Holy cow Batman, it’s Christmas Eve!
I hope you are having a great day so far. I have been on the go all morning. I find Christmas Eve is always a bit of a rush to fit everything in. I got my hair cut (finally!), did some last minute errands, packing, and now we are off to visit family. I’m blogging in the car right now (blech!).
I did a bunch of baking for our get together this weekend and this is the first of a few recipes I will be sharing.
I made these for three reasons: 1) I had ripe bananas to use up before we left, 2) I wanted a healthy snack on hand for the next few days, and 3) They look so darn cute all tied up in ribbon!!!
The bars are super easy to whip up and include some common ingredients that you probably have lurking in your cupboards. The recipe can easily be adapted to what you have! You can also play around with the mix-ins and use whatever you have on hand. Chocolate chips, nuts, seeds, etc would all be great in these bars!
Healthy Banana Cranberry Oat Bars
Yield
8-10 bars
Prep time
Rest time
10 minutes
Cook time
Total time
Breakfast or afternoon power snack, these bars are healthy, not too sweet, and pack a wonderful banana flavour. They are easy to whip up and make a great healthy option for holiday travel! Adapted from Sweet Freedom.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup almond milk (or other)
- 1/2 cup Sucanat or brown sugar
- 1 tbsp ground flax seed
- 1/4 cup coconut oil (or other light tasting oil), melted
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 medium very ripe bananas
- 1/3 cup cranberries or raisins
- 1.5 cups regular oats
- 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 cup whole wheat flour (or other flour)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/8th tsp kosher salt
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line an 8 inch square pan with parchment.
- In a medium bowl, combine the sugar, ground flax seeds, soymilk, oil, and vanilla. Whisk together.
- Cut the bananas into chunks and stir into the wet mixture. Grab a fork or potato masher and mash the banana into the wet mixture. It is ok if some small chunks remain. Stir in the cranberries or raisins. Set aside.
- In another bowl, mix your dry ingredients. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir well. Scoop the granola batter into the pan. Smooth out with a spoon or hands and press it down firmly.
- Bake at 350°F for 35-40 minutes until the edges begin to golden and it is slightly firm to touch. Allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack and cooling completely. Slice into 8-10 bars.
Start by mixing the Sucanat (or brown sugar), ground flax, oil, vanilla, and milk:
Chop the banana and add it to this wet mixture.
Stir…
Now mash the banana with a potato masher (or you can use a fork too). You can leave it a bit chunky.
Mix in your dried fruit or other mix-ins!
Set this mixture aside.
Now stir the dry ingredients.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet (or wet to dry) and stir well.
I added 2 tbsp Pepita seeds and cranberries because I thought the red and green looked festive!
Scoop into an 8 inch square pan lined with parchment paper. Spread out the mixture with a spoon or hands and press it evenly and firmly into the pan, making it as level as possible. The more you pack in the mixture, the better the bars will hold together after baking.
Now bake for 35-40 minutes at 350F and allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove from the pan and place on a cooling rack until completely cooled.
Slice into bars or squares and wrap up with a small piece of parchment paper and ribbon if you wish!
I like cute food.
Especially healthy, cute food.
I really enjoy these bars. They are wholesome and not very sweet, but that is what I wanted when I made them. I’m kind of on sweet overload right now and I love that these aren’t very sweet. They also have a wonderful banana flavour! Try them spread with nut butter too.
Ok, I think I’m starting to get a bit woozy (I’m blogging in the car!!), so I better sign off.
Merry Christmas from our family to yours! I wish you a safe, happy, and delicious holiday. I’ll see you on Christmas day!
(Don’t be fooled by my smile, I’m still scared of the holiday creepers!)
These look delicious – thanks for sharing the reicpe. (And they are awfully cute.) I’m curious: do these have a cookie consistency, or more of a granola bar consistency?
Have a wonderful Christmas weekend.
Hmm they are a mix between a cookie and a granola bar I’d say. Everyone commented that they are quite moist too (from the bananas mostly!). They taste a bit like banana bread. Next time I might add some nutmeg too.
Wow, I don’t think I have seen creepier dolls.
Merry Christmas to you too!
I love experimenting with making my own bars. These look awesome!
Merry Christmas to you and Eric! :)
These are just too cute!
Merry Christmas, Angela!
Love the wrapping!!
I hate to be a copycat, but I’m going to do the parchment ribbon thing next time I bake “giveaways”. They look gorgeous!!!! Merry Christmas to you, your husband, adorable Sketchie and the rest of your family! Hope you have a wonderful holiday season and I look forward to more of your posts and photos in the new year!!!!
Those dolls are a little creepy :)
Love your oatmeal treat.
OMG, these look amazing! I’m going to try these asap. I love the way you’ve wrapped them up with a ribbon! So cute! I’ve been looking for healthy snacks for me and my family to nibble on and these look absolutely perfect.
These look great! I love that your baked goods aren’t usually really sweet – but they sound amazing nonetheless.
The bars look great! I’m always looking for a healthy nut-free granola bar (my daughter has severe allergies), and these look perfect. Merry Christmas!
I love how you make everything look so cute! These may need to happen this afternoon. I am on chocolate overload at the moment. I have a ton of fresh cranberries… wonder if they will work here?
Merry Christmas to you, your family, and the creepy holiday dolls. :)
not sure…I would think fresh cranberries would be too tart…the dried ones I used are sweetened :) Merry Christmas to you too!
Merry Christmas! Those bars are beautiful, and they look so yummy!
Those bars look delicious! Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas! I made your snickerdoodles for Christmas Eve. I made them a day in advance and they were so delicious right out of the oven but the next day they were hard and dry. They are still great dipped in coffee like biscotti but kind of a bummer since I liked them soft and chewy. Did you have this problem? I followed the recipe exactly.
They are a firmer cookie, but I don’t think they were hard or dry the next day…strange! Sorry you experienced that…I’m not sure why that would have happened.
Just wanted to wish you a very merry Christmas! Thank you for sharing your wonderful spirit with us this year!
Paige
I’m going to make these! I actually do have all the ingredients on hand, and since it’s blizzarding out… what better way to spend the day? I love how you tied these with ribbon. Adorable.
Happy Holidays!
these look delicious…love the ingredients!! i’m going to making these for yummy, healthy snacks. thank you
Yum! I adapted these a little and wound up with banana, chocolate chip bars. Just finished baking the second batch in as many weeks.
These were awesome, even though I found out mid-preparation that I only had 1 cup of oats. I threw in dried blueberries instead of the cranberries, and also some almond pieces and chocolate chips. I took them on a retreat this weekend because I was afraid there wouldn’t be many vegan options. I was right, and ate them all within 3 days ;)
These are Awesome!! thanks so much for the post. They are a new favorite here. I would say they are moist. The first time I used mixed dried berries and I kind of like it that way best. They are also good plain, with no berries, seeds or nuts. My kids like them better plain.
glad you enjoy them!! :)