Cookie-ish-healthy-cookies

I'm on a foodie roll lately :) Which is funny, since I don't particularly enjoy cooking. Actually it's not so much the cooking, but the cleaning up that I despise. Anyway, I was searching for a cookie recipe the other day with a limited number of ingredients. Since I don't cook/bake, I rarely have much in the pantry. I stumbled upon this little gem from allrecipes.com. It's a super yummy HEALTHY banana cookie. I emphasize the healthy, because it truly is. If you're looking for something sugary or chocolatey, this is not the treat for you. For us, it's perfect! The best part is Bryce digs it and I don't mind giving it to him because it has no added sugar. That's right. Zip!

What you need:

* 3 ripe bananas
* 2 cups rolled oats
* 1 cup dates, pitted and chopped
* 1/3 cup vegetable oil
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

What I added/changed:

-subbed raisins for dates
-subbed natural applesauce for oil
-a drizzle of honey
-flax seeds
-cinnamon
-nutmeg
-unsweetened coconut (tried this with 1 batch tonight. Not bad!)

What you do:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (the recipes calls for 350, I went for 325).
2. In a large bowl, mash the bananas. Stir in oats, dates, oil, and vanilla (and any other ingredients you fancy). Mix well, and allow to sit for 15 minutes. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet (those silpat sheets are perfect).
3. Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly brown.

The recipe says it should yield 36 cookies. Obviously, it totally depends on your cookie size. I tend to get around 28-30 cookies.

These turn out quite moist, not the typical "cookie" texture. So, they're simply cookie-ish. Also, they keep the shape they're baked in so form them accordingly. I'd like to play around with other ingredients soon. That will require a trip to the grocery store though...