Happy National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day!

If you needed an excuse to cheat on your diet, today (May 15) is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day– you're welcome!

Who doesn't love a warm, gooey chocolate chip cookie – and especially on a day when they are singled out and celebrated for all of their wonderful deliciousness?

It all started back in 1930, when Ruth Graves Wakefield created the original chocolate chip cookie at her Toll House Inn, located in Massachusetts. Wakefield ran out of baker's chocolate while trying to make cookies for her guests, so when she instead used semi-sweet chocolate morsels, they were immediately a huge hit!

Fun fact: 25% of all cookies that are baked in America are chocolate chip. So go on out and satisfy your chocolate chip cookie craving at one of these yummy places around Northern Colorado:

• Mary's Mountain Cookies in Greeley, Fort Collins, and Loveland
• Eileen's Colossal Cookies in Fort Collins and Greeley
• Happy Lucky's Teahouse and Treasures in Fort Collins
• D.P. Dough in Greeley and Fort Collins
• Grandma's Mountain Cookies in Estes Park

If you happen to be traveling, stop in to a DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel and get a free chocolate chip cookie. Or, you could  just swing by your local grocery store and whip up a batch of Grandma's homemade cookie recipe instead.