Raw Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies(posted by Maggie)

What better way to procrastinate studying for a science exam than to make raw chocolate chip oatmeal cookies? I can't think of one...

These are pretty similar to my recipe for raw oatmeal raisin cookies, with just a couple of adjustments.  Their texture is actually more like chocolate chip cookie dough, rather than a baked cookie, but that might make them even more delicious.  Besides, I've always thought that eating the forbidden raw egg cookie dough was the best part of baking.  This recipe is completely eggless, of course, but you won't be able to tell the difference! 

Free of processed flours and sugars, the raw oats that are included in this recipe will actually help stabilize your blood sugar levels, instead of spiking them like a regular cookie would.  As an added bonus, the nuts and coconut oil make these cookies full of good for you fats - promoting healthy skin and hair.

As you might be able to tell, I can get a little bit nostalgic about this kind of stuff.  Even though there was absolutely no need for the cookies to be laid out to cool, it made it seem more like the real deal.  Don't laugh at me! We can say they had to be laid out to defrost, instead...

Ingredients:
1 cup raw rolled oats
1/2 cup raw cashews
1 tbsp coconut oil
3 tbsp honey or agave
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt 
1/2 cup raw chocolate chips

Directions:
Using your food processor, grind up the cashews and half of the oats into a fine powder.  Add in the coconut oil, honey, vanilla, salt, and up to 1 tbsp of water if needed, until a sticky paste like consistency is reached.  Here I used vanilla extract, which is not raw, but can easily be replaced with scraped vanilla bean seeds.
Add the rest of the oats, and pulse until combined.  Place the dough in the refrigerator for a while until chilled - if you made your chocolate chips using cocoa butter, you can skip this step as it's just to prevent chips made with coconut oil from melting.  Remove dough from refrigerator, stir in chocolate chips, and divide in to 16 parts.  You can either shape the parts into cookies, or roll into balls.  Here I made the dough into cookie shapes, but making it into balls would work just as well - if not better, as it saves time.
Freeze your cookies between sheets of wax paper in an airtight container, where they should keep for up to a couple of weeks.  I don't suggest storing them in the fridge as oats tend to go rancid quickly.

Nutritional Information (per one cookie)
Calories: 98
Calories from fat: 58.6
Total fat: 6.51g
Saturated fat: 4.57g
Cholesterol: 0mg 
Sodium: 37.28mg 
Total carbohydrates: 9.27g
Dietary fiber: 1.04g
Sugars: 3.89g
Protein: 1.56g