Let's-pretend-they're-healthy cookies

I find that nothing compliments a relaxing weekend away quite like some fresh baked cookies. Especially when I'm a guest at a friend or family member's vacation home, I try to bring something tasty along. This past weekend Joe and I joined our good friends and their kiddos for a nice skiing/ice fishing getaway at Lake Winnipesaukee, so naturally some cookies were on my agenda.

I knew some majorly bad eating was in my future with this crowd. Pizza, burgers, bagels, more pizza, cheese and pepperoni platters.... and lots and lots of beer. In anticipation of all this gluttony, I decided to make Oatmeal Raisin cookies to make myself feel better. The irony? They're pretty much just as bad for you as any other cookie.... but shhh don't say that outloud, since I ate about half the batch myself... Oatmeal's good for you right? Well, yes, unless it's mixed with the following....

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

3 cups quick cooking oats
1 cup flour

1 cup raisins

First off, as always, cream together the butter, shortening, and two sugars. Add the rest of the "wet" ingredients, as well as the baking soda and powder. Mix this all together until its nice and smooth, then add in the healthy stuff.

I suppose using whole wheat flour would help the situation but.... I didn't....and you still have all that butter. yummmm.

Once everything is mixed together, roll heaping table spoons of the dough into balls and place them an inch or so apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. it's pretty sticky, so i would avoid touching any household items or domesticated animals until you're done with this process.

Bake the cookies at 375 for 9 minutes :)

These are seriously delicous, fake-healthy cookies. Enjoy. Pretending the weekend calories don't count is half the fun.

now, back to the gym....