Banana Pudding Cookies

You know what rocks about my job?  You guessed it - working from home.  Granted, I travel a lot and sometimes wake up in the morning confused about what city I'm in or try to get in a random Chevy Malibu when I should be looking for my rented Corolla.  D'oh!  The Malibu was LAST trip, silly.  Anyway, when I'm not traveling, I work from my home office, and that is the best ever.  I just have to wake up in the morning, put on some socks (bonus if they match), walk down the stairs, and BAM!  I'm at work. 

A year and a half ago when I took this job, a few people told me that when you work from home, you should get dressed every day like you were going to a real office.  And then close the door of your home office and work in silence - no music, no TV.  Um, what?  No!  That would totally defeat the purpose of working from home, and then what would I have to brag to my friends about!?!  If I changed out of my yoga pants into dress pants, how could I possibly reign supreme over all you cubicle dwellers?  I mean, really. 

Anyway, people often ask me if I miss working in an office with a bunch of people and a water cooler and a duck pond out back.  The answer is no, no I do not.  Then they're all, "but what about the social aspect, don't you get bored!?!?".  Nope.  That's why God made phones and Instant Messenger....so I can talk to my co-workers when I WANT to, and not when I HAVE to.  And there are airplanes so we can all fly to the same place every now and then and get into all kinds of college-like mischief together.

I guess every now and then I think it would be nice to have some crazy co-workers to laugh at with from time to time, but when I get that urge, I just live vicariously through my husband and pretend that his co-workers are mine.  I mean, I know most of the office gossip, and I sometimes (not often enough, though, y'all) get invited to happy hour.  I feel like an honorary member of the team, and that's how I get my fix.  They're like my imaginary friends.

I made these cookies for my fake co-workers.  We can't have 2 dozen cookies in this house, that is for sure, and I don't have my own office break room to bless with my culinary genius, so I sent my husband off to work with these bad boys.  He emailed me at 8:36 AM and said they were gone.  If that's not a reason to make these RIGHT THIS SECOND, I don't know what is.  You're welcome in advance.

Enjoy!

Banana Pudding Cookies
Source: Adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 (1oz) packages banana cream sugar-free instant pudding mix
1 (1oz package) cheesecake sugar-free instant pudding mix
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped vanilla wafer cookies (I used low fat)
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Great or line a baking sheet with parchment paper

In the bowl of your Kitchenaid mixer (or you could use an electric mixer in a regular bowl), beat together the butter and sugars until creamy.  Add in pudding mix, eggs, and vanilla extract.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Stir in the vanilla wafer cookies and white chocolate chips.

Drop cookie dough by rounded tablespoons onto prepared baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes, or until slightly golden around the edges and set.

Remove cookies from oven and let cool on baking sheet for two minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely.