Chocolate Banana Walnut Oatmeal Cookies!

Have you ever had Laura’s Wholesome Junk Food? I love that stuff, but especially the banana chocolate cookie version. If you followed that link, you’d know my sadness–they no longer make it! And while I don’t think these cookies quite live up to Laura’s yet, they are really easy to make, and cost a lot less than $5.99 a batch!

Chocolate Banana Walnut Oatmeal Cookies (makes 13 cookies–a baker’s dozen!):

• 1 really ripe banana, mashed
• 1 T applesauce
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 T ground flaxseed meal
• 3 T unmilk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup walnut pieces

Mix the applesauce, sugar, syrup, flaxseed, unmilk and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl. There will probably be a few banana lumps–don’t worry about them, as long as they aren’t huge. Now, add the oats, flour, cinnamon and baking powder to the bowl, and mix until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts until evenly incorporated.

Drop cookies onto a parchment lined cookie sheet, and bake in a 350 degree oven for 12-15 minutes. It’s important to slide them off of the cookie sheet and onto a baking rack when done, so the bottoms don’t steam and get super soft. Let them cool fully before eating, or they will turn into a gooey blob in your hand. Yummy!

 

 

 

Oh, Smoothie

I don’t know that I have a lot of divine gifts, but the one I know I have is for smoothies. Apparently, ingesting many, many, many smoothies in my life granted me the ability to craft one myself with no recipe, or measuring. It was pure instinct, baby.

The smoothies I’ve been making lately follow the same pattern, so maybe that’ll be helpful: 2 T of vanilla hemp protein powder, 1 banana, about 1/2 cup mango chunks, 1/4 cup pineapple tidbits, 3 ice cubes, 1 tsp agave nectar, 2/3 cup milk and 1/3 cup orange juice. I’m obviously not sure if those measurements are completely correct.

But that’s the beauty of the smoothie! Just work at it until you get it right!

 

Banana Bread!

I made some Happy Herbivore Banana Bread, too, while on my quick bread making frenzy. Check it out!

The bread itself has the dense character that seems to come from having no-added-fat. But the taste is very good. Next time I’d like to have it with a little less sugar, and add walnuts. Though a large daub of peanut butter is my favorite way to top anything banana-y.

Banana Ice Cream

Yep. That’s just a frozen banana, some almond milk, vanilla, and cinnamon. You can find the actual recipe at Happy Herbivore, but it’s so easy, you could probably just figure it out yourself!

I will say that there are two issues I have with this: 1. It’s super hard to get the peels off the frozen bananas. Did anyone else think of peeling them before tossing them in the freezer? I have like 50 bananas in there (no joke). I solved that problem by just using my regular potato peeler. You lose a little bit of banana, but you get them still really, really frozen. 2. It wasn’t sweet enough. I’ve heard that can be an issue with ice cream, too, that’s why it has so much sugar–the coldness numbs the sweet receptors on your tongue. Or did I just make that up? I added a little maple syrup to mine, and it was pretty good.

Still, I’d love some more mix-in ideas. I love banana with peanut butter, so I might toss in a teaspoonful, and see if that works. Or stir in some chocolate chips. Or throw in a few strawberries. Or some agave nectar. Or…I don’t know! The world is your oyster. And this is too easy to make and too good to pass up.

Banana Breakfast Cookies

Behold! Somewhere, beyond space and time, banana bread and cookies collided. As they cooled and descended through the atmosphere of earth, a shining star was seen in the sky. And it was to be known as…

*aAAaaaAAaaaaawwwaaawwwa!!*

The Banana Breakfast Cookie. Part oatmeal cookie, part banana bread, part awesome idea. Where have you been all my life, cookie? Oh, what’s that? I wouldn’t have heard about you cause I wasn’t a vegan then? So it’s my vegan bat-signal that brought you down from the heavens? Hurrah!

Seriously, though, this thing is awesome. I’m so glad I baked these, and I now get to have one every morning for a month. Because you can freeze them!

Look into the mysterious tome known as Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar for the recipe.

Banana French Toast

This is the second time I’ve attempted this recipe from Vegan Brunch, the first time was a DISASTER. I used french bread from Target, it turned super mushy in the batter, and then stuck like crazy to my newly purchased cast iron skillet.

Fast forward to three weeks later, when I’m brave enough to try this again. And guess what? It turned out amazing! I went to the specialty grocery and bought high quality crusty Italian bread. I’ve really seasoned my skillet, so there was no sticking. And I had lots of blackberries that I purchased from Costco. Why does Costco have the best produce? It seems weird. But there you go, everything (except some apples I got out of season–bleh) is amazing.

I love the combination of banana, vanilla, cinnamon and cocoa that you get with this french toast. And I like that without the high fat and cholesterol milk and eggs, this recipe isn’t even high in fat. It doesn’t sit like a greasy rock in your stomach, and it isn’t too too sweet, even when you smother it in maple syrup. Yum.

Would it be wrong of me to add a little cayenne pepper?