Healthy Oatmeal Cookies with Almond Butter, Chocolate, and Fruit (Gluten-Free)

So Valentine's Day was on Thursday and I wanted to bring in a fun treat for my team at work to celebrate the holiday.  Since I've been eating healthy on a really consistent basis lately, I wanted to bring in something that was still delicious, but also lived into my current lifestyle.  

I mean, I know how to bake traditional cookies, brownies, cupcakes, etc., and yes they'll be tasty, but it's more interesting to me right now to experiment with baking healthier desserts and seeing how they look and taste.  I was also curious to see if my friends at work would enjoy these types of items as much or even more than the traditional choices.

This recipe calls for a nut butter to help hold all the other ingredients together.  I decided to use almond butter, but instead of buying it, I thought I'd use the almonds I already had on hand and make it in the Vitamix.  

First step, roast the almonds on 350 degrees for 10 minutes.  Transfer them to a plate to cool and hit them with some sea salt or in my case, Himalayan pink salt.  Wait until they cool to room temperature before adding them to the Vitamix.

To make the almond butter, just add the roasted almonds (2 cups), 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional), and about 1/2 teaspoon of additional sea salt.  

Then, using the tamper tool the entire time to push the nuts down into the blades,  blend the nut mixture for several minutes until the mixture turns into nut butter.  

It takes longer than you think it will, so just hang in there, eventually stirring it as it finishes blending with the tamper tool and you will end up with warm, creamy, delicious almond butter.  

Once your almond butter has been made, it's time to mix all the ingredients together and form them into cookies in the size of your choice.  I have this silicone baking mat I got at Costco that has these great sizing guides on it for cookie sizing.  Especially with cookies like this that are a touch runny when you first put them on your baking sheet, being able to just form them to the size I wanted was really helpful.

The base of these cookies are mashed bananas, nut butter, rolled oats, vanilla extract, chia seed, flax seed, and salt.  Then it's really up to you as to what you want to add in before baking.  I decided to sweeten them just a bit more with some Stevia and added chocolate chips.  I think the next time I make them, I'll also add some coconut flakes.  

Pop them in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes and they setup nicely.  They're still soft when they come out of the oven, but they hold together no problem.  

While the cookies are baking, or before, slice up some fruit of your choice to put on top once they cool off.  I chose strawberries and raspberries to keep with the red Valentine's Day theme.  Dry them off on paper towels 

Once the cookies are cooled (I cooled mine on a wire rack straight out of the oven), top each one with fruit, then drizzle melted white chocolate over each one.  

To easily melt chocolate, just place it in a microwave safe bowl, microwave it on high for 1 minute, then stir.  If it's not completely melted at that point, put it back in for another 20-30 seconds, then stir again and you'll be good to go.

To evenly drizzle the white chocolate over the cookies like you see here, I spooned the melted chocolate into a Ziplock sandwich bag and used it like a piping bag, snipping off the corner right when I was ready to squeeze the chocolate onto the cookies.  That worked really well.  

The consistency of these cookies are still soft once baked, but they really are delicious.  The texture reminded me of a soft Nutri-Grain-type bar.  You can really taste the bananas and the almond butter gives them a nice richness.  These were perfect to eat in the morning with a cup of hot coffee and they were guilt-free.  Make a batch and bring them in to share with your office peeps... they were a hit with mine!