ALWAYS want cookies but have been listening to programs on NPR about the dangers of sugar. Ack! (Dr. Robert Lustig on Diane Rehm Show)
The sugar is apparently not so bad for you when it is “packaged” with the fiber and stuff it came with in the fruit, so bananas seemed like a good substitute. When I looked up recipes online for cookies without added sugar and cookies with bananas, many of them have other “weird” things in them that I don’t have easy access to (without ordering ingredients from the internet) or other substitutes that I don’t want to use (agave syrup, which another article says is bad for you, sheesh; or splenda, which nobody really knows about yet). Anyhow, tried these and they were pretty darned good. Yay! I am sure that they would be healthier if I left out the chocolate chips, which have more sugar in them, but that would make me want to cry…!
This is my adaptation of my FAVORITE cookies. The recipe is the one from the 1970′s era box of Quaker Oats, with some changes. I often put dried cranberries in the “original” cookies, but I haven’t tried that with the mashed banana yet.
Recipe:
1 stick melted butter
1/4 c canola oil
3 mashed ripe bananas (this replaces 1 c brown sugar and 1/2 c white sugar in the original recipe)
2 eggs (this replaces 1 egg plus 1/4 c water)
1/4 t. nutmeg
1-2 t. cinnamon
1 t. vanilla
3 cup oatmeal (I used quick oats)
1 c flour
1 t. salt
1/2 t. baking soda
Mix up in the order given. Add 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips. Mix and scoop by heaping teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet and bake in 350 degree preheated oven about 12-15 minutes. About 3 dozen cookies.















