Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bar

This recipe is my all-time favorite cookie; it’s my comfort foods of comfort foods.  As a child there wasn’t anything better than coming home from school to a jar full of these amazing cookies.  The sweet smells of cinnamon and baked goodness gave it away the minute I stepped foot in my house.  Occasionally my mother replaced the chocolate chips with raisins which would be the biggest disappointment of the century since who wants raisins in their cookies when they can have chocolate chips?  I know I’m not alone in that preference.  I still pick out the raisins, even in a cinnamon roll.

Back to these amazing cookies which I’ve made into a bar because 1) it’s faster and 2) I get to eat them sooner.  I’ve adjusted my mother’s recipe to include whole wheat pastry flour instead of all-purpose flour to boost the fiber content, otherwise, it’s a standard cookie recipe with lots of butter and sugar which means I eat these on occasion, not everyday or even every week.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bar

The one redeeming factor is the oatmeal.  Oats are fabulous for the heart, providing lots of soluble fiber which aids digestion and lowers blood cholesterol by literally hanging on to it while it travels down the GI tract and eliminating it.  We get soluble fiber from oats, fruit fibers (skins especially), and beans/legumes.