Oatmeal Apple Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

AKA "Reindeer Cookie Bars" -- I guess because Reindeer eat oats and apples? :)
Source: my mom, Peggy Elwood

½ cup butter
2 eggs
½ cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 cups oats
2-3 cups flour
1 apple, peeled and chopped
1 cup chocolate chips
(optional) shredded coconut and/or chopped walnuts, to taste -- I just kind of dump some in

Heat oven to 375. Mix brown sugar, white sugar, butter, shortening and eggs in large mixing bowl. Add salt, vanilla, baking soda and cinnamon. Add oats and mix. Add flour and mix. Then stir in chocolate chips, apple, coconut, and walnuts. Spread in 12 inch rimmed pizza pan (or cookie sheet with rim) and bake for 12-20 minutes. (Last time I cooked them long enough that they almost seem too dry, but when I cut them up and kept them in a tupperware container for a few days, they turned out perfect.)

Kim's note: These little morsels of goodness are my all-time favorite cookie to make and to eat. Hands down. Why, you ask? I will tell you why. First, they are delicious. (That is why I love to eat them.) Second, they only require forming and cooking one giant cookie. None of this batch after batch stuff. Spread it all in one pan and bake only once. That's my kind of cookie. :)