Banana Wake-Up Bars

Being an artist I have the luxury of strolling into the studio mid afternoon to start working. I can keep strange hours and nobody would bat an eyelash. I am also a belly dancer, so I actually wake up & get out of bed at 6am every morning during the week with my husband, have breakfast with him & send him off to work so I can stretch, drill and dance for 2 hours before I start the rest of my day. Crazy, eh?!? I really love it, so I make the effort.

Now as I said, I eat breakfast with my husband, but after 2 hours of dancing & then a shower I'm usually starving again! This is when I do my "coffee break" so I make myself a mug of half hot chocolate, half decaf coffee and like to have a good keep your energy up snack. Granola bars, power bars, cereal bars...even a well made biscotti will work here! I found this recipe for Wake up bars on allrecipes and tweaked it a bit to fit what I had in my pantry. They are really good & got me through to lunch!

Banana Wake Up Bars:

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup peanut butter
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 1/2 tablespoons butter
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 ripe banana, mashed
• 2/3 cup rolled oats
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x9-inch baking pan.


In a mixing bowl, beat together the peanut butter, brown sugar, and butter with an electric mixer until smooth and fluffy.


Beat in the egg and vanilla extract, then the banana.


Stir in the oats, flour, wheat germ, and baking soda until completely combined.


Spread in prepared baking pan.


Bake in the preheated oven until set and lightly browned, 25 to 35 minutes.


Remove from oven and cool in pan on wire rack before cutting into bars.

They are soft when they are fresh, so if you want to keep them soft wrap them in plastic. If you like to dunk (like me) then just leave them out. The edges will crisp up but the center will stay softer.

Enjoy!
Christina