Homemade Granola Bars

When one of my flatmates moved out this summer, she left behind a huge plastic tub of quick-cooking oatmeal. I am slowly trying to use it up, adding a bit here and there to my muesli cereal and doing a bit of baking.

For a healthy baking project, I decided to try homemade granola bars. This recipe uses smashed bananas (though I added one pureed apple, too) to hold everything together. It's very flexible with add-ins, so I chose the dried cranberries, pecans and sunflower seeds I already had at home.

The granola bars turned out well, though I think rolled oats would produce better results. The flavor was good, but the bars were quite chewy, with a different texture to store-bought granola bars. Perhaps I'll try making them again, but with peanuts and/or chocolate chips instead.