So, let’s get to business.  For my first post-hiatus trick, I give you……Bad MoFos*!

Bad MoFos are kind of a hybrid recipe I came up with.  I started with my favorite cookie recipe and tried to turn it into a cross between a cookie and a granola bar.  See, during my absence, Shayne and I have been dieting, working out and just generally trying to live a bit of a healthier lifestyle.  I still need my sweet splurges, but I’m trying to develop some with a healthy twist to take away some of the guilt factor.  Recently, I had a flight coming up and as I was preparing for it the night before, I was dreading all the unhealthy airport food choices and I experimented.  I came up with these lovely little bars but was very uninspired when it came to naming them.

I packed them up–some for my carry-on and some in the checked bag to have at the hotel and share with friends–and headed out.  Turns out I made a fast friend on the flight from Dallas to Vegas.  We started discussing food (imagine that, right??) and while she said she wasn’t big on sweets, I practically forced her to “try just one bite and if you don’t like it, I’ll eat the rest”.  Well, I never got it back.  She loved them because they aren’t super sweet and would serve as a great quick breakfast, too!

Then, feeling confident after seeing someone else enjoy them, I gave Shayne one (he’d been in NYC and Vegas all week, so he was in need of some of my food. ).  Instantly, he fell in love with the bars and declared them “Bad MoFos”.  Clever.

I continued to share the bars with different friends during WordCamp Las Vegas and it was unanimous:  the name had to be Bad MoFos.

What’s extra cool about this recipe is the huge amount of flexibility you have with it.  Add white chocolate chips and dried cranberries.  Reduce shortening, add peanut butter and chocolate chips.  Add walnuts or pecans or raisins or….anything.  YUM.

So there you have it.  And here you have the Bad MoFo recipe:

Bad MoFos

1  c  shortening

3/4  c  brown sugar

1/4  c  raw sugar

1 1/2  tsp  vanilla

1 1/2  c  whole wheat flour (update: I now prefer 1 c ww flour and 1/2 flax seed meal)

1/4  tsp  salt

1  tsp  baking soda

1/4  c  boiling water

1 3/4  c  quick oats

1/4  c  flax seeds

1/2  c  sunflower seeds

Preheat oven to 350.

Put water on to boil.

Mix shortening, brown sugar, raw sugar and vanilla well.

Add in flour and salt.  Mix.

Dissolve baking soda in boiling water and mix into dough.

Mix in oats, flax seeds and sunflower seeds.

Spread into a greased 13 x 9″ pan.  The dough is thick and not super easy to spread, so I use my rice paddle.

Bake at 350 for 25-28 min.

Cool 10 minutes and then cut into bars.  I like to wrap them individually after they’ve cool so that I can just toss one into my purse and go.

Feel free to use a more family-friendly moniker with your children. Bad Motorscooters?  Yummy Cookie-nola?  Ummm…..I don’t know.

These were inspired by Grab-a-Nola from Sandi’s Breads.  Since I don’t live anywhere near Pennsylvania and quickly realized that I was going to spend a fortune on shipping while I was eating 4 of them a day, I had to do something, right??  I will say that while my recipe does rock (I can say that, right?), there’s nothing like Sandi’s Grab-a-Nola.  Try hers.  You won’t regret it.  This is not a paid advertisement.  I just really, really like her Grab-a-Nola.  And her muffins.  And her bread.  And…yeah.  I like food.

Go bake already, would ya?  Why are you still reading this??

Go!

So I have a new favorite cookie.  And it’s awesome.  I think I’ve eaten approximately 19 of them this morning and I see no end in sight. Please make them and eat as many as I have.

White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup  butter, softened

3/4 c  brown sugar

1/4 c  white sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 c  flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp  baking soda

1/4 cup boiling water

2 cups  quick oats

1 1/4 cup  white chocolate chips

1/2 or 3/4 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350.

Put water on to boil.

Mix butter, brown & white sugars and vanilla thorougly.  Add in flour and salt.  Mix.

Dissolve baking soda in boiling water and mix into dough.

Mix in oats, white chocolate and cranberries.

The dough will be thick and not gooey.  Form into 1 1/2″ balls and put on lightly greased cookie sheet (I prefer to use parchment paper).

Bake for 9-11 minutes.

Gorge yourself.

(P.S.  These are excellent with a hot cup of Tension Tamer tea from Celestial Seasonings!

How could anyone resist these?

I found the original recipe at allrecipes.com, but made a few minor changes to make the recipe a little more to my taste.  Here’s my version:

Abbie’s Fudge Puddles

1 cup softened butter
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar*
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla**
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Preheat to 325.

Mix butter, peanut butter, and sugars until creamy.  Mix in eggs and vanilla.  In a separate, smaller bowl, mix your flour, baking soda and salt.  And to peanut butter mixture.  Once you’ve got your dough mixed well, roll into 1 inch balls and place in greased mini-muffin pans.  Bake for 14-16 minutes or until golden brown.

Immediately press center of cookies with melon baller ( I use a round teaspoon) and then let cookies cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan.  Any less time and they’ll be too soft to transfer in one piece and any longer, they might get too hard and stick/break.

For fabulous fudge filling:

1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips***
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla.

You can use a double boiler to melt this, but I just put them in a Pyrex bowl and microwave them for 1 minute.  Stir, then microwave in 20 second increments until nice and smooth.  Spoon into cookies and allow a few minutes to set.

*I love using dark brown sugar for a richer taste.
** I keep the huge bottles of clear Mexican vanilla on hand. I prefer the clear, because with the Mexican clear, you still get the amazing flavor, but it doesn’t affect the color of my icing when I decorate cakes.
*** I prefer semi-sweet to the sweeter milk chocolate, but do whatever appeals to you.