Banana Spice Bars

Apparently I am just on a roll when it comes to my New Year's Resolution to cook 2 new meals a month. For the month of January I managed to try 5 new recipes {Turkey Chili, Homemade Mashed Potatoes, Two-Cheese Straws, Creamy Pesto Chicken and Bowtie Pasta and these Banana Spice Bars} and there's still a few days left! I have plans to attempt a new recipe for breakfast tomorrow, but I can't promise that I will be able follow through. Cody's birthday is coming up here in the next few weeks and I already have a good idea of a new recipe to try. {Hint: she uses a lot of butter and lives on a ranch. It has to be delicious, right?!} It has certainly been a fun challenge to find new semi-healthy recipes and I'm glad they've all turned out successful so far!

Growing up, if we had bananas that were getting too ripe, my mom would always go ahead and smush them up, then freeze them for the next time she wanted to make banana bread. I really assumed that everyone did this, until Cody was telling some of his coworker's the other day about how I freeze ripe bananas and they gave him a look like he was ca-razy. Surely somebody else out there freezes bananas too... right? ...anybody?

I mentioned to my mom that I made banana nut bread the other night yet still had a great deal of ripe bananas to use up and I already had a lot in the freezer, so she shared this recipe with me as another way to use them up!

Here's the recipe I tried tonight:

Banana Spice Bars

Spray a jelly roll pan with Pam and preheat over to 350.

Beat together:
1/4 C Margarine
3/4 C Sugar
When well beaten, add 2 or 3 very ripe bananas and mix well.
Add:
1 beaten egg
1 C flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Mix well then spread in prepared pan. Bake for 18-20 minutes.
{my mom shared this recipe with me and warned me that the batter is pretty thin. Knowing this, I used a 9x13 and ended up baking it for about 23 mins}

While the bars are baking, prepare the glaze to be spread on the bars when they are done.

Glaze
2 TBS melted margarine
1 TBS hot water
2 TBS lemon juice
1 C powdered sugar


I will admit I was a little leery of adding the lemon juice. I didn't think there was any way it would taste good, but I was wrong! Cody really enjoyed it too and it was a nice switch from Banana Nut Bread {quicker to make and bake!}

Enjoy!