Pretend "Health" Food

I love my job.  I do, truly.  It allows me to be creative, love people, inspire, educate, and shape the future.

That being said.....I also love snow days.  I know people think as a child they are great, but they are 

b-e-y-o-n-d great as an adult.  Seriously.  

So, today I created a new recipe!!!!!!!!!  I know, if it weren't for the snow and ice, the world would not have this recipe.  This is the first recipe on this blog that I feel real ownership over.  Yes---I did base the recipe off of SkinnyTaste.com's "Chewy Low Fat Banana Nut Oatmeal Cookies".  But I added a few one of my own things and I feel like I can claim it!  (Maybe I am breaking major copyright laws.  Don't sue me.  You will pay more in legal fees than I am worth.)

So I was making SkinnyTaste.com's cookies because of this little situation.  

Walmart BRUISED my perfectly-good bananas last Saturday.
They were yellow when I bought them.  By the time I traveled the
5 minutes home, they were brown and spotty.  No good Walmart.  No good.
But I couldn't let them go to waste!

So I made the Banana Nut Oatmeal Cookies without the nuts (I didn't have them!).  They were definitely delicious in a healthy--I am not completely blowing my diet--sort of way.  I would almost consider them in-line with a granola bar.  You know, not a total sweet snack, but a sweet-ish snack.  Well after I made them, I had half a banana and 1 tablespoon of butter left.  So I thought, maybe I'll half the batch and make more.  THEN I had a creative moment.  Or maybe I just wanted to make the sweet-ish snack a teeny-little-bit sweeter.  So I scavenged the cabinet and found chocolate chips AND peanut butter.  

Duh.  Solution.  

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here's my recipe:

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (PB/BO/CC cookies for short)

-1/2 C. flour

-1/2 tsp. baking powder

-1/4 tsp. baking soda

-1/4 tsp. cinnamon

-1 Tbsp. butter, softened at room temperature

-1/4 C. sugar

-1/4 C. brown sugar

-1 egg (Well you can't half an egg, so I didn't put all the egg white in)

-1/8 C. mashed banana (This is about a third of a small banana)

-1/4 tsp. vanilla

-1 C. old-fashioned oats

-3 Tbsp. peanut butter (I used natural peanut butter)

-1/4 C. chocolate chips

The ingredients.  I forgot the peanut butter though!
And, no--this isn't a blog sponsored by Great Value brand food.

1.  Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl.  

2.  In large mixing bowl, use mixer to cream together butter and both sugars.  Add egg, mashed banana, and vanilla.  Mix until combined.  

3.  By hand, stir in flour mixture.  Add peanut butter and stir in.  

4.  Add oats and mix by hand.  Then, add chocolate chips.  

5.  Drop on sheet and cook for 10 minutes at 350.  I rotated my cookie sheets at the halfway mark.  

6.  EAT!!!!!!!!!  

This recipe made 18 cookies.  You could easily double it to make more cookies.  Still use one whole egg if you are doubling it.  

Here are a few more tips and pictures!  

I used my Pampered Chef Mix & Chop to mash the banana.  Great idea Chris H!

I used my Pampered Chef cookie scoop for this mix.  It's definitely TOO sticky
to do by hand.  But, a large soup spoon will do the trick just fine too.  Unless
Pampered Chef wants to start sponsoring my blog, then definitely only use their
medium cookie scoop.  ;)

Pretty delicious!!!!!!!

Now I will say these aren't your I-am-CRAVING-sugar-and-I-need-a-freaking-delicious-amazing-awesome-rich-decadent cookie.  These are your I-am-craving-sugar-and-I-need-just-a-little-hint-of-sweetness-peanut butter-chocolate cookie.  And I don't too think they are too terribly unhealthy.  Only 1 tablespoon of butter and a cup of sugar is pretty awesome for a cookie!  

Let me know what you think!!  

Original recipe:

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/04/chewy-low-fat-banana-nut-oatmeal.html#more