In the Kitchen: Cereal Bar Recipe

I've started making my own oatmeal bars for breakfast and I'm really loving them.  Such a versatile recipe and you can basically have a limitless number of options.  Everything is natural and wholesome and most importantly ... easy!  I based my recipe on one listed in Snack Girl's blog but here are the ones I made this week.  I have all the ingredients on hand especially since R has been on a trailmix kick so we have a variety of nuts and dried fruit available.

Makes 12
1/2 cup of nut butter (I used Maranatha Almond Butter but I'm using natural peanut butter next week)
2 bananas mashed
1/2 cup of whole nuts (I used almonds and walnuts)
1 1/2 cup of dried fruits ( I used raisins and craisins)
1 cup of rolled oats (I ended up using about a 1 1/2 cups)
1 tsp of vanilla (I didn't have any so I used a tablespoon of apricot perserves for flavor)
pinch of cinnamon (I used at least a full tablespoon)
1/4 cup of pumpkin or sunflower seeds (I omitted this)

Preheat the oven to 350*.  I put my bananas, nuts, and dried fruit in a bowl and with a hand chopper I chopped until the bananas were mush and the nuts /fruit were coarsely chopped.  I added the oats, almond butter, cinnamon and perserves and stirred until I had a lumpy batter.  Then I divided the mixture in a lightly greased muffin pan into 12 servings.  Bake for about 15 minutes.  Store in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 5 days.  I actually prefer mine at room temperature and really I didn't put anything into mine that would spoil.