One-Bowl Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies (vegan)

It's oatmeal in the form of a soft, chocolate-dipped cookie. Dessert for breakfast! 

For a period of time over the Fall, I had overnight oats almost every Saturday morning. I'd take it out of the fridge, mash in a banana, drop in a spoonful of peanut butter and a few chocolate chips, then mix it all together. Yumm! This is basically that in the form of a cookie. Let the cravings begin. :)

Thank you natural lighting!↑😍 It took me three times to get this recipe right. The first went well, but it needed another try. But the second time, it tasted like a dog treat (😬) - so BLAND!! So we added brown sugar and cinnamon to sweeten it up. These are probably all ingredients that you already have at your house. And if you're not going for vegan, you can just use regular milk instead of plant-based.

There is a huge lack of dry ingredients in this recipe - the main ingredients are bananas and oats. Banana doesn't make the mixture dry, and oats aren't very good at soaking in wet ingredients without being chilled or heated. So the "dough" is very messy. I ended up covering and chilling mine in the fridge for an hour to make it a bit easier to work with. I would actually call that optional though, because it still ended up messy. I just used a tablespoon to scoop out the dough and plopped it directly onto my baking sheet. These cookies don't take long to bake and don't spread at all. ;)

The chocolate is optional as well, but I HIGHLY recommend it! Vegan chocolate is chocolate that is at least 70% cocoa. Melt it with some coconut oil and you've got great dipping chocolate. I used my extra chocolate to dip strawberries in, then I rolled them around in shaved coconut. It was sooo good!

You can add more coconut oil to make the chocolate thicker, but it will make it taste a bit coconut-y. My chocolate was thin, so I just dipped the cookies. A thicker mixture would be better for drizzling.

This takes very little time and supplies. You can grab one (or a few) right before you head out the door in the morning. Perfect breakfast, snack or dessert!😁

One-Bowl Vegan Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies

Makes about 20 cookies

Ingredients

• 2 ripe bananas (They're sweeter and easier to work with when ripe)
• 1/2 cup non-dairy milk (I use almond milk)
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1.5 cups old fashioned/rolled oats
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 100 grams vegan chocolate (That's about one standard bar)
• 1/2 tsp coconut oil

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, break each of your bananas into a few chunks. Push up against the side of the bowl and comb through them with a fork to mash to about the thickness of applesauce.
2. Use a spoon to mix in the milk and peanut butter until all wet ingredients are combined smoothly.
3. Add in your dry ingredients: oats, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Fold in then mix with spoon.
4. Once the batter is fully combined, you can cover it and chill it for an hour if you would like it to be a bit easier to work with.
5. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
6. Scoop and space out Tbs-sized amounts of batter onto a lined baking sheet.
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes. The cookies will be soft and breakable. Let them cool for 15+ minutes.
8. In a small microwave safe bowl, melt your chocolate and coconut oil together on thirty second intervals, stirring inbetween. (Mine takes about two thirty second intervals plus another fifteen seconds)
9. Dip the cooled cookies into the chocolate and allow to cool. (chilling will speed up the process:)
10. Store in a sealed container in the fridge and enjoy!