It’s Valentine’s Day so I’m pretty sure that means that I should be alternating between napping and eating chocolate all day, right? Isn’t that what true love is about?

My kids aren’t allowing me to nap, but they can’t stop me from eating chocolate. I decided that today called for good old chocolate chip cookies, but not just any chocolate chip cookies. These cookies are special. They have a secret ingredient that makes them fat and fluffy and delicious and beautiful.

The secret ingredient is just a small box of instant vanilla pudding powder. Crazy, I know, but it does amazing things to cookies.

The only problem with making these for your Valentine is you won’t be able to sneak in any kisses. You’ll be too busy shoveling cookies in your mouth.

Secret Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from allrecipes.com

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 3.4 oz. package vanilla instant pudding mix
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I use King Arthur’s white whole wheat)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Beat together butter and sugars until creamy. Beat in pudding mix, eggs, and vanilla. Stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt, and slowly mix that into the butter mixture until well combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop by rounded spoonfuls (I use a cookie dough scoop) onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a 350 degree pre-heated oven for 10-12 minutes.

Y’all sick of cookies yet? I apologize. It’s just…I seem to be in some sort of baking rut. It’s all cookies all the time around here! I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I plan to spend my day trying to figure that out. I’m going to sit on the couch and probe into my most deep and personal thoughts. I won’t stop until I understand why I am baking so many cookies. However, If I hope to achieve personal enlightenment, I had better have a cookie or two for sustenance.

What in the world did I just say in that first paragraph? I’m fairly certain it didn’t make a bit of sense. That’s what happens when I eat too many cookies. I stop making sense. It’s sad and bad and wrong, but I just can’t help it.

Luckily, these cookies are worth it. They are basically a peanut butter ball wrapped up in chocolate cookie dough and then smooshed and baked to perfection.

My favorite part of these cookies, aside from the taste, is watching people take their first bite. They are so surprised to find smooth, creamy peanut butter hiding in the middle of their cookie.

These cookies take a little more effort than most, though. You have to roll the peanut butter mixture into small balls and then smoosh chunks of the chocolate mixture into flat little discs. Put a peanut butter ball in the center and then fold the chocolate dough around it. It’s not hard, it just takes a bit of time.

Put  the cookie balls on a baking sheet and then press them flat with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar. Mm, sugar. Sugar is good.

If you aren’t all cookied out, give these a try. You’ll love ‘em.

Magic Peanut Butter Middles
Recipe from allrecipes.com

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 3/4 cup peanut butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a small bowl mix together the flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda. In a large bowl, beat together the sugars, butter, and 1/4 cup of peanut butter until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and egg. Slowly mix in flour mixture. Set aside.

For the peanut butter filling, combine confectioners’ sugar and 3/4 cup peanut butter. Beat together well. Roll filling into 30 small balls. Try to keep the balls all the same size – around 1 inch.

For each cookie use 1 tablespoon of chocolate dough and roll into a ball. It helps to flour your hands first. Squish ball of chocolate dough flat and place peanut butter ball in the center. Wrap the chocolate dough up and around the peanut butter ball to completely cover. Place 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. Dip the bottom of a glass into white sugar and use the cup to lightly flatten the cookie balls. Bake for 7-9 minutes.

I know I’ve mentioned on here a few thousand times that my husband loves cheesecake. Have I ever mentioned that he also loves cookies? In fact, he eats them for breakfast almost every morning. Well, every evening, I mean. He works third shift, so he wakes up not too long before we eat dinner. He always grabs a couple of cookies and a glass of milk to hold him over until dinner time though. He’s obviously very concerned about eating healthy.

Cheesecake cookies are the perfect breakfast for him and they are  so simple to make! You mix up the dough, which is full of butter and cream cheese, and then form into a log and roll it around in the graham cracker and pecan crumb crust. Ooh, it’s good.

I even added mini chocolate chips to one of the logs of dough, just for fun. Everyone loves a little chocolate, right?

The dough wraps right up in a piece of wax or parchment paper, chills in the freezer for 30 minutes, and then slices into perfect little cheesecake cookie rounds. I sliced mine about a half inch thick.

These bake in just 10 minutes and are so yummy. They look like they’d be hard, but they stay nice and chewy. They aren’t as creamy as real cheesecake, but they do have a nice soft texture.

The original recipe called for quite a bit of lemon juice and zest, and I halved that, but it was still too much lemon flavor for me. I don’t generally like lemon in baked goodies, so next time I’ll leave the lemon out entirely.

Cheesecake Cookies
Recipe adapted from Chickens in the Road

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 3 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 4 teaspoons lemon zest (omit or reduce this if you don’t like lemon)
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice (omit or reduce this if you don’t lemon)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup finely chopped pecans
• 1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips, optional

In a large bowl, beat together butter, cream cheese, and sugar. Add in the lemon zest and juice if you are using. Mix in vanilla. Stir in the flour until well combined and refrigerate dough for 30 minutes so that it is easier to handle.

Mix together the pecans, graham cracker crumbs, and cinnamon to make the crust. Pour half of the crust mixture onto a large sheet of wax or parchment paper. Form a log with half of the cookie dough and roll it in the crust mixture. Place log of dough on a new sheet of parchment paper and wrap the ends up. Repeat with the remaining dough and place both dough logs in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Slice dough into half inch thick rounds and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. The bottoms should be only lightly browned. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for a couple of minutes and then transfer to a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.

Winter is coming and what do you do in winter? You hibernate. It’s officially Fall now, which means that it is time to start preparing for winter. How do you prepare for winter and hibernation? You eat a lot of desserts. It’s the law, okay? I don’t make the laws, I just abide by them.

I should probably go ahead and apologize for the abundance of chocolate and oats recipes that I’ve been posting lately, but there is just something about the combination that makes me happy. I, obviously, have an addictive personality. I find something that I like and I make it until I can’t stand the thought of eating it ever again. Just ask my husband. The poor man has lived through a sloppy joe phase, a meat loaf phase, a Hamburger Helper phase (what is my obsession with ground beef?), and now he is trying to survive the current chocolate and oats phase. To be perfectly honest, I think this is his favorite obsession of mine so far. He just better pray that I don’t start adding the chocolate and oats to ground beef. Chocolate chip meat loaf, anyone?

These banana bread cookies satisfy both my need for chocolate and my new obsession with oats. With three whole bananas and two cups of oats, these little guys have at least some nutritional value, so quit glaring at me for making you fat.

My son, a true banana bread connoisseur, devoured half of these in the time it took me to shout at him to save one for his mama. To say he liked them is putting it mildly. I’m inclined to agree with him, these are so moist and flavorful, but be warned, you must have a nice tall glass of icy cold milk nearby. It’s another one of those laws I keep talking about.

I’m not sure if you can tell from the above photo, but the texture of these really is like banana bread. The flavor of the bananas is subtle, but it’s there and it’s delicious. If you’re one of those crazy people who enjoy nuts in their cookies, then I imagine these would be just divine with some diced walnuts thrown in the mix.

Try these. Fatten yourself up. It’s almost winter, after all.

Banana Bread Cookies
adapted from allrecipes.com

• 1/2  cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

In the bowl of your mixer cream together the butter and sugars until creamy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl stir together the flour, baking soda, cloves, and cinnamon. Add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Mix in the mashed bananas, oats, and chocolate chips until well incorporated. Drop by rounded spoonful (I used my cookie scoop) onto a greased or parchment lined cookie sheet and bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

I have this secret that I’ve been carrying around with me my whole life. I’ve always been too scared to tell anyone for fear of what they would say. I want to tell you, but if I do will you promise not to call me names and leave me?

I’ve never eaten oatmeal before.

No, really. I’ve never eaten oatmeal. I mean, sure, yes, I’ve had it in cookies, but I’ve never just sat down with a bowl of oatmeal and ate it. I’ve never even tasted it in that form before. It just looks so icky and, if we’re being honest, a little bit creepy. Like maybe the oatmeal actually wants to eat me, instead of me eating the oatmeal.

You aren’t calling me names, are you?

I hope not, because I think I’ve finally decided to try oatmeal. I made these delicious no bake oatmeal bars yesterday and I actually tasted the plain oatmeal crust and, man, it was good. I doubt regular breakfast oatmeal tastes like this crust does (people don’t generally put 3/4 of a cup of butter in their morning oatmeal, do they?), but I’m willing to give it a go.

For now, let me show you these delicious no bake chocolate peanut butter oatmeal bars. And, yes, they are fairly similar to the chocolate peanut butter oatmeal cookies I just made, but these don’t require baking, are in bar form, and, well, they’re just different, okay?

This recipe is super simple. You melt 3/4 of a cup of butter on the stove, add in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 3 cups of quick cooking oats. Cook them over low heat for 3 or 4 minutes and then be brave and take a bite. It’s oatmeal and it’s yummy! The mixture is fairly thick and gloppy (mm, appetizing, no?), but that’s how we want it. Just use a spoon and scoop half of the oatmeal into a buttered 8×8 dish and press it down.

Add 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of peanut butter (smooth or chunky, your choice) to a microwave safe bowl and microwave until it’s all melted together. You’ll have to stop the microwave and stir every 30 seconds or so to avoid burning the chocolate.

Pour the chocolate and peanut butter over the top of the oatmeal crust, reserving a couple spoonfuls to drizzle over the top of the bars.

Gently press the reserved oatmeal on top of the chocolate and peanut butter, drizzle with the remaining chocolate and peanut butter and then refrigerate for a few hours.

Go ahead, try ‘em. Just be sure to eat them all as fast as you can before the oatmeal decides to eat you first.

No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars
Adapted from allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups quick cooking oats
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky)

1. Melt butter in a large sauce pan over low heat. Stir in brown sugar, vanilla, and oats. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Press half of mixture in to the bottom of a buttered 8 x 8 dish.

2. In a microwave safe bowl, microwave the chocolate and peanut butter, stirring every 30 seconds until melted and blended. Pour the chocolate peanut butter mixture over the crust, reserving a couple of spoonfuls to drizzle over the top.

3. Sprinkle the remaining oat mixture over the chocolate and peanut butter, pressing gently to form a crust. Drizzle the remaining chocolate and peanut butter over the top of the bars.

4. Refrigerate for 3 hours before cutting and serving.