May 10, 2016 · 46 Comments

No Bake Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Bites

Name: No Bake Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Bites
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Yield: 20
Ingredients: 1/2 cup pitted dates (softened in 1/2 cup warm water for at least 10 minutes (reserve the liquid)); 1/2 cup raisins; 1/2 cup oats (gluten free); 1/4 cup almonds; 1/2 cup walnuts; 1 tablespoon reserved liquid; 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon; 2 tablespoons cream cheese (softened (optional)); 1 tablespoon additional reserved liquid

Desserts· Real Food· Snacks

Jump to Recipe

No Bake Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Bites: A gluten free, easy, healthy version of a favorite cookie–complete with a naturally sweetened (optional) cream cheese frosting!

It is Teacher Appreciation time at my children’s school. I can not even begin to tell you how much I appreciate the hard work teachers do!!

As a former teacher, I realize just how much hard work goes into running a classroom and how much your heart is invested in each child. So obviously it is important for me to make my children’s teachers to feel appreciated. As it was for our PTO–they planned for 2 weeks for Teacher Appreciation!! The first week the students were to bring in an item each day that was their teacher’s favorite (like candy, beverage, flower, etc) and the second week the PTO was loving on the teachers each day with meals–in which case I was asked to make one of the staff’s favorite Mediterranean Frittata that I have cooked for them in the past. I sure hope that at the end of these two weeks, the teachers feel just a tiny bit of how much they are valued!

On the day the students were suppose to bring in a favorite treat, my daughter gravitated towards the fact that her teacher loves Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. I gravitated towards the fact that she would appreciate “healthy snacks.” So we decided to compromise and make these No Bake Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Bites.

So my daughter and I got to work–we soaked some dates to soften. We chatted a few minutes about important things like baby cheetahs and shoes. We got out the food processor and oats, cinnamon, raisins, walnuts, and almonds and zip, zap we were ready to roll our cookie balls. Complicated huh?

As my daughter rolled the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie bites, I had the genius idea (at least, I think it is pretty genius) to make a cream cheese “frosting” with a bit of softened cream cheese and the water we soaked the dates in to sweeten. Seriously simple and oh so tasty–just a bit of cream cheese mixed up with the naturally sweetened water and a perfect glaze was formed to drizzle on these little bites. Oh, maple syrup mixed with the cream cheese would be fabulous too.

Bad news, my daughter’s teacher did NOT get these little gems. Layla started to run a fever later that day. So obviously, I was not going to send her teacher our germs–not really the way I want to say thank you!! The GOOD news is that these are so easy to make, we will whip them up after we are all well in about 5 minutes. And Layla did not complain that she had them all to herself (although, we all tried one before the fever popped up and agreed they were SO good!) And I think you will agree!

My students use to bring me chocolate peanut butter cups when showering me with sweet treats. And while I loved them, my diet would have appreciated these Oatmeal Bites or in line with my peanut butter obsession–these Peanut Butter Balls from Texanerin Baking.

These little bites are incredibly simple to make and so tasty, you won’t miss the sugar and fat that come along with a traditional Oatmeal Raisin Cookie!

5 from 2 votes