Chocolate Chip Cookies!

No one should be forced to live without enjoying a good chocolate chip cookie every now and then, but the typical chocolate chip cookie recipe makes it hard to do so without also enjoying a good dose of guilt and useless calories along with it. Most recipes contain about a cup of butter (or margarine- eek! trans fats!), loads of refined carbohydrates (white sugar and flour galore) and not much else to speak of, nutritionally. Take your typical back-of-the-bag recipe for example.

With a few minor modifications, chocolate chip cookies can be something much less damaging to the waistline, and can even contribute some fiber and healthy fat. Still not a health food, but nice to know that you can indulge sensibly.

Change the white flour and sugar to white whole wheat flour and evaporated cane juice crystals (standards in my baking world). Cut down on the flour a bit and add some old-fashioned rolled oats. Give it a shot even if you're not an oatmeal cookie person- they aren't the main flavor or texture that comes through at the end. The whole wheat flour and oats give the cookie a big fiber boost.

Cut down on the fat, always. You almost never need as much as the recipe calls for to end up with a good end product. I recommend using a trans-fat free tub margarine rather than butter or stick margarine to minimize trans and saturated fats. Replacing half the fat with canola oil is another good option for healthy unsaturated fat. I do both!

Now I'm a huge chocolate lover, but even I think a whole cup of chocolate chips in a 2-dozen cookie recipe is really kind of overkill. 3/4 cup will do. If you are feeling extra motivated, chopping up some high-quality dark chocolate will give you an extra dose of antioxidants in your cookies. I wasn't feeling so motivated today, so I used semi-sweet chocolate chips instead (could be some of those flavonoids left in there, right? maybe?). If you do like nuts in your cookies, go for walnuts. The health benefits are awesome.

Terri's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/4 c evaporated cane juice crystals
1/4 c canola oil
1/4 c Smart Balance margarine
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 c water
2 c rolled oats
1 1/2 c white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 c chopped walnuts

Beat sugar, oil and butter with a hand-held mixer until smooth and creamy. Add egg, water and vanilla and beat until fluffy. Combine flour, baking soda and oats in a separate bowl, then stir into wet ingredients until combined. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

Bake at 350 degrees until just barely set in the middle (if you like your cookies soft), about 10-12 minutes.

Hide some for yourself before your family devours them all. Lavish in their praise for your amazing baking abilities, and you never even have to tell them you made it more nutritious.