Bake a Batch of Vegan Oatmeal Cookies

Despite having a healthy image, most oatmeal cookies and granola bars are loaded with sugar and fat. While a granola bar may be great for an athlete that needs the extra calories, most of us don't fall into that bucket. That's why I came up with these vegan, gluten-free cookies with no added sugar or fat.

Before you get too excited, let me just tell you upfront that if you're expecting a buttery, sticky sweet oatmeal cookie, you're going to be disappointed. But think of these as a healthy mid-day snack and they're a real treat. Sweet, chewy and satisfying.

Like with a good banana bread, the trick to making these cookies successfully is in the ripeness of your bananas; I'm talking black-with-a-few-specks-of-yellow ripe. The reason for this is that there is no additional sugar or liquid in this, so if your bananas aren't extremely ripe, there won't be enough moisture or sweetness.

Raw cashews with their mildly sweet taste and creamy flavor take the place of butter, and while I haven't tried it, you could probably substitute any nut butter by weight for the cashews if you feel so inclined. While I've opted to rely on the bananas alone for sweetness, if you really want a sweeter cookie, you can blend in a few dates into the banana mixture, which will significantly increase the sugar content. As for the dried fruit, I used dried cranberries because it's what I had in the pantry, but any sweet dried fruit such as raisins and cherries will work just fine.