While you're frying up some eggs and bacon, we're cooking up something else: a way to celebrate today's food holiday.

"O" is for oatmeal and that's good enough for me. March 18 is National Oatmeal Cookie Day.

Oatmeal cookies are a big deal in our house. We like to think that they’re healthier than regular cookies, but that doesn’t stop them from lasting one, maybe two days. Oatmeal cookies are very versatile and can be customized to your liking - nuts, no nuts, raisins, no raisins, chocolate chips (but really, who doesn’t like chocolate chips in their cookies?).

Oats take the place of most of the flour in oatmeal cookies, and you typically only need one egg to bind them so already that’s healthier than your average cookie. Rolled or old fashioned oats work best here, but in a pinch I’ve used a sachet of instant oats too.

The rest of the ingredients are really going to depend on your taste. Some recipes eliminate sugar altogether by substituting honey and molasses; some call for whole wheat flour instead of all purpose; some even include adding oil.

My perfect oatmeal cookie has toasted walnuts and semi-sweet chocolate chips in it, and the cookie is chewy in the center but crisp on the edges. I achieve this by pulling them out of the over a minute before they look like they’re done, and removing them to a cooling rack immediately. Storage is also important; if you pack them away while they’re still warm, the steam that’s generated will leave your cookies slightly softer and sometimes soggy.

It took a while to find the perfect recipe for our oatmeal cookies, and it’s been tweaked a few times to our taste, but believe me, no one complained about the extra batches of cookies lying around while we were figuring that all out.

Got a favorite oatmeal cookie configuration? Please share it in the comments below.