Bananas: loved by most, but left in the fruit bowl and forgotten by all. We’ve all ended up with a bunch of sad, brown (and still edible) bananas that get thrown in the trash due to laziness or overeager purchasing.

That’s where I come in. I’m here to provide a use for those cringe worthy brown bananas in the form of a vegan cookie recipe.

The beauty of this cookie “recipe” is that there is no set recipe. I’ve never once used a measuring cup or recipe card to make these (yay for fewer dishes!). In addition, you can eat these for either breakfast, lunch, dinner, or as a quick snack. These are basically the least restrictive “cookies” you’ll ever come across.

How to Prepare

The two ingredients you will need are: one, your overripe bananas and two, dry rolled oats. You can add cinnamon and other fruits as well, but I’ll touch on that later.

To prepare the cookies: mash the bananas in a bowl, add oats, and mix until you see a nice oat-to-banana ratio. Set the oven to 350 degrees, scoop pieces of the mixture onto a baking sheet and pop them in. 20-25 minutes later, you have delicious a vegan cookie.

Now for the important part: they will be super soft when they first come out of the oven, so let them sit until they cool. Then pop them in the fridge and reheat as needed.

Some More Tips

I gave you the basics, so let me a few tips as I promised earlier. If you have almost-bad blueberries or an almost-soft apple, cut them up and throw these into the mix too. The oven softens them and they mesh perfectly with the other ingredients. You can also add cinnamon, sugar, chocolate chips, and/or peanut butter to your liking. As I said before, no restrictions.

It doesn’t ever feel good to throw away food that you innocently forgot about. I will shamelessly promote my writing right now by suggesting you bookmark this article and pull it up next time you find yourself with a bunch of brown (but edible) bananas. Modify this vegan cookie recipe to your liking and embrace your inner cookie-lover.