Banana Walnut Breakfast Cookies

Why not start the day off with cookies? My banana walnut breakfast cookies have everything your body needs for a healthy start to the day – bananas, oats, nuts, and no refined sugar! These soft, delicious cookies make for a quick grab-and-go breakfast, post-workout snack, or a healthy dessert.

I struggle with what to have for breakfast more than any other meal. I don’t want to eat eggs every day and carb-heavy pancakes and waffles aren’t an option (except for holidays). I’m not a fan of cereals and hot oatmeal is too heavy for the warm mornings we have here in Florida. I also need more than just a smoothie to keep me from getting hangry by 11 o’clock.

However, two banana walnut breakfast cookies with a cup of coffee do the job of energizing my body, keeping me satisfied until lunch (and sometimes beyond that), and provides my body with a healthy serving of fiber, protein, omega 3’s, and potassium. Plus, they only take 30 minutes to make.

Ingredients Needed

• Overly ripe bananas – you want those spotty, soft bananas for this recipe
• Honey – this is optional depending on how sweet the bananas are and if you want additional sweetness, but the honey does add more moisture to the cookies.
• Vanilla extract
• Egg
• Rolled oats – don’t use instant oatmeal in the little packets or steel-cut or Irish oats. Get the old-fashioned kind in the cardboard canister. Opt for gluten-free oats for a totally gluten-free cookie.
• Applesauce – any kind will work here. I like using unsweetened applesauce, but cinnamon, chunky, sweetened, or fruit blends like apple-cherry sauce all work well in this recipe.
• Baking powder
• Cinnamon
• Kosher salt
• Walnuts
• Raisins

How To Choose The Right Bananas

What makes these banana walnut breakfast cookies so flavorful? Yes, it could be the cinnamon, vanilla, and maybe the honey, but the overly ripe bananas are what make these cookies so rich in flavor. But how do you know when the bananas are perfect to use in this recipe? Here are a few tips:

• Step away from the picture-perfect, yellow bananas and look for the bag of blemished, ugly bananas. These are usually the bananas that have black streaks, maybe a bit squishy. This is what you want.
• No ugly, overripe bananas? No problem. Buy the pretty yellow or even the green bananas and allow them to ripen on your counter at home. This could take a few days or up to a week.
• Get in the habit of freezing your bananas that are getting past their prime for eating or tossing into cereal. Peel and chop the bananas and place them in a ziplock bag and toss them into your freezer. This way, you’ll always have overripe bananas for your banana bread, cookies, etc.

Steps For Making This Recipe?

Here is the beauty of this breakfast cookie recipe:

1. Mash the bananas
2. Mix everything together in a bowl
3. Form into cookies
4. Bake
5. Eat

How easy is that? Trust me, these can easily be made on a busy morning!

Delicious Variations

• Want to up the fiber content? Throw in some flaxseed for a huge fiber boost. They also add a great nutty flavor.
• Want a vegan cookie? Replace the egg with 1 tablespoon of chia seeds mixed into 2 ½ tablespoons of water. Allow the chia seeds to become gelatinous and stir them into the mix instead of an egg.
• Don’t have honey, but want more sweetness? No problem. You can use brown sugar, coconut sugar, turbinado sugar, agave syrup, maple syrup, or brown rice syrup. You can also leave it out completely.
• Add shredded coconut and dried pineapple for a tropical flair.
• Feeling decadent? Add some chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, or cinnamon chips.
• Pecans, macadamia nuts, even peanuts would be delicious.
• Not a fan of nuts? Sunflower seeds or sesame seeds would work. You could also eliminate the nuts altogether.
• Replace the raisins with craisins, chopped dates, or other dried fruit like mango, papaya, or pineapple.
• Toss in some fresh fruit like chopped apples, blueberries, or strawberries.

If you like this healthy breakfast recipe, why not take a look at a few more:

• Peach Pie Smoothie
• High Fiber Banana Almond Smoothie
• Sweet Green Smoothie
• Dragon Fruit Smoothie Bowl
• Fruit And Honey Irish Oatmeal
• Overnight Banana Nut Oatmeal
• Fruit And Nut Granola
• Homemade Cherry Vanilla Granola
• Vegetarian Migas Tacos
• Zucchini And Red Pepper Frittata
• Broccoli And Cheese Egg Muffins

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