Cravings

There's no chocolate in the house. No crackers, no pretzels. Nothing munchy or snacky. I already tried cucumber and baby carrots. They just don't do the trick.

So I decided to make no-bake fudge cookies. Chocolatey with lots of sugar, yes. But they also have protein and fiber in them . . . at least some nutritional value. And they are chewy and textured enough to feed the munchies.

The recipe isn't in my recipe box. Moment of panic. Am I going to have to call Mom to get it yet again? Oh, here it is in a pile of papers on the counter.


Recipe for: No Bake Fudge Cookies
From the Kitchen of: Mom and Grandma

Mix together 2 c. sugar, 3 Tbs. baking cocoa. Add 1/2 c. milk, 1 cube margarine or butter. Bring to boil and boil for 5 minutes. Stir in 1 tsp. vanilla, 1/2 cup peanut butter, 3 cups rolled oats (Old Fashioned are best). Remove from heat and drop by spoonfuls on waxed paper.

So I get out the ingredients. Oh, no! We only have about a half cup of rolled oats, and they're the quick ones at that. A triple-check of the pantry reveals little I can use as a substitute. Here we go: oat bran and cheerios. They're both made out of oats, and maybe the differences in volume and texture will balance each other out.

Half a cup of rolled oats, fill up to 2 cups with the rest of the oat bran. Add a cup of Cheerios. Okay, we're ready to go. Let's use almond butter instead of peanut butter--better nutritional content and less likely to give the baby allergies. I can use lactose-free milk; it shouldn't change the texture too much.

Measure, mix and stir. The sugar, cocoa and vanilla are boiling now. Ooops, I was supposed to wait to put in the vanilla. Oh, well. Hopefully it will still solidify.

It needs to be stirred constantly at this point so it won't scorch. Well, I'll cheat a little and just stir it really frequently.

I'd better put the waxed paper on cookie racks. Last time I found out why my mom always put paper bags underneath: the waxed paper left big round wax spots on the counter where each hot cookie had been poured.

Oh, no! The cookie racks are in the sink waiting to be washed. This stuff is bubbling like crazy with 2 minutes to go. I know from experience that if you cook it too long or wait too long to spoon it onto the waxed paper, it will crumble into something only good for ice-cream topping instead of sticking together to make cookies. Hmm, I wonder how fast I can wash cookie racks in the sink with one hand while stirring the pot on the stove frequently with the other?

Beep! Time to stir in the almond butter and oats--or whatever you call this mixture. Lay the waxed paper on the cookie racks, quick. Doesn't matter that they're sort of damp.

The almond butter is really stiff and chunky at the bottom of the jar. I'm having a hard time getting it to blend in smoothly. I'm probably cooking it too long--better take it off the burner while I get out the wire wisk and try to get rid of the chunks of almond butter.

Something doesn't look right, but maybe it just needs the oats. Dump in the oat stuff. Now I know it doesn't look right: it's not stiff enough. Maybe putting the vanilla in early DID mess it up. Cook it some more.

Spoon some onto the wax paper. It's awfully runny. We're going to be eating it with a spoon. Turn the burner back on. Now the oat bran is getting mushy. I'd better stop cooking it before the Cheerios get mushy too.





Well, here they are. Very flat, and some of them ran together. They're a bit oddly-textured and a little too sweet without the rolled oats, but they did harden. Next time, though, I think I'd use more Cheerios and less oat bran.

What do you want to bet the kids and DH will take one look at them and refuse to eat them? Haha, that will just leave more for me.

[Update: The kids love them. They looked at them doubtfully and asked, "What's in them?" I said, "Chocolate and Cheerios." "Ooh, yummy!!"]

Actually, they're not bad. I've eaten four so far--or was it five?

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.