If You Love Someone... Make Them These Banana Bars

Monday night, my southern roots were in full form

as I hosted a Valentine's Day Cookie Exchange.

Each invitee brought 2 dozen homemade cookies

and by the time everyone had arrived and gotten cozy,

it looked like we had landed ourselves 

inside some fantasy land of a seven year old.

We were up to our ears in cookies...
it was glorious!

I'm typically someone who would not try to do a practice run on a recipe.

My instinct is to just wing it

and, normally, things turn out okay.

But this weekend, 

I decided-

what the heck,

I'm as big as a house
and am not in the mood to go anywhere...

so I made a batch of these Biscoff Blondies.

Ugh.

They were so marginal and boring...

and while I'm really glad that I didn't offer them to my guests,

it left me in a bit of a panic on Monday afternoon 
to find a replacement.

I needed something easy to make

that didn't require a proper mixer....

because my Kitchenaid doesn't live in London.

{It lives in a pile of dust in my parent's attic
along with all of my crystal, china & other pretty things.}

My blood tests the night before showed that my potassium levels were running high

and so I realized that this might be the perfect way to use up the bananas

that I was no longer allowed to eat.

Voila!

I now present to you a DELICIOUS recipe

that is soooo easy to make

and the ingredients are really cheap.

{I always hate shelling out £20 for ingredients for baked goods. 

Doesn't that kinda defeat the purpose of making them at home?}

I think these probably took about 5-7 minutes 

from beginning to oven.

The frosting might have added another 5 minutes at the end.

Honestly, this recipe is a winner

and would be an easy thing to whip up tonight

to give to someone you love tomorrow.

{Besides, you most likely have 99% of these ingredients in your kitchen already.}

BARS:

1 cup sugar

2 mashed bananas

2 eggs

1/3 c vegetable oil

1 c flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

FROSTING:

1 regular pack of (light) cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup of butter

2 cups powdered sugar

splash of vanilla

METHOD:

Preheat your oven to 350.

Mix the bananas, sugar, eggs & oil together in a bowl until it's a nice yellow, sloppy mix.

Stir in remaining ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon & salt).

Pour into greased pan (9x13) and put into oven for 25-30 minutes... 

or until a knife/toothpick comes out clean when inserted from the center.

Leave to cool for one hour.

Now is great time to toss the cream cheese & butter out on the counter to soften.

After you've run an errand, eaten some lunch or watched a little tv

while the banana bars cool,

come back to the kitchen and start on the frosting.

Mix all four ingredients in a bowl.

You can beat by hand or in a mixer... both will be yummy.

Spread on the cooled bars & cut into 6x4 rows.

Eat your heart out.

****

Mmm...

Wouldn't you feel loved if someone made you these?

Oh yeah.

*all images original to Aspiring Kennedy

*original recipe via here