S
chool has started once again. Bright yellow school buses. Backpacks and school supplies. Packed lunches. Sometimes packed lunches can be hard to vary—5 days a week, 36 weeks a year, one little lunch box that gets stuffed in an unrefrigerated locker. It can be so much easier to grab prepackaged food and quickly toss it in a lunch box, but easier is not always better. 1 Corinthians 6:19 asks the question, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” What goes in your body—whether from food, media or entertainment—will affect how your temple will be for the Holy Spirit. If you eat junk, your body will break down long before its time, and you will not be able to do all that God would want you to do for His Kingdom. If you watch junk or listen to junk, your mind and heart will not be clean and prepared to hear God’s still small voice and obey anything He commands you to do. Sweets is one of the things that all kids like in their lunch boxes, and it is also one of the areas that tends to get prepackaged for lunches—just reach for a snack cake and put it in the box. However, putting all that refined sugar, white flour, and hydrogenated oils (contained in most prepackaged sweets) in your children’s bodies is not going to help them and make them healthier but rather is going to harm them in many ways. Here is a way to satisfy their sweet tooth and yet be healthy at the same time: no refined sugar, whole wheat flour, butter (instead of hydrogenated margarine), rolled oats and juicy raisins. You can make a batch and freeze them, taking them out of the freezer day by day as needed. Still “premade” and convenient, yet so much better than “prepackaged.” Treat your body as the temple of the Spirit that it is!
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies Yield: 40 cookies ¾ c. unsalted butter, softened 1¾ c. all-purpose flour 1 c. honey 1 egg 2 tsp. ground cinnamon 1 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. pure vanilla ½ tsp. salt ¼ tsp. baking soda 2 c. old-fashioned rolled oats 1 c. raisins
1. Preheat the oven to 350F. 2. In a medium bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium-high speed for 20 seconds. 3. Add half of the flour, and then the honey, egg, cinnamon, baking powder, vanilla, salt, and baking soda. Beat until thoroughly combined. 4. Beat in the remaining flour. Stir in the oats and raisins. 5. Drop by a rounded teaspoon 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. 6 Bake for 12 minutes, or until the edges are golden. Cool cookies on a wire rack.
Variations Chocolate Nutty
With the oats, stir in 1 c. chocolate chips. With the oats, stir in ½ c. chopped walnuts or pecans.
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September 2013