Our February recipe of the month is currently one of my favorite Spend Smart. Eat Smart. recipes – Peanut Butter Banana Oat Bites. This recipe combines peanut butter, mashed banana, an egg, a little sugar, vanilla, baking powder, oats, and dried fruit or chocolate chips to make a tasty breakfast, snack, or dessert. Peanut Butter Banana Oat Bites were very popular in my home when the days were super cold in January.

During one of the coldest weeks, I made this recipe three times. Our furnace was broken, so I was trying to use the oven as much as possible to help keep the house warm. Also, the children were home from school and the cold was making them extra hungry. The combination of protein and fat from the peanut butter and fiber from the oats helped fill them up. When we started to run low on oats, I even learned that I could substitute in whole wheat flour and still have a great snack.

Besides the whole wheat flour substitution, I have not played around with this recipe much, but I think this is a safe recipe to try different ingredients. Instead of dried fruit or chocolate chips, you could try chopped apples, chopped nuts, or seeds (like chia or sunflower seed kernels). Instead of peanut butter, you could try another nut butter or sunflower seed butter. And, instead of mashed banana you could try pumpkin puree.

If the February days are cold and you feel like trying a new recipe, give Peanut Butter Banana Oat Bites a try.

Enjoy!