I have no idea what I was thinking the other night. At one point during the day, I realized that after 8pm, I was planning to put Gianna down for the night, bake cookies, make homemade pesto, and put together sandwiches (with the pesto) and sack lunches for 22 Stanford students. All with my husband out for the night.

I set myself up to make the house a complete disaster, but when Pat came home around midnight, the house was more on the clean side than the messy side, and I had a plate of cookies and a glass of milk waiting for him. Victory!

I’ve been in the mood for baking lately and of course, I picked this particular night to make it happen. After a quick survey of our pantry, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies were in order. It’s pretty satisfying to put together a dish or a meal without needing to make a trip to the store. Sometimes it takes just a few minutes of more thinking time.

This recipe definitely is the perfect cross between an oatmeal raisin and chocolate chip cookie. The cinnamon and nutmeg add the perfect, barely there spiciness and the chocolate chips, of course, are sweet and, well, chocolate-y. I managed to sneak some whole wheat flour into these cookies. I have a habit of doing this, and it seems to work every time!

On a side note, my oven is the bane of my existence these days. I recently discovered, with an oven thermometer, that it heats up 35 degrees higher than what you set it for and then decreases in heat from that point on. I have to constantly baby it by stopping and reheating it, the only thing that seems to work. Anyone else have this problem? Hopefully I figure out a workable solution soon. There are so many more things I want to bake!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, adapted from Simply Recipes

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup (2 sticks), room temperature unsalted butter
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
3 cups oats

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, sift together both flours, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.

Put the butter and both sugars into the bowl of a standing mixer, set with a paddle attachment. On medium-high, mix together until smooth, about 3 minutes. Turn down to the medium setting, add the eggs one at a time, and then add the vanilla. Beat for another 3 minutes, until creamy and light.

Now with the mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture in small batches. Mix until just incorporated. (Be careful not to over mix!) Add the water.

With the mixer off, stir in the chocolate chips. Then add the oats.

Grease 2 baking sheets. Drop tablespoon sized balls of the dough about 2 inches apart.

Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, until brown on the edges but still soft in the middle. If you like them crispy, keep them in the oven for a few minutes longer. Let cool for a few minutes on the baking pan, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy the cookies warm, with a glass of milk or scoop of vanilla ice cream.