"C is for cookie and cookie is for me"

- Cookie Monster

Sometimes in life you just need a cookie. Cookies make us think of our childhood, wrapped in warmth and steaming from the oven, too hot to eat but we can't help ourselves. they are comforting and can ease a bad day, dispel a rotten mood and calm the soul. However, just because you need a cookie doesn't mean you need the sugar, butter, and flour that go along with it for we have all had that stomach ache after indulging in just one too many of our freshly baked treats.

Nothing beats a good old fashioned sugared up cookie but if you are like me and are sensitive to sugar and find that your sweet tooth becomes unmanageable when you indulge that you need an alternative for those days in which a cookie is mandatory.

I will be the first to admit that for the majority of my life I was addicted to sugar, I craved it all the time, cookies, candy, cakes. Even though I was a vegetarian I wasn't eating very healthy and instead was living on sour patch kids, it also didn't help that I loved to bake! As I broke my sugar addiction and vowed to clean up my diet I started to only consume items with natural sugars and even though I do occasionally indulge in a sugary treat I now find that often it has an unnatural overly sweet taste that instantly gives me a headache. You might think that you cannot give up sugar but give it a try and feel how amazing it is to not flood your body with processed foods!!

Now back to the cookies - these cookies are filled with whole goodness, bananas, applesauce, flax, maple syrup, walnuts, oats, raisins, and 85% dark chocolate. They have protein and fiber and aren't cloyingly sweet. They have a nice chewy texture and are so satisfying that I actually eat them for breakfast! I really hope that you give them a try and kick that sugar addiction to the curb!

Vegan baking tips: There are a lot of substitutions when trying to bake without dairy and eggs and I just wanted to you a few so that you could experiment with other recipes that you may be looking to convert....

1 cup of bananas = 1 cup of butter

1 cup of unsweetened applesauce = 1 cup of sugar, vanilla extract can also be used to sweeten

An egg can be replaced with banana or applesauce but flax is an awesome binder;

1 tbs ground flax + 3 tbs water = 1 egg

Vegan Oatmeal Raisin, Walnut, and Dark Chocolate Cookies

3 Ripe Bananas (aprox. 1 cup)

1 cup Unsweetened Applesauce

1 tbs Vanilla Extract

2 tbs to 1/2 cup Maple Syrup, depending on your tastes

1 tbs Ground Flax + 3 tbs Water

3/4 cup Oat Flour (you can make your own by processing oats in your food processor)

1/4 cup Coconut Flour

1 Tbs Baking Soda

1 tsp Pink HImelayan Sea Salt

2 tbs Cinnamon

1 tsp Cayenne Pepper

1 cup Rolled Oats

1/2 cup Chopped Walnuts

1/2 cup Raisins

1/2 cup 85% Dark Chocolate, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the ground flax and water in a small bowl and stir, let sit until congealed, this is a flax egg and great for binding.

In a mixing bowl or stand mixer, mix the bananas, apple sauce, vanilla extract and maple until well combined making sure the bananas are mashed. Add the flax egg continuing to mix until incorporated.

In a small bowl combine the flours, baking soda, salt, and spices and stir. Add to your banana mixture and stir until combined and the dough begins to hold together, add in the rolled oats walnuts, raisins and chocolate, stirring together.

Using a large spoon, drop dough onto a cookie sheet. The cookies will not spread like regular butter cookies so you can leave them as drop cookies or shape them into circles if you would like. Bake in the oven for 10 or so minutes or until the bottoms are browned. Remove from the oven and cool.

Enjoy and healthy eating!