Banana/PB Cookies

Nothing is better than a healthy cookie! Based off of Nikki’s Cookies from 101 Cookbooks, I set out to make a new and different version of these tasty bites. Truth is, I wanted to make Nikki’s Cookies actual recipe, but I didn’t have most of the ingredients, so I had to improvise…. but let me tell you, these new cookies still tasted delicious and I would make them again in a heartbeat!

Ingredients:

* 2 large, ripe bananas, well mashed
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 cups of flour (whole wheat, normal, almond, any variety works)
* 1 1/2 cup coconut, finely shredded & unsweetened
* 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 cup of nut butter. Peanut, almond, or cashew.

AND LOTS AND LOTS OF CHOCOLATE CHIPS! Healthy, right?

Directions:

Ingredients

* First, mush up the banana making it soft and gooey. The banana acts both as the sweetener and the fat in the cookie. Thank you, Mr. Banana.

Smooshed Banana

* Place all the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix them together.

Dry ingredients -- how good is coconut?

* Add the smooshed banana, 1 cup of nut butter, lots of chocolate chunks and stir. VOILA, finit, done.

* With your hands, form tiny little balls together and line them up on an ungreased baking sheet. Put in the oven at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

Bite size munchies

* And eat them up!

Oh goodness goods!

Notes:

* These are a little on the dry side, but taste good nonetheless.

* Adding coconut oil (like in the original recipe) would make them more moist and soft.

* You can add additional chopped nuts or raisins, but I don’t like chopped nuts or raisins in my cookies.

So that’s it folks. Probably one of my first and only successes at tweaking a recipe and still being able to eat it and enjoy it! I now want to experiment with making baked goods from carrot and zucchini — anyone have a good recipe for that? Have a great weekend!