Recipe Review: Skinny Monkey Cookies

I found this recipe through Pinterest posted by Once a Month Mom.  I love her site, her recipes and her ideas and knew when I saw this recipe that I had to try it!  Over the past week and a half our household has been working very hard to recover from a vacation filled with less that stellar eating and a bit too much sugar (in the form of sweets and alcohol!)  The problem for me was I am a sugar ADDICT!  I knew I would never make it through the vacation detox period without serious tricks up my sleeve.  One of them I already posted about, Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins.  They were delicious and helped with the sugar cravings, but I needed something more...I needed chocolate!  Oh the sweet, delicious, addictive substance of my dreams :)  Now I knew that I didn't really need chocolate, I just wanted it, but I also knew that if I didn't find a way to get the chocolate into my diet in a "healthy" way I was going to cave and eat a Snickers bar large cake shake from Portillos (no judging please!!)  So I searched my trusty resource, Pinterest, and found these cookies with a simple search for no sugar cookies.

I am not going to list the whole recipe, you can find it with this linkon Once a Month Mom's page: Skinny Monkey Cookies.  What I will share are my thoughts and changes.  First off, don't let the reviews on the page sway you, these are delicious!!  They are not a traditionally sweet cookie, but if that is what you are looking for why would you make a sugarless cookie?!  The texture is like a really soft oatmeal cookie, so if you don't like that these might not be for you.  Also, I added cinnamon (listed as optional) and a pinch of salt.  I have found in most of my healthier baking recipes that salt is not included, but I have also found that most baked goods need a pinch of salt to bring out the flavors (even the Quaker Oats package says to add salt to their oatmeal!)

After having made these once there are a few changes I would make, nothing major just more fitting to my tastes.  I would change the number of bananas to 2 and increase the applesauce and peanut butter to compensate.  I found the cookies to be very banana-y and I am not a huge banana person.  I would definitely keep the cinnamon, but add a full teaspoon because I love cinnamon.  I might also consider using chunky peanut butter for texture, but not sure on that one yet.  Finally, make sure you store them in the refrigerator (or freezer) and eat them all within about 5-7 days (longer if frozen), otherwise the banana takes over and you taste nothing else.

Overall this is a fantastic recipe and I am so excited that Once a Month Mom posted it and that I found it.  If you make these let me know what you think, and if you make other changes, please let me know.  I am always looking for new ways to satisfy my sweet tooth...without feeding my guilt monster!  Don't these look delicious???

Happy Eating :)