Banana Breakfast Cookies

This one bowl recipe for banana breakfast cookies is the perfect healthy treat to start your day, with lots of flavor and zero added sugar!

We’ve all been there. We buy this perfectly cheery, bright yellow bunch of bananas, and we hang them on our cute banana hanger.

15 minutes later, they develop teeny brown spots on the peel and then nobody (myself included) will touch them with a ten foot pole.

So I say that I need to do something with those unloved bananas, and I start getting these looks that say, please make the banana cake with the chocolate chips in it? Plllleeeeeeaaaaaassssseeeeee?

And sometimes I do, because it was the first recipe I ever published on the blog and I love it too, but sometimes I like to keep them on their toes, banana-wise.

And so I bring you…banana breakfast cookies! They are kind of a chewy granola bar in cookie form what with the oatmeal and raisins going on rather than a dessert cookie…although you CAN have them for dessert (and the Southern husband happily did!

But they are definitely a fun approach to breakfast, and a great way to use up elderly bananas. And speaking of, I get this question a lot…

Can you freeze bananas?

Because as much as we love making banana bread, sometimes we don’t have time at the exact moment our bananas reach that stage, and the happy answer is yes you can!

Peel them first (you can read more about why here) and either freeze them whole or cut them into chunks, and they will be ready and waiting when you are ready to make breakfast cookies!

Here’s how you make banana breakfast cookies!

Get out your favorite mixing bowl and preheat your oven to 350.

Now smoosh up 3 ripe bananas (I like to do this with a fork on a dinner plate) and scoop them into the bowl.

Add a couple of cups of oatmeal (the old-fashioned kind, although in a pinch you can use the quick cooking kind. Just don’t use steel-cut.), a half a cup each of raisins and flaked coconut, a little cinnamon and vanilla, and some apple juice.

(Pro tip: I am always needing a little apple juice here and there for things like these cookies and my beloved homemade applesauce, so instead of buying a big bottle, I buy the unsweetened juice boxes, which I can grab from my pantry as needed.)

Mix it all up and drop it in generous spoonfuls onto a lined cookie sheet. You will need to mush them into a general cookie shape.

Now bake them up and a half hour later, you have cookies that are all ready for breakfast or healthy snacking or even dessert!

You want to let them cool down completely, so they can firm up, but then they are good to go.

And if you want to take your healthy breakfast even further, check out my easy peasy almond milk recipe to go with them!

And in case you are looking for banana inspiration on the sweeter side, these banana drops are along the same lines but with more of a dessert vibe.

I think my banana work is done for now!

Love, Kate xo

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