Cookies for breakfast!

Sometimes I like to shake things up a bit. Sometimes I like cookies in the morning.  I want my kids to eat breakfast, and some mornings a bowl of cereal isn't going to cut it. I took a recipe out of one of my favorite cookbooks and tweaked it enough to make this a cookie worthy of the breakfast table, or the tea tray, or straight off of the cooling rack with a cup of coffee.

Oatmeal Breakfast Cookie
Allergen warning: contains eggs, butter, almonds, and wheat.
Makes about 24 cookies
112 calories per cookie

4 Tablespoons butter
4 Tablespoons coconut oil
1/2 cup Splenda (or white sugar if you don't do Splenda)
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup ground almond meal
2 rounded teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup rough-chopped banana chips

Preheat the oven to 325. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper (or foil).

Pop the butter and coconut oil into the microwave together for 10-15 seconds, so that everything is nice and soft. Then plop that into a large bowl and cream it together with the Splenda and the brown sugar. You want it to be light and fluffy before you add that egg. Once the egg is good and mixed in, you can add the vanilla.

In a separate bowl mix your flour, almond meal, salt, baking soda. Stir those up good and then add your oats, cranberries, and banana chips.

Mix your dry stuff into your wet stuff. Mix it really well--it pulls together in a sticky, oaty, cinnamonny mess. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto your prepared baking sheets and bake for 20-22 minutes. Let the cookies sit on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before you transfer them to a wire rack. They crisp as they cool.

Thoughts that occurred to me:
What's with the allergen warning? My life is filled with people who have all kinds of dietary restrictions. I'm a label-reader.

You can make the recipe dairy-free by using only coconut oil. The butter flavor will be gone, but the texture will be much the same.

Baking with Splenda...sometimes your baked goods taste...off. You don't have to use it, and when I make cookies for the sake of cookies I use real sugar. But I was going for a lower-sugar, low-cal breakfast cookie.

Why whole wheat flour? It's really good for you, and I like the way it tastes.

Why almond meal/what is almond meal? Almond meal is ground almonds. Almonds are good for you, and so tasty!

Dried cranberries not your thing? Use raisins, chopped dried apricots, dried cherries or dried blueberries. I almost put coconut flakes in there but decided against it at the last minute.