Good Grab N Go Snack: Banana Oat Bars

Good morning, and happy Tuesday!

Today’s an extra happy Tuesday because it’s LIKE a Friday for me.  I love 2 day work weeks.  Tomorrow is July 4th (my all time favorite holiday) and then I’m on VACATION from the 5th through the 15th.  I can’t wait!  Lots of Cape time in my future!  I know I was just in Colorado on vacation, but that was a long weekend, and after this week and a half off I won’t have any big vaca plans for quite some time I’m sure.

Vacation talk aside, here’s a fun recipe to start your day, and it’s a super easy one too.  I made these that week I was on my banana kick and posted about the health benefits of bananas as well as a whole wheat banana muffin recipe.  Add this one to the list!

Banana Oat Bars

Recipe inspired by Modern Gal, makes one 9×9 inch pan

Ingredients

• 2 cups of rolled oats
• 2 large ripe bananas
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/4 cup applesauce

Directions

1. Mash the bananas in a large bowl, add the other ingredients and stir to thoroughly combine.  There should be no large clumps of banana after mixing.
2. Spread the mixture into a greased 9X9 pan and bake into a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes.

These are not THE MOST DELICIOUS THINGS I’VE EVER TRIED.  Sometimes I feel like when I read blogs people go so over the top about each recipe being SO YUMMY and THE BEST and it kind of drives me nuts sometimes.  Not everything is going to be AMAZINGLY DELISH.  These bars are decent, and a good healthy snack to grab while on the go.  Brought them to the beach one day and they got a pretty good reaction.  But you know what?  I’m sure a chocolate chip cookie dough bar would be much more enjoyable and more realistically classified as THE BEST.

😉

You could also turn these into cookies by spreading into large cookie size rounds on a greased (or parchment lined) cookie sheet  and baking for about 25 minutes.

What’s THE BEST recipe you’ve ever made?

Enjoy!