Banana Bread Granola Bar Recipe

Trail mix and other granola bars has been my new obsession.  Yesterday when looking in the cupboard I realized that my bananas were getting way beyond the brown that they should be at!  Looking up ideas online for what to do with old bananas did not result in anything more then ice cream and banana bread.  Neither which I wanted at the moment.  Last week I made trail mix bars (a recipe that I need to modify and make again)..so I thought, why not change up that recipe and use the bananas in them!!


So with the old bananas and a cupboard full of various ingredients I got to work on making the banana granola bars in my mind.

Ingredients:
2 cups of old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup of peanuts
1 cup of cashews
1/2 cup of ground flax
1 cup of mashed bananas (4 medium to large old bananas)
1/2 cup of peanut butter

Directions:
Preheat the Oven to 350F
1. Mash the bananas in a large bowl with a masher
2. Add in old fashioned rolled oats and ground flax 
3. Chop nuts in a blender or food processor, add to mixture and mix
4. Melt peanut butter for 30 seconds in microwave and pour over mixture
5. Line a baking dish of your choice with parchment paper.  I used an 8 by 8 for thicker bars (results in longer cooking time) or you can use a larger one for thinner bars.
6. Spoon the mixture into the baking dish (with parchment paper) and flatten down with a spatula.
7. Put in oven for 20 minutes, till lightly browned, but do not go beyond that point.
8. Let cool, and then place in fridge to further cool them before cutting.  I cut mine into 10 bars and placed into snack bags to keep them longer in the fridge.

Nutritional Information:
With a serving size of 10 from the ingredients that I listed.  I used caloriecount.about.com for my nutritional information.  These may not be the healthiest things on the market, but they are right up there with store bought granola bars (150 calories for 40g).  

  

My Opinion of the Results:
Honestly, I don't love them!  But my fiancee does and that is sort of who matters.  I did find though that if I heat them and drizzle with more peanut butter they are so much better.  Next time I make these I may drizzle peanut butter on the top instead of mixing in; and also possibly add some dried fruit or chocolate chips.