Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies *Fair warning, these cookies are soft and chewy. If you like a crisper cookie, bake them a little longer.* Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. ½ C butter, softened ½ C. peanut butter 4 Tbsp. all-purpose powdered egg mix + ½ C. water (or 2 large eggs) 1 C brown sugar ½ C. granulated sugar 1 Tsp. vanilla extract ½ Tsp. salt 1 Tsp. baking soda 1 3/4 C. flour 1 box (10 packages) of Sally’s Dark Chocolate Oatmeal (or 3 C. rolled oats, ½ C. cocoa powder, ½ c. mini chocolate chips* and increase granulated sugar to 1 c.) With an electric mixer on medium speed (or by hand) cream together softened butter, peanut butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, salt and baking soda and mix until combined. Add powdered egg mixture ½ at a time, beating after each addition until mixture is thoroughly combined. Add flour in 1/3-1/2 C. at a time, blending after each addition. By hand, stir in oatmeal cereal 1 cup at a time. Blend until oat mixture is just combined after each addition. *If not using cereal packages, combine cocoa, oats and chocolate chips in a separate bowl and mix together to distribute cocoa evenly throughout the oats, then add the oatmeal mixture to batter 1 cup at a time as above. Drop walnut size balls from spoon onto a greased or parchment paper lined baking sheet. The cookie balls should be about 2” apart. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 12-15 minutes, until cookies are golden around the edges. Remove pan from oven. Allow to cool for 1-2 minutes. Transfer cookies from baking sheet to wire cooling racks or paper towel and allow cookies to cool completely. Store in an airtight container. Repeat until all batter is baked. Makes approximately 36 cookies. A quick note on this recipe: I almost always use real butter for baked goods. You can substitute margarine or shortening if you want or need to. I also use real vanilla, but that can get expensive so imitation vanilla will work too. In this recipe, I used the powdered egg mix available on a fairly regular basis at the pantries, but real eggs are fine too. Since the oatmeal already had cocoa powder, chocolate chips and sugar in it and I don’t know how readily available the dark chocolate oatmeal is, I did provide an alternative using regular rolled oats, cocoa powder and plain sugar. Add the chocolate chips or leave them out. Maybe add peanut butter chips or both. Wouldn’t that be yummy! .