Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie

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One of THE most often requested treats in this house are homemade cookies. I don't think we've had store-bought cookies in a long time. Wait, that's not entirely true. We've had those tasty bakery morsels from time to time, but since I started baking my own, neither the kids or hubby are satisfied by the boxed variety. 

Thankfully, cookies are not very difficult to make. In fact, it would be pretty hard to mess these ones up. This recipe is also 'options' friendly. Meaning, you can add a few little extras to the batter prior to baking. 


As always, I recommend reading a recipe first, collecting and measuring all of your ingredients ahead of time, and then getting to work. I like to start with preheating my oven right before I start the mixing. 


Preheat Oven at 350F
Wet Ingredients:
2/3 cup of softened (room temperature) butter
2/3 cup of packed brown sugar
2 large eggs (I often use 3, for extra chewiness)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Dry Ingredients: 
1 1/2 cupOld Fashioned Rolled Oats
1 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt

2/3 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips*


Optional Extras!!!
ANY of these make a great addition to these cookies:
1 cup dried cranberries, raisins, dried berries, small chunks of dried apricot, or dried tart cherries (these are a bit expensive, but soooo worth it!)
1/2 cup of nuts of your choice. I have tried almond slivers, crushed pecans, walnuts, pistachios, and even pumpkin or sunflower seeds. 
*The semi-sweet chocolate chips can easily be substituted by any other flavoured chips, such as white chocolate, lemon chips, or butterscotch. 

1. In a medium bowl, beat the butter until fluffy & creamy. Mix in sugar until smooth, then add eggs, and vanilla extract. 

2. Slowly incorporate dry ingredients, and mix into a smooth dough. 

3. Fold in "extras"

Drop tablespoon seed dollops on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and bake for 10 minutes, until golden brown. The tops might look undercooked, but they if they're golden brown, they're good to go. Let cool, and enjoy (but they're extra melt-in-your-mouth delicious while still warm).

Should yield 2 dozen cookies (I often get a few extras in a batch)

A few variations I've tried:
Dark chocolate chips, cranberries, pecans
Lemon chips, tart cherries, almond slivers
White chocolate chips, cranberries, and walnuts
Dark chocolate chips, dried blueberries, crushed salted pistachios (ermergerd!!!!)

These scoops are one of the best tools in my kitchen, I got this one on Amazon, but they're available from many kitchen stores. I've even found some at Winners, Marshall's and Homesense. I really like that they produce all evenly sized cookies, especially with kids who like to compare their cookies sizes to see who got a bigger one... ;)

This version was Tart Cherries, Lemon chips, and Pecan chunks. Sooooo good!

I can vouch for their deliciousness, but I'm warning you, they won't last long, so make sure to set a few aside if you want them to last a few days. 

They freeze really well too, so if you needed to make a batch or two ahead of time, just set them in a single layer in a large freezer bag, or separate layers with a sheet of wax paper in a freezer-safe plastic container. 

Enjoy!

Let me know in the comments if you try them, and if you have any favourite cookies of your own, I'd love to know them!

TTFN Dolls!

Sunday Well Spent

You know when you wake up on a Sunday morning, still exhausted? No? Gosh you're lucky! ;)

 Well, no rest for the wicked, as they say.  ha! ha!

Of course, the best part of one of these mornings, is when you're able to just wake up slowly, taking in your surroundings, and getting your bearings. I am not a morning person. At All. But my kids have insisted for the last 13 years or so, that this is my reality now.

Morning "mykelele" jam sesh with the nugget. She likes to dress herself lately, just, you know, FYI ;)

And that was my cue to get up, ha! ha!
Besides, the little one in incubation was demanding nutrition.

One thing I'm really appreciating about my cravings during this pregnancy, is that they are for foods of the healthy variety.
Breakfast fixins, waiting to be slapped together, for a delicious 'mostly' egg-white omelette (I added the remaining 2 eggs we had) with fresh spinach, cremini mushroom, crushed garlic and some delicious Jarlsberg cheese grated on top and melted to perfection.

Another weekend breakfast staple for us is oatmeal.  

I like to mix rolled oats with large flake oatmeal, the texture formed is both creamy and crunchy. Darling liked to call it Hautemeal, because of all the extras in there. I like throwing in dried fruit, nuts, and seeds. Anything I've got on hand.  This breakfast packs a punch, and keeps us full all morning long. 

I've also started liking my green smoothies again lately. I've had a few strange food aversions, which are finally starting to wane.
I balance the greens with sweet ripe fruit, like bananas, mangoes or pineapple. I've also been partial to a dash of cinnamon in there as well.
Here's one of my favourites:
1 cup of fresh baby spinach
1 long celery stalk
1 chunk of fresh peeled ginger (the size of this piece really only depends on the heat you personally like in your smoothie, I use an ice cube sized chunk.)
1 large ripe banana
1/2 a large mango, peeled and diced (frozen works as well, and will give your smoothie a creamier texture)
2 cups coconut water, and then top the container with filtered water.

I must admit, we absolutely love having a Vitamix. We got it about 18 months ago, and I can honestly say that it gets used at least every other day (we make larger batches of green juices at once, so they last a few days. But I don't much like it passed the second day. The fresher the better. 

Our oldest out on a Daddy Daughter date at A coffee house. I don't think she's ever met a cake pop she didn't like ;)