Chocolate Chip Banana Bars! *healthified & delicious!*

What's a girl to do with 4 baking-ready (aka mushy) bananas?

As you may have noticed from previous posts, when I have extra bananas, I usually make banana bread (except for that one time I made banana cupcakes with honey cinnamon cream cheese frosting). I've done regular banana bread, chocolate chip banana bread, peanut butter chocolate chip banana bread, pumpkin chocolate chip banana bread.....

and they're all tasty! But I wanted to make not-a-bread.

So,

I made these! Whole Wheat Banana Oat Chocolate Chip Bars!! As the title makes rather obvious, these are made with 100% whole wheat flour and old-fashioned rolled oats. Also, I made them with no butter or oil! The only fat comes from the eggs and the chocolate! You could of course leave out the chocolate to make a healthier product; however, I believe everything is better when chocolate is involved.... ;)

They turned out soft, moist, and full of flavor! The chocolate-banana combination was delicious, and the oats gave them a hearty-healthy texture. mmmmmm mmmmmmmmm

Recipe!

Rachel’s Whole Wheat Banana Oat Chocolate Chip Bars

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
3-4 medium/large bananas, mashed
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
10 oz bag mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 15x10 inch jelly-roll pan with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray (i.e. PAM).

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and brown sugar. Stir in Oats. Add all of the wet ingredients (applesauce, eggs, mashed banana, and vanilla) and fold into the dry ingredients until well combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

Spread into greased jelly-roll pan and bake for about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool in the pan on a cooling rack. Delicious cut and served warm, or cooled!

Enjoy!!!