Peanut butter banana GF cookies.

I am preparing to head back to Rome for my studies this year. I stopped at my sister’s to say goodbye to the kids and the middle child niece says: “Don’t go, make us one of your yummy gluten free treats.” She is a good lil’ actress, so I don’t know if there is any sarcasm mixed in.

Let’s just say, as I was walking out the door, the 5-year old said: “Love you, and thanks for all the food tonight I didn’t like.”

I opened the fridge and there were no eggs. No one wanted to ask the neighbors and there’s no chance we would have gotten anything but cracked eggs if we sent the middle child on her bike to get some from her great-grandma.

4 ripe bananas and we were a go. A lot of my cooking tends to be adding a bit of creativity to what’s lying in the pantry. I find this especially important when it is necessary to add something special to the meal without adding expense to the monthly budget. And there tends to be food items lying around that won’t get used unless necessity demands. And, in America, we tend to not feel that necessity in this crazed-health-driven society, where the kitchen table doesn’t concern itself with virtue and gratitude.

To the recipe:

Peanut Butter Banana Gluten-Free cookies.

4 bananas mashed. 1 tsp baking soda. 1 Tbsp cinnamon. 2 Tbsp maple syrup. 1 Tbsp Nutella. 2/3 cup peanut butter. 2/3 cup flax meal. 2/3 cup coconut flour. (Add nuts or cocoa powder or chocolate chips, if desired).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix each ingredient in one at a time. Line sheet with parchment. Scoop batter in sheet. Flatten with a spoon. Cook for 14 minutes.

[i cooked the dough ball for 7 minutes, pulled it out and then flattened with a spoon. But I was experimenting and wasn’t sure what would happen to the dough ball.]

2 out of 3 of the kids liked the cookies and said it wasn’t necessary to add anything. “Keep them healthy,” the middle-one said. 🙂