Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

Last Thursday I mentioned that Daniel had requested a two-week moratorium on desserts at our house {we are both attempting to lost about 7% of our current body weight}. Anyways, I agreed and our house has been basically dessert free.

Last night this backfired on Daniel as he was craving something sweet – even if it was just a handful of chocolate chips. No dice. When I ran out of goodies, I didn't add them to the grocery list because of the moratorium. We even ran out of our frozen yogurt.

So after dinner, Daniel tried to make a bargain with me: Change a diaper or go to Walmart to pick up frozen yogurt {or even better drive the 20 minutes across town for DQ}. If we were going to do a family outing, I was fine with getting out, but I didn't really want to go out by myself. And since Daniel didn't want to get out, we were at a bit of an impasse.

Instead I went downstairs to see what was in our pantry and what recipe might work with the ingredients I happened to have on hand. We ended up with Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies for dessert. The perfect thing to satisfy our sweet tooth.

 Nutrition Information from CalorieCount

These cookies were a great excuse to use my new KitchenAid Stand Mixer {I have had it for a couple of months, but haven't had a chance to blog about it}. Daniel insisted I get the heavy duty one because the motor was a better quality {i.e. no plastic parts} and the bowl was much bigger {I guess he thinks I might need to be able to whip up batter for 48 cupcakes in one setting}. I do like it. My only complaint is that the crank to lift the bowl up to the mixer cranks opposite of what I would expect. But with time, I am sure that I will get used to it.

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

Recipe Adapted from Smells Like Home

Ingredients

3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
8 tbsp butter
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter {I used natural}
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup quick-cooking oats

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir together with a fork to blend.  

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, peanut butter and sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.  

Blend in the egg and vanilla extract.  

Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed just until incorporated.  

Stir in the oats until evenly blended.

Use a tablespoon to drop the dough on the cookie sheets, a couple inches apart.  

Bake for 10 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through.  

The cookies should be light golden brown and slightly puffed.  

Let cool on the baking sheet 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cook completely. 

You should get about 2 dozen cookies from this recipe.