This is one of my all-time favorite recipes for healthy, delicious, energizing cookies. I discovered the recipe on the fantastic 101cookbooks.com site a few years ago, and have been making it since. Whenever I present a talk to runners on nutrition, I always bring a plate of these cookies along: they’re a great way to demonstrate that healthy eating can be amazingly tasty as well! These guys are easy to make, but the ingredients may be new to some people: coconut oil and almond meal may not be in your pantry just yet, but they should be! Both the oil and the meal are incredibly versatile, and work great in many baked goods.

You can make your own almond meal by pulsing almonds in a food processor or Vitamix blender until it is the texture of sand – just don’t go too far or you’ll end up with almond butter. Coconut oil can turn solid when the temperature is below 60 degrees, and if that’s the case, you’ll just want to put the jar in a bowl of hot water until it comes back to liquid oil consistency. You can also use olive oil instead of coconut oil. If you have gluten allergies, seek out gluten-free oats. If you are vegan or have dairy allergies, seek out dairy-free chocolate chips.

Runners Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Energy Cookies

4 large, ripe bananas, well mashed (about 1 1/2 cups — you may need more or less bananas depending on the size bananas you can get)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup coconut oil, liquid consistency (or alternately, you can use olive oil)
2 cups rolled oats
2/3 cup almond meal
1/3 cup coconut, finely shredded & unsweetened
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
6 – 7 ounces dark chocolate chips or dark chocolate bar chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, racks in the top third.

In a large bowl combine the bananas, vanilla extract, and coconut oil. Set aside. In another bowl whisk together the oats, almond meal, shredded coconut, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips. The dough is a bit looser than a standard cookie dough, but don’t worry about it. Drop dollops of the dough, each about 2 teaspoons in size, an inch apart, onto a parchment (or Silpat) lined baking sheet. Bake for around 15 minutes, until cookie bottoms start to turn golden – just watch carefully to be sure not to burn them!

Makes about 5 dozen bite-sized cookies.

Adapted from 101 Cookbooks: www.101cookbooks.com