These cookies are gluten-free and full of nutrient dense ingredients! Don’t be fooled by the name “breakfast cookies” – these are the perfect snack too!
I'm always looking for new breakfast ideas for my family and preferably something that requires little to no work for busy mornings. These healthy breakfast cookies are perfect for meal prep and freeze great!
While I don't like to let my kids think it's okay to eat "cookies" for breakfast, when I ask if they want a breakfast "cookie" they get pretty excited. It's probably the chocolate chips!
Are Breakfast Cookies Healthy?
Lucky for us, they can be. It depends on what they are made with. Some recipes have high amounts of refined sugars, flours, and ingredients that mimic more of a dessert cookie than a breakfast food.
But these healthy breakfast cookies are made with real food ingredients are are lightly sweetened with just bananas. With gluten-free oats, almond flour, and flaxseed meal they are all around healthy (see note below regarding chocolate chips as chocolate chips don't really follow "real food" rules).
What Keeps these Healthy Breakfast Cookies Clean?
- The cookie base - this recipe uses rolled oats (GF), almond flour, and flaxseed meal as the base. No refined, nutrient stripped flours here!
- Naturally sweetened - these healthy breakfast cookies are sweetened with only bananas. The chocolate chips do add in some refined sugars, but the cookie themselves are au natural when it comes to sweetness.
- Oil - I use coconut oil in almost all of my baking. Why coconut oil? Coconut goes through minimal processing, keeping the oil's nutrient profile. Read more here!
- Chocolate chips - There are some "cleaner" versions out there. Look for chocolate chips that have no more than cane sugar, chocolate liquor/chocolate/cocoa powder and cocoa butter. Brands that are Fair Trade certified and/or organic are even better! I like Equal Exchange Chocolates.
- It is important to call-out though that the majority of chocolate chips do have refined sugar in them, so even though there are some "cleaner" versions, they still aren't technically clean. You can always skip them if you'd like.
Can I Skip the Chocolate Chips?
You can make them without the chocolate chips, however, I do feel as though they add just the right amount of sweetness as the cookies themselves are not too sweet. If you want to skip the chocolate chips, you could add in a couple tablespoons of maple syrup to sweeten them up if you'd like. And maple syrup is a natural sweetener, so you are still keeping them clean if you add in some in.
Looking for More Clean Breakfast Ideas?
Check these out!
Cranberry Apple Breakfast Cookies
Berry Baked Oatmeal
Simple Gluten-free Waffles
Eat Clean. Be Healthy!
Did you make these healthy breakfast cookies? Please let me know what you think! Leave a comment below, give me a star rating, and/or share a photo on Instagram and mention @CleanPlateMama!
Healthy Breakfast Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups gluten-free rolled oats (if not gluten-free, you can use oats that aren't certified gluten-free)
- 1 cup almond flour
- ½ cup flaxseed meal (ground flaxseed)
- 2 ripe bananas, mashed
- ¼ cup coconut oil, melted
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, mix together the oats, almond flour, and flaxseed meal. Push these ingredients off to the side to make room for the wet ingredients.
- In the same bowl, add the mashed banana, oil, eggs, and vanilla to the open side of the bowl. Gently whisk the wet ingredients and then fully mix in with the dry ingredients. Batter should be thick so it holds its shape, but not too thick like cookie dough (see notes).
- Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Scoop mixture onto prepared cookie sheet in 2" mounds. You should get 12 cookies from the mix.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until lightly golden brown.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- Bananas provide a different level of liquid pending on how ripe they are. If your bananas are super ripe and the batter seems to "liquidy" you can add a few more tablespoons of oats or almond flour. I typically don't need to add any more than the recipe says though.
- I like using previously frozen and then thawed bananas, but ripe bananas straight from the counter also work.
- In order to keep these 100% clean, you can skip the chocolate chips altogether or could add in 2-3 tablespoons of pure maple syrup if you'd like to sweeten them up.
- The chocolate chips add 3 grams of added sugars to each cookie (the total of 7 grams includes 4 grams of natural sugar from the bananas).
- I use certified gluten-free oats as I'm gluten-free, but if you aren't gluten-free, oats that aren't certified gluten-free will work too.
Nutrition
We absolutely LOVE these at our house, they are so great for grab and go breakfast! I also use them as a pre or post workout quick snack!
Yes! They are perfect for a pre/post workout snack as well 🙂