First things first, I have to apologize for my absence this week. Last Tuesday, my 92 year-old grandmother had a heart attack. If you need to know anything about my grandmother, it’s that she’s always been healthy as an ox. We have always joked around about how she was going to outlive all of us, and since longevity runs on that side of the family (her mother lived to be 99, her mother’s mother 102) we figured she’d have another good 10 years in her. Last January she had some issues with what her doctor thought may have been a stomach ulcer, but other than that, she has been nothing but healthy. The news of her heart attack was a major shock and as the week went on, she was getting worse. So, I booked a flight to Phoenix.
Long story short, she’s recovering and was very happy to have family there to show how much they love her. She has a long road ahead and is at high risk of having another heart attack at any time, but I will never forget how happy she was to see my cousins, uncle and myself. We like to say we helped her get her will to fight back. Hey, whatever makes us feel better right?
And now on to the food …
I have become obsessed with Gina’s “skinny” recipes and could not wait to try these cookies when I came across them. Her description of “Chewy low fat banana nut oatmeal cookies” was more than I needed to read before jumping out of my chair and running to the kitchen. Ok, maybe I had to wait until I got home because I was reading the recipe at work, but let’s not get into semantics.
Her recipe is here but I made a few changes. The premise of this recipe is basic, you can play around until you get the taste you want. I, however, wanted to keep the health benefits so I didn’t do too much to it. You can’t mess with a good thing.
And these were good.
Here’s my version of the recipe, but as I said, do what you need for your taste.
- 1 cup white whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup unpacked brown sugar
- 5 drops Stevia extract (you can use regular Stevia, I’d use a 1/4 cup)
- 2 egg whites
- 1/4 cup mashed ripe banana
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups quick oats
- 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
The directions are the same as hers. Check out her site, I don’t want to take anything away from her. She also has the calorie count and if you’re into the Weight Watchers thing, she has the points too.
Oh and they freeze well too. I got 27 cookies out of the recipe. These are great for a mid-day snack, dessert, or on a flight to Arizona to see your sick grandmother.
And just for good measure …
Get better soon Abuela! <3
