Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Looking for a healthy, tasty cookie? Look no further than the Barbershop! Okay, I'm a big dork. But it's true... If you're looking for a healthy, tasty cookie, here you are. :) A coworker of mine loves a good, solid chocolate chip cookie, and we're going over to his house for dinner tomorrow night. I gave him some of the chocolate chip cookies I made last week, so I thought it would be fun to switch it up this time around. That's where the banana and oatmeal come in!

I found this recipe online by googling banana oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Brilliant, I know. But I did think that it would be a good combination and of course there were many recipes out there! I ended up using one from Cooking Light, here. The recipe actually only gets 3 out of 5 stars in its ratings, but when I read through a few of the reviews, many seemed positive overall about the cookie so I chose to go ahead with this particular recipe. And as I mentioned earlier, it's a bit of a healthier cookie option, which is always a good thing; the nutrition facts are listed online with the recipe, which is linked above. A couple of the reviews online led me to change a couple small steps along the way, and I'll elaborate on that in a bit!

Here's the dough after everything is mixed in, as well as a picture of a ball of dough all ready to hit the oven...mmmmm.

I have to admit that I actually think my cookies look better than the ones pictured with the recipe online...but that's just my opinion. ;-)

Here are the few changes I made. The recipes calls for 1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour; I chose to split that half and half with all-purpose and whole wheat flour. Additionally, I added about 1/2 tsp. cinnamon to the dry ingredients. You can never go wrong with cinnamon... Finally, because a couple of the reviews online said that the cookie was a bit dry, I decided to make the batter a bit more moist by adding some yogurt (Dannon light n' fit vanilla). I only added about 1/4 cup, but maybe it did something helpful! Also, the recipe says it makes 2 dozen cookies, but I ended up getting 30 out of the recipe.

As for the taste of these cookies, there is a definite, detectable banana flavor, although it is still fairly subtle and not overpowering, I think. The banana flavor pairs quite well with the oatmeal and chocolate! I really liked the texture of the cookie overall too. I bet microwaving a cookie for about 10 seconds or toasting it slightly would be reeeeally yummy!!

Here is my attempt at changing up the photography aspect a bit... No, despite what you might be thinking, I did not sit and eat all of these cookies on this plate with my cup of tea tonight. I managed to have some will power and only ate one. :)