'Tis the season for an abundance of holiday goodness including the all famous holiday cookies. This year I threw out a challenge to see who could bake the best tasting cookie with the lowest amount of saturated fat, lowest amount of calories per serving and highest amount of fiber.

We had an array of yummy goodness ranging from cranberry orange bars to chocolate cherry cookies with rosemary. The winning cookies was an oatmeal cranberry chocolate chip cookie submitted by Andrea West.

Ingredients
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed meal
1 cup regular oats
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/6 cup butter, softened
1/6 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup egg beaters
1/8 cup sliced almonds
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees (I ended up lowering the temp 325 for my stove — it has a tendency to cook much faster than what recipes call for.)
Lightly spoon all purpose flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife, and place in a small mixing bowl. Add the whole wheat flour to the bowl, measuring the ingredient in the same manner as the all purpose flour. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through salt), stirring with a whisk; set aside.
Place sugars, butter and applesauce in a large bowl; beat until well blended. Add vanilla and egg beaters; beat until blended. Gradually add flour mixture, beating just until combined. Stir in almonds, cranberries, and dark chocolate chips. Drop dough by small tablespoons, 2 inches apart onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes, rotate the pan and bake for another 5 minutes, or until edges of cookies are lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cookies sit on pan for another 3-5 minutes. Remove cookies from pans; cool on wire racks.

Should make 40-45 cookies

Per serving:
calories: 68.5
saturated fat: 0.9g
fiber: 0.9g

Melissa Gerharter MS, RD is co-owner of Joust Strength and Fitness of Ann Arbor, joustfitness.com. She is also a personal trainer and an adjunct lecturer at Eastern Michigan University. She can be reached at Melissa@joustfitness.com.