PB2 Chocolate Chip Cookies

This past week was my third week teaching full-time, and I'm exhausted. Working right after teaching all day has really taken its toll on me, but I'm enjoying it. I just have less time to bake than I would like. I made it my goal this semester to not eat lunchroom food at the school. It would be easy and I would probably get a lot more sleep, but I'm trying to be healthy here. So I'm just making the time to do it. It's just how it is.

One thing I can't give up is sweets. I recently tried Taralynn McNitt's avocado brownie recipe, and I'm completely obsessed with them. I've made them twice, and I ate 2-3 of them every single day until they were gone. The second time I made them, I made a double batch, but that turned out to be too many, and about halfway through the batch, they got moldy :( So, since I didn't have any avocados, and it was late, and I need sweets every single day, I decided to make something that I could take with me in my lunch the next day. I came up with these PB2 chocolate chip cookies.

If you've never had PB2, and you're trying to cut calories, and you don't want to give up peanut butter, I suggest you try it. I've tried the regular and the chocolate, and they're both delicious. It's just powdered peanut butter that mixes with water or milk, and it's just 45 calories for 2 tablespoons, as opposed to 190 in the standard jar of creamy peanut butter. I have it on pancakes, mug cakes, with yogurt, with cereal, with oatmeal... basically with everything. It changed my world when I found it, and I wish that I was being overly dramatic, but I'm not. It literally changed my world.

Whenever I bake these "healthy things", as my dad calls them, he hates it. He feels like he's been tricked. It looks good to him, but then he tries it and can immediately sense that something is wrong. But he's been eating these things more than I have! I think that speaks for itself, to be honest, because my dad is my harshest critic when it comes to baking.

PB2 Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup PB2 powder
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup stevia (I like mine sweet, but you can use less if you don't want them to be quite so sweet)
• 2 Tbsp agave nectar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mix together the PB2 and the water until you have a creamy consistency.

Add the wet ingredients, and stir until smooth.

Stir in the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips, then bake for about 10-12 minutes.

This batch made 16 cookies, and they were only 71 calories per cookie! Not too shabby, I'd say! 

Happy baking!

Andrea