12 Days of Valentine's Day: Cookies

Now I am not a doctor, so you can't take me too seriously, but I think that if you add a few star ingredients to a great cookie, you can think of it as "good for you."

This delicious Oatmeal cookie contains ingredients that are known to be good for your HEART (heart/love/Valentine's Day...get it?):

Dark Chocolate (flavonoids)
Dried Cherries (antioxidants)
and Oats (increase whole grains/fiber intake)
...and if you want to change the butter to margarine and tweak the sugar source, go for it.

12 Days of Valentine's Day Oatmeal Cookies

14 T butter or margarine
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 Teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups uncooked old fashioned oats
1/2 cup chocolate chunks (or chips)
1/2 cup dried cherries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix butter and sugars together.  Add eggs and vanilla. Combine flour and baking soda and slowly incorporate into batter.  Add oats and mix.  Add chocolate and dried cherries and mix.  Place large teaspoonfuls of dough on an ungreased cookie sheet (or place on a Silpat = easy clean up and no sticking) and bake for 8-10 minutes until golden brown. 

Enjoy!  These are great cookies that are delicious any time of day, especially in the morning with coffee (I am eating one right now!).  Happy Day 2! 

Day 2: Make a batch of cookies and add in some "heart smart" ingredients.