Salted Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies!

So, truth be told, I really enjoy cooking, but I LOVE baking. I haven't been doing it as much lately, because to be honest, if you don't keep a LITTLE of the bad stuff in there, it just isn't worth it. Plus, having a whole batch of cookies at my house is just bad news haha. But, I was wracking my brain about what I wanted to bring to tonight's Tony Awards Party, and got so excited about the idea of baking for people that I not only made these babies, I doubled the batch and also made sour cream cranberry bars (recipe coming soon)!

I don't know if I've mentioned in here how obsessed I am with Tina Hauper's Carrots'N'Cake, but I am a little obsessed. So I searched her recipe page and then added my own twist to the recipe making it a little lower in calories and a little lower in the bad fats. The result comes in at a 92 calorie cookie that I thought was freaking delicious. The bad news? They are a little small, so if we're being honest you will probably eat two so in reality I should say it's more like 184 calories a serving. There are definitely things I want to play with to see if I can get it lower without compromising deliciousness, but for now I am pretty in love with these cookies!

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 cup splenda brown sugar blend
  
• 1/2 cup sugar-free maple syrup
• 3 egg whites
  
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter, softened
• 1/4 cup canola oil
  
• 3/4 cup mini dark chocolate chips
• Sea salt

Preheat oven to 325. Grease baking sheet (I also lay tin foil down first so that I don't have to clean the baking sheet when I'm done because I'm lazy like that :O) ). Mix all ingredients except chocolate chips and salt together in a big mixing bowl. Fold in chocolate chips. Use a table spoon to scoop dough into small balls on cookie sheet. Sprinkle with sea salt (I ground mine up first and then used my fingers to sprinkle so that I could be in control because no one wants a mouthful of salt when they bite into a cookie!). Bake for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown and tops are set.

PS: They don't really spread out so you can place them fairly close together and fit more on a sheet! :O)

PICTURES! I'm usually so focused on what I'm doing that it never occurs to me to take pictures, but my blog is empty looking and sad without them, so this time I made it a point!

Dough:


Cooling:

YUMMY!