Super Easy Healthy Banana Oat Cookies

Cookies have been food group that I've had to severely reduce since I began cutting gluten, dairy and eggs out of my life. Seriously, I think countless friends have told me that I've lost a lot of weight, and it's not that I am eating less, but I am eating less in terms of baked goods. When I can get it though, I've always appreciated Babycakes Bakery's cupcake tops and cookie sandwiches as well as Enjoy Life's Snickerdoodles in the grocery aisle.

So when a friend told me at a recent get together that we were going to make sugar free, butter free, egg free, gluten free cookies, I had my doubts. Have you ever made a recipe from Pinterest? I guess there is always a first time for everything. I tried on 2 occasions with slightly different sets of ingredients and quickly learned what works best. These aren't cookies in the traditional sense, they are a bit more like dessert bars, but still tasty nonetheless.
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Tips:
*Use very ripe bananas, the more brown spots the better.
*Use quick oats. You can use gluten-free rolled oats, but quick oats works so much better. Since I'm not celiac, and I couldn't find GF quick oats, I just used regular quick oats, but they exist :)
*Mini chocolate chips work better than the chunks
*Not necessary but if you want a bit of a richer flavor, add a teaspoon and a half of melted coconut oil to your batter. You won't be sorry.

Pretty much the base recipe goes:
2 bananas
1 cup of quick oats

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet (don't skimp or your cookies will get stuck). Mash the ingredients together and add any mix-ins. Spoon tablespoons of your mixture onto your cookie sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes until firm and lightly browned on the edges.

Cookies...and Marshmallows!!

Last weekend, I was chatting with Erin and we decided we should probably be eating healthier than we do, yadda yadda yadda - you know how these things go....and immediately following that conversation, we decided to hit up Fette Sau in Williamsburg for some BBQ (which was sadly very disappointing) and then the grocery store to stockpile butter, sugar and chocolate to make cookies. Way to start off the first hour of a healthier lifestyle...

The base recipe for the cookie comes from the New York Times and can be found here. Supposedly you are supposed to chill the dough for 24 hours before baking - but seriously...who in NY plans that far ahead? I certainly don't. And clearly I have a problem reading instructions....but fear not they still turned out amazing!

What makes this cookie different is actually what's inside (and not part of the original recipe)....marshmallows! My sister get's all the credit for this - since she's the one who originally experimented and told me I had to try it.

After making the cookie dough, you form it into a ball like most cookies, flatten it like a pancake in your hand, and drop in a piece of marshmallow (about 1/4 of one big one).

Next, you wrap the cookie dough around the marshmallow - kind of like making a dumpling...

Bake for 10-12 minutes and you're done. I prefer these particular cookies on the undercooked side - the outside still has a crust but the inside is soft and that marshmallow just melts into everything...the batter makes about 50 cookies depending on the size of your cookie.

The cookie is on the sweeter side - so if you like your cookies less sweet (like me) - you might want to replace the chocolate with peanut butter chips or something not as sweet as chocolate (or use bittersweet chocolate). While you can cut the sugar, it's going to mess up the texture/consistency of the cookie which I don't recommend since that's part of what makes this it so damn good.

Craft Time & Cookies with Rebecca Minkoff

Last week I had a chance to escape the blur that has been the last month to sit down and relax for a moment. There have been more sample sales and events than I can count. I’m not complaining, it’s been wonderful in so many ways but just been feeling a bit frazzled and forgetting to take the time to enjoy the moments. * Life has become a series of Eat, Sleep, Work, Shop, Blog, Repeat.Anyways, sitting down on a Monday evening with Lani, some other bloggers, Rebecca Minkoff and her wonderful staff gave me a chance to take in a DEEP BREATH and sit still for a glorious couple of hours. It sort of also set my heart in a minor panic mode as I was icing Holiday Cookies, thinking is it really the Holidays already? Where did 2010 go? And do I really have to start thinking about buying gifts and cards already? Eek! Not sure I’m quite ready to face that yet.Tubes of frosting, bowls of sprinkles and edible stars soon held my concentration captive as I attempted to artfully decorate some sugar cookies. I learned shortly afterwards that as much as I like crafting, I am no pastry chef! Not my finest creations, but still tasty nonetheless. I wouldn’t mind a re-do or perhaps I should stick to decorating cupcakes!

Peep some of the fun cookies that others in attendance created!

We then switched gears to look at the Holiday Gift Collection that I mentioned earlier today that comes in Camel, Red, Purple, Green Snake, Green Metallic and Black. I had such fun looking at all the styles and decided that my favorite was the houndstooth multi zipper mini side purse while Lani picked out the Studded Green Snake to take a picture with to create a Holiday card.

Little did I know that Rebecca Minkoff would later generously gift us for the Holidays with the styles we picked out for our photo op.

So Lani and I began to craft holiday cards and Rebecca Minkoff came and joined us in the action. We talked about TV Shows and vacation destinations as we all got down and dirty with glitter glue, rhinestones and rik rak galore. Ms Minkoff is incredibly kind,incredibly real and so down-to-earth. She gives me a sense of being the fresh scrubbed girl-next-door. But she is also undeniably beautiful and glamorous too.

Mid progress, Lani looked up and noticed that Ms Minkoff’s card bared a strikingly similar resemblance to her new footwear line for Spring 2010! Guess you can’t deny a designer’s aesthetic whatever her medium!

Check out our finished creations above! Rebecca Minkoff’s (Top), Lani’s (Middle) and mine (Bottom Left)

As I am heading out the door, Ms Minkoff stops what she is doing to make sure that I have the gift box too. She personally helps me find the right sized box to take home and open my new gift when I need a cheer up. That little tiny action of her stopping and shuffling through boxes, sort of stole my heart. She’s a designer who cares, who’s into the details and not afraid to be hands-on. The perfect end to a perfect evening. A little glimpse at the character of one of my favorite New York accessory designers.

*On a side note, I’ll be doing plenty of chilling out soon enough as I’m heading to London, England for 9 days of holidays at the week’s end. I’ll try to keep up with the blogging but won’t be around to cover the sales. If you have any tips or fave places in London, let me know!