Good morning everyone! Today I wanted to share a recipe for my favorite homemade energy bars, but first here’s a little Monday running motivation for all of you (myself included) who still need to get a run in today. 😉

Now after that wonderful picture, back to the recipe. I make a batch of the vegan banana nut energy bars nearly once a week for my boyfriend and I. I’m not going to lie there’s rarely even a crumb left by the end of the week. I woke up and made a quick batch this morning because I wanted to make sure they were ready in time for my boyfriend to bring to his class later today as a snack. They are relatively cheap to make, tasty, vegan, full of pronounceable ingredients, filling, and semi-healthy (as long as you only eat one or two at a time 😉 ). I adapted the recipe from the banana oat energy bars in The Runner’s World Cookbook on page 47. Here’s a link to the original if you do not own that cookbook (http://www.runnersworld.com/recipes/make-your-own-energy-bars?page=single). Without further ado, here’s the recipe!

Vegan banana nut energy bars

yield: 16 bars

ingredients:

2 ripe bananas

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.5 cups of oats

3/4 cup all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

3/4 cup raisins

1/2 cup cashews (or any nut/seed)

1/4 cup sunflower seeds (or any nut/seed)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8×8 inch glass baking dish.

2. Mash the banana in a mixing bowl. Then add the oil, sugar, and vanilla extract. Mix together.

3. In another larger mixing bowl combine the oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

4. Add the raisins, cashews, and sunflower seeds to the flour mixture.

5. Add the banana/sugar/oil mixture to the flour/nut mixture and mix until combined.

6. Pour the mixture into the greased glass baking dish and spread until even.

7. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top starts to brown. Allow them to cool completely before cutting into bars.

I hope all of you enjoy this recipe and have a great day today! As soon as I publish this post I’m going to do my IT band exercises and go for a short run, fingers crossed that my IT band stays pain free!

What are your favorite energy bars, homemade or store bought?