As I get more recipes added, you will soon find out that I love oatmeal cookies…and all the variations! Pumpkin, peanut butter, chocolate chip, there is an endless number of options.

This recipe is great because I stumbled upon it one day when I wanted to make oatmeal cookies. I needed two sticks of butter, but only had one. After some Google searches to try and figure out what could be used in place of butter…I soon figured out that bananas are an acceptable substitute. It also helps me justify eating a gazillion of these cookies because they are “healthy”, since one stick of butter is replaced with banana. Ha!

The banana, combined with the large amount of brown sugar in this recipe, really make these cookies soft and chewy. Sounds like perfection to me!

You will need to mash the bananas for this recipe. My favorite tool for this is a Potato Masher, but you can also use a fork.

This recipe calls for 1/2 cup of mashed banana, this is approximately 1 banana. I typically will mash the banana in a small bowl, measure it to confirm it is 1/2 cup, and then add it to the butter and sugars.

I like to make these cookies pretty big, so it takes about 14-16 minutes to cook them. I take them out of the oven when there is a golden brown circle around the outside, and the middle is just under done.

The cookies will continue to bake a little longer on the pan. You will need to leave them on the pan for about 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup banana, mashed (about 1 banana)
• 1 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 2 t pure vanilla extract
• squirt of honey
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3 cups of old fashioned oats

Yields about 10 large cookies

YUMMY additions (optional): chocolate chips, walnuts, etc.

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees
2. In a large bowl, mix butter, banana, and sugars. Add in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each one. Stir in vanilla and honey. Add flour and baking soda to the mixture, do not over mix. Mix in the oats (if adding any additions such as chocolate chips, add those now as well).
3. Add to cookie sheet by heaping spoonfuls (these will be larger than most cookies). Bake for 14-16 minutes until the outside is golden brown and the inside is just under done. Allow to sit on the cookie sheet for about 10 minutes before transferring over to a wire rack to cool completely.