Healthiest Cookies I've EVER Made (but so yum!)

Since Kapri is sick again, today she asked for cookies around mid-morning. Of course I had to say YES to my little sickie...anything to make her feel better...or at least help her to not think about how ickie she feels!! But over the last week I've been trying to be better about exercise & eating better (more on that in another post). So I jumped onto my "Banana-Mania" Pinterest board....and was drawn to these Banana Cookies from Chef in Training that I had yet to try. Love her recipes!!

Then I researched what I could substitute to make them a tad 'healthier'. Here are Nikki's ingredients compared to my substitutions:

• 1 3/4 cup oats
• 1-1/2 cups flour --> sub'd 1 cup whole wheat flour & 1/2 cup almond meal
• 1 cup sugar --> sub'd 1/4 cup honey & 3 tbsp of white & brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt (I only added a few shakes)
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 cup shortening -->  sub'd1/2 cup coconut oil (per this site, it said to use a bit less than the original ingredient call for when substituting...and learning LOTS about this oil's benefits here!)
• 2 mashed bananas
• 1 egg --> sub'd 1 tbsp flax-seed meal mixed with 3 tbsp water (stir & let sit for 2 min before mixing in with everything - got this idea from the package!)

I also added:

• 3 tbsp of mini chocolate chips
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tbsp Chia seeds (I've recently discovered that these are quite amazing little 'super' seeds!)

I have to say they came out amazing!!! They definitely taste 'healthy' but I just feel SO much better eating 2 or 3 when I've made the effort to substitute whatever I could for a better option. I need to get Stevia or a healthier sweetener in place of sugar though. They came out so moist and flavorful...this batch made 20 cookies.

I tried out the Recipe Analyzer (SO cool) at CalorieCount.About.com to get a better idea of calories - which I think I only reduced the original recipe by 12 calories or so, haha...check it out HERE: 

Nikki's recipe also called for a frosting...though these are so moist I felt like they really didn't need it. But just to try something different, I found this recipe for a Greek yogurt 'frosting'.

It's not nearly as thick as a regular frosting, but adds a little something to these cookies! I didn't add it to them all, just mixed it up, put it into a Tupperware & have it in the fridge - that way we can only add it if we really want it!