Awesome Cookies

I had to make something for dessert for a dinner I went to and I had peanut butter and chocolate chips I really wanted to get rid of. I came across a recipe and made a couple of changes to make it healthier. I hope this will empower other sparkers to go out and find recipes and make them better for you, while retaining all of the yumminess!

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies from Heaven!

Ingredients

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup old-fashioned or quick cooking oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg (you could probably get away with only using the white)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips


Directions

The original recipe made 14 cookies--I made almost 40!

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a mixing bowl combine flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside. In another bowl, place applesauce, sugars and peanut butter. With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat peanut butter mixture until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; mix well. Gradually add flour mixture, mixing until well blended after each addition. At this point the dough was pretty stiff so I used my hands and a spatula. It if is too stiff, add some more applesauce (1/8 cup). Stir in chocolate chips. Drop heaping teaspoons onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool 1 minute; remove from baking sheets to wire racks, allow to completely cool.

I fit 9-12 on a baking sheet and baked them for 12 minutes. They will stay soft on the inside--and still be cooked. I substituted the applesauce for an ENTIRE STICK of butter--that should make a big impact on the calories. It wouldn't hurt the recipe to only put in the brown sugar, and nix the white sugar b/c of the sweet applesauce. Please make, and tell me all about it!

Stop the Presses....

After a couple of months of not posting here I came across a website that has changed my life. Roni Noone was featured on cnn.com for her weightloss, and her awesome food blog.

greenlitebites.com is an amazing website that lead me to sparkpeople.com. The website is not a gimmick, it isn't a diet plan; it is a change your life for the better plan. It is like facebook for people wanting to lose weight, and I hope it is the motivation I am going to need to lose weight. I've been tracking my food for a couple of weeks already--a couple of weeks longer than I ever did before. All the time I thought I was making healthy decisions I mostly wasn't. I also started working out with a trainer. I'm so far about 10lbs down from my all time high when I started this website. I never wanted to have surgery---I just am done being fat.

Websites:

greenlitebites.com

sparkpeople.com <--user name leaniepi

come, join, change :)