If you are one of my followers, you know I have been watching a lot of YouTube lately. I am trying to organize and minimize my life. YouTube has a ton of suggestions on how to get that going and as you all know, once you click on one site another new site will pop up the next day.

What popped up on one of my recommended viewing was a three ingredient cookie made from Bananas. I had never heard of using bananas for cookies. Ice cream and bread, sure, but cookies.

I just had to try this. Here is the link (www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rQ=LrmzG3w). Guess these cookies are trending right now. I like to give someone credit for sharing such a yummy treat. There are so many that keep popping up everyday now, you all know how YouTube works.

The next morning I got up to make these cookies. So funny, at one point I thought I was dreaming but sure enough, when I popped back onto YouTube I had a ton more cookies sites just waiting for me to click onto.

So here it is, a Banana, healthier version for you…cookie. No lard, flour, butter, white sugar or dairy of any kind.

Ingredients:

1 cup quick cooking oats

1/2 cup regular oats

2 ripe bananas

1 cup of chocolate chips

Now, you can do the recipe above just like the tutorial said but they also said that we could be creative and add whatever we wanted to our cookies….so that is just what I decided to do. Remember my pinch of this and a dash of that baking style that drives my family nuts. I like to be creative in everything I do. Here is my version of banana cookies down below:

1 cup quick cooking oats

1/2 regular oats

2 ripe bananas

1 cup cranberries

1 cup walnuts

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon of honey

Alright, first let me just say I didn’t have any ripe bananas. My bananas were fresh. You can still use fresh bananas too. The riper they are, the sweeter they taste. I added a little honey to my recipe to help add some extra sweetness.

First cut up bananas then smash them.This would be fun if you had any small children around. Get them involved too. This is actually a pretty easy and fun recipe to follow.

Okay, once you have smashed up your bananas, they should look like this. This is a little of my sarcasm coming out. I know you guys know what a smashed banana looks like, just thought I add another photo…I do love to take photos.

Now add some oats.

Whoops, I almost forgot the honey and vanilla extract. It is better to add these ingredients straight to the wet smashed bananas, but I forgot, so I added it to the bananas and oats.

Okay, now the yummy stuff gets added. The walnuts and cranberries. Some cranberries come with a ton of sugar so be careful of that if you are on a no sugar or low sugar diet.

Once you have mixed everything together, let it sit for 25 minutes.

Then start baking. Use parchment paper to bake the cookies on. You will have to shape the cookies yourself. They will hold what ever shape you plop down, so try to give them a cookie shape.

Cook at 350F for 12 minutes then let cool on rack.

Yummy. I mean, I like them. Sometimes it takes awhile for our taste buds to get used to new things but these actually taste good. They are a little on the soft side and they are more like a bread then a cookie but it still taste good to me.

If you need more sugar flavor you can always ice your cookies.

Powdered sugar

Few drops of vanilla extract

1 teaspoon of milk or milk substitute.

We are trying to cut down on dairy, so my husband makes this milk substitute out of chia seeds, oats and water. Our kids are loving us right now, wondering what the deal is with their crazy parents trying no milk for awhile. We are trying out life without milk, we aren’t baby cows after all. If you decide to do the chocolate chip recipe, that right there adds a ton of sweetness as well. Later that evening I ended up making the chocolate chip cookies too.

We all have our treat days where we get to eat the bad stuff but for those days when you are trying to eat something healthy instead, then these cookies make a nice substitute. Happy baking everyone.