Skinnified Sunday: Monster Cookies

I have always been a sucker for monster cookies. There are so many ways to make them, but the basic concept includes peanut butter, chocolate chips, M&Ms, and oats. How could you go wrong with those ingredients?! Seriously. I had some at a friend’s birthday and have been dying to make my own ever since. When I noticed that Sunspire had their own version of M&M’s, I bought them immediately knowing monster cookies were on the horizon!

I found the original recipe from Taste of Home

My swaps:

• ¼ cup Better’n Peanut Butter for half the peanut butter (-fat, -calories)
• TJ’s Honey Apple Butter for butter (-fat, -calories, -saturated fat, -cholesterol)
• Splenda* for some of the sugar (-sugar, -calories)
• Egg substitute for whole eggs (-fat, -cholesterol, -calories)
• Rolled oats for quick cooking (just what I buy)
• Sunspire Sun Drops for M&M’s (-sugar, -calories)
• Sunspire grain sweetened chocolate & peanut butter chips for butterscotch chips (-sugar, -calories)
• No peanuts (-fat, -calories, and I don’t like nuts in cookies)
• White whole wheat flour for all-purpose (+fiber, +protein)
• Extra cinnamon & vanilla (+yum)

*Some people feel really strongly about Splenda. You can easily use all sugar real sugar, I just prefer to cut some of the calories.

I was a little nervous about swapping in the Better’n Peanut Butter, but I was amazed at how well it worked!! That stuff is okay on its own, but it doesn’t compare to the real stuff. In baking, however, I would have never even known there was anything different!

PS, what is the difference between Better’n Peanut Butter and PB2? Does anyone know? All the popular bloggers use PB2, but I couldn’t find it 🙁 And obviously, if all the cool kids are doing it, I don’t want to be the lame one using the wrong peanut butter substitute. Clearly, I have really grown up and no longer use junior high mentality 😉

Okay, but back to the cookies…ummmm…they were gone in one day. Actually like 6 hours.

Whoops.

I think Jason may have eaten 4 in one sitting. Don’t judge him. They were really that delicious. And they’re “healthy” so that means you can eat the whole batch, right?

Skinnified Monster Cookies

Yield 2 ½-3 dozen cookies

• 1/4 cup PB & Co White Chocolate Wonderful (you can use regular PB, but this is just my favorite!)
• ¼ cup Better N Peanut Butter
• ¼ cup honey apple butter
• ¼ cup packed brown sugar
• ¼ cup turbinado sugar
• ½ cup Splenda
• ¼ cup + 2 tbs egg substitute
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups rolled oats
• ½ cup Sunspire Sun Drops
• ¼ cup grain sweetened chocolate chips
• ¼ cup Sunspire peanut butter chips
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup white whole wheat flour

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325. Spray a large cookie sheet with nonstick spray.
2. In a large bowl, cream peanut butter, Better N Peanut Butter, apple butter, and sugars. Add egg substitute, then baking soda and vanilla.
3.  Add oats, M&M’s, butterscotch chips and peanuts; let stand for 10 minutes.
4.  Stir in flour.
5. Use a medium cookie scoop  cookie dough onto the baking sheet, then use a sprayed piece of wax paper to flatten slightly.
6. Bake for 15-18 minutes until edges are golden. Let stand for 5 minutes on baking sheet, then transfer to wire rack to cook completely.