Chocolate Oat Freezer Cookies

As I briefly mentioned in this recent post about dessert dilemmas, I like to keep light, flour-free, low-calorie treats on hand in my freezer. That way when I want something simple and sweet after dinner, I can just pop a delicious date bite into my mouth and call it a night. Easy. Satisfying. Health-friendly.

This pleases me. :)

This simple cookie recipe came out of a sweet find on my favorite blog, Oh She Glows. Chocolate cookies, that include oats (my favorite!), and live in the freezer. The chocolate gift that keeps on giving. Say no more! These are now a new companion for my little tub of date bites.

Angela's recipe calls for 1/4 cup chocolate chips. I made one batch according to her directions and of course they were yum! But then I got to thinking... While I don't mind using real chocolate as an infrequent treat here and there, I try to avoid refined sugar and cocoa fat as much as possible in my day-to-day diet. For more information on the important differences between cocoa and chocolate, watch this video here:

Cocoa Good, Chocolate Bad

And here:

Healthiest Chocolate Fix

As you can imagine, I'm elated, relieved, and THRILLED that a nutritarian diet can still include cocoa and that it actually boasts some fabulous nutrients and antioxidants, to boot. This is truly God's gift to my taste-buds!

So I tried to think of how I could make this great dessert idea 100% whole-foods and guilt-free. Instead of chocolate chips, I decided to combine 1/4 cup date paste and cacao powder for a delicious, chocolaty substitute.

And it totally worked. Success!

In the end I think I prefer the date paste version taste-wise, too (I don't know about you, but after months of avoiding refined sugar, it has become way too sweet for these buds!)

As she says in her recipe, these never truly harden and will quickly melt once they're removed from the cold. So store them in the freezer until you're ready to eat them.

Chocolate Oat Freezer Cookies

Lightly Adapted from Angela Liddon's recipe here

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• 1/4 cup date paste
• 3 tbsp cacao powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 medium banana, ripe
• 3/4 cup rolled oats (for gluten-free, make sure they are GF oats)
• 1 tbsp chia seeds 
• Optional add-ins: almond or mint extract
  

1. Add 1/4 cup date paste, cacao powder, and vanilla extract into a bowl. Slice up the banana and mas with a fork until most of the lumps are gone. 

2. Next add rolled oats and chia seeds and mix thoroughly. 

3. Line a large platter or cookie sheet (whichever will fit in your freezer) with parchment paper. Drop 10-12 spoonfuls of the oat batter onto the sheet and form cookies. 

4. Place in freezer and chill for at least 1 hour. You can store them in a tupperware after they've hardened. 

5. Resist reaching in the freezer to eat one every other 10 minutes. :) 

With only 64 calories and 1 gram of fat per cookie, you probably don't have to resist eating too many, however. :)