Apple Blueberry Oatmeal Bars

I thought that for my first recipe I post on here, I'd use one that I've made several times and know is super easy.

If you look at the ingredients on most granola or cereal bars you buy at the store, they are often made with enriched flours, sugars, corn syrups, oils, isolated proteins, preservatives, and a whole list of other stuff that doesn't need to be in there.

This is one of the healthy alternatives that both tastes good and is good for you!

What you'll need:

(makes 16 two-inch squares)

2 cups old fashioned oats

2 med-lg ripe bananas

1 apple (your choice what kind - I used Fuji today)

1 cup blueberries (I used frozen today, but have used fresh before too)

1/2 cup raisins

1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds (without shells)

2 tbsp ground or milled flax seed (*if you didn't know, always store in the frezer to keep fresh)

2 tbsp pomegranate juice

How it's done:

Preheat the oven to 300°F. Mash the bananas in a mixing bowl.

Peel your apple and chop it into very small bits. If you don't have a Vidalia Chop Wizard, you need one! They're $20 at most stores and will save you tons of time. I use mine ALL the time.

Combine all the ingredients in the bowl with your mashed bananas except for the oats. Then add in the oats, making sure everything is getting good and moist.

Once everything is thoroughly mixed, press the mixture into a lightly greased 8x8 inch baking dish.

Bake uncovered at 300°F for 30-35 minutes. Allow to cool completely before cutting into squares.

I've found several sites that calculate the nutritional information of a recipe for you after manually adding in the ingredients, measurements, and number of servings. So far there are a couple that aren't too bad, but I haven't found one yet that has all of the ingredients I want to search for and provides a pretty wide range of nutritional information for you once it's calculated. I'll get back to you on that, but for now, here are some ballpark figures I've come up with from punching this recipe into a few different online calculators:

(per 2" square)

calories: 100

fat: 2g

cholesterol: 0g

sodium: 1mg

potassium: 175mg

carbohydrate: 19g

fiber: 3g

sugar: 8g

protein: 3g

I won't list out all the rest of the information this way, but one square also contains between 1-10 percent of your daily values of vitamin B-6, vitamin C, vitamin E, calcium, copper, folate, iron, magnesium, manganese, niacin, pantothenic acid, phosphorus, riboflavin, selenium, thiamin, and zinc. (Based on a 2,000 calorie diet.)