What do you do when you are faced with bananas that are dangerously on the verge of being overripe?  Well, my Mom would say to peel them, slice them, place them in ziplock baggies, and freeze them for smoothies.  Many would probably jump to banana bread… no judgment!  When I was faced with this conundrum, I did two things: I sliced and froze one banana (Mom would be proud), and decided to google Paleo banana bread recipes.  After looking at a few, I just realized that I didn’t want to have to use a bunch of almond meal or coconut flour.  I just wasn’t feeling it.  So I switched gears… cookies!  I found an almond butter banana cookie on a Paleo blog and took a little creative license.  How can you call it a cookie without a little vanilla, salt, and chocolate chips? 🙂  I hope that next time you see and smell those bananas on your counter start to go, you think cookies!

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup creamy unsalted almond butter
• 1/3 cup raw honey
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1/4 cup + 2tbs almond meal
• 1 ripe banana
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup 65% dark chocolate chips

Instructions

• 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• 2. In a medium-large bowl, mash banana with a potato masher
• 3. Stir in egg, honey, almond butter, vanilla and mix well
• 4. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients: coconut flour, almond meal, baking soda, salt
• 5. Slowly stir dry ingredients in the wet ingredients until well incorporated
• 6. Stir in chocolate chips
• 7. On parchment lined cookie sheet(s), scoop about one teaspoon of batter, evenly spaced
• 8. Cook for about 15 minutes, but as always, keep your eyes and nose on them!
• 9. Enjoy!