Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Tuesdays are my Saturdays, so to speak. I work nights on weekends and part of the week, with Sundays and Mondays being my really late nights (I work til 2am on those nights -yuck!). By Tuesday, I'm done. Tired, missing my family, and in the mood to relax. What better way to start my "weekend" than to bake some goodies, huh? These cookies were adapted from this recipe on Allrecipes.com. After reading the reviews I made a lot of changes, including adding chocolate chips. Tasting the cookies today, I like them well enough. I'm not sure I'm sold on the oatmeal in them though, but I've have found that in general I tend to like things baked with peanut butter a lot better the next day, after the flavors meld and intensify a bit. We'll see if they go from good to great tomorrow!

PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP OATMEAL COOKIES

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips


DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with Silpat liners or parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl cream together butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and peanut butter until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Beat in vanilla extract. In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir gradually into the butter mixture. Mix in the oats until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

3. Drop by tablespoons onto baking sheets. Bake for 8-12 minutes until cookies are just browned around the edges - do not over-bake. Cool on sheets for 2 minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely.


P.S. I only actually baked a few of these cookies today. The rest I scooped out onto a baking sheet and froze them, then put them in freezer bags to store. So later on if we need a quick cookie fix, it's 10 minutes to fresh cookies! :) I think I might start doing that with all the cookies I make. Aren't the cookie batter scoops cute, all lined up like little soldiers? ;)