Trail Mix Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies ~ feeling the 'Boulder Crunchy Vibe'!

Trail Mix Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies ~ Dairy-free, flour-free, refined white sugar-free, egg-free and they're sweetened naturally with fruit & carob chips!  ((if wheat is not an issue for you, then you could toss in some wheat germ/wheat bran ~ if you choose to include the optional add-in's.  W/G & W/B always make me think of old-fashioned, health food hippie-goodies :))  I'm loving the 'feel good' 'Granola Hippie/Crunchy Vibe' of these breakfast cookies!  How about you?  :)

I've been wishing for spring to get here,  I'm so tired of the cold and all the gray skies!  I'm ready for wildflowers and warm sunny days.  I want to get outside more, I want to ride my bike and wander around some of the nature trails that are in our area.  Since the weather just doesn't seem to want to cooperate, I've decided to hit the trail anyway...but, in my kitchen...and in the form of a new breakfast cookie.  I'm calling it my ~ Trail Mix Oatmeal Breakfast Cookie.

Chautauqua Park ~ Boulder, Colorado ~ The Flatirons (in the distance)

To get in the outdoorsy mood, I started throwing all my favorite trail mix goodies into my basic Banana Oat Breakfast Cookie dough.  I was going for a little Crunchy/Granola Hippe vibe. (click on the link to learn what being 'crunchy' is all about.  (Can you tell that I'm missing Colorado?  Especially one of my all-time favorite towns, Boulder?  What I wouldn't give to be hiking in Chautauqua Park right now!)  This is a happy, tasty cookie that could be different every time you make it, depending on your mood or what's available in your pantry.  Sweet!  Happy Trails!

Trail Mix Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies
makes 20-24 cookies or 10-12 bars or a varied amount of mixed shapes :)

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups old fashioned oatmeal
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed with fork until creamy 
  
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 cup mixture of your favorite dried fruit, like ~  raisins, dried cranberries, shredded coconut, chopped apricots or dates
• 1/4 cup mixture of your favorite nuts, like ~ sunflower seeds, toasted slivered almonds, chopped walnuts, peanuts or pecans
• 1/4 cup carob chips (or chocolate chips, if you aren't Crunchy :)
• 1 Tbsp+ mixture of optional add-ins, like ~ ground flax, hulled hemp seeds, chia seeds, poppy seeds, sesame seeds or oat bran
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (or maybe coconut or almond, for a change)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon  

Directions
Preheat heat oven to 350 degrees. Get out a medium bowl and...
Mash bananas until creamy, and then...  
Combine all remaining ingredients together & let sit for 10 minutes.
Drop cookie dough, by spoonfuls, onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet, shape & flatten cookies into circles or into bars.
Bake approx. 20-25 minutes, or until golden & done to your liking.
Remove from oven & let rest on cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then move to cooling rack. 
Store in a covered container when completely cool.  They will last longer if kept in the fridge.  Serve room temp or chilled, as you wish.
Enjoy as is...  Or maybe get a little creative ~ how about swapping the carob or chocolate chips for some M&M's; or maybe just use a 1/2 cup of real trail mix instead of the 1/4 cups of fruits/nuts I've listed above; or maybe even try the breakfast cookies like this...

** I recently tried a new Coconut Spread that is really good, it's by Olivio.  I don't really use coconut oil due to its high saturated fat content...but, I just love its light coconut flavor, so I splurged and bought a tub.  I spread it on as a special treat for a few of these Trail Mix Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies.  It added a nice, 'buttery' feel with just a hint of coconut flavor.  It's still less s/f than butter, so I might just keep a tub of it around for special occasions.  :)