When you have one sad banana- Chocolate Chip Banana Cookies

Frequently we buy a couple of bananas to put in smoothies. Unfortunately frequently, we also only get around to using one of them until it starts to get brown. If we notice quickly, we can just throw it in a smoothie anyways. Another time, it was both of them that went brown, and so I made muffins or bread (don't remember which, but both use two bananas). However, last week, we had just one banana hang around and get very, very overripe. Which left me with a conundrum. All the recipes I usually use bananas in need TWO bananas. After a bit of internet searching, I stumbled on a cookie recipe from Martha Stewart that only needed ONE banana. Hallelujah! I modified it slightly as I don't use whole wheat flour or keep semi-sweet chocolate bars in the house.

Chocolate Chip Banana Cookies

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup banana (about one banana)
1 cup quick oats
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts

1) Mix together flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside. In a mixer (or by hand if you're foolish like me) cream butter and sugars. Add beaten egg and vanilla to sugar-butter mix. Add banana. Stir in the flour mix to the butter-banana mix until completely combined. Stir in the oats. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.

2) Drop approximately 1 1/2" balls of dough onto baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Cook for 12-13 minutes at 375 degrees until golden brown and set. Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes. Transfer to cooling racks to cool completely.

They're super easy and fairly quick. Best of all, they're delicious! Mike still hasn't tried them, as he's not  a huge fan of banana, so I ended up throwing most of them in the freezer. They're delicious re-heated, or re-heated under a pile of vanilla ice cream. I also feel slightly better about eating too many of them since they have a few good-for-you things in them.