Banana Oat Breakfast Cookies

This week I decided to try a new recipe and baked Banana Oat Breakfast Cookies for my family.  As many of you know this is a major occurrence in our household.  I enjoy cooking, but the grilling and the baking are left to my sweetie, Rick.  In fact the announcement that I was going to bake was met with responses of "Are you sure?" "Do you even know how?" "Mom, you are going to need my help." and my favorite from he who controls the oven, "Really?  Don't you want to wait until I'm back from Vernal?"

See this is the new me.  I am trying to do some of the things I used to enjoy when the boys were little, and I do mean little, since Jon has no recollection of my pre-Pilsbury cooking making days.  But I had found a new recipe that I was excited to try for a number of reasons:

1. It was a "Breakfast Cookie".  I had hopes that this would be something Lela would be willing to eat in the morning, since most days she tries to skip breakfast.

2. The recipe did not contain flour, eggs, or sugar.  I am always trying to find delicious gluten-free and/or sugar-alternative recipes for my extended family members that have health related issues.

3. We have a case of oatmeal in the basement storage that no one is eating and gallons of frozen bananas in the freezer that are also not being eaten.

4. When plugged into Weight Watchers Recipe Builder, the recipe with my adjustments equated to 2 points per cookie.  This is much better than the 5 to 6 points a similar sized chocolate chip cookie equals or the 4 points per package of Instant Oatmeal.  This provides a nice alternative to my normal breakfast granola or the referenced oatmeal.

Picture taken from Watching What I Eat

I did make some adjustments to the recipe to fit my family's preferences.  (You can link to the original recipe here.)  Instead of walnuts, I used pecans and I increased the amount of cranberries in lieu of raisins.  When mixing the batter, I quadrupled the recipe so that it would make more than one batch.  I did finish with exactly four dozen 2 1/2 to 3 inch diameter cookies.

I really enjoyed the results, but the reviews were mixed from the real critics (aka doubters) in my household. Lela absolutely refused to eat them beyond one bite once she learned the ingredients.  Jon liked them, although he said he missed the texture that flour would provide and they were heavier/denser because of lack of a leavening agent.  Emily said she liked them, except for the cranberries.  I knew what Rick's reaction would be since he judges all his food by texture - too much fruit, not enough flour.

The website has some variations on the original recipe.  Overall, the response to the original was enough of what I expected that I think I will try the variations one day.