Energy Bars

I've never tried to make homemade energy bars before, but as I've been training and running it made more sense. I found this super easy recipe for banana oat energy bars on the Runner's World website. What I really liked about it were the simple and easy ingredients and no raisins! (I am not a big fan of raisins outside of trail mix) All of the ingredients for these bars were things I had around the kitchen and the only thing I needed was to wait for my bananas to ripen enough to mash.

They turned out beautifully! I will admit I had to use a slightly smaller pan to bake them in so they turned out a little denser than expected, but still great.

Here they are:

Banana, oat and nut energy bars!

2 over ripe bananas
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup (unbleached) sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups rolled otas
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 toasted chopped almonds
3/4 cup dried cranberries

**You'll notice the original recipe calls for unbleached sugar, which I don't have so I used regular sugar. I also switched out almonds for walnuts.


1. Preaheat oven to 350 degrees, and grease or line a 8x9" pan.

2. In a medium mixing bowl, mash bananas and mix in sugar, oil and vanilla extract until smooth.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, flour and oats.

4. Add the banana mixture to dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

5. Fold in almonds and cranberries, being careful not to over mix.

6. Pour/spread into the greased pan and spread evenly. Bake for 20-30 minutes until the top is browned and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes our clean.

7. Allow to cool completely (at least an hour) before cutting.