Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Bars

Since it was Marathon Monday in Boston today, Tim sent me this great link on how to make homemade energy bars.  The recipe and directions I followed were adapted from Boston.com (which was adapted from Susan Katcher) found here.  I ended up modifying the recipe because I didn't have all of the ingredients. 

Here's what I ended up using:

• 1 stick of softened unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup of brown sugar, loosely packed
• 1/2 cup enriched white flour (instead of whole wheat flour)
• 1 mashed, ripened banana
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup of crunchy store bought peanut butter (instead of all natural peanut butter)
• 1 1/2 cups of honey granola with sliced almonds (instead of oats)
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I didn't add 1/2 cup raisins or 1/2 cup walnuts)

I thought of drizzling honey over the top, then adding some crushed nuts, but didn't have any nuts.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter an 8"x8" pan.
2. Mix together butter and brown sugar (I don't have a mixer, so I just did it by hand).
3. Mix in flour and granola.
4. Mix in peanut butter, banana, vanilla extract, and chocolate chips.
5. Add mixture to pan and bake for about 30 minutes.
6. Allow to cool and enjoy!