Healthy Breakfast Cookies

Chad is not a breakfast person and usually eats a granola bar or two on the way to work. I'm not quite sure how he does this because if I don't have a bagel or a bowl of cereal I turn into a grumpy, tired, mess of a girl who is less than pleasant to be around. Anyway, it's hard to send my husband off to work with granola bars that, although relatively healthy, have lots of unnecessary sugars and preservatives. So I decided to find an alternative that was equally yummy without all that junk his body doesn't need. Well, I think I found it...

Healthy Breakfast Cookies
1 1/2 cups uncooked oatmeal
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup unsweetened applesauce 
 1/3 cup dried cranberries
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
**I added walnuts for an extra crunch
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix vanilla extract and cinnamon into the applesauce. Blend applesauce mixture with all other ingredients. Drop rounded cookie dough onto a greased cookie sheet or parchment paper (use parchment paper if you can. I greased a cookie sheet and it made the bottoms a little soggy). Use the bottom of a glass or your hand to press the rounds down flat. Bake 20-30 minutes or until golden (They don't expand in the oven so feel free to go big!) Remove from oven and let cool.

The beauty of this recipe is that it is completely interchangeable with different spices, dried fruits, nuts, shredded carrots, or adding extras like flax seed, chia seeds, or some dark chocolate!   

Maddie