banana oatmeal cookies
Banana oatmeal cookie on the left and honey cookies on the right.
I have been busy teaching cooking classes based upon The Blue Zones. It is so fun to ‘cook’ around the world and expose clients and friends to new types of food and ingredients. This past week we made miso soup, Vietnamese style spring rolls, tabouli, hummus, fennel and orange salad and honey cookies.
For anyone who doesn’t know, The Blue Zones are the 5 regions of the world where people live the longest and healthiest lives. Over 20 years ago, Gianni Pes and Michel Poulain identified that Sardinia had the highest concentration of male centenarians in the world. They drew blue circles on the map highlighting the areas of extreme longevity in the area and began to refer to the area inside the circle as the blue zone.* Dan Buettner, a fellow with National Geographic, built upon this research and identified other longevity regions around the world and called them ‘blue zones’.* These 5 areas in the world are as follows:
Sardinia, Italy
Ikaria, Greece
Loma Linda, California, USA
Okinawa, Japana
Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica
Blue Zones® is now a trademark of Blue Zones, LLC, and reflects the lifestyle and the environment of the world’s longest-lived people. For more information on the The Blue Zones, check out their informative website.
Here is a recipe inspired by the region of Loma Linda, California. Over 9,000 7th Day Adventists live in this region. They support a biblical diet based upon fruits, vegetables and nuts. Oats are an important ingredient. This recipe was inspired by their diet and was created by Ellen Sushak, RDN and comes from The Blue Zones website.
Ingredients
2 cups old fashioned oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 ½ teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
4 medium sized ripe bananas
⅓ cup chopped walnuts**
Creating the Magic!
Preheat oven to 350˚. Line a baking sheet with parchment or spray with non-stick spray.
Use a high power blender to process oats to the consistency of flour. Pour into mixing bowl and add baking soda and spices.
Blend bananas until completely smooth. Add to oatmeal mixture along with the nuts (or other dried fruit) and mix until combined.
Drop 2 tablespoon balls of dough onto cookies sheet, spacing well. Dip the scoop or spoon into water to keep the dough from sticking. Use lightly moistened fingers to flatten each cookie. Bake for 15 minutes. The cookies should be brown on the tops/edges and soft inside.
Cool cookies on wire rack and store in an airtight container.
* This information was taken from The Blue Zones website.
**I opted to roll the cooked cookies in a little honey and nuts instead of putting the nuts inside the cookies. It added a nice crunch and extra little sweetness. It was a little messy but worth it!