My husband and I buy bananas and we don’t eat them fast enough before they get too ripe. His idea of “too ripe” is one tiny little brown spot. The entire banana can still be GREEN, but if he sees a spot it is too ripe. I used to like them REALLY ripe, all covered in spots and almost — ALMOST, not quite, mushy. But now I like them a little less ripe. I don’t like them when they “snap”, but I don’t like them when I touch it and my finger mushes into it. So . . . I had been making a lot of banana bread. I honestly think that my husband buys a huge bunch of bananas knowing full well that he will only eat one or two and then I will make bread out of them. I somewhat have an issue with the banana bread. It doesn’t seem to cook on the top. The first time I sent it to work with him he came home and said that his co-worker loved it. I was so embarrassed and I told him that he was NOT supposed to share it because it was uncooked. He and his co-worker like it like that. He also likes it without nuts, which I think is just not right. I had been making it so much, I got tired of doing so. I went online (but, of course) to find other ways to use ripe bananas. I found a banana cookie recipe. Yeah, bananas in the cookies.
This woman found a banana cookie recipe on the internet and changed it up a bit. I decided to try her recipe, but wanted to change it a bit. The recipe called for chocolate chips. My plan was to make some without chocolate chips, then put some chips in and make some with chocolate chips. It turned out I didn’t have any chocolate chips, and unlike Carson, I didn’t even have any big chocolate drops. So I made the entire batch without chips. I liked them but they were missing something. Even though I put in the cinnamon she has listed and even though I put in twice as much vanilla they were still a little “blah”. To me. Blah to me was actually good because even though they were good they weren’t so good that I found myself eating them non-stop. So it was nice that I could actually eat them as a treat should be eaten.
The next time I made them I decided to try it with the chocolate chips. But I thought that regular sized chips would be to over powering so I bought mini chocolate chips. 
I also used three bananas instead of two. I also used different oats, which were much larger than the first ones I had. I DID NOT like that large oat in my cookie. Made it seem like I was chewing cud instead of a cookie, so I made a mental note to change that. So this batch was ok. But as my husband said, “If you put chocolate chips in a cookie it makes it a chocolate chip cookie.” I liked them and so did he, but we decided we liked them better without chocolate chips.
So my third attempt—-HAZZAH! I finally got it! I pulsed the “too big” oats, I added more cinnamon, I stuck with three bananas, I added walnuts, and I sprinkled in some nutmeg! So yay!!!!! I got it. Finally turned what to me seemed blah into . . . now I have to STOP myself from eating them. Ok, not really. That is why I like this cookie so much. It is almost as if it is so satisfying I don’t have a desire to eat a whole plate.
They are a really nice cookie. I think that homemade is so much better than packaged because you know what goes in them and it is usually a lot less chemicals and even some fruit. These are kind like little circles of banana bread, really, but a little less dense. And these I can manage to cook all the way through.
Here is the recipe . . . . Banana Oatmeal Walnut Cookies.
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