Green Child Magazine Summer 2016 | Page 18

Deliciously Nutritious |by Krystal Barschig Author of My Botanical Baby Banana Date Oatmeal Bars These vegan, sugar-free Banana Date Oatmeal Bars are the perfect grab-n-go snack for mommy, baby, and big kid alike! They’re sweet, chewy, and packed full of good for you real-food ingredients! Ingredients • 6 dates, pitted • 3 tbs water reserved from soaking dates • 1 cup Bob’s Red Mill Quick Cooking Rolled Oats • 1/2 cup oat flour • 1 tbs ground flaxseeds • • • • • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 2 very ripe bananas, mashed 1/3 cup almond butter* 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 tbs coconut oil, melted Instructions 1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 2. Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Place dates in the water, and turn off the heat. Soak the dates for 10 minutes while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. 3. In a small mixing bowl, mix oats, oat flour, ground flaxseeds, and cinnamon. 4. In a separate larger mixing bowl, combine the bananas, almond butter, vanilla extract, and coconut oil. 5. Remove the softened dates from the hot water, and puree in a food processor with 3 tbs of water from the pot. Add the date puree to the banana mixture. 6. Add the dry oat mixture to the wet banana mixture, and stir to combine. 7. Line an 8×8-inch baking tin with parchment 18 paper, and pour the banana-oat mixture into the pan. Smooth with a spatula. 8. Bake for 25-30 minutes. 9. Remove baked oats from the pan, along with the parchment paper. Allow to cool on a cooling rack, and then cut evenly into 16 mini Banana Date Oatmeal Bars. Please Note If your baby is less than a year old and you’re trying to avoid added salt in his diet, choose almond butter that doesn’t have any added salt. It’s a good habit to check the ingredient list on your nut butters anyway because lots of them add sugar and/or partially hydrogenated oils. The ingredients should just read: “Almonds” or “Dry Roasted Peanuts,” for example.