Lighten Up!: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love Pinterest.  Really, it’s a little addicting.  There are so many great craft ideas, recipes, decorating inspiration, etc.

It’s also been a great platform to introduce people to Little Bit Sweet.  (Hi, Pinterest peeps!)

My “most re-pinned” recipe right now?  Chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

And now…drum roll please….there is a healthier version!!  It took a couple of trials, and a few wasted cookies, but today’s recipe gives you a yummy cookie that tastes so close to the real thing that you won’t know you’re missing half of the saturated fat and less sugar.

That’s right, a chewy cookie with chocolate chips and without worrying about the fact that there were 2 sticks of butter in the batter.  Yay!

Lighter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 40 cookies

• 1 1/2 cups dried, pitted dates
• 3 Tbsp warm water
• 6 Tbsp unsalted butter or margarine, softened
• 2/3 packed light brown sugar
• 2 egg whites
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups quick cooking oats
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt (*omit if using salted butter)
• 1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Place dates and water into a food processor.  Process until well pureed (about 1-2 minutes), scraping sides of food processor partway through.

In a large bowl, mix together the pureed dates, brown sugar, and butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs and mix thoroughly.  Mix in vanilla.

In a separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Add half of dry mixture to butter mixture and stir just until combined.  Add remaining dry ingredients and stir until combined.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop heaping tablespoons of batter onto baking sheets.  These cookies don’t spread very much, so you can put them fairly close together.  Flatten cookies a bit once you have the batter on the baking sheet.  (Keep in mind they don’t spread so they’ll be the same circumference after baking)

Bake 9-10 minutes, or until edges begin to golden.  Remove to a cooling rack directly after taking them out of the oven.

Estimated nutrition information (per cookie):  99 Calories, 3.5g Fat, 2g Saturated fat, 48mg Sodium, 16.8g Carbohydrates, 1.4g Fiber, 9g Sugar, 1.6g Protein

Compared to the original version, you’re saving 34 Calories, 3.1g Fat, 2g Saturated fat, 1.2g Carbohydrates,and 2g Sugar per cookie.  Might not seem like a ton, but every little bit counts right?  (Yes…the answer is yes.)   🙂  You are saving 2g of saturated fat (heart harming fat)…you’ve cut the saturated fat in half.  Awesome.

Let me know what you think!  Oh!! And as always, pin and share this and all other recipes that catch your interest.  Shamelessly plugging for more pins 😉

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