Chocolate Banana Oat Bites

Spring clean the kitchen cupboards and make these Chocolate Banana Oat Bites with ingredients you may already have on hand! 

This recipe featured in my book, Eat To Sleep, for it's sleep-promoting ingredients!

Happy (official) Spring!

After a week of unseasonably chilly weather here in Nashville, things are now feeling like spring, and I couldn’t be happier. To welcome the season, this month’s Recipe Redux theme challenged us to ‘Spring Clean the Kitchen’ and cook with at least 3 ingredients already in our refrigerator or pantry.

This may seem obvious, but I’m going to go ahead and state it anyways. If you’ve set a goal to make healthy meals and snacks at home rather than resorting to take-out, frozen dinners, or junk food throughout the week, you must stock your kitchen appropriately. The key to a healthier kitchen is making sure your refrigerator and pantry are filled with nutrient-dense, whole foods and that junk foods are limited, or maybe not even kept in the house at all, to reduce temptation.

So even when your cupboards start looking like Old Mother Hubbard’s, hopefully, there will still be at least a few healthy ingredients to whip up something good for you, like these Chocolate Banana Oat Bites.

Let me say, that my cupboards and refrigerator are nowhere close to being bare at this current time. I really need to make use of what I have on hand and do a little more spring cleaning of the kitchen. Knowing that I had a really ripe banana to make use of though, I decided to go in the direction of a healthy snack recipe for this month’s Recipe Redux challenge.

These little Chocolate Banana Oat Bites are slightly addicting and taste just like banana bread…..with chocolate. I immediately ate four of them as soon as I finished taking pictures. Being a food blogger is a really great way to test your self-control. #foodbloggerproblems

[bctt tweet=”Chocolate Banana Oat Bites–perfect as a snack or dessert! #thereciperedux” username=”KarmanRD”]

It seems like the recipes that always turn out the best are the ones thrown together last minute with whatever I have on hand. Does this happen to you?

If you want to want to skip the chocolate, you could certainly do that and they would still be very tasty!

But for me, this is a good way to get my chocolate fix in a healthy and satisfying way. I’ve been enjoying them for dessert, too!

Equipment you’ll need:

Chocolate Banana Oat Bites

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Prep Time: 1 hour hour 20 minutes minutes

Servings: 15 pieces

Author: Karman Meyer, Dietitian at The Nutrition Adventure

Ingredients

• 1 cup quick oats
• 1 ripe banana
• 1/4 cup whole raw almonds
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened coconut flakes
• 1 tablespoon shelled hemp seeds
• 1 tablespoon almond butter or other nut butter
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate morsels

Instructions

• 1. In a food processor, combine all of the ingredients, except for the chocolate, until it forms into a ball.
• 2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon mat. Using a tablespoon measure or scoop, form 1" balls and place onto baking sheet.
• 3. To melt the chocolate, use a saucepan and a glass bowl that fits inside the saucepan without touching the bottom. Fill the saucepan with water about 1/4 full and place the glass bowl on top (the water should not touch the bottom of the bowl). Bring the water to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Add chocolate morsels and melt, stirring occasionally with a rubber scraper or metal spoon. Once chocolate is melted, turn off the heat.
• 4. Using a toothpick, pick up one ball at a time and dip it halfway into the chocolate, then place back onto baking sheet. Continue this until each one is dipped chocolate. Place baking sheet in the refrigerator for 1 hour to allow the chocolate to harden.
• 5. Keep the Chocolate Banana Oat Bites refrigerated until ready to eat.

Nutrition

Serving: 3g

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