Healthy PB Coofins with Hints of Banana and Cinnamon.

I couldn't think of a shorter name to call these cookies/muffins that'd describe them enough. They aren't quite a peanut butter cookie and have more of the texture of a muffin. So therefore here became the Healthy Peanut Butter Coofins with Hints of Banana and Cinnamon.

I started out looking for a great recipe for cookies. Little did I know my results would give me a nice moist coofin. The great thing about coofins if they pair well with jam. You could even, if you'd like make your own PB &J coofin sandwich using this coofin as the bread. Sound delicious, right? Onto the rest of this story....

I wanted to find a recipe for cookies that are healthier then your regular sugary ones. So I found these peanut butter cookies from  Heidi at 101 Cookbooks. Those looked nice I thought. I didn't want to use oil this time though. I was about to use applesauce in replace, but my apple sauce in my fridge was slightly moldy(yuck). That idea went out the window. I had one ripe banana on the counter staring me down not to waste it. So the banana was mashed and used. Once I used that everything else in the recipe changed slightly or you could say more then slightly so much that they aren't even really a cookie or even remotely close to the recipe I found besides the peanut butter and maple syrup pretty much.

I'll admit I can't follow someones recipe for the life of me. My Dad keeps saying "when baking, things need to be exact or it won't turn out right". In my defense I say "I'm learning from my fails". Which is absolutely true. I am becoming a better baker and learning what things work and don't in baking. Lately I've become rather good at baking and coming up with more of my own recipes. Which is a lot of fun, it's nice to share something and to be able to call it your own.

Now finally my Healthy Peanut Butter with Hint of Banana and Cinnamon Coofins. I hope you make up a batch soon and try not to eat them all at once. Don't forget to share too!

Healthy PB with Hints of Banana and Cinnamon Cookies

yielded about 19 cookies for me

1 3/4 cup spelt flour (you could easily use whole wheat pastry flour or maybe others)

1/4 cup golden flax meal, regular flax meal works fine too

1 cup peanut butter, I used crunchy

1 very ripe banana, mashed 

1 cup 100% pure maple syrup(Can be subbed with agave)

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

3/4 tsp salt (I used less since I'm a little more sensitive to salt)

Preheat the oven at 350 degrees F

Combine the wet ingredients; mashed bananas, maple syrup, peanut butter, and vanilla into a bowl and mix tell some what combined. In another bowl add the dry ingredients; flour, flax meal, salt, and baking soda in to another bowl mixing thoroughly. Slowly combine the dry ingredients to the wet. This will form a super sticky dough(I highly suggest putting it in the fridge for a while before working with. I didn't put it in the fridge and it took me a while to form them on the sheet.). Drop the cookies onto a oiled baking sheet or a parchment covered baking sheet. 

Cook for 8-12 minutes depending on your ovens or the size you made the cookies. Keep and eye on them so they don't burn! Because who would want burnt cookies? Certainly not me!

P.S. These cookies make a great before or after a work-out snack! Or even a snack in general when you don't want anything overly sugary, but want that subtle sweetness. 

Vegan Mofo-Oatmeal Cookies

   My dad has been asking me to make some healthy oatmeal cookies for him, so when I saw Oh She Glows oatmeal raisin cookies I knew I just had to make some. I subbed a couple ingredients here and there like dried blueberries for raisins and agave for maple syrup(I couldn't find my pure maple syrup). They are sweet, but not to sweet. Just the way I like things. I couldn't even help myself I ate two in one day then yesterday I ate another two and today I had one. They are seriously hard to stop eating! They smell so yummy! Trust me if you like oatmeal cookies these are a must to make, not to mention healthy as far as cookies can go.

Dried Blueberry Oatmeal Cookies adapted from Oh She Glows

(I temporary lost my camera so I had to take this picture using the webcam on my computer)

Ingredients:

1 & 3/4 cups almonds

2 cups regular oats, divided

3/4 cup white whole wheat flour

1/2 cup Sucanat (or brown sugar)

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup agave

2 tbsp almond milk

3.5 tbsp coconut oil (I think I used less coconut oil and added a touch more almond milk)

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

2/3 cup dried blueberries

  Preheat oven to 350F and grease a baking sheet. Dump almonds into food processor and process until finely grounded. Pour finely ground almonds into a large bowl and mix together with sucanat, flour, cinnamon, and baking soda. In the food processor grind 1 cup oats and add that to the bowl as well. Stir until mixed in well together. In a small bowl add the coconut oil and microwave for 20 seconds to soften (if necessary). In the same bowl, stir in the agave, almond milk, and vanilla, and pour into food processor(or just be lazy like me and mix it in the same bowl as the coconut oil if it's big enough). Process until the mixture is thoroughly combined. Remove bowl from processor and dump contents the large bowl. Mix in the remaining 1 cup of oats by stirring or with hands. Fold in the 2/3 cup of dried blueberries. Take about 2 tbsp of dough, make a ball, and then flatten with fingers. Place on cookie sheet. Repeat. Bake for 10 minutes at 350F and no longer. Remove from oven and let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes before placing onto a cooling rack for 10-15 minutes. Makes about 12 large cookies(at least for me anyways).

   I had a lot of fun making these cookies considering I haven't ever used coconut oil or sucanat before and they turned out great! Although instead of oatmeal cookies, I'd probably call them granola cookies because they remind me of the granola I eat sometimes for breakfast.

   For dinner i'm going to have just a pizza with veggies and pesto from whole foods, because well it just sounds good. Again sorry from not posting I'm going threw a rough patch I guess you could say so I didn't have time to post the last two days. I will keep doing mofo because I really don't want to quit. It's just hard to think of what to post and having the time to actually make something worth posting about. So I might not be able to post everyday, but I will at least post 20 posts this month or as many as I can get. Thanks for sticking with me on this. Now let's go eat some cookies!