Vanishing Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Meet my mother: self-proclaimed health nut and proclaimed-by-me graduate level nutritionist. She's the one who introduced me to oats. Oats- nutritious, full of fiber, and probably the hardest thing for her to get me to eat. I mean, come on, how can anyone enjoy the slimy breakfast porridge made from oats... Or maybe that's just how it was for me, but let me just say, the breakfast table might have been a war zone for a while.

I decided to try to find a way to actually enjoy eating oats that would please both me and my mother. A recipe on the lid of the box of oats looked tempting enough - oatmeal and raisin cookies. Replace the raisins with chocolate chips and you have a recipe for "healthy" cookies that wholly satisfied me. Warm these cookies for a couple seconds so the chocolate is all melty and the insides of the cookies are all soft and chewy, grab a cup of milk to dunk it in, and you have a fool proof method to get anyone to eat oats. The best part is that my mom enjoyed the cookies too!

My mother and I got over our oatmeal conflict years ago. She got me to eat oats, and I got these nom-worthy cookies. Talk about a win-win situation.

Vanishing Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients
1/2 cup plus 6 tbsp butter, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
3 cups Quaker Oats
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Beat the butter and both sugars together until...

... well combined and creamy.

Add the eggs and vanilla...

Beat well. Looks a little like peanut butter at this stage

Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.

Add into the mixture.

Add oats and chocolate chips and mix until combined.

Drop the dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. You might also want to push them flat just a little. The cookies don't spread much.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until they're light golden brown. Cool for 1 minute on the cookie sheets and remove to wire rack to cool. Store in an airtight container.

Enjoy!