"Lighter" Chocolate Chip Cookies

Full disclosure: When I decide to eat a dessert, I don't want some cheap imitation. I just wind up eating three times as much trying to feel satisfied. So when the time comes for me to cook a dessert, I generally don't cut corners on the ingredients that make the dessert good- like fats or sugars. But the other day, I really REALLY wanted cookies and did not have the caloric budget for a cookie free-for-all, so I raided my Cooking Light archives and gave these a try...and they were good!

95 Calorie Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 cup flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour)
1 cup oats (the recipe called for regular, I used quick. Things turned out fine.)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 large egg
3/4 cup coarsely chopped dried fruit (I used dried cherries)
1/3 cup chocolate chips (yet another substitution from me=chocolate covered sunflower seeds)

Preheat oven to 350.

Stir together flour, oats, soda, and salt. Mix sugar and butter with a mixer or hand mixer until well blended and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg; beat well. Gradually add flour mixture, beating until well blended (depending on the strength of your mixer, you may have to mix the last bit of flour in by hand). Add dried fruit and chocolate, mixing just until combined.

Using a 1 Tablespoon measuring spoon, drop dough onto baking sheets sprayed with cooking spray or lined with parchment. Drop cookies about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned. Remove from oven, cool on pan 1 minute, then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Yield: 2 dozen cookies. (Meaning: You can eat the whole batch and as long as you only eat watermelon and cucumber the rest of the day, you will still achieve a caloric deficit. I'm going to write a diet book.)