Here's the tricky part...

I wasn't a big fan of Fig Newtons when I was a kid. When it came to cookies, I liked chocolate chip, Nutter Butters, and...well, just about every other cookie in the universe. I started to really love Fig Newtons in my twenties and bought them on a regular basis. And today, after seeing that today is National Fig Newton Day, I realized that I haven't bought them in years. I wonder how stuff like that happens?

Here's a recipe for Homemade Fig Newtons from RecipeZaar. Me, I'm going to go to the store and buy a bag of them and a gallon of fat free milk.

I have had some great figs this season (as well as a few stinkers, they can't all be perfect). While I admire people who make fig ice cream or fig galettes with their bounty of figs, my personal supply is typically fairly limited. So while I find myself gazing with longing at all the pretty recipes on the blogs and in the magazines, I can't bring myself to commit my few figs to any such endeavor. However, if I were to invest a few figs in the making of something, I think I would turn first to the recipe for Homemade Fig Newtons that Gena at Big City, Little Kitchen posted. The combination of pastry, cream cheese and fresh figs makes me salivate and wonder if the time has come to turn my humble little figs into some grander.

And I guess I should clarify by what I mean by "fat-free foods." I'm not talking about foods that are naturally fat-free, such as celery or water (those are the first two examples that come to mind). I mean foods that usually have a fat version but also have a fat-free version. On to the list (and yes, I'm well aware that fat-free doesn't necessarily mean healthy and can often be higher in sugar).

1. Fat-Free Milk: If you had asked me ten years ago that today I'd be drinking fat-free milk instead of whole milk, I would have thought you were crazy. But I love it, and in fact, can't even drink whole milk anymore. Tastes too thick and heavy for me.

Even more impressive and far healthier than the recreations of Girl Scout cookies are Gluten Free Girl's nostalgic attempt at making the Fig Newtons she loved so much as a little girl. While she admits that Fig Newtons weren't really that good, she still misses them in her new gluten-free lifestyle. She couldn't find a recipe, so she made one up. Her fig spread, which includes port, pomegranate juice, and Meyer lemon juice, couldn't be lusher. Her dough is a butter cookie base with white rice flour, millet flour, cornstarch and teff flour. And lots and lots of nutmeg. It sounds wonderful! And hypo-allergenic. Who'da thunk it.

[thanks for the tip Larissa!]