No Bake PB & Banana Oat Energy Bars

I've made through day's 1, 2 & 3 of my Cleaner Healthier Eating... Yay!  Overall it has gone really good with the exception that we don't have a huge variety of clean healthy things to eat in the house, and I don't know about you but we don't have a lot of money to just run to the store and stock up right now.  So, I've been trying to be as creative as I can with what we have. 

This afternoon I started getting stressed out, really bad.  We took the baby on a walk this morning and he just cried and cried.  Then we can home and he cried some more because he didn't want to nap.  Then he finally napped and woke up and cried.  Then he didn't get his way and cried again... you get my drift.  I was stressed and then it hit me... I needed something sweet.  Yes, I'm totally an emotional eater (it's pretty bad) and all I could think about was a McDonalds Ice Cream, the pop tarts in the kitchen and the bag of Hershey's chocolate chips that I could go to the store and buy.  Yep. I almost broke down.  I was so close.  

I could have eaten myself into an oblivion but I was a good girl.  I didn't want to ruin 3 days of Cleaner Healthier Eating so I started recipe searching.  Originally I wanted to make something with apples since we had a ton of them.  But instead I came across this post over at Undressed Skeleton for No Bake PB2 & Banana Oat Energy Bars and they looked interesting (and easy which I love!).  So, I decided to go ahead and try them out and you know what.... they curbed my sweet tooth.  So much in fact that I could only eat a few of them. 

Yep, that's what I call a success! 

No Bake PB & Banana Oat Energy Bars

1 cup organic rolled oats

2 tablespoons organic peanut butter

1 teaspoon organic vanilla extract

1 packet of stevia in the raw

1 medium banana, mashed 

Directions

In a medium mixing bowl combine all ingredients and stir well.  Drop rounded tablespoons (actually I used probably 1 1/2 tablespoons per bar, yes they are small bars, lol!) onto parchment paper and form into little bars.  Put in the fridge or freezer for 30 minutes then take out and enjoy!  

Toppings

I decided to try a few different toppings on my bars.  I took a couple of raw almonds and cut them into little chunks and topped a few of the bars.  I added a small amount of coconut to a few of the other bars and I drizzled just a little bit of honey on the remaining bars.  The honey was my favorite for sure!  I didn't use too much so it didn't add too many calories which was good.

I'll definitely be making these again when I have a sweet tooth! 

* Please keep in mind that my version of Cleaner Healthier Eating is just that... it's my version compared to the foods that I've eaten my whole life.  I'm always open to suggestions in the comments section from my readers on how I could make my meals Cleaner & Healthier!  Thanks for taking the time to read this post!