PB Oatmeal Compost Cookies

I was craving some cookies the other day and decided to make these Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies from Plain Chicken.

 Mmmmm!

Lookie at that Peanut butter oat-y goodness.

I thought that the cookies were really tasty, but my family is used to a bit more oomph in their cookie.  So halfway through I added craisins, chocolate chips, peanuts and pretzels. 

They were a big hit with Mrblocko and Blockette. 

Personally, I prefer the "plain" version.

This recipe makes a lot of cookies, even before you add any goodies.  I baked the whole batch and stuck them in the freezer. Let me tell you, they freeze great!  They do lose some of the softness that the fresh cookies had, but I like my peanut butter cookies to be on the crumbly side.

Even before I added the chips and bits and whatnot, I thought the dough was extremely moist and sticky. I added an additional cup of oats, and that seemed to firm things up a bit.  Plus then you get the added benefit of extra oatmeal. 

As we all know, extra oatmeal + cookie = healthy cookie.

One little side note.  I eyeballed the measurements for the add ins.  I was slightly less than halfway through the recipe when I decided to jazz things up.  I estimated what I used, and then doubled that amount for the recipe below.  Just use whatever you have!  Peanut butter chips, coconut, pecans, walnuts, butterscotch chips, banana chips, potato chips...go crazy!

PB Oatmeal compost cookies adapted from Plain chicken
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup margarine, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup peanut butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cup quick-cooking oats
heaping 1/2 c chocolate chips, coarse chop (I used semi sweet)
heaping 1/2 c broken pretzels
heaping 1/2 c peanuts, coarse chop (I used honey roasted peanuts)
heaping 1/4c craisins

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, cream shortening, margarine, sugars, and peanut butter until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into creamed mix. Mix in oats, chips, pretzels, peanuts and craisins . Drop by small scoop onto parchment lined cookie sheets. Flatten scoops to encourage spreading.  Bake 10 min  til light brown. Don't over-bake. Cool and store in an airtight container.