for those of you with healthful resolutions

Whatever your resolution may be this year - to eat healthier, drop a few pounds, cut out processed foods - you're sure to find yourself craving a little something sweet every now and again.  But a little bit of sweet can totally screw up your new year's diet so what are you supposed to do?  Well, I've come up with a solution!  What's the healthiest cookie you can think of?  My guess is that you said oatmeal raisin cookies.  And now I've made them even healthier by using less sugar and baking with whole wheat flour instead of bleached flour.  To keep it satisfyingly yummy though, I tossed in a couple handfuls of cinnamon chips.  Yup, you read that right - cinnamon chips!  While on a field trip to the Hershey's store in Times Square (terrible, horrible idea around the holidays but for my daddy-o, anything) I came across these little drops of magic in the baking section of the store.  You all know that I have a crazy love affair with cinnamon; it's my absolute favorite spice.  So you can imagine my excitement when I stumbled across these... and my predicament about how best to put them to use in my cooking.  What better use for them than in some delicious oatmeal raisin cookies.  And after hearing a friend ramble on about cookies the other night, I found myself craving some fresh baked goodness of my own.  But the roomie and I are trying to be a little more health conscious in 2012 so I decided to make some tweaks to my traditional recipe.  Even with the tweaks, the cookies were super amazing so if you're looking for a tasty treat that won't blow your resolution, try these on for size.

healthful oatmeal raisin cookies

ingredients

3/4 unsalted butter, room temperature

1 c light brown sugar, packed

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp honey

3/4 c whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

3 c rolled oats

1 1/2 c golden raisins

1 c cinnamon chips (or more if you're me)

1 c chopped walnuts

directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350.  In the bowl of your electric mixer, blend butter until light and fluffy.  Add in sugar and blend until well-combined.  Blend in egg, vanilla and honey.

2. In a large bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients.  Stir the wet mix with the dry ingredients making sure everything is completely combined.  

3. Scoop out golfball sized balls of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for about 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.  Let cool on a cooling rack and enjoy... in moderation, because let's face it, a cookie is still a cookie.