Healthy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ella and I made these cookies this morning – well, Ella made her own madeup recipe involving salt, caraway seeds and oregano, but that’s another story. Anyway, I’m always talking up this cookie recipe so I better finally share it. These are my favorite cookies to make these days and they are a bit healthier because they only have 2 tbsp. of butter, whole wheat flour and they contain applesauce and dark chocolate. And they’re so good! I make mine a bit larger than described below so mine take about 18 minutes.

Healthy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/4 cup applesauce
2 Tbsp. butter
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 cup quick cooking oats
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips or crushed dark chocolate bar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat together applesauce, butter and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla. In a separate mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Stir flour mixture into first mixture and mix well. Then stir in oats, followed by the chocolate. Place rounded tsp-full 2 inches apart  on a cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes.

My husband will hold his head in shame

I don’t really have a focus today. I’ve gone too long without blogging and now I have too many days to cover. I’ll have to summarize:

1. Great girls night Saturday with sister and friends. My sister summed it up well with her blog here.

2. Had fun at birthday party for nephew and neice Sunday night. Loved the pinata and the markers/notepads kids were given. Good idea.

3. Ella and I went to the playplace at the mall Monday and I wondered into Build a Bear because my mom recently told me all about it after taking my neice. You literally “build a bear” (duh, right?) or a dog or frog or whatever else they have, then you stuff it, you can give it a heart, a sound piece, then the best part: accessorizing. Ella was given one of these bears when she was born and so I thought perhaps it needed a new outfit. Afterall, Ella is starting to like dressing the dolls over at my mom’s …

So, I picked out a fun summery outfit and shoes, and boy does her bear look good. And they had a lot of clothes and shoes. I think this could get addicting. So, here’s what Ella’s bear is wearing now:

Oh and just in case you feel like your bear is a little overexposed – they sell little panties for them too.

Want to come over and clean my bathrooms?

Good News: We found the one missing gamepeice- which means Ella did not ingest it. Woo hoo!

The bad news is I wasn’t spared from the flu. I thought someone once told me that moms are supposed to have some super immune system. Not true. Luckily it went quickly.

Ella and I went to our Saturday morning swim class. It was fun although the water was very cold today. We sat in the sauna afterward for awhile with our new friends June and Melinda. Melinda is exactly one year older than Ella. Melinda showed her painted nails to Ella and I realized that Ella is probably old enough to sit still still for that. So we did that this afternoon. Her tiny nails were done in about two seconds and she seems very proud.

Ella’s napping now and I’m basically wasting time because I told myself I would clean our bathrooms today. Ugh. I’ve been putting off a lot of stuff around here, like steaming the floors, giving the bathrooms a good clean … I feel like I don’t have an excuse now that I’m not working so much. OK, I’m going to go do it. I am going to a girls night with my sister and friends later tonight so I need to work now.

Verizon: The worst costumer service EVER

To make a long story short, since we got their cable/Internet package, we have had one auto payment deducted – which we told them beforehand we did NOT want. Then we received a bill for 1 and a half months of service. And now it’s been a month and a half with no bill. Basically, it’s a mess.

Furthermore, my last payment is not reflected online so I called them yesterday. 51 MINUTES, and 4 DEPARTMENTS later I just hung up the phone because I was getting so frustrated. A lot of the time was spent giving my account number, address, last four digits of my soc, my bra size and whatever else they asked to most people that work at Verizon. And they still couldn’t locate our account.

I eventually asked them if they could deduct the minutes I spent talking to them figuring on my bill. (I thought that was fair) and guess what they said? “That’s not this department.” Surprise, surprise.

Anyway, I’m leaning toward getting cell service from TMobile. I like the idea of their My Fav Five plan, because that would cover so many of my calls. Anybody want to share their cell phone experience – if they like their company or not or if they have good coverage and good customer service experience? Comment on it. I’d love to hear.