Health, Taken Seriously

I’m not a huge fan of chocolate chip cookies–I just think they’re boring.  These cookies are not boring.  They are flavored with so many wonderful ingredients:  bananas, rum, coconut, oatmeal, nuts, and cranberries.  YUM!  I heavily modified a recipe from Cooking Light and they turned out wonderful.  This recipe makes easily 36-48 cookies so get ready to freeze some or share with the neighbors.

Ingredients:

• 1.5-2 cups brown sugar (depending on how sweet you prefer your cookies)
• 3 ripe mashed bananas
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup softened butter
• 1 egg
• 3 tsp dark rum
• 3 cups oats (I used old fashioned)
• 1.5 cups whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• pinch of gluten, if you have it available
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• pinch of salt
• 1.5 cups flaked unsweetened coconut
• 1 cup cranberries or raisins
• 1 cup shelled pistachios or walnuts

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place first 6 ingredients in bowl and beat with mixer until blended.  Add oats and set aside so that they can absorb some of the moisture.
2. Combine flours, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and coconut.  Mix dry ingredients with wet.  Add cranberries/raisins and nuts.   Drop spoonfuls of dough onto parchment-paper lined baking sheets.  Bake at 350 degrees for 18-19 min.