Totally Nuts Banana Choco-Bars

Adventures in baking continues. Peanut-butter-aholics-anonymous seemed to get excited about my Kinda Keto Buckeyes, so I decided to stick with the trend. This is the I have extra bananas, love chocolate and want a DIY wannabe Clif Bar dessert. Here is your shopping list:

Ingredients

• 3/4 Cup Peanut Butter
• 2 Cups Oats
• 2 Ripe Bananas
• 1 Tablespoon of Brown Sugar
• 1/3 Cup Peanuts
• 1 Crushed Dark Chocolate Bar (Trader Joe’s)

Why Bananas are the Best

Bananas add just the right amount of sweetness, vitamins (potassium and magnesium), and texture. They even work as a binding agent to hold the ingredients together. I used to hate the monkey mush, but now I am all about it.

Phase 1 of banana ripeness, you can have it raw. Phase 2, the fruit becomes smoothie fodder. Phase 3, it’s mushy and can be substituted for butter. And Phase 4 we all know: time to make banana bread. Beyond all that, I am not sure who likes bananas more, my one-year-old or my pups.

Ooey Gooey, Nice & Chewy

My recipe is adapted from a Healthy Chunky Monkey Oatmeal Bar from the Baking Chocolatess. She provides a gluten-free option for how to make this vegan dessert. I found the recipe because I was looking for something that used chocolate, bananas, oats, and not much else. I enjoyed what I ended up making.

Steps to Make Totally Nuts Banana Choco-Bars

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix peanut butter, bananas and oats, using a fork.
3. Add in brown sugar (or the sweetner of your choice). Using a whisk, mix these ingredients until the oats are no longer dry. Do not overmix and break the oats down to bits.
4. Prep peanuts by putting them in a ziplock bag and crushing them with a rolling pin. Add to the large mixing bown and stir.
5. Put your batter into a greased rectangle baking pan.
6. Chop chocolate bar with a large knife and wood cutting board. Sprinkle Chocolate chunks on top.
7. Put in oven and bake for 30 minutes. Let cool. Slice and serve.

Granola Bar or Dessert? You Decide.

3/4 Cup Peanut Butter – The healthy way to do this is to get the peanut butter without partially hydrogenated vegetable oil and added sugar/molasses. I choose creamy kinds because I am not always down for extra crunch.

2 Ripe bananas – I prefer a medium level of ripeness with a small amount of brown spots on the peel. Once the banana passes that point, it gets brown inside and loses some of the straightforward flavor.

2 Cups Oats – Thick rolled oats are my favorite kind. These whole, round oats are great for baking and oatmeal. The texture makes a somewhat bland dish more interesting. Cooked steel cut oats taste a little like they have been pre-chewed or are doing a really bad impression of white flour.

1 Tablespoon Brown Sugar – From brown sugar to honey, molassus or monkfruit sweetner, there are a number of ways to add that good bit of sweetness to your dish. If you want a more savory option, try a teaspoon of salt instead.

1/3 Cup Chopped Peanuts – I chose peanuts because that is most likely what I have on hand. Choose unsalted, plain peanuts. You could use almonds, cashews or pecans to add a little complexity to the dish.

1 Crushed Dark Chocolate Bar – Recently I’ve been keeping Trader Joe’s dark chocolate bars in the fridge. They are fun to chop up for baking, or eat on their own. It’s a nice change of pace from chocolate chips. I will add that when I do get chocolate chips, I go for dark chocolate too.

Bonus: You can skip the chocolate and peanuts for frozen blueberries and walnuts for more of a fruit and nut bar. Add the blueberries to the batter and put the crushed walnuts on top.

Refridgerate & Wait

Store any leftovers in the fridge for up to 1 week. You can also freeze these so that they will keep longer. Just make sure to cut them up first. Put the frozen treat in your lunch box in the morning and it will be perfect for an afternoon snack!