Healthy Cookies?

One of my less favorite parts of back to school is back to school lunches. I always wonder what parts of the lunch my kids actually eat and what parts they are throwing away; I think they eat the cookies.

Actually, I'm pretty sure they eat the cookies.

So instead of sending them with chips ahoy and nutter butters, which we love but know are full of nasty chemicals and whatnot, I decided to try to make a healthier cookie.

They came out so good I thought I'd share. These are actually tips I got from my cousin Lori who is a favorite vendor at the San Francisco Underground market for her delicious and ubber healthy energy bars and cookies. Click here for her website.

Okay, so here's what I did, using my regular chocolate chip cookie recipe as a guide:

1. Substituted 1/2 of the four with whole wheat flour. Lori said whole wheat pastry flour from Whole Foods is the best, but I just used what I had.

2. Substituted 1/2 the butter with Smart Balance.

3. Substituted 1/2 the white sugar with Xylosweet.

And that's it. I just mixed these up and the kids all ate their dough samples without noticing any difference. If all goes well I'll increase the "healthy" substitutions. I also followed a recipe that has oatmeal in it.

And yes, I do realize the better parenting option would be to teach my kiddos that they don't actually need a cookie in their lunches, but I like to lead by example and I'm not ready to go there!