Oaty Banana Nut Bars

I’ve been experimenting with muesli bars this weekend (so expect another muesli bar recipe soon).  These Oaty Banana Nut Bars are a bit of a twist on your traditional muesli bar.  They are a super quick snack idea which would make a great addition to school lunchboxes.  Instead of the muesli being held together with honey and the like, a mix of peanut butter and mashed banana is used.  the result is a soft cake-like bar.  They remind me of Banana Cranberry Cookies I made a while back.
To speed things up, I used my food processor to prepare most of the ingredients I was using.  I also used pre-mixed nuts out of the bulk bin at my local supermarket.  You can use an assortment of your favourite nuts, it’s totally up to you.

Ingredients:
1 cup mixed nuts
½ cup pretzels
1 ½ cups oats
¼ cup chocolate chips
4 bananas
1 cup peanut butter

Method:
Preheat your oven to 180°C.  Grease and line a 16 x 26cm tin. 
Place the nuts and pretzels into a food processor and process for a few seconds to roughly chop them up (alternatively you could chop them with a knife).  Place in a medium sized bowl and mix through the oats and chocolate chips.
Place the bananas in the food processor and process until smooth (alternatively you can use a fork to mash them).  Pour the banana into a microwave safe bowl.  Add the peanut butter to the banana.  Microwave the banana for 1 minute on high, remove from the microwave and stir the mix thoroughly for 1 to 2 minutes.
Mix the banana mixture through the oat mixture.  Press the mixture evenly into the prepared tin.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top of the mixture is golden brown.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely in the tin before cutting into bars to serve.  Store in an airtight container.

After some more muesli bar recipes?  Check out our White Chocolate and Cranberry Muesli Bar and our Chocolate Muesli Bar recipes – they are delish!  Also, I got the cute bakers twine that I tied around these bars from The Pretty Baker.