Fit Friday - Healthy Banana Nut Cookies and a Killer Workout!

Happy Fit Friday everyone! Ruthie from Cooking with Ruthie is here to offer a yummy healthy treat on this fabulous Friday. Follow that up with a great Tabata workout presented by yours truly. Enjoy! And have a Fantastic Fit Friday!

Healthy Banana Nut Cookies are packed with all kind of good for you ingredients- almonds, peanut butter, oats, flax seed, and whole wheat flour! Plus, then I threw in a few milk chocolate chips and peanut butter chips just for kicks and giggles :) You're welcome. I love these cookies! They make a big ole' batch- approximately 50 cookies or so and in all of those there's only a 1/4 cup butter! I like to replace applesauce for butter anytime I can, it's a great trick to reduce the amount of fat but still retain the moistness. Another great way to reduce fat and cholesterol is by replacing 1 egg yolk with 2 egg whites. Each egg yolk that you omit cuts out 5 grams of fat and 186 mg of cholesterol. The BEST part is you can. not. tell! At all. It's so awesome! If you are not a fan of walnuts then change them out equal parts for a nut you prefer and these cookies are amazing with dark chocolate chips too!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

Recipe Type: Dessert

Author: Ruthie

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 12 mins

Total time: 27 mins

Serves: 50

Ingredients

• 7 cups whole rolled oats
• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup milled flax seed
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 2 cups applesauce
• 3/4 cup all natural peanut butter
• 1/4 cup butter, room temperature
• 2 cups light brown sugar or 1 1/4 cups truvia baking blend
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• (or 2 whole eggs and 4 egg whites to reduce fat/cholesterol)
• 3/4 cup milk chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup peanut butter chocolate chips
• 2 cups chopped walnuts

Instructions

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees.
2. Coat half sheet pan with cooking spray; set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl combine butter and peanut butter; cream.
4. Add brown sugar; mix.
5. Add eggs one at a time, mixing and scraping bowl with each addition.
6. Add applesauce and vanilla; mix.
7. Add flour, flaxseed, baking soda, and sea salt; mix until 80% incorporated.
8. Add oats in three small batches mixing between batches.
9. Do not over mix.
10. Add chocolate and peanut butter chips, almonds, and walnuts; stir to incorporate.
11. Drop cookies onto prepared pan by the tablespoon or use a large cookie scoop.
12. Bake at 350 for 12-15 min or until edges are crispy and lightly browned.
13. Store in airtight container.
14. Dough can be frozen for two months or last one week in the fridge.
15. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 2 months.
16. Makes approx 50 cookies.
17. *Stevia can also replace the brown sugar in equal parts if desired

3.4.3174

 

No one will ever guess that Healthy Peanut Butter Chocolate Walnut Cookies are packed with so many good-for-you ingredients! It'll be our little secret :)

Now let's get to the fitness tips section of Fit Friday:

Tabata is our friend....first and foremost you have to remember that. It is a great way to get in an awesome workout and walk away feeling like you put it all out there.
What is tabata (I have talked about this before so this will be a quick refresher); Tabata is a style of workout that entails all out effort for 20 sec, then you get a 10 sec recovery before you do it again, and again, for a total of 8 rounds (which is 4 minutes).

We are excited and we are ready so let's get to the workout today:
We are going to complete 4 rounds of Tabata, that is 16 minutes of hard work. Take a 1 minute break in between each Tabata round and be sure to get in a good warm up and cool down.

Round 1:
20 seconds of pushups
10 second breather
20 seconds of mountain climbers
Alternate for a total of 4 minutes

Round 2:
20 seconds of situps
10 second recovery
20 seconds of frog hops
Alternate for a total of 4 minutes

Round 3:
20 seconds of walking lunges
10 second recovery
20 seconds sprints
Alternate for a total of 4 minutes

Round 4:
20 seconds of dips
10 second recovery
20 seconds of box hops (or whatever you found to use for dips)
Alternate for a total of 4 minutes

Now go and get 'er done! Much Love and Peace~ Ruthie and Nichole--