Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

I thought I had completely abandoned this poor recipe blog...But lately I've been in a crazy cooking mood (minus that one week where my house was a stuffy 83 degrees and I did not even want to look at my oven, let alone use it!) But I'm back at it...so here's the latest recipe I've tried and LOVED.

It's basically the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie recipe on the top of the Quaker Oats lid. Seriously. I had searched all day for a recipe to soothe my chocolate fix. I love, love, love chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. Not to be confused with Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies which are equally amazing and hold a special place in my heart. There's a time and place for every cookie.

What You will Need:
- 1 stick + 6T butter, softened
- 3/4 firmly packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 t vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups AP flour (I use half wheat/half white)
- 1 t baking soda
- 1/2 t salt
- 3 cups Oats (quick or old fashioned)
- 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (and an extra little handful for good luck...or if you're a chocoholic like me.)

What to do:

- Preheat oven to 350. Line some baking sheets with parchment paper.

- Beat butter and sugars together until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla.

- In a smaller bowl mix flour, salt and baking soda.

- Add flour to butter-sugar-goodness. I do this in two steps, with a rubber spatula.

- Add oats and chocolate chips and fold in until combined.

- Drop by spoonfuls. I did about 2-big heaping Tablespoons full.

- Bake for 8-10 minutes. Mine took more like 12-14 minutes.

(I had also cooled my dough in the fridge while I made dinner. Then while we ate dinner I baked the cookies off so we had fresh baked cookies for dessert. It rocked. Why did I not think of this before!? I felt totally together too. I got this baking thing.)

Try them. Eat too many of them. Share them with friends. To my knowledge baked goods never stay good for long and I end up with a crumbly mess by the third or fourth day so I've gotten better about giving away goods to everyone ;-) Want to be my neighbor!?

Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Y'all, I had a serious sweet tooth this afternoon with no real sweets in sight. I scrounged around in my pantry (what I feel like I've been doing a lot of these days!) and happened upon cocoa powder and oatmeal. *ding ding ding* *Light bulb!* Easiest recipe ever. And I have most of the ingredients on hand at all times. Perfect.

So I also scrounged around some more to find my mom's recipe she wrote down for me in a rush one day and got a flood of emotion. My wonderful mom would make these cookies for us whenever she had a day off while we were in school. We would rush in all full of after-school energy and immediately stop in our tracks with our noses lifted in the air and our mouths watering. And and even more amazing thing my mom did? She made plain chocolate cookies just for my sister, Stacey, because she didn't like the texture of the oats. (She grew out of that!) But that's what Momma's do. And this recipe will forever hold a special place in my heart and in my kitchen because of her.

Before I get into the ingredients you should know that these are southern cookies. Yes ma'am, that means they have sugar and butter *gasp* A healthy dose of both. But they are cookies and they are delicious and they are heartwarming and easy and...just try them. Dessert is supposed to be decadent in my opinion ;-)

What you need:
2 cups sugar
1 stick butter
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk (we do soy milk)
1 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 cup oatmeal (My mom says "quick cooking oats" but I only ever have old fashioned oats on hand. Either work. Old fashioned oats just have a but more toothy texture to them.)

What you need to do: 
- Make sure to have all your ingredients out ahead of time because this is a quick recipe!

Boil the sugar, butter, cocoa and milk over mid-high heat for 3 minutes. I whisk while doing this because I am terrified I will burn this whole pot if I don't!

Take the pot off the heat and stir in vanilla, peanut butter and oats

Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper

Let cool and Enjoy!!

Just like LB did before they even had time to harden ;)