crazy eyes: chocolate cherry cookies

Sometimes my dog gets crazy eyes. Her googley almond-shaped Cockapoo eyes get a wild hair in them and I know there's trouble coming. Trouble in the way of barking, and apartment lap-running, and refrigerator door scratching, and rubber tire chewing, and water dish spilling. She runs around, I holler "you're wiiiiiiild!" in my best Frances "Baby" Houseman voice, and for a couple minutes we're both twirling on the carpet and skidding across the wood floor and life is good.

see here she looks all sweet. don't be deceived. photo by ben carlson.

But then I stop twirling and her eyes move a notch up the crazy meter and I know there's only one thing to do: retreat to my closet-kitchen and focus on some perfectly salty-sweet cookies for the next hour while crazypants uses up her energy.

Tonight I just wanted a little chocolate. I turned the "Lost" marathon on TV to drown out the crazy black dog and found a simple cookie recipe that sounded about right. It's still January and despite a few moments of weakness, I've been pretty true to the cliche weight loss resolution I made on New Years Eve. So to justify breaking out the KitchenAid standing mixer (Ok... who really ever needs to justify that), I added a little extra oatmeal for heart health.

It turned out 25 perfectly bite sized cookies - I ate two - and then went to bed with the perfect amount of sugar in my belly. And I don't even feel that guilty about it! Ok, maybe I do. But just a leeeetel.

Chocolate Cherry Heart Smart Cookies

Adapted from Cooking Light

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup whole-wheat flour

1 3/4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1 cup dried cherries (I only left these out because I didn't have any but they would be delicious!)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 large egg

3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips, coursely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Combine flours, oats, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl; stir with a whisk.

Combine butter and brown sugar in a standing mixer fitted with a beater attachment until soft and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture and beat at medium speed until well blended. Fold in chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray (I always use parchment paper instead).

Bake at 350 F for 12 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Cool on pans 3 minutes or until almost firm. Remove cookies from pans; cool on wire racks.

P.S. Cooking Light promises these are under 100 calories each! I'll take it.