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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Shutting up the Skinny GIrl with Oatmeal Cookies



After work yesterday I went home and prepared an easy meal of baked potatoes topped with BBQ pork and jalapeños! (cheese, sour cream, etc)  I sometimes create a meal around a jalapeño pepper craving.  I have to eat something with the peppers and a baked potato seemed like a better choice for Monday night dinner than nachos.

I was pretty tired when I got home after 3 rare nights of insomnia, so I figured it was a night on the couch and early to bed, but after having my jalapeños and B-B-Q, I wanted dessert.  I try not to keep a lot of dessert foods in the house because, well, if they are there I'm gonna eat 'em.

Last night that skinny girl inside would not shut up,  so I went into my kitchen and whipped up a batch of chewy oatmeal cookies full of good stuff.  I don't like raisins, they totally RUIN an oatmeal cookie for me so I pretty much have to make my own because most of the world has been brainwashed into thinking that you put raisins in oatmeal cookies.  Chocolate chips are good, but I didn't want a cookie that sweet - I was thinking more like a cookie that I could eat for breakfast because fruit and oatmeal are part of a balanced diet. 

My favorite for oatmeal cookies is dried cranberries - way better than raisins.  Okay, I'll stop slamming raisins, I know they are probably someone's favorite.  I looked through the pantry and found a box of chopped dates from Christmas. (I was going to make date cookies, but never got it done.)  So I tossed those in the cookie dough also.  And of course - PECANS - because everything is better with pecans.  Pecans are the best food in the whole world.

If you want a thick chewy cookie you can tell the dough is ready when you can stand a spoon or spatula up in the dough and it doesn't fall over.  If the spoon falls over, you need a little more flour or oats until the dough is nice and thick.

I could just eat the cookie dough raw in spite of warnings about raw eggs. 
What can I say, I'm a kid at heart!



I made them fairly small diameter - for my house.  They were about about 4" and
I baked them until light golden brown and still slightly gooey in the middle



These were much appreciated by the husband and daughter and I ate two three myself.  I was weak and they were WARM and CHEWY.

Fruit and Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup butter Crisco
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
Beat together until well mixed
Add
2 eggs
1 tsp   real vanilla
Beat until fluffy

Combine and add to the mixture above
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp   salt
1 tsp   baking soda
1-1/2 tsp cinnamon

Stir in
3 cups oatmeal
8 oz chopped dates
6 oz dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Mix thoroughly and  form into balls, place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper (or just on the pan) and flatten slightly (I swear I took a picture of the dough on the pan, but it wasn't there when I downloaded pictures, sorry)

Bake in a 350 degree convection oven for 10 minutes or at 375 in a conventional oven

Cool slightly before you eat them - just enough so you don't get burned!

Do you have any other suggestions for replacing raisins?  I'm open to suggestions.

Much Love and Laughter,

Laura

Comments?

5 comments:

Susan@avintagefarmwife said...

Love the skinny girl sign! I shut mine up with cookies too....yesterday as a matter of fact. I love raisins, but I agree that dried cranberries add a nice touch and a bit of color. These cookies sound good!

Sooner Laura said...

Thanks for stopping by Susan! Please visit again soon.

Anonymous said...

I've never cared for raisins in oatmeal cookies, but I never knew where I got it from...now I know! Love you Mom. Wish I could have been there to try one!

Debbie said...

Shut that skinny girl up!

I do a dreadfully good job of stifling the one who lives here. Such a good job, in fact, that you would have no clue she even exists. Just sayin'...

The recipe looks delicious and very much up our alley here.

BTW, my husband was a Sooner for the first two years of college. Then, he transferred back to GA and met me.

Sooner Laura said...

Hi Debbie! Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate your nice comments. Is your husband from Oklahoma? Or he came to Oklahoma to attend OU for a couple years? I see a lot of Georgia on HGTV landscaping shows - it looks beautiful!