Kids love cookies, but cookies are usually full of butter, sugar and all purpose flour. Not wanting my kids to go without cookies, but still wanting them to have healthy, home baked school snacks, I set out to reinvent some of their favorite cookies recipes.

There are two tricks to having healthy home made snacks ready to toss into school lunches on busy mornings:

1. Bake and Freeze Everything!
2. Make a healthy version of something they like.

Here is a healthy version of the Oatmeal Cookie, and yes, chocolate chips make everything taste good!

Healthy Apple Oatmeal Flax Cookies 

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup agave/maple syrup or sugar

1/4 cup apple sauce

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup ground flax

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 cup oats

1 apple peeled and shredded

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix butter, syrup, apple sauce, egg and vanilla extract until smooth. In a separate bowl combine whole wheat flour, flax, baking soda, cinnamon and oats. Add dry ingredients to egg mixture and combine. Add in shredded apple and a handful of chocolate chips. Drop by the spoonful onto a cookie sheet and pat down with the back of a spoon, bake 8-10 minutes.

Cool completely and then freeze!