Okay so maybe these look a bit odd close up, but they’re amazing. I promise.

I had a long day outside the apartment today – missed a yoga class because of a slow midday train, grocery shopped and had lunch in the city instead, babysat for an awesome 4-year-old kid for a couple hours, went to Harvard Sailing Team practice, and then to Biggest Loser Club to watch the show with my friendies – certainly nothing to complain about, and another good day, but a long one.

I’m finally home now and it’s late, but before I go to bed, I wanted to tell you about a super easy, yummy sweet treat I made earlier this week: No Bake Cookies.

When I was a kid, my mom used to make these, and I absolutely love them. I still remember the blue and white ceramic plate she’d sit them on in the fridge. They’re a family favorite. And they’re incredibly easy to make.

There are many varieties of No Bake Cookies out there, so if you like the one you know, stick with that. But if you want to try something new (or if you love peanut butter like I do), give these a whirl. You won’t be disappointed.

Best of all! It’s another Grandma Rose recipe!

Grandma Rose’s No Bake Cookies

1 stick regular oleo (or butter)
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup milk
1 cup chunky peanut butter (creamy is fine too)
3 cups quick oats
1 tsp vanilla

Bring the oleo/butter, sugar, cocoa and milk to a boil over MEDIUM heat. Continue boiling for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Add peanut butter, oatmeal and vanilla. Stir quickly. Drop by spoonful onto wax paper.

If they don’t harden immediately, you can put them in the refrigerator to firm up.

I’d like to note that in addition to the butter substitution, I also used vanilla soy milk instead of regular milk, because that’s all we had. And I used regular oats instead of quick oats, also because that’s what we had. The quick oats are probably better for this recipe – the regular oats were still pretty “raw” once they were mixed into the rest of the ingredients, but I didn’t really mind. They changed the consistency, but not the flavor. So I say, use quick oats if you can, but if not, you’ll survive.

My favorite part of my grandmother’s recipe is that she’s written, “Eat yourself,” which you can see if you look closely at the bottom of the notecard, meaning I should eat them all myself. Haha. I genetically inherited my love for peanut butter from this woman.

Oh and I ate about ninety spoonfuls of this batter before I even let them harden into cookies. It’s that good. PEANUT BUTTER, PEOPLE!