The Monster Cookie

I had an insanely awesome college experience, complete with great room mates, professors and classes. It was a tiny little suitcase school - meaning most people went home on the weekend's. Since I went to school about 20 minutes from home, I went home whenever I pleased. My sophomore year I lived with 3 other girls - two of which lived over an hour from home. Which meant that when they got around to going home, they brought back LOADS of stuff. One of them always always always brought back monster cookies.

I have a problem with things like monster cookies - I have no self control. I eat them for breakfast (no really, I'm serious) lunch, dinner, snack, you name it. The best part is I would always act like it was a shock when my stomach hurt.

I digress - this room mate of mine and her mother quickly realized how much I loved them which means her mom made them all the more, and she always brought them back to us. So, I finally asked for the recipe at the end of the year.

Why am I telling you all of this? Well, I signed up for a little thing called the great food blogger cookie swap! I wrote about it here and it was put on by love and olive oil and the little kitchen. They took time out of their busy lives to match up over SIX hundred food bloggers to three other people. We each baked, photographed and sent 3 dozen cookies - 1 dozen to each of our matches. We then in turn receive three dozen cookies - each a different kind, each from a different person. Ok, you're not that lame - you totally understand this. Anywho - I was super excited about the baking, and about the receiving of baked goods!

The first cookie that popped into my head was... "The Monster Cookie"... the ones I couldn't stop eating in college, the ones I hold responsible for the jiggle I feel when I'm driving in the car over a bump. I have tweaked the recipe a few times to put my own spin on it.

Ingredients:
4 eggs
1 and 2/3 cups dark brown sugar
1 and 1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 cup of peanut butter
1 cup of browned butter
1 tsp. vanilla
2 and 2/3 tsp baking soda - no joke

6 cups of oatmeal
1 bag of peanut butter M&M's
1/2 bag of chocolate chips or chunks

Brown the butter, and set aside until cooled (you don't want to cook the eggs). Put all the ingredients into a very large mixing bowl. Hand stir it all together - no blender needed for this one! Add the oatmeal in a little bit at a time, and add the chocolate last.

Bake at 350 for about 14 minutes - you want these SLIGHTLY under cooked, they are awesome that way.

Here are the three lucky people who received all this goodness - seriously, so sorry if any of you were on diets!! :-)

Eleana at http://choudown.blogspot.com/
Carroll at http://vanillalemonade.com/
Amanda at http://www.anorganicprocess.blogspot.com
... I hope you enjoyed them ladies! The 6 that were leftover were gone by the next morning, and they were heavenly.

I received:
Brown butter salted chocolate chip cookies from Christina at the Sweet Lavender Bake Shoppe - delish, and seriously cutest blog ever - check it out!

Caramel Laces from Kate - they were awesome toffee bits - trouble!... check out her blog

Peanut butter pumpkin cookies from Jewel at Eat.Drink.Shop.Love she wrapped them individually in christmas everything, with cute tags, I'm gushing - I'm just not that creative. Soo cute, and yummy.


...Did I mention that I need to fit into a wedding dress in just a few short months?? This might not have been my best idea...

Oh and to my college roomie - thank you, seriously!