Sunday, January 11, 2015

Healthy Banana Oat Bars

Back to the saga of the MOF Club but first this simple, simple, simple recipe. Oh yeah, and it's healthy too.

What to do with a dozen organic ripe bananas left over from holiday snack procurement that gazed at me looking riper and riper every time I opened the refrigerator. Don't forget us they begged. But I don't want to make banana bread or chips I returned. Google ideas they pressed. I did.

Immediately I found a recipe that was suspiciously easy. And healthy. No sugar. None. Of any kind. Can it be that good, I wondered. The mom that posted it was convinced. I took the bait. Only two ingredients. I was hooked.

Two bananas, one cup of quick or regular uncooked oats. Mix together (I used an immersion blender but any method to get the ingredients together works.)

That's it. Literally. If you want to add some more protein, different vitamins, minerals, create a more visually fun looking bar add a dash or two of cinnamon, a small handful of raisins, any type of nuts you like, you get the idea but not too much of any one thing.

Drop by the spoonful onto a well greased baking sheet, or like me, just use your silicon baking sheets. Parchment works too. I shaped my blobs into a sort of bar shape but that's optional too. They can be round like a cookie. Or letter shaped, or heart shaped, or geometric shaped.

 Bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes for chewy. Longer for crunchy. I cannot say how much longer precisely because we like chewy and that's where my bars got off the train.

I doubled the recipe and found that it makes about sixteen bars give or take. So that comes out to about four bars per one banana and 1/2 cup of oats. Great way to get your daily dose of potassium and fiber.


Maybe I should call them Banana Boat Bars. Mine do kind of look like paddle boards or kayaks or canoes. Or just Boat Bars. Get it. Banana and oats.