Tropical Oatstacks (with Mixed Dried Berries): A Healthy, Unique Cookie Treat From Mark Bittman

I have had Mark Bittman's "The Food Matters Cookbook: 500 Revolutionary Recipes for Better Living" sitting beside my bed, covered in post it notes tabs marking recipes I want to make for the past couple of months, but sadly had not cooked anything from it. Today I wanted something sweet, a banana muffin or maybe a healthy-ish oatmeal cookie, so I opened up the book and finally settled on a compromise with Bittman's Tropical Oatstacks.

Bittman says, "Different and amazingly good cookies that fall somewhere between banana bread and macaroons. The not-to-sweet oatstacks contain no sugar except for the natural sugars in the bananas, but if you have a real sweet tooth, you can roll the mounds of dough in sugar before you bake them. These are good vegan too: Just substitute vegetable oil for the butter." Sounded pretty good to me. ;-)

Since I am a huge fan of Bittman and his "Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating" so I knew that I would like the follow-up cookbook. Bittman continues his philosophy of consuming a plant-heavy diet, full of fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, whole grains and unprocessed foods.

Bittman has 5 basic principles for healthy, conscious eating--all of which I support:

1. Eat fewer animal products than average.
2. Eat all the plants you can manage.
3. Make legumes and whole grains part of your life.
4. Avoid processed foods.
5. Everything else is a treat--and you can have treats daily.

It's a sane way of looking at your diet and taking care of yourself, your health and the planet. For example--here's some of what he says about Desserts: "Desserts are treats, but that doesn't mean you have to throw all of the Food Matters principles out of the window in order to indulge. On the other hand, most of us don't want constant offerings of super "healthy" or vegan desserts. So what you have here is a meeting on middle ground: satisfying desserts made from real food, but completely from their traditional counterparts in that fruits, whole grains and nuts are the primary focus. To the extent that butter (and other dairy) and sugar are included, they're in supporting roles."

The recipes are the usual Bittman--simple and easy to adapt to your taste or what ingredients you have in your pantry. With lots of supporting material on cooking seasonally, setting up a pantry, making meals vegan, etc. it is a useful tome for anyone looking to eat mindfully. Another Bittman winner for me that I will be pulling out often to cook and get ideas from.

Tropical Oatstacks

Adapted From "The Food Matters Cookbook" by Mark Bittman

(Makes 2 to 3 Dozen)

Time: About 30 minutes, plus time to cool

4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for greasing the pans

3 large ripe bananas

1 tsp vanilla extract

2/3 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup chopped cashews or macadamia nuts

1 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 2 baking sheets with a little butter.

Put the bananas in a large bowl and mash them well with a fork or potato masher. Stir in the melted butter and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix together the oats, nuts, shredded coconut, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture and stir until just combined.

Drop tablespoon-sized mounds of dough about 3 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake, rotating the pans as necessary, until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool for about 2 minutes on the sheets before using a spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling. Store in a tightly covered container at room temperature for no more than a day or two.

Notes/Results: A soft and tasty little cookie full of good banana flavor. I did make a vegan version, using half of an Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Stick. I also wanted a bit of color in them, so I added 1/2 cup of mixed dried berries, which was nice. Not too sweet, tender and chewy--a couple of these little cookies make a great snack with a cup of tea. Bittman says to store them at room temperature for just a day or two, but I found that they freeze pretty well too. I will make these again--they would be fun with cacao nibs or dark chocolate chips in them too.

I thought I should send these delightful little bites of guilt-free goodness to the Alex at A Moderate Life's Tackling Bittman Blog Hop this week. My pal girlichef is hosting this month and also giving away a copy of this must-have book--follow this link for all of the details.

Happy Weekend!