Saturday, September 11, 2010

Vegan Banana Oat Chewies

Allie and my mom are victims of the Harris Teeter reduced rack. Sadly, I don't have one here - but this summer my mom and I bought our fair share of spotted bananas.

The second I saw Allie's Banana Oat Bites I thought "Look ma! Something else to do with dead bananas!" because pretty much all we could think of this summer was banana bread and/or smoothies.

I took three of my own "past-due" bananas out of the freezer and had the bites made in less than 24 hours after seeing Allie's post.

On a pretty funny side-note, when I printed out the recipe, for some reason it printed microscopic! It's all there, perfectly intact, just micro sized! Johnny and I were cracking up.

I made a couple variations to her recipe, since it is so easy to play around with. You can swap out any dried fruits, nuts, seeds, or spices!

3 ripe bananas (fresh, or thawed frozen)
1 cup chopped, dried fruit (I used raisins)
2 cups oats
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

My add-ins:
sesame seeds
sunflower seeds
chopped peanuts
cinnamon
freshly grated nutmeg (trust Alton Brown, it makes a difference!)

Begin by chopping the dried fruit so it gets sticky and place in a small bowl with a splash of hot water to slightly rehydrate.

Next, mash the bananas in a large bowl with a fork. Add the oil, extract, seeds, nuts, and spices. Last, add in the dried fruit and the oats, mixing until everything is incorporated. Let sit about 15 minutes for the mixture to moisten, which will let the oats soften.

Form the mixture into patties (I got 16 out of my batch) and place on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes.

First of all, these smell delicious throughout the entire process. While mixing, while baking, and fresh from the oven.

I love that they have a crunchy, textured exterior, but the inside is still moist and chewy. The darker bits of the seeds and nuts give terrific depth to the flavor. Johnny thought they tasted like a cross between a cookie and a bran muffin. I agree, they are very chewy, that's why I called them "chewies" instead of cookies, so you don't make them with the wrong idea in mind.

In the future I'm going to play around with more dried fruit, nut, and seed combinations. I am also going to try adding maple syrup because I think that would be a great flavor with the oats as well!

The best part is that these are vegan and if using gluten-free oats, can be safe for those with Celiac. They'd be great to bring to a group event, where they'd be safe for virtually everybody!

10 comments:

dlpiano said...

Wow! looking delicious and healthy at the same time:) perfect combo. Is that your new cutting board they are sitting on?

Simply Life said...

wow those do look great!

Maggie @ Say Yes to Salad said...

Those look awesome! I starred them to make ;)

Jenn@slim-shoppin said...

I thought of you last weekend Christina. At a store I go to called Caputo's, they have boxes underneath the fruit veggie section with produce you have to pretty much do something with THAT day. They had a huge box of bananas, maybe 50 for only $1.50 for the whole box! I totally contemplated it, but had no room in my freezer for them....Maybe next time!

Those chewies look great, I think my kids would like them!

Allie (Live Laugh Eat) said...

I read this post in bed this morning...made my day! Love the tiny recipe. Glad you and Johnny liked 'em!

Laura said...

yum these look grand! I love all the great additions like nut and stuff-my kids will love these for sure

plus they'll be great for school where super sugar processed foods are not allowed-bless the Waldorf school :)

A@ Please Don't Eat Me! said...

those look so awesome!!! i havent had oatmeal "cookies" in a long time.. now im getting the craving to make some..

Biz said...

The dollar rack is like cryptonite to me - I make a bee line for it as soon as we walk in the store!

I just bought 15 pickling cucumbers for a dollar with the thought of making my own dill pickles.

Sadly I put them in our downstairs beverage fridge and the dial must have moved because when I was pulling out a bottle of water this morning, they were frozen. :(

At least I only lost $1!

Chats the Comfy Cook said...

I just wrote a whole long comment and then it told me, something was wrong. I am trying again because I love this recipe and my hubby is gluten free.

Would you like to link this to My Meatless Mondays?

http://sweetsav.blogspot.com/2010/09/my-meatless-mondays-september-2010.html

Lizz said...

These look so good! I think I will have to try them sometime instead of regular cookies. My munchkin will love them if I use something other than raisins (what kid doesn't like raisins?!? Mine!)