Remember when Billy Madison drew a blue duck and he told Ms Lippy that he drew the duck blue because he’s never seen a blue duck and he wanted to see one?

Well today I used strawberry puree instead of eggs and tahini+peanut butter instead of butter in my chocolate chip oatmeal cookies because I’ve never had strawberry puree and tahini and peanut butter chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and I wanted to have one.

I also made a batch with applesauce just to be safe. Because apparently I think using applesauce instead of eggs is safe. Well, I mean, it’s safer to eat the raw batter. Whatever. Safety in eggless numbers.

I wanted to experiment with strawberries instead of eggs for a few reasons. First off, if it works, I’m a genius. Secondly, since I reduce the regular sugar in a lot of the things I bake, I figured the natural sugars and sweetness of strawberries could elevate the cookies in a healthy way. And finally, chocolate and oatmeal and strawberries just sounds yummy. That I know to be the truth.

Oh and I added protein powder and ground flaxseed to my dry ingredients because Ozzy Osbourne wrote the song “Crazy Train” based on my life. Or so I’ve been told.

So does strawberry puree work in lieu of eggs? Yup. It’s pretty nice getting the strawberry taste in there too. Definitely a good thing. I think I actually preferred it to the applesauce. Applesauce is great for cake-y stuff but it makes cookies a little too…fluffy or something. The strawberry puree keeps the cookies much more cookie like. Plus it adds some taste while applesauce is more or less supposed to kind of disappear.

The only change I would have made would have been less protein powder and more flour. They were just a bit too sticky but I’m pretty sure that’s an excess protein powder thing. I’ve changed the ratios in the recipe below to hopefully fix that a bit…Oh and if you want to use applesauce instead, use 1/3 cup of the stuff.

For 16 cookies, you’ll need

1/4 cup vanilla protein powder (use a whey-less one to keep these cookies vegan!)

3 tablespoons ground flaxseed

1/2 cup of all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

2 tablespoon tahini

1 tablespoon peanut butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

6 packets truvia

2-3 large strawberries, pureed (about a 1/3 of a cup)

1 cup oats

1/2 cup of chocolate chips

Then why don’t we

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a couple baking sheets with parchment paper.

Mix your powder, flaxseed, flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl until well combined. In a separate bowl, cream your nut butters and sugars until all mixed up nicely. Add the strawberry puree and mix mix mix until smooth. Add the dry mixture to the wet one. Mix mix mix. Work in the oats and mix some more. Finally, add the chocolate chips and – yep! – mix a little more.

Roll your dough (it will be sticky, deal with it) into 2″ balls or so and place on the prepared cookie sheets. They won’t spread so don’t be afraid to put them a little closer than normal. Grab a drinking glass and wet the bottom with cold water. Press the rounded cookies down with the glass to flatten them to about 1/2″ thick disks. Bake for 9ish minutes or until the tops are dry. Cool. Eat!