Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you have been following me on IG, you know I have been partaking in #cookiefriday. No, this isn't a reward for "eating clean" all week or sticking to my diet, it's just something I kind of picked up on a Friday after a rough week and it was the first time I had ever felt it was a nice way to sit with myself and enjoy something I loved even if society terms it as "bad". It was the first time that I didn't think to myself how I was going to negate the delicious bites I was taking or how it would be my "fuel" for my hard workout the next day to somehow make it acceptable to have eaten it. It was because I wanted a damn cookie and I loved it and let my mind be free. Every subsequent Friday I have bought myself a cookie and after a rough few weeks and it has becoming something that symbolizing so much more than just a sweet treat at the end of my day. It represents all of the times I restricted food, all of the hours I had to "work something off", or that I felt I didn't work hard enough to "earn". Fridays are now for cookies, Fridays are for "F' Diet Culture", and Fridays are the end and the start of something beautiful! So this week, I wanted to whip up some delicious cookies of my own. I have never really baked with oat flour before so I was a bit apprehensive, but these were the perfect cookie! Ingredients & recipe is below! Enjoy! 

Ingredients: 

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 4 tablespoons dark brown sugar lightly packed
• 1/2 cup coconut oil 
• 1/4 cup Natural Peanut Butter (Justin's Classic PB)
• 1 and 1/2 cups oat flour (Bob's Red Mill) or blend oats to flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (Enjoy Life Mini Chips)
• Optional: coarse sea salt

1. Take regular old fashioned oats or quick oats and blend them until they resemble a flour or powder in a blender or food processor- or if you have oat flour already skip step 1.
2. Combine the vanilla extract, large egg, and brown sugar in a bowl. Melt the coconut oil and let it cool slightly before adding to the bowl. Beat everything together until just combined.
3. Stir in coconut flour, baking soda, cinnamon (scale this amount to taste preferences), and salt.
4. Stir until just combined and then fold in the dark chocolate chips.
5. Chill the dough for at least one hour.
6. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
7. Using a cookie scoop (and pack these in the scoop very tightly or they may crumble), scoop out balls of the dough onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Press a few more chocolate chips in the tops if desired.
8. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges.
9. Remove and allow to stay on the baking sheet for another 2 minutes before removing to a wire cooling rack.