The New Tradition

Over the years, when I have wanted a special treat, I have always made Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (based on the recipe for Quaker Oats Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies).  They are shared with my husband on Friday and Saturday nights as we chill out and watch TV.  It has become a special tradition.

Today I decided I wanted some of those cookies.  I figured with all the vegetables we've been eating from our awesome garden, we were due for a sweet treat.  But I wanted the babe and her brother to be able to enjoy this special tradition with us.  I can't believe it took me so long to try this, but this afternoon the babe and I put on our aprons and altered my recipe into a non-dairy, non-egg version, and it worked out really well (although it was hard to shape the cookies as the batter wasn't really sticky).

I wanted to share my new version of an old favorite with you:

1 cup (2 sticks) of softened non-dairy Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks
1 cup of firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
1 mushed up banana
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
Dash of salt
3 cups of old fashioned uncooked oats
1 cup of Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips

1. Heat oven to 350 F
2. Beat together melted buttery sticks and sugars until creamy
3. Add mashed up banana and vanilla; beat well
4. Add COMBINED flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well
5. Stir in oats and chocolate chips; mix well
6. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased cookies sheet
7. Bake for 11 minutes
8. Cool 1 minute and move to plate or wire rack

The great thing about this recipe is you can load up 12 cookies for immediate use, and divide the rest of the batter into 2 separate bags for the freezer for future indulgence.  It's reassuring knowing you've got another 24 cookies just waiting for you.  When the last bag is done, time to start all over again.

After years of buying allergy friendly Cherrybrook Kitchen chocolate chip cookies (which are great), I think I'll be making more of an effort to make the kids cookies from scratch.  It just feels (and tastes) right.