Banana Oat Cranberry Bars

This was my second attempt at making these cereal bars! And I promised myself that I will never buy them from the store ever again. The fun with any kind of homemade food is that you can completely alter it to your taste and this is exactly the reason that I keep attempting , sometimes getting better, sometimes not so much! I totally enjoy the whole process and the results is not what I look forward to anymore.

First time I made them for our Bay Area trip and this time was for the Vancouver weekend get-away!
They are easy to carry as a snack anytime you travel. They have a good shelf life. I think they should last for 2-3 days even in the bright sun. My kid loved it, and munched on it at least twice both the days of our trip..:)

Here is what you will need-:

• 1/4th cup Almond milk or soy milk
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1tbsp flax seed
• 1/4th cup coconut oil
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 2 medium ripe bananas
• 1/3 cup of cranberries/ pumpkin seeds etc.
• 2 tbsp of Chia seeds soaked overnight into 2 tbsp of almond milk/ soy milk
• 1.5 cups of regular oats
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1/4th cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt

Method-:

• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• Combine sugar, flax seed, almond milk , coconut oil, vanilla extract and whisk together.Keep aside.
• Mash bananas with a fork and stir into wet mixture. Also add cranberries, pumpkin seeds, soaked Chia seeds.
• In other bowl, mix all the dry ingredients.(Oats, wheat flour, shredded coconut, flax seed, cinnamon powder, baking powder and salt)

My little helper- mixing the cranberries and eating half of them while mixing..:)

• Add the wet mixture to dry mixture and mix.
• Line a baking sheet with a parchment paper and spray lightly with a canola oil spray.
• Scoop out on to the pan and press firmly making it even.

Serious work is in progress, no jokes please...!

Before jumping into oven!

• Bake at 350F for 35- 40 minutes.

After popping out of the oven!

• Let it cool and slice into bars. It will make about 10 bars depending on how thick you spread the mixture. The first time I made them, they came out to be 10. This time I think I spread them a little thinner and they came out 12 with more crunch to them because of the thinness.

Recipe source-: http://ohsheglows.com/2010/12/24/healthy-banana-cranberry-oat-bars/