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This is another strange recipe, folks. I warn you, it may not be exactly what you’re expecting when you hear the word “cookie.” Let me explain. These cookies, while cookies in shape, are not your average cookie in taste. They taste a lot like chocolate overnight oatmeal. Basically, these cookies are great for breakfast or snacks on the go. They’re chocolate overnight oatmeal in portable form. If you’re scared away-fine. I just wanted to be up front so you’re not expecting a chewy tender dessert-like cookie and end up with baked oatmeal.
What you will get with these cookies is a) a way to use up leftover oatmeal (yeah, it’s another one of those recipes, guys. Told you I was frugal. This Peach Cobbler is another recipe using leftover oatmeal.), b) a non-messy breakfast or snack for on the run, and c) something that you may actually learn to enjoy for dessert as well. I did. But I’m not everyone. In fact, I’m rather different from everyone. Which is why I almost didn’t post this recipe, because I don’t know if the masses will enjoy it. But I liked it, and it made me feel good about myself because I used up that leftover oatmeal that would’ve gotten thrown out otherwise.
So give it a try if you like. If you don’t like them and the idea of oatmeal cookies in a very literal sense weirds you out, well, you probably would’ve tossed the oatmeal anyway.
You can snag my official pin for this recipe here.
- 3 cups leftover oatmeal (cooked according to package directions and already salted), room temperature (thawed if frozen) - use gluten free oats if necessary
- ⅓ tsp. salt
- 1 T olive oil
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 2 tsp. imitation vanilla flavoring
- ½ cup egg whites (the carton kind works great)
- ½ cup low-fat sour cream, low-fat Greek yogurt, unsweetened applesauce, or a mixture of any of those
- ½ cup unsweetened almond milk
- Low-glycemic sweetener to taste (I used ¼ tsp. THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder, but next time I would probably use a few doonks less of that and add a few teaspoons of Truvia to make up the difference because I think a blend of sweeteners would taste best in these cookies)
- Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until relatively smooth, but still with some texture. Scoop onto a greased cookie sheet according to desired size (I used an ⅛ cup measuring cup for medium-sized cookies) and bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. They need to be pretty dried out, but they will set up more once they are refrigerated, like your leftover oatmeal does after it sits in the pot for awhile. Let cool on a wire rack and store in the refrigerator. I recommend eating these cookies cold, or at least room temperature, because they're kind of mushy when they're warm (they're made of oatmeal, duh).
- My batch made 30 cookies, and technically you could eat ⅓ of the batch or 10 cookies and stay within the fat and carb limit for a THM E meal. 10 cookies is quite a lot, though, even for me. Since oats have some protein of their own, plus you're adding egg whites, these cookies can be breakfast or a snack on their own. If eating them for breakfast, or if you plain just have a big appetite, I recommend adding some more lean protein along with them to hold you over till your next meal.
Suggested products:
- Hershey Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- Truvia
- THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder can be purchased from the Trim Healthy Mama online store.
Hey, Briana, I made this recipe today. The batter was so runny that I could not make it into cookies so it is currently baking in the oven as bars/cake. I didn’t have leftover oatmeal so I just made some and let it cool to room temp. 1:2 ratio of oats to water which is how I always make my oatmeal. Any thoughts on why it was so runny? What is the normal consistency of your batter before you scoop the cookies? Thanks for any help you can provide!
Hi Nancy! This is a super old recipe that I have not made in ages so I’m afraid I’m not going to be much help outside of what is written here already. I’m sorry! Perhaps try one of my more normal baked oatmeal recipes? https://www.briana-thomas.com/indexes/complete-pictorial-recipe-index/breakfast
Quick question, if this makes a lot of cookies, can they be kept in the frig and for how long, or can they be frozen?
Definitely store them in the fridge, not at room temp. 🙂 I’m not sure exactly how long they’ll last; I’m sorry! I haven’t tried freezing them, but I’m guessing that would work.
Sorry, I didn’t see the macros. Where can I get the carb count?
Thank you.
I don’t currently have the macros for this recipe, but you’re welcome to put the recipe into an app like MyFitnessPal to pull them up. 🙂 I’m sorry for the inconvenience. I’ve started adding macros to my newer recipes.
Do you think these would work with leftover steel cut oatmeal?
I’m sorry – I’ve never used steel cut oats so I’m not sure. I assume so, if it’s soft like regular oatmeal. 🙂
These look great. Can’t wait to try them. Would it work if I sub 1 Tbsp coconut oil for the olive oil? Thanks!
Yes, that should be fine.
Yes, you’re different. You are a THM genius!! Love your stuff!
Thank you so much! You are covering the world with healthy THM options of my favorites! Thankful for you and the other gals who work SO HARD. May God bless you richly for how you’re blessing us!
Mine turned out yummy, but SUPER flat, like paper thin. Is this supposed to happen? If not, any idea why this happened?
They are thin, but not that thin. I’m guessing maybe your batter was too runny. If you make them again, I would try decreasing the almond milk or adding a few tablespoons of oat fiber.
I did think the btater sweed a bit thin. I just now wondered if it could be due to using fresh oat meal (o made it right before making these cookies) I wonder it it should have dried out in the fridge overnight.
It should at least be at room temperature, as indicated in the recipe. 🙂 That lets it firm up a bit, as you mentioned.
HA, I just got your joke. I look forward ro trying these.
Can you replace the almond milk with water? I have a tree nut allergy and not a huge fan of coconut milk.
I would recommend using something more milk-like, but you’re welcome to try water if you’d like.
I am a fellow THM and love seeing/ trying many new recipes! A friend of mine along with her husband are dabbling in THM. He LOVES oatmeal cream pies. I was thinking if there was a way to tweak this recipe and put whipping cream on it, it maybe a crossover; but, it would surely be much better than the sugared-up ones. Would you have any suggestions? Thanks so much!
Julia
Hi Julia. Since these cookies kind of resemble baked oatmeal, they wouldn’t be my starting point for creating something like that. I would suggest just making some substitutions to an existing recipe for a good S cookie and adding oats.
Just curious why you use imitation vanilla extract? I hate imitation anything… will it work with real vanilla?
Because I’m not the one getting the groceries, and that’s what my mom buys because it’s cheaper. You can definitely use real vanilla.
How many teaspoons of Truvia (or any sweetner) do you use altogether in the recipe? Thanks so much for this wonderful recipe!!
However much you want. 🙂 I made a note (in the Notes section) of how much I used and what I would do differently next time. If you don’t have the sweeteners I mentioned in the recipe, you can use this sweetener conversion chart to help you: http://www.trimhealthymama.com/main-home/sweetener-conversion-chart/
Hi, We made the cookies twice now and they are not sweet enough, they are actually very bitter. We can’t use eggs here because of allergies, but that usually doesn’t make that much of a difference. We cut the cocoa to 1/4 c and we added 1 tsp of sweetener. We also tried making it muffins the second time and that didn’t work either. Just double checking to make sure the amount for the sweetener isn’t supposed to be cups instead of tsp.
Hi Carrie, the recipe says “low-glycemic sweetener to taste”, so that can be as much or as little as you want. 🙂 I’m a huge proponent of tasting and adjusting according to personal taste because taste buds vary a LOT. As I said in the recipe, I used 1/4 tsp. of THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder, which is super-concentrated. It definitely does NOT measure the same as other sweeteners, so you’ll need a lot more if using something other than what I mentioned. This sweetener conversion chart should help you out: http://www.trimhealthymama.com/main-home/sweetener-conversion-chart/
This is a cookie recipe, not a muffin recipe. These don’t rise very much at all, so muffins won’t be a good option, especially if you’re leaving the egg whites (and thus a lot of the structure) out.
I’ve never seen this conversion chart before, I must have missed it in the book. This make so much sense now! Thank you!
The conversion chart isn’t actually in the book (not the version of the book I have, anyway); the new sweeteners were released after the book was published, so I could see how it would be confusing!
So I added more oatmeal and used parchment paper. They look like your cookies. I can’t wait to try them in the morning! They smelled wonderful. Just a suggestion, could you come up with a THM version of no bake cookies? You are very talented, I think you can do it!
Great! Sorry I couldn’t get back with you sooner; I was at Bible school. As for the no-bake cookies, Sheri Graham has a recipe for those already: http://sherigraham.com/trim-healthy-mama-fudgy-no-bake-cookies-s
Thank you so much! The chocolate breakfast cookies are great!
I just made my first batch of these and they are very flat and refuse to come off of the cookie sheet. I greased the cookie sheet but I am going to try parchment paper for the second batch. My dough is very runny, from the other posts I read this does not sound like the norm. Help?
Definitely try the parchment paper for a better result. The dough is fairly runny, but if you think it’s too runny, try using more oatmeal/less liquid, make sure to use a food processor instead of a blender, and don’t process until completely smooth.
I just took one tray of these out and they are super flat and don’t look like yours. Not sure what I did wrong but I added all of the ingredients. Should I add something to this to make the next bath fluffier?
Mine were pretty flat as well; maybe the pictures don’t do a good job of showing that. Parchment paper would help them not spread out so much. Also, make sure you’re using a food processor, not a blender, to mix the ingredients (and keeping the dough a little on the chunky side might help them stay thicker).
I just made these this morning and they turned out great! I got about 45 out of my batch, though! 🙂 I ate one after they had cooled but before putting them in the frig just to try it out. I agree with your assessment that they’re best chilled. THANKS for sharing this recipe with us – thanks for ALL of your recipes. Haven’t tried one we haven’t liked yet!!
Awesome! I’m so glad they turned out for you.
I am going to try this with my left over oatmeal!
Sounds good to me. I have needed something like this for on the go.
Ok! These are absolutely wonderful! I used parchment paper so they wouldn’t stick to the stone and they peeled off very nicely allowing me to reuse the parchment paper over and over again. (I doubled the recipe) Thank you for sharing this with us! ❤
I just made these with my grandchildren and it looks great! Could you tell me why we use egg whites for the THM plan instead of the whole egg? Aren’t eggs a protein thus making this a protein and carb? (I have SO much to learn, but it sure is a fun learning!) ❤
We use lots of whole eggs, just not with carbs. 🙂 The whole eggs belong in an S setting (healthy fats, low carb), but we use egg whites in an E setting (low fat, healthy carb) so we don’t cause a fats/carbs collision. The fat of an egg is contained in the yolk. Thanks for making the recipe and reporting back with how it turned out!
Thank you! Looking forward to trying more in the future. Love being a Trim Healthy Mama! Thanks for your help along the way. ❤
They sound good and I bet they would be easy to make with a pumpkin flavor. Always wondered what to do with the leftover oatmeal. Can hardly wait to try this!
Do we count the fat in the oatmeal? There is 9.6 g fat in 3 cups of oatmeal which would throw the total fat over the 5g limit if we eat a third of this if you take into consideration the T of olive oil too. I calculated that 5 cookies have 5.7 g fat, 17.6 carbs and 8.5 g protein. Do you think it really needs the olive oil?
If you’re following the Trim Healthy Mama plan, I believe the book says that the fat in lean protein does not need to be counted (you don’t count the fat in chicken or fish when eating it with an E meal, for example). If you’re concerned, you could decrease the oil (which is there to give the cookies a better texture) or replace it with sour cream/applesauce.
For example, the book talks about adding a tsp. of coconut oil to your morning serving of oatmeal. This would be the same concept.
well, they look and sound awesome! I can’t wait to try them!