whole wheat flour did for our cookies. We also cut the salt in half and didn’t even notice the difference in taste. They kept beautifully for days, and were just as delicious on day three as they were fresh from the oven! Try some yourself and let us know what you think, or try your hand at creating your own healthier recipe to share.
More about Amy and Scott Dawson, creators of Lunchtaker.com: One of our core focuses is on nutrition and fitness. Our children both attended a parent cooperative pre-school where the morning snack was as healthy as possible, and our family liked the opportunities for new foods that arose in pre-school. As our children go through grade school, we are focusing on continuing the trend of ensuring we feed ourselves a variety of foods, all good for our bodies... read more...
Posted Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 12:43 pm and filed under How-To, Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I’m so glad you liked them. We just made another batch yesterday and loved them as much as the first time. Now it is time to experiment and make up some more healthier cookie recipes! If you experiment too, we’d love you to post your recipe to share
This is yummy! My kids enjoyed them too!