Easy Oatmeal Cookies

The link below is from last year, but it’s still super funny. Combine Stephen Colbert and cookies, and you get magic.
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/174545/june-19-2008/cookie-monster
I personally need cookies to survive, so my life mission has become to make amazing tasting cookies while trying to make them healthy at the same time. Not an easy undertaking, I assure you.
This dilemma reminds me of some song lyrics from Shakira:
No todo lo rico engorda (Not everything delicious is fattening)
No todo lo bueno es pecado (Not everything good is a sin)
Too many people have associated low fat or healthy foods with tasteless. It doesn’t have to be that way! I’ve been working on a couple cookie recipes for a long time and I think I finally have something worth sharing. My primary goal is make them as tasty as possible. It’s so hard to find a recipe out there that tastes good and isn’t terrible for you. Without compromising tastiness, I’m trying to cut down or eliminate the following:

• Sugar
• Oil
• Eggs
• Milk

I promise that you won’t be able to tell! When you make these, see if people notice, I bet they won’t! First off, you’ll need one ripe banana. I’m talkin’ super ripe. Like it’s going-in-the-garbage-cause-it-just-squished-in-my-hand ripe. I managed to somehow save one banana in my house, and while it’s not at it’s super ripe perfection, it’s close:

My Super Ripe Banana

My Best Ever Oatmeal Cookies

Sinless Chewy Oatmeal Cookies (makes about 2 dozen)
1 1/2 cups whole wheat fluor

1 heaping cup brown sugar

2 tbsp oil and 1/4 cup applesauce*

1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp vanilla
2 heaping cups of oats
1 mashed very ripe banana
a couple spoonfuls of water

1 cup raisins (optional, but very recommended)

*You can use just 1/4 cup oil if you don’t have applesauce on hand, or if you like your cookies a bit more crispy (as opposed to chewy). If you use the oil, remember to add 3 tbsps of white sugar. If you use the applesauce, experiment with different types of applesauce (strawberry, cinnamon, etc).

First off, you need two medium sized mixing bowls.

First Bowl: Mix the oil/applesauce, sugar, water, vanilla, and banana. Make sure to mix well, use a mixer if you have to. Add in your raisins (or any other extra you may have).

Second Bowl: Mix the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.

Combine the two bowls into one, but don’t mix too hard, do it as gently as possible. Lastly, add the oats. If it’s too dry, add water until it’s manageable. Scoop the yummy cookie dough by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. I like to use parchment paper/waxed paper so that I don’t have to worry about a dirty cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, depending on how large your cookies are. The best way to know is to sneak a peek at the bottom of the cookie and see if it is slightly brown. If it is, take them out immediately, because cookies tend to keep cooking even after you take them out of the oven! Let them stand for 10 minutes. If you can’t wait that long, then go ahead and burn your tongue =)
So good!

Enjoy!