Bean Cookies

When I first embarked on my "sneaky" foods venture - I saw Jessica Seinfeild on TV talking about her new cookbook called "Deceptively Delicious".  I was talking about the book with my mother in law, Kim, and she said that she had the book & brought it to me the next time I saw her.  Of course I immediately dove into it and started trying out some of the recipes - some worked for my kids and some didn't - but the one that pretty much everyone liked was the chocolate chip cookies with chickpeas.  I could actually not find chickpeas the first time I made these cookies so I used lima beans.  So to all our friends they are known as the lima bean cookies - and they're a hit! This time I couldn't find anything but white northern beans - so basically any white bean will do!  These cookies are extremely soft and fluffy - they're not the traditional texture of chocolate chip cookies but are so good.  With a whole can of beans, brown sugar instead of white, egg whites, and oats you'll feel great about feeding them to the kids - and they'll come back for more. My five year old is sneaking into the kitchen as I type to try and sneak his third one! Here's how I've tweaked Jessica's original recipe to fit my cooking style:

Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup melted butter (I use a large microwave safe bowl and melt butter inside bowl in the microwave - then use the same bowl to mix the rest of the ingredients - one bowl clean up!)
- 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 2 large egg whites
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 (15 oz can white beans - lima, white northern, & chickpeas have all turned out great for me - I just use what I find easily)
- 2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup oats
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:
- preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl mix butter & brown sugar until combined
- add egg whites and vanilla and beat until combined
- add chickpeas and chocolate chips - use a mixer to combine until smooth
- add flour, oats, baking soda, and salt and mix on low until thick dough forms
- spoon onto greased baking sheet (you can cover your baking sheet with foil before spooning cookie dough, it makes for super easy clean up)
- bake for 11 - 13 minutes (I bake mine on the top oven rack so that the bottoms don't burn - you don't want to over cook these)

TIP ALERT:  You can add raisins or nuts to these cookies too - but my kids don't like either so I don't put the extra effort since they won't eat them!