Hey friends! I hope you all are holding down the fort in this impending ice age! I can say without doubt that all the grocery stores in my area are completely ransacked of their milk and bread (and maybe some peanut butter, fluff, and Nutella, too). In light of this impending chilly craziness, I thought of something for you all to do inside- BAKE! Big surprise, right? And it just so happens that I have a great new recipe to share with you!

This recipe is for Oatmeal Cranberry Chocolate cookies. These are sooo yummy- the perfect combination of chewy oatmeal that provides soluble fiber to fill you up (and is heart healthy!), the sweet dried cranberries, and the dark chocolate (we’ll say this is included for the antioxidants). Here are the ingredients:

• 1 cup margarine, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cup quick-cooking oats (either the 1-minute or 3-minute kind)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 bag Nestle dark chocolate morsels

First, preheat the oven to 375ºF. Cream the margarine and sugars together until they’re fully combined. Then, stir in the eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add the dry ingredients and mix until the most delicious cookie dough ever is in front of you!

Drop heaping tablespoonfuls of the dough onto ungreased baking sheets, and bake the cookies for about 11 minutes. If you have two sheets baking at once, switch which oven rack they’re baking on halfway through the baking time.

As soon as they come out of the oven, take them off the sheets and transfer them to a wire cooling rack. Otherwise, they might continue baking from the heat of the baking sheets, and get pretty crispy.

Now, dig in! These cookies are spectacular when warm, because the chocolate is all melty and silky, and the cranberries are the perfect sweet and tangy bite. Add in the warm nutty oatmeal, and you have yourself a blissful moment. Happy baking- and stay warm!