May 21 2015

Simple Skinny Banana Cookies

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So if you’re like me you are always seeking new and creative ways to use up those ripe bananas that no one in your house eats – well unless you live in my 2nd brother’s house. The man will ONLY eat black bananas. Crazy, huh? In the past I’ve given you cakes, cookies, tarts, bars, parfaits, smoothies and so forth types of recipes but even still I do my best to give you even more choices. Let’s face it, we get tired of the same ol, same ol’. Well unless it’s pizza and bacon. One can never tire of that. And if you do well… you can’t live on my island. lol

Well okay you can… if you make these cookies! What I love about these is that they are super simple, can be gluten free and you can add whatever you want to the mix. As you can see I made two types – some with raisins and some with mini chips. See I love bananas with chocolate (and raisins too… oh wait.. OMG! Chocolate covered raisins!!!) while Mr. Fantabulous hates banana and chocolate together. He’s weird; sexy as hell but weird.

This recipe came out of a panic to be honest. I was gone for 4 days and the lovely greenish-yellow bananas I had left at home turned ripe, UBER fast. Now I had assumed Mr. Fantabulous would eat one a day while I was gone however apparently one does not put bananas on Lucky Charms or peanut butter sandwiches. Yeah, that’s all the man eats while I’m gone even though there are at least 3 full meals in the fridge at one time. So when I got home I was greeted with a lovely bunch of super ripe bananas. The issue was he still had a bit of banana bread left and didn’t want any more of it. I didn’t feel up to making a cake or anything that took effort. Slacker, I know… *wink*

Once I got everything put away from my trip and got him a real meal in his belly I set out on making something with these. I had decided on cookies however when I went to grab the butter I was out. I freaked out. “How could *I* be out of butter?!” that just doesn’t happen in this house. But apparently when I got the butter out of the freezer last I didn’t look to see if I had more. I just assumed I did. MISTAKE! I could have gone with coconut oil but I figured if I wasn’t going to go with butter I might as well try to go a healthy route. Plus I wanted to challenge myself to make a super moist and delicious cookie without fat (well fat from butter or oils).

As I mashed up the bananas I saw that the liquid from them could act as the oil, an egg helped with the binder, oats were added because well, I like them. And I figured since I was going healthy I might as well try and go gluten free. Now truth be told I am one that should live a gluten free life not because of allergies but because every ounce of gluten and carb I ingest seems to settle on my thighs… damn it. Since my oats were already gluten free I was pretty good. Then I tasted the batter. It was lacking… flavor and texture. Yes I know it was raw dough and there really isn’t much texture to it yet but like I’ve told you for years I have this way about me when it comes to raw dough and my palate. It’s really refined and I can pick flavors apart as well as know how something will turn out. It needed a slight crunch so I looked at my pantry and found some of my nutty oat cluster granola I made (again gluten free). I added that and for kick some shredded coconut. The coconut added natural sweetness and another textural element. In went some cinnamon and raisins for him.

The cookies come out soft but will firm up when they cool. The cookies are overall a soft cookie that I kept in the fridge only because I like soft cookies, chilled. In the next batch I went with mini chips for me though as I write this I’m really thinking chocolate covered raisins or chocolate covered blueberries are on my list. Not exactly the healthiest additions but everything in moderation, right?

As I said earlier you really can add whatever you want to these cookies – chopped nuts, dried cranberries, cucka dried cherries *gag* LOL, powdered peanut butter (if adding jarred peanut butter you may need to add more granola and oats to account for the oils), protein powder (for this you may want to reduce some of the oats/granola so it doesn’t get dry) and so forth.

I seriously fell in love with these cookies. No, let me rephrase that. WE seriously fell in love with these cookies. He only loved the raisin ones while I loved both. Both had their own distinct flavors and they shined in their own right. I did make (not pictured) a chocolate version of these by adding about 2 tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder to the mix. I preferred the chocolate ones with milk chocolate chips as it needed that little bit of sweetness the milk chocolate chips give versus a dark chocolate chip. You could always add a trace of honey or sugar to the mix but then you’re on the verge of making a traditional cookie that isn’t as skinny as intended.

Now just because these are ‘Skinny’ cookies, that doesn’t mean you should go out and eat an entire dozen at once – though you” be pretty tempted to. Remember, everything in moderation. If you add in the protein powder, these make a great post-workout snack that is pretty healthy for you. I make these often and take a couple into work as my mid-morning snack that doesn’t weigh down heavy on me and keeps me full until lunch. Trust me, there are days where I’ll find myself being one of those desk grazers. That’s soooooooo bad. I finally went through and cleaned out my ‘snack’ drawer and got rid of all the crap in there. So now I only have almonds, protein bars, 2 boxes of tea, a few small pieces of chocolate and dried fruits. No pretzels, chips or other crap. Now if only I had a mini fridge and a small oven I’d never leave. LOL

So this weekend when you see you had some ripe bananas go on and make these! Your tummy will thank you for it!