Cookies: No oven, no sugar, no problem!

I'd been planning to confine my cooking posts to the other page on this blog, but I just couldn't restrain myself: Tonight, I made no-bake cookies of an Emily-created version that required only things found in our local store AND did not include sugar. Which normally would not be a requirement/concern, except when living in a place that could induce type 2 diabetes by sheer osmosis.

So, here's the recipe, in case you're feeling in a semi-healthy mood, as posted on our collective recipe blog, www.ReciPeaceCorpsColombia.wordpress.com

Ingredients:
-about 2 cups oats– Avena en hojuealas
-4 tablespoons or so cocoa powder. ORRRR non fat/diet hot chocolate mix – I found a nice sized bag of this in Surtimax (a budget grocery store chain) for 3 mil. Turns out Colombia’s version of diet chocolate mix is just…cocoa powder! For a fraction of the cost! amazing.
-2 bananas maduras/guineas
-1/2 cup leche
-good sized bar or two of Jet chocolate (I used only one, but would probably be even tastier with two)
-touch of salt
-vanilla if you have it

Makes about 12-15 cookies depending on size of balls and how much of the dough you eat prior to freezing.

Directions:
Mix mashed bananas (you can mash them right in the skin), milk, cocoa powder, and broken pieces of chocolate over medium flame. Heat til bubbling, then boil for 2-3 minutes. Mix with the oats. Then roll into balls and cool/freeze. The chocolate flavor comes out more after they’ve been cooled; it was pronounced at worst edible by my (sugar loving) host family, at best quite tasty….it doesn’t quite match the flavor of a traditional no-bake, but at under 5 mil AND no refined sugar added, they’re a pretty tasty substitute.

Conclusion by my host brother, who doesn't like vegetables or healthy things in general (he has been known to eat a plate overflowing with patacones for breakfast): "They taste good. But next time, you should make something a little tastier. Like the cheesecake you made. Or brownies!"



Overview:
Bananas: 500 pesos. Oats: 1000 pesos. Cocoa powder: 2000 pesos. Chocolate bar: 1000 mil pesos. Milk: 600 pesos. Creating a dessert liked by my host family that included no refined sugar: absolutely priceless

The picture I didn't post on the recipes blog--a zoomed out photo of freezing the cookies--right next to a nice and bloody bag of carne!

 More delicious looking: