No Sugar Oat Drops

*Chef's Note: I have tried to find a recipe for some sort of homemade granola bar for years now without much success.  I finally found this recipe (thanks to Pinterest) and scoffed at it initially; how could it even taste good? It's like a cookie but without sugar and HOW CAN YOU LIKE A COOKIE WITHOUT SUGAR?!? But then the more I thought about it, the more I realized I needed to give it a try. And boy howdy did it turn out well!  This particular snack is full of all sorts of protein thanks to the nuts, terribly high in fiber (from the oats, dried fruit, and nuts), high in those "healthy fats" they keep talking about, and just a little bit sweet because of the bananas and the fruit.  These are really filling for how small they are and freeze well; this makes them perfect for taking in lunches and grabbing when you're headed out the door and are trying to stave off that dreaded blood-sugar plummet I've come to know so well.  These also happen to be vegan and gluten free. And they make your house smell amazing when they bake. And they take just as long to make as a batch of cookies. Are you sold yet?*

No Sugar Oat Drops
adapted from Blueberry Girl


Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 20minutes
Makes: 18 cookies


1 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup coconut flakes (I used the kind you can find in the baking aisle but if you really wanted to go super healthy you could get unsweetened flakes at a whole foods store)
1/2 teaspoon salt 
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice (I didn't have any, so I used 1/8 tsp cardamom and 1/4 tsp nutmeg)
1/4 cup of almond meal or flax meal*
1/2 cup mixed nuts, finely chopped (I used almonds and walnuts)
1 cup dried fruit (I used 1/2 dried cranberries, and 1/2 raisins)


3 ripe bananas, mashed (the browner the banana, the sweeter it becomes)
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Preheat oven to 350 F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. 
In a large bowl, combine oats, almond/flax meal, mixed nuts and coconut . Stir in spices and salt. Add dried fruit and mix well, making sure the fruit doesn't clump.


In a smaller bowl (or a blender, if you're like me and cannot stand chunks of banana) combine canola oil, mashed banana and vanilla extract. Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and stir until well combined. 


Using measuring cup, scoop up a scant 1/4 cup of dough and drop it on the cookie sheet. Press the dough together with your hands into a flat-ish cylinder, or pack the dough into a round cookie cutter to form. Because these cookies don't spread when baking they only need to be an inch or so apart. 


Bake for 20 minutes until edges are golden brown, rotating the pan halfway through baking.

Tips:
*If you don't want to buy almond meal or flax meal, blend 1/4 cup of almonds or flax seeds with 1 teaspoon of flour or cornstarch until the mixture looks like cornmeal (the flour or cornstarch will absorb the oil that comes from the ground up almonds or flax). If it starts clumping, stop processing otherwise you'll end up with almond butter or whatever flax seeds turn into when it's pureed. You'll want to use cornstarch to keep this gluten-free. 
*This recipe is not hard and fast--explore using different nuts or fruits or less fruit or maybe add a bit of molasses to the banana mixture. Just remember to keep the proportions the same, so if you take away the  nuts entirely, add that much more rolled oats to keep things in balance. Likewise, if you're short a banana but you have applesauce, try the substitution.