Happy New Year everyone! Wow. How did the holiday break go so quickly? Heading back into the office this morning is going to be a rude awakening. Between a week back in the freezing temps of Wisconsin and an overly spirit-filled New Year’s Eve celebration, I’m in need of a detox, a bunch of trips to the gym and more sleep. Luckily it’s a short week! I hope you all had wonderful holidays, I was lucky enough to be able to spend time with my family, catch up with friends, and enjoy delicious meals. I was so excited to do some cooking in my parents’ giant kitchen – it was quite a change from the cramped space I’m used to. And during the trip I took a shot at these super easy, guilt-free cookies.

I largely stayed away from the sweets (other than these) during the festivities, since I hadn’t planned on making my own and no one else in my family is vegan. So after watching everyone else with sweets I decided to throw these cookies together with some old bananas my mom had laying around. I forget which blog I was reading a while back when I first heard of cookies like these, but I remembered there being basically two ingredients – so I thought I’d try my hand at these. They were so easy – and so good! – that I think they’re going to be making regular appearances in my kitchen this year.

What you’ll need:

• 2 very ripe (or older) bananas
• 1 cup of rolled oats (I slightly chopped mine)
• 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Start by slightly chopping the oats so the cookies will hold together easier. Chop the walnuts into small pieces as well.

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, using a fork or potato masher to mix everything together. If the batter seems too dry, add some more banana, or if it’s too wet, add some more oatmeal.

Form the mixture into balls and place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 15 or so minutes. And that’s it!

I would have loved to add some chocolate chips too, but we didn’t have any laying around. And this way they were really guilt-free (even when having one before breakfast). They were surprisingly sweet without any sugar and very flavorful. You could add raisins, craisins, chocolate chips, or other nuts. These are a really versatile base to work with and the only problem with them is that they didn’t last very long – we had them all eaten in record time. 

I hope you all had wonderful holidays and you were able to spend time with family and friends. Back to the grind we go!