My kids love cookies and I bet your kids do too! But cookies are usually high in sugar and fat and worthless when it comes to nutrition. I created these cookies as a healthy alternative to packaged junk food cookies. These are even a great choice for breakfast on the run. We often eat them for dessert after dinner and I put a few in their lunch as well. This recipe has no added sugar besides a few chocolate chips. They are vegan so you can totally eat the batter while you are making them. Most importantly, these cookies taste incredibly good. I would not hestitate to say that they are the BEST tasting healthy cookies I have ever made. I froze half of the cookies during the testing process and I put a few frozen ones in my kids lunchbox. They defrosted perfectly and tasted fresh at lunch time.
A few notes about this recipe. It is vegan. It can be also be made gluten free if you use gluten free ingredients. I use vanilla paste in all my baking, and you can see what that is here. If you do not have any vanilla paste you can use vanilla extract instead. You would use 1T. of vanilla extract in place of the vanilla paste. If you do not have coconut oil you can also sub in your favorite kind of oil. You could even try to use 1/4 cup of applesauce if you want these cookies to be lower in fat. I used Bob’s Red Mill almond meal, as seen here. If you do not have any, just take some whole almonds and put them in your food processor and voila, you have almond meal! I just love all the products that Bob creates and I promise that you will too! If you are vegan, you know where to buy good chocolate chips. If you are not vegan, you can use any chocolate chips or chocolate chunks that you have. I used these coconut chips in this recipe because that is what I had in my cupboard. You can easily substitute coconut that is shredded as well, use the same 1/4 cup amount as I did. I hope you enjoy these delicious healthy cookies!
Ingredients
- 2 large ripe bananas, mashed
- 1 T vanilla paste
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- 2 cups oats
- 2/3 cup almond meal
- 1/4 cup coconut chips
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- In a large bowl mash up your bananas very well.
- Stir in your vanilla paste and your coconut oil.
- In another large bowl stir together the oats, the almond meal, the coconut chips, cinnamon, salt and baking powder.
- Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir till just combined.
- Fold in your chocolate chips gently.
- Use a 1/8 cup measure to scoop out your cookies. Drop onto greased cookie sheet.
- Bake 12-14 minutes until cookies are light brown.
I am very excited to be a part of my first bloghop! What is a bloghop you might ask? A group of bloggers get together and all blog on the same day about one topic. We each post a list of all the blogs that are participating in this hop. I would love for you to visit the Appetizer group that posted recipes yesterday, as well as all my fellow dessert bloggers who shared their favorite dessert recipes today. You can see all the green links below, please visit them and share some comment love. And don’t worry, the other desserts being shared are more decadent than mine. I am positive that you will find some delicious appetizers and desserts to serve at your next party. I am excited to be included in this talented group of bloggers.
Monday ~ Appetizers
Petticoat Junktion | Cottage At The Crossroads
Create & Babble | Plum Doodles
Opulent Cottage | Brandywine Cottage
Domestically Speaking | What Meegan Makes
Tuesday ~ Desserts
An Italian In My Kitchen | Cook With 5 Kids
Roots North and South |Garden Matter
The Coconut Head’s Survival Guide
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They sound delicious! I think they would be great for a quick breakfast or snack.
Thank you Patti! I have been eating them this week for an on the go breakfast and they are so good and fill me up and give me energy until lunch.
I need to make these for my kids. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you Lindsay. I hope your kids enjoy them as much as mine do!
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This recipe will be wonderful to make with the little ones in our family this week! Can’t wait to try. So happy to share the hop with you. Cheers to a Happy New Year!
Thank you! It is so nice to meet you too. I am heading over to see your recipe right now. I hope your kids love them too.
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These look great! I am G free too and love Bob’s products. Glad to know you can freeze them and have them still taste the same. Going to give that a try. Happy New Year!
I am munching on a frozen cookie right now and it is so yummy. It literally melts in my mouth. Doesn’t Bob’s Red Mill make the best products? We were so excited that we got to meet Bob this summer. It was a total fangirl moment!!
Gotta love a cookie you don’t feel guilty about having for breakfast!
Exactly! I hope you can try them and have a little yummy treat for breakfast.
I like this, Sara!! I’ve made a more simple version (bananas, oatmeal, and chocolate chips) but yours sounds more cookie-like! Thanks for the reminder about these types of cookies. I’ve forgotten about them and should probably start making them again for my toddler. ?
Your toddler will love these. Be sure that your toddler has had nuts though. Otherwise they are perfect toddler food!!
These sound really amazing–they have some of my favorite ingredients, so I’m going to have to try this recipe!
I am sure you will love these! Thanks for visiting and happy new year.
My son loves cookies and he is all about sugar, it drives me crazy. I am always looking for healthier options that I can get away with for him to eat. These look like they will do the trick and I also like all the ingredients so I know I will enjoy them as well.
If you use ripe bananas, you will not even notice that there is no sugar in this recipe. They taste amazing and they are very good for you. Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy these cookies.
Love this recipe. I too have cookie monsters in my house. And we will be saving this recipe to make. happy new years!!! Xx
I think all children are born cookie monsters!! If these are the cookies you keep on the counter, these are the cookies they will eat. Happy new year to you too!
These sound so good and just what I need, some healthy cookies.
After over indulging during the holidays, a bit of healthy food is perfect! Thanks for visiting.
These seriously look amazing! You had me at “cookies”. 😉
They are such amazing cookies, I hope you can try them!!
Awesome! I’ve been looking for a healthy cookie recipe. I love that it’s vegan too.
You must try them, they are sooooo good!
I may need to try these – I am trying to be healthier for 2016 (isn’t everyone?)
Thanks for sharing!
xoxo Samantha | pearlsandpolkadots.net
It is the perfect way to have a little treat, and this treat has lots of nutrition packed into it!
How fun that you are participating in a blog hop. I am sure you’ll have a blast. The cookies sure look healthy! I could almost smell their goodness!
This is my first bloghop, but definitely not my last~ I have had so much fun meeting other food bloggers and sharing their yummy recipes as well. I wish you could smell the cookies, they smell heavenly( the cinnamon and vanilla and oats, amazing!)
Always looking for healthy treats! These look yum! Thanks for sharing on the tour today!
I had so much fun on this bloghop tour. I cannot wait to join another one again soon. Thank you for visiting.
Hi Sara – Hooray for healthy cookies! Those are the only kind we make in our home! Great fun joining you for the party! Hugs, Holly
With 5 kids of different ages, I must admit that I try to mostly make healthy things too. But teens have their ideas and sometimes sneak in unhealthier recipes. All in moderation I saw. Thanks for joining in on the party!
These look delicious! I love all the tasty add-ins! We need to try making these soon.
The add-ins make these cookies so good. I really loved the flavors together. Thanks for visiting and happy new year.
I wouldn’t mind having a few of these for breakfast either! I bet the bananas make them really moist.
The bananas not only make them moist, but it makes them sweet without having to add any sugar. They make the best breakfast.
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Can’t wait to make these for the kiddos.
I hope your kids love them as much as mine do!
I’ve gotten lucky I’ve never had a huge sweet tooth but these look really good. I always like to find healthy alternatives to food.
To be honest this post made me want oatmeal lol thanks for sharing.
Oats and oatmeal are both so good for you! Did you know they can lower your cholesterol? Thanks for visiting and happy new year!
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I love adding a healthy cookie to my recipe file. This sounds like a good one!
Thank you so much!
These sound delicious!
Thank you! I just made another batch because we were out. They are soooo good!
Wow, this is a great recipe. Vanilla paste wow, this sound delicious. I have to give these a try.
Thank you! If you have never had vanilla paste, you are in for a real treat! It really makes my baked goods taste so much better.
This recipe reminds me a lot of my oatmeal cookie recipe!!! I love the idea of adding coconut, yum!!!
The coconut flavor was so good and really added to the deliciousness of the cookies. Thanks for visiting and happy new year!
You had me at healthy then you added cookies and you got my full attention. Great post
Haha! Put cookies and healthy together and you have a perfect product, right? I hope you can make these cookies, they are so good. Mine are all gone and now I need to make more.
These look so good – and healthy! Can’t wait to try them with my kids.
Thank you Faye. I hope you can make them soon and enjoy them with your kids.
with exception of maybe the chocolate chips, these are almost VEGAN! yay 🙂 I love cookies.
These cookies are vegan! I used vegan chocolate chips in mine.
So glad to have found another healthy cookie recipe, sounds yummmm…I am either always looking for a healthy recipe or inventing one, this one is perfect!! 🙂
I hope you can try these out. Thanks so much for visiting and happy new year!
Yum! I made something similar and way more simple w. my kiddo.
And I had it for breakfast this am!
Awesome! I love that my kids enjoy healthy foods when they also taste delicious. Happy new year!
These look great! I’m pinning for later. Can you use vanilla extract instead of vanilla paste? Thanks!
HI Nicole,
Yes, you can most definitely sub vanilla extract for the vanilla paste, and you just use the same amount! Thanks for pinning. Happy new year!
These sound wonderful! We’ve drifted away from eating as healthfully as we need to, so this next year we will be doing better. My kids could do with a LOT less sugar–well, so could I. These cookies sound like a good way to have a sweet treat that is also healthy. Do you have any ideas for subbing out the almond meal? Two of my 7 are nut-free. I could make them as written for the others. Thanks!
You could use flour instead of the almond meal for the nut free ones. It is so hard to get rid of sugar, it is everywhere and so enticing to the kids! Good luck and happy new year!
Looks yummy!
Christine Maxwell Hand to Heart
Thanks Christine, it was quite yummy!
My kids love cookies too so am I. Yes i know how some cookies can be very unhealthy, full of sugar content in it. This one looks yummy and healthy too… could try this one at some point, for sure my kids would love this. Thanks for sharing the recipe! #justanotherlinky
These cookies are so good. We are on our third batch this week. Happy new year!
Yum, these look great! 🙂 #justanotherlinky
Thank you so much! I hope you give them a try. Happy new year!
I will have to try these out they look great x
Thank you for linking up with #justanotherlinky
I hope you can try these cookies. Happy new year!
Going to try making these with the kids x
Wonderful I hope you can try them! Happy new year.
What a great post! It can be so hard to find healthy options!
Thank you! I agree, there are fewer healthy desserts available. I hope you enjoy them!
I am not a vegan but we do try to eat at least 2 meatless meals a week. It would be nice to introduce some vegan snacks into our life. These cookies look and sound amazing and I know my grandson would love them. Thanks for sharing.
vegan snacks are so delicious, I really don’t think anyone would notice that they are vegan! I hope your grandsons will enjoy them.
YUM. We are big cookie fans so I love these healthy choices!
Healthy cookies are the best indulgence! I am making a batch this weekend.
These look and sound delicious. I’ve pinned them for later, thank you!
Thank you for pinning! I hope you enjoy the recipe.
Those look delish! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much. They are so good, a batch is in my oven right now.
Wow! These look amazingly delicious. I will definitely make these next time I make cookies! Thanks!
They are so good, I hope you can try them!
Yum!! They look delicious, and I bet they taste even better 🙂 They’d go well paired with a piece of fruit for a healthy snack between meals.
Great suggestion! A slice of apple and a healthy cookie is a perfect after school or afternoon pick-me-up snack.
Even the batter looks delicious. I love oatmeal cookies!
Since it is a vegan cookie, you can even eat the batter! It is delicious.
What a great recipe… tempting…
This recipe is awesome, I hope you try it!
Sounds yummy! I’ll have to give it a try!
Thank you, they are really delicious!
where does one buy coconut oil?
Hi Christa,
You can buy coconut oil at most grocery stores now. Trader Joe’s carries it as well. Or, you can even order it on Amazon at this link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JIRHXOC?imprToken=vJjtVrs6BRSRCCqPIW8qUg&linkCode=w13&linkID=UL4KLVR5FTT4ZVBZ&ref-refURL=https%3A%2F%2Fcookwith5kids.com%2F%3Fs%3Dzing%2Bfiretek&ref_=assoc_res_sw_us_dka_cra_c_result_2&tag=cookinwith5ki-20 I love that brand!
I’m always looking for healthy substitutes to satisfy me and my kids’ sweet teeth. These cookies sound yummy! How many cookies does this recipe yield? Also, can I substitute, oat flour (old fashioned oats ground into a flour), for the almond meal? I’m pinning. Thanks for sharing!
Hi lakisha, yes I think you could substitute oat flour. I have not tried it, but I think it would be fine. I have not made these in a few months and I do not remember how many they yielded! So sorry.
Got it! Thanks a lot again for heplnig me out!
of course, anytime!
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I love this. Great Content!