Banana Oatmeal Cookies with Coconut, Walnuts & Chocolate Chips

Bethenny Frankel was on the Today Show yesterday talking about her cookbook, The Skinny Girl Dish, and I was inspired to search for a healthy dessert recipe to try out.  I found a recipe for banana oatmeal cookies that sounded very tasty.  To my dismay, I did not have all the ingredients.  So I searched a bit more, and saw some other tasty sounding banana cookie recipes, but none were exactly what I wanted, so I made my own.

These are definitely not the original healthy banana oat cookie that inspired me, but they are yummy and at least a bit healthy thanks to the bananas, oats and protein packed walnuts!

I love the coconut and the dark chocolate chips.  You could easily omit the coconut if you’re not a fan, or substitute the walnuts for pecans, or go nut free if you must.  Milk chocolate chips would be good, and peanut butter chips would also be terrific.

My only complaint with these cookies is that the banana makes them very moist and they become soft when stored in an airtight container, and they will stick together.  Make sure to cook them so that there isn’t a gooey center, and don’t store them on top of each other.  Another way to avoid stickiness is to eat them all, but I wouldn’t recommend that unless you have some help.  Here is the original healthy recipe, and here is my version.

Banana Oatmeal Cookies with Coconut, Walnuts & Chocolate Chips

Ingredients
  • ¾ cup butter
  • ¼ cup shortening
  • ½ cup sugar
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 2 ripe bananas, smooshed up good
  • 2 cups oats
  • ¾ cup coconut
  • ¾ cup walnuts, toasted and chopped
  • ¾ cup chocolate chips, dark or milk
Directions
  1. Cream together butter, shortening and sugars.  Add in egg and vanilla and mix well.
  2. Stir in bananas, then stir in flour, baking soda, and salt until well combined.
  3. Mix in oats, coconut, walnuts and chocolate chips.
  4. Drop by tablespoons onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, and baker for 10-11 minutes until browned lightly on top.