Oatmeal Chip Cookies

Dessert = Heaven. Enough said.

Actually, I really have a lot more to say.

With IC, I can't eat chocolate. It's one of my all-time worst foods to eat. It makes me sick for 3 days, seriously. It took about a year until I didn't crave it all the time. Now I only want it if someone is being a jerk and waving a hot, gooey brownie under my nose. But I digress.

It seems like 95% of desserts either have chocolate in them or are garnished with chocolate or are served with chocolate. However, there are A LOT of good recipes in that 5% of non-chocolate desserts. Also, a lot of chocolate desserts can be easily modified to exclude it.

Enter the chocolate chip cookie.

Simply sub out the chocolate chips for carob chips (carob is way better in smaller doses, like in a cookie, than 100% carob, like in a brownie), or butterscotch chips, or mint chips, or even white chocolate chips. Did you know white chocolate isn't really chocolate? Pretty much made my day when I figured that one out.

This is a recipe I've made since I was a little girl. And I still love it.
Oatmeal Chip Cookes
2 c flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp soda
1 c shortening
3/4 c sugar
3/4 c brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp water
2 eggs
2 c oatmeal
1 c chips (mint, white chocolate, butterscotch, combinations, etc).

Cream the shortening and sugars together. Add and mix together everything but the flour, oatmeal, and chips. Add the flour slowly, 1 cup at a time. Add the oatmeal slowly too. Mix in the chips by hand. Bake at 350˚ for 8-10 minutes. Makes ~ 5 dozen cookies, depending on how big your cookies are.

Note: My stand mixer can blend up the oatmeal, but if you're working with a hand mixer, you may need to do the oatmeal by hand.