Steph's Banana Oatmeal Cookies

While I was on vacation this summer I asked Stephanie to write a guest blog for me. It wasn't a great time for her because she was moving (with a 1 year old, a husband, and a dog) from Ohio to California. Since she's been living closer, we've had a great time cooking together and talking about all the baking we're doing (instead of all the running we should be doing).

A few weeks ago, she sent me this email with the recipes that follows (and the photo):

Hey Bec!
I wanted to share this recipe with you....It's a variation of the banana-oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies that we (especially I) love so much. I found it while I was perusing on-line today (I think I found it in a food blog). Anyway, I thought I would share it with you since you mentioned the other day that you were trying to stay away from sugar. This is a vegan recipe (which we both know I am not one), but I made these cookies this morning with much success. They're moist and delicious, and my taste-tester (baby boy) seemed to enjoy them as well! Let me know what you think.
~Steph

Steph's Banana Cookies 2 dozen

Ingredients:

1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. oats
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4tsp cinnamon
1 tblsp ground flax seed

1/4 c. agave
1/4 c. soymilk (or regular milk)
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 T canola oil
2 ripe bananas (mashed)

1/2 c. chocolate chips

Directions:
You know the drill...mix the wet, mix the dry, incorporate the wet into the dry. Fold in chocolate chips. Bake 10-12min at 350 degrees.

The verdict: I tried them on Monday and they were a) incredibly quick to make b) no white flour or sugar - hooray! c) so delicious they were gone this morning. The only change I made was to use 2 T mini chocolate chips instead of 1/2 cup of the regular ones. If you want to be truly sugar free, try nuts instead. Oh, I used steel cut oats instead of rolled oats and I think the texture might be a little better with the rolled oats.

This recipe is a keeper - I loved it and will be making it often, but apparently not as often as Stephanie since her father-in-law keeps bringing her 5 pounds of bananas at a time hoping to be rewarded with a batch of these!