Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

What a crazy week we've had. We've all been busy with work, school, soccer, and various other special projects. Then, in the middle of the week, the weather decided to get exciting. It had been very hot and humid for a few days. We knew a storm had been predicted but didn't expect anything like this! It came through so fast and so hard that I thought for sure it was a tornado. For once, I was actually glad Kay was home from school with a bad cold. If not, she would have been on the bus when the storm hit and I would have been an emotional wreck!


We lost power for about 8 hours but luckily didn't have any major damage. As you can see from these pictures, the trees in our neighborhood didn't do very well. The next day on my way to work I saw that almost every house in our subdivision had huge tree limbs filling their whole front yard. I didn't notice any house damage though, so that is the good news. Almost everything is cleaned up now.


So now I have a backlog of recipes that I can post. I thought I'd start with the dessert! A few weeks ago, we were sitting around after one of Kay's soccer games discussing cookies. (We had just had these for a snack and they are awesome!!) My dad (aka Grandpa) was saying that he really likes peanut butter cookies and oatmeal cookies and he wondered it you could combine them. I was more than willing to take up this challenge!


I combined several recipes and gave it a try. Kay and I did taste tests through every step of the process and were very happy with them. We decided to make a surprise trip down to Grandma and Grandpa's that night so we could get instant feedback. SUCCESS!




1/2 cup mixture of margarine and shortening (I put a thin slice of Crisco in the bottom of the measuring cup and filled it the rest of the way with margarine)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup milk (we used soy)
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
2 1/2 cups oats
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1/2 cup chocolate chips


Blend together the margarine and peanut butter until smooth. Add the egg, sugars, milk and vanilla and mix well. Slowly add in the flour, oats, soda, and baking powder until all the dry ingredients are incorporated. Stir in the chips.


Using a tablespoon, drop the cookies onto a parchment lined pan. Bake at 375 degrees for about 12 minutes.


Makes approximately 3 dozen cookies.


Kay: They are awesome!!! They are really crunchy.


Dana: I think they are more chewy than crunchy. She might be saying that because she just ate one and they are a couple days old! I also considered adding chopped peanuts which I think would be really good also. I probably would have used all chocolate chips normally but I had some peanut butter ones so I figured I may as well throw them in.