DESSERT/SPLURGE: Eggless, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies w/Sea Salt

If you're like me, you work out, eat healthy, and when you want to cheat, you want something that's recipe on allrecipes.com, and just modified them a bit to make these cookies a bit extra jazzy (extra vanilla, all brown sugar, and an extra brushing of salt); enjoy!
worth the calories.  These cookies are worth cheating, in fact, you may even find that they're worth an extra pound.  I haven't baked cookies in ages; mostly because I have little to no luck with them.  They always turn out too crunchy for my taste.  Luckily, I found a great

Servings: 8-10 large cookies

Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup butter
- 3/4 cups brown sugar (loosely packed)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1.5 tsps baking powder (or .5 tsps baking soda)
- 1/8 cup boiling water
- 1 cup quick oats
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/4 tsp course sea salt to top cookies (optional)

Instructions: 
- Beat butter or margarine, sugars and vanilla until smooth.  Add flour and salt, mix well.  I highly recommend you use a hand mixer (nothing fancy - the $20 ones at Target or Walmart work really well)
- Dissolve baking soda in boiling water and beat into mixture. Stir in oats and chocolate  
chips. 
- For large cookies (as in shown in the picture), use an ice cream scoop to scoop batter onto a greased baking sheet (or baking sheet with wax paper).  Don't flatten scooped batter. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 15-17  minutes. Do not bake longer unless you want crispy cookies -  this time and temperature creates a moist, chewy cookie.

DESSERT: Lean Gingerbread Men

Servings: 1.5 Dozen Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup low-fat butter
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce (or low-fat yogurt - try 1/2 vanilla and 1/2 regular)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup dark molasses
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp ground ginger powder (or freshly ground ginger)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp allspice (if you don't have it, use cinnamon instead)
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves

Instructions:

• Beat butter, brown sugar, applesauce, egg, and molasses together in a large bowl
• Mix remaining ingredients
• Pour into butter mixture and mix
• Divide dough and let chill for 2 hours 
• Roll out dough to 1/4" or 1/8" thickness
• Use cookie cutter over rolled out dough and place gingerbread men on greased and floured cooking sheet or non-stick sheet
• Continue to combine and roll out scraps until all dough is used
• Bake 10-12 minutes @ 350 degrees
• Decorate with Royal Frosting when cool

DESSERT: Whole Wheat Oatmeal Chocolate-Chip Cookies

Serving Size: 2 Dozen Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup low-fat butter, room temperature (or substitute 1 cup applesauce, but be sure to add 1 tbsp of oil)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 3/4 cups whole wheat or all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 cups oats (add more if mixture is too wet)
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chip cookies

Instructions:

• Mix butter and sugar together using a hand blender 
• Beat in eggs one by one into the butter mixture
• Add in vanilla
• Combine flour, baking soda, and salt - add this mixture into the butter mixture
• Add in chocolate chips
• Let this mixture cool in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes
• Preheat oven to 335 degrees  
• Spoon chilled mixture onto a greased baking sheet - 1.5 tbsp per cookie should be a good size
• Bake at 335 for 10-12 minutes