"Triceratops Treats" (vegan) - Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies with a Twist

My 3 year old and I made these up together and got crazy with the ingredients.  We took the basic Quaker "Chocolate Chip Raisin Oatmeal" Cookie and added in some kale, black beans and walnuts.

Because of the kale, he declared they were cookies and herbivorous dinosaur would eat, and after naming a few plant eating dinos, he decided they were best suited for a Triceratops.

Hey, whatever it takes to get him to eat kale and black beans!!  The amazing thing is, you can't taste either in this recipe!  But all the kale and black bean goodness is there...invisibly!

It was fun to make them together and they are tasty little bundles of nutrition if I do say so myself.  Yummy for breakfast, packing in lunches or throwing in my diaper bag for snack time, for both me and the boys!

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• 1/2  cup Earth Balance (or butter), softened
• 1/2 cup Coconut Oil 
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 3/4  cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2  cup granulated sugar
• 2 TBSP Ground Flax mixed with 6 TBSP hot water  (or 2  eggs)
• 1-1/2  cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 can of Black Beans, drained and rinsed and chopped in food processor until small chunks but not paste
• 1  teaspoon baking soda
• 1  teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2  teaspoon salt (optional)
• 3  cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
• 1/2 cup finely chopped Kale
• 1/4  cup raisins
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preparation 

Heat oven to 350°F. 

In a bowl, combine all ingredients

Roll into quarter sized balls and flatten

Lay on ungreased cookie sheet

Bake about 15 min.

  

Cool a few minutes on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. 

Cool completely. 

Store tightly covered or freeze.