Almost Sugar Free Cookie Bars!

I don't bake very often, it's just not something that I really enjoy that much and I always make a big mess when I do attempt to bake. But, in an effort to find granola bars and cookies and other such sweets that don't have tons of unpronounceable ingredients in them I am trying to do my best to come up with some sort of healthy alternatives to store bought.

Vons had the mega huge canisters of oatmeal on the buy one get one free sale last weekend, so we now have two mega huge canisters in the cupboard. I had tried a recipe for granola bars that came out tasting good but kind of crumbly and was planning to add a little more honey to the recipe to see if they'd come out a little better. I was sidetracked by the recipe for oatmeal cookies on the lid of the canister first, though, and last night made a mess and made the cookies, substituting splenda for the sugar, and adding some chocolate chips instead of the raisins. Since I didn't have any raisins. I got everything all ready, softening the butter and opening the huge canister of oatmeal, and then went to get the flour, and of course we had no flour, so I had to make a trip to the store for the flour. I suppose I could have gotten the raisins, too, but really like chocolate chips better than raisins anyway.



Because I am so lazy I opted to make the bar cookies instead of the drop cookies-way easier and none of that baking a batch, cooling a batch, putting another batch on the cookie sheet, ending up spending hours making cookies crap for me. Stick it all in one pan and shove it in the oven!

They came out good, and the house smelled deliciously cinnamony (very unusual, usually it smells a little like cat poo). And, since they are made with oatmeal, you get that lowering your cholesterol thing (at least I think it works if you eat your oatmeal in cookie form) and also the fiber in the oatmeal helps in many other ways-wink wink (helps you go poo!)

I'm eating one right now. Yum.