I could barely wait to eat them!
There's nothing like peanut butter and chocolate and banana all mixed together! It might be one of my all time favorite flavor mixes. XD I also happen to love desserts, and thus this cookie was born with a little pinspiration from this pin that links to the original recipe on Watching What I Eat.
I made my own tweaks to the recipe, including cutting out the carob/chocolate chips and replacing it with cacao nibs. Cacao nibs are little bits of chocolate that are 100% cacao, meaning no sugar or milk have been cut in. They retain all the benefits that people talk about chocolate having, but it's less fattening because it hasn't been altered from it's original 100% cacao state.
The original also called for added chopped nuts, but I left that out in favor of using crunchy peanut butter. I know nuts are a healthy source of good fats, but calories are calories sometimes, and my needed nutrients at the moment didn't include needing that much fat, healthy or otherwise. I've been eating too much avocado, tee hee. Sacrifices, sacrifices.
I also used chocolate protein powder instead of the suggested vanilla because, come on, chocolate goes with peanut butter and banana WAY better than vanilla ever will, hahaha, but I'm biased. I'm a chocolate lover to the max. (^_~) I also doubled the amount of protein powder for the recipe so that it would be a more worthwhile snack.
I made my own tweaks to the recipe, including cutting out the carob/chocolate chips and replacing it with cacao nibs. Cacao nibs are little bits of chocolate that are 100% cacao, meaning no sugar or milk have been cut in. They retain all the benefits that people talk about chocolate having, but it's less fattening because it hasn't been altered from it's original 100% cacao state.
The original also called for added chopped nuts, but I left that out in favor of using crunchy peanut butter. I know nuts are a healthy source of good fats, but calories are calories sometimes, and my needed nutrients at the moment didn't include needing that much fat, healthy or otherwise. I've been eating too much avocado, tee hee. Sacrifices, sacrifices.
I also used chocolate protein powder instead of the suggested vanilla because, come on, chocolate goes with peanut butter and banana WAY better than vanilla ever will, hahaha, but I'm biased. I'm a chocolate lover to the max. (^_~) I also doubled the amount of protein powder for the recipe so that it would be a more worthwhile snack.
Monkey Oatmeal Cookies
Makes 12-14 cookies
Ingredients:
Ingredients:
- 1 banana, mashed very well
- 3 tbsp natural peanut butter (or nut butter of choice), creamy or crunchy (up to you; I like crunchy for added texture)
- 1/3 C unsweetened applesauce
- 1-2 scoops chocolate protein powder
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 C quick oats (or old fashioned, but NOT instant)
- 2 tbsp cacao nibs
- 2 packets stevia (or sweetener of choice)
- Optional: 2 tbsp chopped nuts of choice
Directions:
(Original recipe can be found here) |