Healthy Banana Oatmeal Bread Bites

The perfect Saturday morning spent with God. All I needed was my Bible, a good book, my journal, peppermint mocha coffee and these little babies...



They're super easy to make and super delicious! I certainly have an appetite for healthy versions of recipes though :)

For those of you brave enough to try it -- here's what I did.

3 ripe bananas
2 c. oats
1/3 c. applesauce (you could use oil -- but I prefer applesauce and I think it makes them more moist)
1 tsp. vanilla (I had vanilla straight from Haiti -- it was my souvenir from my roommate, Liz -- and wow does that ever add great taste!)
Optional: 1 c. peanuts/chocolate chips/walnuts/raisins (use your imagination!)
Also optional (not optional for me): peanut butter for spreading on the bites (Skippy Natural Honey Roasted Chunky is one of my faves)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mash bananas in a bowl. Mix in all other ingredients and let sit for ~15 minutes or so.
Bake for ~18-20 minutes.

Enjoy :) Told you it was simple! ;)

it's a toss up

you asked for it. ok.. maybe you didn't, but i'll feed it to you regardless.

it's no secret i like peanut butter. in fact, i'm rather open and honest about my unhealthy addiction.

over the weekend i was at wal-mart picking up my skippy natural super chunk peanut butter when i noticed jif now makes chunky natural, whereas before they only made creamy; or maybe the chunky was just never available in the small towns i've lived in since natural became all the rage (which is highly likely). since i am a girl who loves her chunky peanut butter you can only imagine the elation that came over me. so as loyal of a customer as i am to skippy natural, i thought i'd give jif chunky natural a try to see which is better; since the ultimate reason skippy took precedence was because they did much better on having both chunky natural and most recently natural peanut butter with honey. yum times 3274389745. yet, they still don't make natural chunky with honey. that would be the ultimate. it's coming eventually.. and the day it does, i'll be one happy lady, and it's safe to say the first company to do it will probably have my heart for the rest of my life. and since i'm fairly confident i single-handedly eat as much peanut butter on my own in a week as the average person probably eats in several months, each company would do well to listen to my suggestions because it's safe to say i keep you in business (may be just a bit of a stretch).

anyway, let's compare the chunky naturals, shall we?

same amount of calories and protein; same amount of sugars (technically...)

Skippy: less carbs, just 5 ingredients, 15 oz (13 servings), typically about $2.10 a jar

Jif: less fat, more carbs (so essentially more sugars), 18 oz (15 servings) typically around $1.97 a jar, same 5 ingredients as Skippy, but throws in a little molasses too. peanuts are larger (hence the peanut butter is chunkier)

The verdict? I have to be honest, I went into this test pretty biased and in favor of Skippy. But the larger peanuts give this win to Jif. and as far as it tasting just a little better, i suppose it's the molasses.. Since I'm price-driven I gotta say the fact that Jif is cheaper (at 3 more oz. and less cost) and tastes better.. i'll allow it. but when I naturally (no pun intended) crave honey peanut butter, i suppose Skippy will have to do; unless Jif comes out with chunky peanut butter with honey first. just a thought..