"Restraining Order" Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yes, that's right. I call these babies "Restraining Order" Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, because I honestly need to issue an imaginary restraining order ON MYSELF after I make them. They are YUMMY. And even when I cover them up in tin-foil and walk all the way across the house to another room, they call to me, beckoning to be eaten. So I end up ignoring the imaginary restraining order. It's only IMAGINARY, after all.

Now, I love white chocolate (which isn't REALLY chocolate but is still so darn good) AND semi-sweet chocolate, so this is basically a recipe I have edited to include both (and yes, I DO sing "Ebony and Ivory" while I am making these cookies).

Bonus points are given to this recipe because it is cooking-with-kids friendly. Emmy loves mashing the butter and sugars together with her hands (I tell her to imagine she is smooshing wet sand), and she LOVES cracking eggs (though CRACKING isn't exactly the word for what she does. She basically SMASHES the egg in her hand, above the mixing bowl. I think it is absolute magic that she does this, and there is NO EGG SHELL in the batter. A miracle! It's like God really WANTS US to eat these cookies).

And EXTRA bonus points because these cookies are OATMEAL cookies, and oatmeal is rumored to help breast-feeding mamas produce more milk. I don't care if the rumor is true or not. Honestly, I am just looking for more reasons to bake and eat these cookies.

Here's the recipe we used:

1 cup unsalted butter at room temp
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1.5 teaspoons vanilla

1.5 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3 cups old-fashioned oats

3/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chunks (a la Nestle)
3/4 cups white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.

In a big bowl, smush up the butter with the sugars (or have your toddler do this, but be prepared - your toddler WILL want to eat the butter/sugar mixture off their fingers). Crack the eggs (or eggies, if you are having a toddler do this) into the bowl and give your toddler some chocolate chips to eat while you stir the eggs into the butter/sugar mixture. Add in the vanilla and stir some more.

In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients (or have your toddler do this, but tell them to mix SLOWLY. Otherwise your kitchen will end up looking like a war zone). Mix the dry ingredients and the chocolate chips into the butter/sugar/eggy mixture.

Drop BIG (like, ice cream scoop size) amounts of dough onto un-greased cookie sheet. You don't need that much room for them to spread.

Bake for 16 - 18 minutes (until the middles don't look "wet," and the outer edges are JUST turning golden-y brown).

Let cool for a few minutes, IF YOU CAN, before eating.