There are so many fantastic food bloggers out there. One food blog I regularly check is Cookin’ Canuck. Dara makes the most appealing looking recipes and her photos are always stunning. She has also cooked her way healthy and has a wonderful post about her journey. Dara has a great recipe for Low Fat Granola Bars with Bananas, Dried Cranberries, and Pecans that I just had to try. I switched it ever so slightly, but you can find the original recipe here.
Ingredients:
- 3 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 3/4 cup pecan pieces
- 3 ripe bananas
- 2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 2 tablespoons honey (to make vegan, substitute agave nectar)
- 3/4 cup dried berries (I used Trader Joe’s Golden Berry Blend)
- 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 3 tbsp whole flax seeds
- 1/2 tsp salt
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9×9 inch baking pan with parchment paper. You want the parchment paper to go up at least an inch on the sides of the pan.
Spread the oats and pecans on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 10 minutes, stirring half way through.
Add the flax seed to a food processor or a magic bullet to grind the seeds. Ground flax seed goes bad really quickly, so it’s best to just grind them at home. If you’d prefer, you can buy ground flax seed instead.
In a small bowl, mash the bananas.
Stir in applesauce and honey.
Add the oats and pecans to a medium sized bowl and stir in the berries, 2 tablespoons ground flax seed, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.
Add the banana mixture to the oats and mix until combined.
Spread into the lined baking pan and press down evenly.
Bake until golden brown and starting to separate from the sides, about 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15minutes.
Lift the bars out of the pan using the parchment paper.
Cool to room temperature and cut into bars.
Don’t these look great? What a delicious recipe!
They are chewy, and the dried fruit adds bursts of sweetness to the bars.
The flax seed and oats help to keep you full longer without sacrificing taste.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to healthy, yummy recipes from Cookin’ Canuck so be sure to head over and check out all of her other posts!
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Yum! Gooey, healthy, and sweet! I admire your choice of nut, grains, and fruit – a fantastic creation!
Fruit and nut bars! YUM! Bananas and berries do pair perfectly K! the bars look great.
This recipe looks quite a lot like the one I made up a couple of months back – one of the tastiest and most healthiest ways of making these bars are using mashed bananas 😀
Great work!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
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Nice! I’ve never made granola bars myself, but I love them – and if there is banana involved, I am extra excited!
ohhhh yeah. these look great!
Mmm these look great! I actually really enjoy granola bars in the morning and even for a snack later in the day! I really need to try making my own like this. Looks delicious!
These sound delicious! I was just thinking granola bars sounded good, so I may need to try making these!
Nice job! Those are some of the first homemade granola bars that look like bars and they look delicious! Thanks, too, for introducing us to the Cookin’ Canuck, I’m heading straight there to check out her blog.
These look great! I like that they don’t use loads of syrup or honey to make them stick — that the mashed bananas and applesauce do the job! 🙂