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 These are prefect as an after school snack or breakfast on the go…

Every week, I buy banana’s. Now the only one in our household who actually eats banana’s (the banana and nothing but the banana) is our youngest son. I do like banana’s, but to eat them as is, they should be just ripe enough to eat. They should still be mostly green. If they are all yellow, I don’t like them anymore. And somehow, they seem to magically turn from green to yellow with loads of brown spots overnight. Ugh.

So now I keep my banana’s in the fridge, which seems to slow down the ripening process. The skin will still turn yellow and brown, but the flesh will keep firm and fresh a lot longer.

Yet, I still manage to have overripe banana’s. A lot. Every week. That might have something to do with the fact that our youngest son, who looooves banana’s, has developed the same preferences as me, when it comes to taste and texture of a banana.

I hear you think… why doesn’t she buy less banana’s? If we would actually eat all banana’s each week, I would not have overripe banana’s to bake. Make smoothies. Freeze them for ice cream. Obviously… ;-).

I’m always trying new recipes or variations. I love a good banana bread. Or muffins. Or bars, like my banana bars with white chocolate or these pumpkin banana blondies. I had muesli bars on my mind for days, but I also had those banana’s turning darker each day. Then it occurred to me that I could combine those. And this is the result: Oatmeal Banana Muesli Bars with Cranberries and Raisins. And they turned out absolutely delicious. I even think they may qualify as somewhat healthy snack, as I have used half regular all purpose flour and half whole wheat flour. And, I used coconut blossom sugar instead of regular white or brown sugar.

I used a sheet pan for these bars, 20,5 x 38 cm (appr. 8.5 x 14.5″). You can use a different size pan, but you might need to adjust the baking time a little bit.

Start by preheating your oven to 170ºC (350F) and line the pan with parchment paper.

Mash 4 medium (overripe) banana’s together with 175 g (ca. 6 oz or 1 cup) coconut blossom sugar.

Mix in 60 g (ca. 1/4 cup) melted butter and 1 tbsp vanilla extract.

Then add 70 g (ca. 1/2 cup) all purpose flour, 75 g (ca. 1/2 cup) whole wheat flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 100 g (ca. 3.5 oz) oats, 70 g (ca. 2.5 oz) dried cranberries and 50 g (ca. 1.7 oz) raisins and and mix until just combined.

Spread batter in the prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes.

Let cool completely before cutting into squares.

Enjoy with a nice cup of coffee, tea or a tall glass of milk. Yummm….

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