Cookies for Breakfast, WHAT?!

Every morning when I get Cyril from his crib I tell him what we're having for breakfast and what our plans are for the day. He's usually extremely excited for breakfast which I  chalk down to breakfast being the one meal I actually feel confident as a cook. I tend not to use recipes for breakfast, which makes it more fun, and it's actually one of my favourite meals. However, he was beyond excited when he heard me say we were having cookies for breakfast, I've never seen him want to get out of his sleeping bag and crib so quickly. He ran downstairs and sat the entire meal without one cry of protest and kept repeating "Cookies!"

So without further adieu here is the recipe which I adapted slightly from this recipe on the Minimalist Baker's blog. I use a lot of her recipes as guides because she uses minimal ingredients to achieve tasty meals quickly which is a must when you have little ones around. 

We're not a gluten or dairy free family, in fact quite the contrary, we consume multiple gallons of milk, several large slabs of butter and too many loaves of bread to count, but I still like to cook healthy meals and will often adapt her recipes to include flour or dairy if I don't have anything gluten free or vegan on hand.

OMG Breakfast Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 medium ripe bananas
• 2 flax eggs (2 Tbsp flaxseed + 5 Tbsp water) or 2 chicken eggs
• 1/2 cup natural peanut butter (crunchy or smooth) I used unsalted
• 2 Tbsp refined coconut oil, melted (or canola oil)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 3 Tbsp maple syrup
• 1 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup buckwheat flour but could use plain, oat or rice flour
• 1/2 cup almond meal 
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• pinch sea salt (add more or less depending on saltiness of your PB)
• 5 TBSP shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup cranberries

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160 C Fan or 180 C conventional or 350 F
2. In a large bowl combine flax seed and water and let rest for 5 minutes to achieve "eggy" texture.
3. Mash in the bananas add peanut butter, baking powder, baking soda, melted coconut oil, maple syrup, salt, vanilla and stir.
4. Add oats, almond meal and flour and mix well.
5. Add chocolate chips, coconut and cranberries and stir until well combined. Refrigerate for 5 minutes to harden.
6. Roll cookies in your hands to make a small ball and space evenly on a greased baking tray.
7. Bake for 15 minutes or until they look light brown in colour.
8. Placed on a cooling rack and eat! If you manage to not eat them all in one sitting store in an air tight container. You could also double the recipe and freeze half the dough for a future date which I plan to do next time.

Nutrition Information

* Calorie information is for approximately 1 cookie and this recipe should make 26 cookies.

Calories: 119 Fat: 6.5 g Carbohydrates: 12.6 g Sugar: 5.5 g Sodium: 44 mg Fiber: 2.5g Protein: 2.8 g