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Tossing Christmas Cookies in July

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The arrival of my second trimester has brought with it a renewed sense of energy.  While I still find plenty of things to complain about (a talent I've always had), I am delighted to no longer be "tossing my cookies."  Speaking of cookies, how about this for a natural segue?

Today I made two kinds of cookies:  peanut butter chocolate chunk and maple oatmeal raisin.

Peanut butter chocolate chunk (left) and maple oatmeal raisin (right)
Tell me, what better activity is there than cranking your oven up to 350 degrees on a humid, Midwestern summer evening?
Both of these are adaptations of recipes I found on Pinterest.  The peanut butter chocolate chunk/chip may very well be my new favorite in the whole wide world.  (One suggestion that I believe to be an improvement on the original recipe is to cut the sugar in half, especially if you're using the Splenda brown sugar blend as I did.)  However, the maple oatmeal raisin "cookie nuggets" aren't too bad themselves.  A variation of the 2 Ingredient Cookies from The Burlap Bag, I simply added raisins and used two Quaker Oats Lower Sugar Maple and Brown Sugar instant oatmeal packets.  (I didn't have any quick oats on hand, only steel cut today.)  Although neither recipe uses even a whiff of flour or white sugar, I wouldn't exactly call them healthy.

Naturally, baking cookies required the ambiance provided only by one of my favorite Christmas stations on Pandora.  It is July, after all.  Somewhere between Bing Crosby, Andy Williams and the neighing horse on Sleigh Ride, I got so excited that I tripped and four of the cookies fell in my mouth.

If you take anything away from this post today, let it be this:  The obvious solution to avoid overeating and gaining excess weight during pregnancy is to spontaneously bake four dozen cookies.

Making good choices had never been one of my strong suits.

At any rate, both of these cookie recipes are rather versatile as they are easy to tweak for any craving.  Furthermore, they are delish at any time of year.  I guarantee you won't toss either one.

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